by Our Foreign Desk

TENSIONS and hostile rhetoric escalated yesterday between Serbia and Croatia as the historic adversaries squabbled over how to respond to tens of thousands of refugees arriving in the Balkans hoping to seek sanctuary in other parts of Europe.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic accused Serbia and Hungary of colluding to his country’s disadvantage.

“I won’t allow them to make fools out of us and to send all the refugees to Croatia,” he declared after Serbia chose to bus refugees to its border rather than sending them north to Hungary.

“We don’t ask much from Serbia. Just don’t send people in such numbers into Croatia. We don’t want 50 camps on our borders,” said Mr Milanovic.

Serbia has banned imports from Croatia to protest against Zagreb’s decision to close the border to cargo, with Croatia responding by banning all Serbian-registered vehicles from entering the country.

“Croatia is behaving irresponsibly. By imposing this economic aggression, they are hurting the economy of both countries,” said Serbia’s Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic.

The Foreign Ministry in Belgrade sent a protest note to its neighbour complaining that the latest measures were “discriminatory” against Serbs and compared them to the actions of the nazi puppet regime in Croatia during World War II.

Croatia’s action has cut Serbia off from its main trading partners in Europe, costing each state as much as €1 million a day.