The director of the Documentation and Information Center “Veritas” Savo Štrbac assessed that the results of the Croatian census, according to which the number of Serbs has dropped to 3.2% were concerning and disappointing, but that Serbs would still keep certain rights.

“Many have predicted that there would be more than 3.5% Serbs. Sadly, I was also surprised to see that there were only 3.2%. Even Croatian demographers had said that there would be around 155,000, but there you see, there are 123,892,” said Štrbac to Srna.

He added that the older population was dominant and that Serbs in Croatia were dying due to old age.

“Certain analyses have found that elderly Serbs were dying in larger numbers than their peers in Croatia, and especially in Europe, due to the poor conditions that they are living in in those Serbian places in Croatia,” said Štrbac.

Štrbac reminded that it was precisely the 3% figure that was the desired projection, the plan of the Croatian President Franjo Tuđman and his establishment in the early 1990s, who were saying that the Serbian issue as a “disruptive factor” would be resolved in Croatia once and for all once the Serbian population fell under 3%.

He reminded that there had been 4.36%, or 186,000 Serbs in Croatia at the previous census in 2011, whereas now there are 63,000 fewer than that.