Miodrag Linta: Toni Cetinski made untrue claims, SPENS was never used as camp for Croats

Photo: Tanjug/Jadranka Ilic, Telegraf

The president of the Association of Serbs from the Region, Miodrag Linta, today strongly condemned Croatian singer Toni Cetinski for saying that the SPENS hall in Novi Sad was once a used as a camp for Croats, and pointed out that these claims are untrue, i.e. that this is - "an insidious lie made by the Croatian singer".

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In a statement, Linta said that Cetinski used that claim as a reason to suddenly cancel his concert on March 8 and added that several thousand Serb refugees from Krajina (in Croatia) were in fact temporarily housed in that hall in 1995.

"The real truth is that SPENS, i.e. the Sports and Business Hall in Novi Sad, never served as a camp for Croats. Also, it is true that several thousand Krajina Serbs who were exiled during the criminal actions of the Croatian and Muslim militaries in 1995 were temporarily housed in the hall," Linta stated.

Photo: Tanjug/Jadranka Ilic

He reminded that it was previously not a problem for Cetinski to perform in SPENS.

"Toni Cetinski is not only a liar, but also a supreme hypocrite. Namely, in 2016 and 2023, he did not mind holding concerts in SPENS, at that time it was not a place that, as he wrote in his disgraceful public address, carries heavy memories of the war - however, in 2026, it does. This shameless lie represents the deepest insult and a slap in the face people in Novi Sad and Serbia and aims to demonize Serbs and portray them as criminals," stressed Linta.

He added that the statement aims to divert attention from the mass-scale crimes committed by Croatian paramilitary, military and police forces against Serb civilians and prisoners of war during the 1990s. One of the many centers where Serbs in Croatia were tortured was the infamous Lora camp in Split, which existed from 1992 to 1997, Linta said and dded that 1,005 registered prisoners officially passed through that camp, although there are well-founded assumptions that the number is much higher.

Photo: Shutterstock, Telegraf.rs

"Serbs endured horrid psychological and physical torture every day, and at least 70 inmates were killed. The Lora camp was only one of 221 prisons that existed in Croatia during the 1990s where Serbs were tortured and murdered. Concerts and book promotions are held in the town of Glina in the Croatian House, which is located on the site of a former Serbian Orthodox Church, where 1,700 Serbs were slaughtered at the end of July and beginning of August 1941," Linta recalled.

He added that the church was looted and razed to the ground by the Ustasha. Linta believes that there is no willingness in Croatia to give up the disgraceful and anti-civilizational decision to establish the Croatian House on the foundations of the destroyed Serbian Orthodox Church, at the site of a terrible crime committed against Serbs.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)