Chetnik

A lecture given by two well-known Serbian historians in Zagreb earlier this week has caused controversy in Croatia because it appeared to show sympathy for the Serbian nationalist Chetnik movement in World War II.

The Bosnian state court on Monday upheld an appeal filed by the prosecution and quashed the verdict that acquitted Ravna Gora Movement members Dusan Sladojevic, Slavko Aleksic and Risto Lecic of ethnic, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance in the Visegrad area in March 2019.

The court ordered a retrial for the three defendants.

A still from the movie 'Surrounded' about the Chetnik movement. Photo: www.filmnikolakalabic.com.

"The Serbian movie will not be shown in our cinema," Cineplexx told news website CDM.

In response, the Ukrainian defence ministry has called on reservist soldiers to attend training sessions and has conducted defensive military drills near Crimea. Kyiv says that 28 of its soldiers have already been killed this year.

Ravna Gora Movement members Dusan Sladojevic, alias Krvce and Cica, Slavko Aleksic, alias Vojvoda, and Risto Lecic pleaded not guilty at the Bosnian state court on Monday to charges of inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance at gatherings in the town of Visegrad and the nearby village of Dobrunska Rijeka in March 2019.

The vandalised monument at Ravni Laz near Podgorica. Photo: Civic Action.

The controversial Chetnik rally in Visegrad has been cancelled after the Interior Ministry in Bosnia's Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity on Wednesday issued a ban on all public gatherings until March 30 in an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

"The overall economic and legitimacy crisis after Tito's death in the 1980s created a favourable atmosphere for criticising the Partisan myth and creating positive images about their [the Partisans'] enemies [the Chetniks]," Djureinovic, who has a PhD in history from Justus Liebig University in Giessen and works with the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, told BIRN in an interview.

Around 100 followers of the Serbian WWII nationalist Chetnik movement paraded in the Bosnian town of Visegrad to pay tribute to the movement’s leader, Dragoljub Mihailovic.

Montenegro’s strongest opposition alliance, the Democratic Front, has been accused of attempting to rehabilitate the WWII monarchist Chetnik movement after it initiated a ‘declaration of reconciliation’ with the Communist Partisans.