A sad life of Serbs in Croatia: The youth is changing religion to get a job, they live in poverty, villages are ruined, houses abandoned

A lot of stories were told about the unfortunate fate of Serbs in Croatia, expelled people, demolished villages, abandoned houses and returnees in places without electricity and water. With a lot of talk about the politics and hope that "it will be better tomorrow", grandma Milica Dakic (80), from the village near Glina, said that a lot of armies stormed through her village in the past, write Novosti.

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- It is nice to hope, but there is nothing here. The young people left, old are dying and that is the fate of Serbs in Croatia - eighty-year-old granny Milica with the sadness in her voice.

Statistics show that there are less than 180.000 Serbs in Croatia today, and there were around 581.000 in the nineties.

Serbian villages are deserted today. Those who remained there or who returned to live there have a hard life.

Foto: sibenik.in

- Wrong, cruel, over-idealized, one-sided and black and white approach to what has happened in the nineties is still burdening us today - said the historian Tvrtko Jakovina.

On the other side, Croatian rightists are glorifying the criminal Independent State of Croatia which blames Serbs for everything. 

In places with Serbs, people remember the happy youth, full villages of talks and ancestors, customs...

- Rarely anyone drops by in Ridjane these days, and my ancestors have been here for 600 years. There were around 500 watermills in the village and the vicinity, and no one comes anymore to mill wheat, although it would take me two hours to get the old watermill running. I am now living from a miserable retirement or 120 euros and I have no one to complain to. But I do not regret returning here because my roots are here, my graves are here - said Stevan Jablan who worked as an electrician for years on the railroads.

Foto-ilustracija: pixabay.com

There are fertile land and water in Ridjani, 20 kilometers from Knin, but there are no people, and the school is closed... 

There is no work in the villages near Karlovac, the houses are debilitated, and the locals avoid political subjects...

- Nothing will happen, politicians make promises, but nothing is going on. The only way to survive is for the young to go and to help the old who remain. And where will I go old as I am... and children, they change religion to get a job here. There have been the cases of that - said the seventy-year-old Dragan Rajovic.

Loneliness is the hardest for some.

- Poverty is not hard for me, living with 100 euros per month is not hard for me because I make something from the side. The hardest thing for me is loneliness, ever since my brothers left around the world. I am lonely and I live in thoughts about the time before - Dusan Vuckovic from Trnovac said heavily.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Novosti)