The mayor of Novi Sad, Žarko Mićin, pointed out today, March 8, that the Croatian singer Toni Cetinski, who canceled tonight's concert in that city, is spreading absolute falsehoods and misleading the public with statements that the "Spens" hall used to be a concentration camp for Croats, and pointed out that he strongly condemns such tendentious and malicious dissemination of misinformation and expects his apology.
"There was never any concentration camp for Croats in Spence. The truth is completely different. In Spence there was a reception center for refugees, mostly Serbs who fled Croatia at the beginning of the war," Mićin said on Instagram.
Spence previously also denied Tony Cetinski's reasons for canceling the concert.
It's not against the audience in Serbia.
Tony Cetinski canceled the concert just a few hours before he was supposed to go on stage.
He said that he made the decision after he found himself in, as he says, a difficult situation and after hearing numerous testimonies of people for whom that hall, which served as a camp for Croatian prisoners, evokes difficult memories from the war nineties.
He also pointed out that his decision was not directed against the audience in Serbia, but that he made it out of respect for other people's suffering and the desire for music to remain outside of political divisions.
Defenders
Earlier, associations of Croatian veterans, inmates and victims of the Homeland War called on Croatian musicians to cancel or move the announced concerts in the SPENS hall in Novi Sad.
They point out that after the occupation of Vukovar in 1991, that hall served as a camp for Croatian veterans and civilians, where many were tortured, abused and humiliated.
They told the performers to respect the victims and to move the concert, if it has to be held, to a location that is not marked by such a painful history.
