The Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) vice president and the Serb National Council (SNV) leader, Milorad Pupovac, told the Croatian National Television (HTV) on Monday evening that he had not been invited at the central celebrations of Victory Day and the 17th anniversary of Operation Storm in Knin on Sunday.
In his interview with the HTV , Pupovac, a Croatian Serb leader and a Croatian parliamentarian said that he had not been personally invited adding that also the institutions of the Croatian Serb minority had received neither an official invitation nor an informal invitation which could have served as a a basis on which the SNV or the SDSS might decide on the proposal.
"If there had been anything like that, perhaps all would have looked like differently," Pupovac said.
It is not up to the Serb minority to decide on how Operation Storm will be celebrated, he said, adding that perhaps, Knin should not the first place to start from.
"We think that Vukovar should be the first place where we should gather together," Pupovac said adding that this was being a topic of their talks with Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and War Veterans' Affairs Minister Predrag Matic.
As for the media claims that Veljko Dzakula, the leader of the Serb Democratic Forum (SDF), was the first ethnic Serb representative to attend the Knin celebrations of Operation Storm, Pupovac said that it was false.
"This is a matter of media campaign. This (question about Dzakula's arrival) should be answered by those who decided to declare a person who has no political legitimacy among the Serbs, who does not enjoy the support of any Serb organisation and who has no moral authority among the Croatian Serbs, as a historical protagonist in things of extreme importance for the Croatians and for the Serbs and for the Croatia-Serbia relations," Pupovac said.
Asked whether he had a grudge against the newly-elected Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic for not having invited him at his inauguration in Belgrade, Pupovac said that he had not had any opportunity to meet with Nikolic so far and that he had not been among those who had supported Nikolic's candidacy or his political party.
On Sunday, Croatia celebrated Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Homeland War Veterans' Day in memory of 5 August 1995 when it regained control of the town of Knin and most of its territory occupied by rebel Serbs in 1990.
