BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia protested strongly Monday against the unveiling of a statue in Croatia honouring an extreme nationalist who was convicted of assassinating a Yugoslav ambassador to Sweden in 1971.
The monument for Miro Baresic was unveiled in a seaside Croatian village on Sunday with two Croatian government ministers and numerous prominent public figures attending.
European Union-member Croatia has seen a surge of far-right sentiments, including admiration for the World War II Ustasha Nazi puppet regime that was responsible for the death of tens of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies in concentration camps.
Baresic, a declared pro-Ustasha who strived and fought for Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia, shot Ambassador Vladimir Rolovic inside the Yugoslav embassy in Stockholm.
He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a Swedish court. But another group of Croatian far-right radicals hijacked a Scandinavian Airlines passenger plane in 1972, forcing the release of Baresic and five others who took part in the attack.
Baresic found refuge in Paraguay, but was eventually captured again and extradited to Sweden in 1980, where his life sentence was converted to 18 years. He returned to Croatia in 1991 where he was killed in fighting against Serb-led forces fighting against Croatia's independence.
In Serbia, Baresic is considered a terrorist, while Croatian nationalists revere him as a hero who devoted his whole life to Croatia's statehood.
"Miro Baresic is a great Croatian patriot whose devotion and sacrifice we have to respect," Croatian Veterans Minister Tomo Medved said during the life-size statue's unveiling in the village of Drage in central Dalmatia.
The Serbian foreign ministry demanded Monday that the statue be removed.
"The Ministry considers the erection of a monument to a convicted terrorist (sentenced) for the gruesome murder of the Yugoslav ambassador in Sweden Vladimir Rolovic, as an improper and uncivilized act unprecedented in modern Europe," the Serbian protest stated.
Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Monday he has written to EU officials urging reaction and warned that Croatia's "anti-Serb" policies could endanger peace and stability in the Balkans which was engulfed in bloody civil wars in the 1990s.
"We expect a reaction from the EU," Vucic said. "How is it possible that the terrorist Baresic, who was convicted by a democratic Swedish court, has turned into a hero?"
Croatian officials said they will no longer accept diplomatic protests from Serbia, which has issued many recently. Croatia has threatened to block Serbia's accession talks with the EU if Belgrade continues to deliver "lessons on democracy."
AP Writer Jovana Gec contributed
