ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia has sent a diplomatic protest note to neighboring Serbia after Belgrade detained and deported five Croatian citizens who were taking part in a meeting of civil society organizations in the Serbian capital, state television station HRT reported on Thursday.
Croatia, in its note, strongly protested the move by Serbian authorities and demanded an explanation. Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman has said that Croatia may issue a travel warning for Serbia.
“I am not sure that there is an explanation of the Serbian authorities about what happened,” Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović said. “It is legitimate to ask if it is a coincidence, since we have had several such cases lately.”
Authorities in Belgrade have given no confirmation or an official explanation of the deportations, which reportedly also included citizens from Romania, Slovenia, Bosnia and North Macedonia who were taking part this week in a workshop for nongovernmental organizations.
Relations between main Balkan rivals Croatia and Serbia have been tense for years since the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Croatian activists have told media in the European Union country that police came to their hotel and detained them before sending them back home. They offered no reason except a document saying the activists presented a threat to Serbia's security.
In recent months, Serbian police have denied entry or expelled a number of foreign citizens for the same reason.
Serbia's populist government, in the past few weeks, has repeatedly and without offering evidence accused Croatian security services of being behind weekslong protests by university students who are demanding accountability for a collapse of a concrete canopy on Nov. 1.
The crash at a railway station building in the northern Serbian town of Novi Sad killed 15 people, triggering major anti-corruption protests. Many in Serbia believe rampant graft had led to sloppy renovation work at the building and eventually to the fall of the huge concrete construction on the people underneath.
Striking students have called for a general strike on Friday while President Aleksandar Vučić has scheduled a huge rally to counter the protests on Friday afternoon in the central town of Jagodina.
Several prominent human rights groups in Serbia also have condemned the reported detention and deportation of foreign activists from the country, saying it marked further repression by the government.
Vučić, Serbia's increasingly autocratic leader, has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms since he came to power more than a decade ago even thought he had formally pledged he would lead his country into the EU.
Protesting activists and university students in Serbia also have repeatedly reported pressure from authorities, including intimidation and interrogation by the state security service. Vučić has denied this.