Serbia Will Take Regional Celebrities off Entry ‘Watch List’, Minister Says

Ivica Dacic at a press conference in Belgrade, November 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that Croatian pop singer Severina and other celebrities will be “taken off” controversial watch lists of people Belgrade considers problematic due to their public stances.

Dacic said Serbian police and security services have lists of people suspected of involvement in organised crime and terrorism and who need to be thoroughly checked on the border, or barred from entering.

“Probably in the previous period there were people who were put on that list because of their statements,” he admitted to Prva Television.

“When it comes to the police [list], as I can see so far, there are only a few people, and they will be removed from the list today,” he added.

Dacic’s statement came after singer Severina Vuckovic was stopped and questioned about her political views at the Serbian border on Sunday and after other incidents in which celebrities from neighbouring countries were barred from entering Serbia.

Dacic on Monday admitted she was stopped because her name is on a list of citizens of other countries that Belgrade considers problematic for their real or alleged views on various topics.

The lists were made while the US-sanctioned Serbian Deputy PM Aleksandar Vulin was head of Serbia’s Security Information Agency, BIA, and before that, Interior Minister.

“The lists were made by me, as Minister of Police and as director of the BIA”, Vulin said on Tuesday, adding that “[President] Aleksandar Vucic was not asked about it nor should he have been“.

On Wedneday, Vulin backtracked and told media that “nobody ever compiles [such lists] on their own” but based on consultations with competent authorities, not specifying which ones he had asked for an opinion.

“Every country has the sovereign right [to say] that some people are not welcome on its territory, it doesn’t even have to explain it,” Vulin said.

Vuckovic, a regional pop star, said on Monday that she had travelled to Serbia to sing at a birthday party, but was held on the border for hours and then questioned about her personal stances on various topics.

“During the interrogation, they started asking me questions about what I thought about [the 1995 genocide in] Srebrenica, the [1995 Croatian military operation] Storm, why I supported the demonstrations [in Serbia] against lithium mining, and wrote that this is the Serbia I love. They also touched on [the Croatian fascist WWII concentration camp at] Jasenovac and also covered [late President of Croatia Franjo] Tudjman,” she said.

After the questioning, although she was allowed to enter Serbia, she decided to go back to Croatia.

Before Severina, other public figures, mostly from Bosnia and Herzegovina, were barred from entering Serbia.