On Sunday, December 8, the Tomb of People’s Heroes in Belgrade was vandalized by members of an ultra-nationalist and clerical fascist movement called Serbian Action, active in the country since 2010. They sprayed red paint on the busts of the heroes, and wrote a notorious fascist slogan over the marble plaque in the tomb. Progressive sections in Serbia have strongly condemned the desecration of the revered monument.
The Tomb of People’s Heroes is located at the Belgrade Fortress and was built in 1948. It holds the remains of Ivo Lola Ribar, Ivan Milutinović, Đuro Đaković, and Moša Pijade – the four recipients of the Order of the People’s Hero of SFR Yugoslavia for their extraordinary heroic deeds during World War II.
The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia (NKPJ) has condemned the incidence of vandalism as an uncivilized, fascist and anti-labor action. “The monument will never be the same again and will bear those battle scars for the future. The ideas of communism are powerful enough to outlast any damage done by a fascist vandal.” NKPJ said in their statement.
The tomb had been attacked earlier in the 1990s as well, when it was painted with anti-communist slogans, with even the busts of the heroes being pulled out.