Serb expellees conditionally support Tesla day initiative

BELGRADE - The Coalition of Refugee Associations in Serbia conditionally supported the initiative by Croat MPs and the government to declare July 10 the day of Nikola Tesla and the day of science, technology and innovation in Croatia and to reinstall the damaged Tesla monument in Gospic.

The Zagreb authorities should do much more to make this initiative meaningful commemorating the brilliant Serbian scientist born in the village of Smiljane in Lika, which at the time belonged to Vojna Krajina within Austria's borders (now Croatia), reads a statement by the Coalition signed by president Miodrag Linta.

Linta noted that the Tesla monument at Nikola Tesla Square in Gospic was blown up by a bomb in 1992, and the square was renamed into Stjepan Radic.

The Croatian parliament and government should pass a decision to restore the name of Nikola Tesla Square.

The memorial center should exhibit the documents that clearly show the Serbian origin of Nikola Tesla, Linta said.

Aside for the inscriptions in the Croatian and English language, the plaque fixed to the Nikola Tesla memorial center in Smiljane should also bear an inscription in Serbian and the Serbian letter (Cyrillic).

The ones who ordered and carried out the destruction of the Tesla monument have to be identified and brought to justice, Linta underlined, noting that no one has been held accountable for this and many other acts of vandalism which were directed against Serbs, such as the destruction of Orthodox churches and over 3,000 memorials to fallen soldiers in the National Liberation War during WWII.

He said that the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. George in Gospic, where Tesla's father Protoiereus Milutin Tesla served, should be renovated...