A new scandal has erupted in relations between Serbia and Croatia. Serbian security services announced the arrest of a Croatian spy in Belgrade, while the Serbian police detained the most popular Croatian singer Severina Vučković at the border and interrogated her for several hours for her critical remarks against the policies of the Serbian leadership. Afterwards, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin openly announced that he had personally compiled lists of persons undesirable in Serbia (including Croatian citizens) when he was the head of the police and the main intelligence service BIA. The Croatian leadership called Serbia ‘an undemocratic state that provokes conflicts in the region’.
Reports of the ‘arrest of a Croatian spy’ appeared initially in media close to the Serbian authorities. According to them, ‘the Security and Information Agency (BIA) conducted a counterintelligence operation in the Belgrade region in the early morning, during which a Croatian spy was arrested, the result of months of BIA work to combat the spying and subversive activities of the Croatian Security Intelligence Service (SOA).’ This information was then confirmed by Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, explaining that ‘the arrest of a suspected spy in favor of Croatia was carried out by BIA officers, with the police providing logistical support’.
The operation by Serbian security services to detain the ‘Croatian spy’ came just a couple of hours after Serbian police detained and interrogated for several hours the most popular Croatian singer Severina Vučković, who is known for her criticism of Serbian politics.
According to Severina Vučković's own testimony, the Serbian border police first forced her to sit unseen in a car for several hours, then police searched it for 45 minutes before taking the singer for questioning.
‘Without explanation, I was asked what I thought about the genocide in Srebrenica, Operation Storm (which the Croatian army carried out in 1995, resulting in 200,000 Serbs becoming refugees), why I supported protests in Serbia against lithium mining, they asked about Jasenovac (concentration camp of Croatian Ustasha fascists during World War II and even about (the first president of independent Croatia Franjo Tudjman,’ the singer told later. And although she was allowed to continue her journey to Belgrade after the interrogation, she refused to continue her trip, returned to Zagreb and declared that she ‘will not come to Serbia as long as (President) Aleksandar Vucic is at the head of the country.’
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin added fuel to the fire. He frankly admitted that when he was head of the BIA police and intelligence service, he personally compiled lists of persons undesirable in Serbia.
‘I wish I had done more of this, because I see how much crap has been unfairly forgotten,’ the deputy prime minister complained.
The incident caused an explosion of indignation in Zagreb. ‘I don't know what they are trying to achieve with their spying operation. Our ambassador doesn't know anything about it, neither does the head of the Foreign Ministry, nor the special services. We are trying to get at least the name of the detainee,’ Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was outraged, ’And what they did to Severina is discrimination that deserves condemnation. Croatian Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic was even harsher: ‘Serbia is an undemocratic state that sits on two chairs and provokes conflicts in the region.
After the scandal broke out, Aleksandar Vucic and Ivica Dacic tried to win back, promising that the lists of undesirables ‘will probably be abolished soon’. However, they did not clarify the situation with the arrest of the ‘Croatian spy’.
