Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić will pay a low-key but important visit to Zagreb on Friday, after announcing that Belgrade would “defrost” its relations with Croatia this year following a decade of ice-cold ties between the two ex-Yugoslav war foes.
The thaw was initiated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and his foreign minister said Serbia would seek to have better relations with its western neighbour in the future, according to Danas.hr.
In Zagreb, Dačić will attend the traditional reception ahead of the Orthodox Christmas, which falls on 7 January, but will also meet his Croatian counterpart Goran Grlić Radman.
“We must have a dialogue and I expect an active and honest dialogue from Serbia. Stability and good relations are in our interest,” Grlić Radman said.
“We are interested in crucial questions – the issue of missing persons, compensation for those held in wartime prisoner camps, trials of war criminals who may still be at large, and that ridiculous universal jurisdiction. Things will have to change,” he explained.
Most problems stem from the break-up of Yugoslavia, as Croatia declared independence in 1991 but then had to wage a war with its rebel Serb minority, backed by Belgrade until it crushed the rebellion in the summer of 1995.
Last year Serbia said it would indict senior Croatian officials for alleged war crimes during a 1995 Croatian offensive, invoking “universal jurisdiction,” a legal principle that allows a country to claim criminal jurisdiction in case of serious crimes committed by a foreign national residing in another country.
Croatia, an EU and NATO member, dismissed the indictments and in turn said it might put pressure on Serbia in the framework of Belgrade’s EU accession talks, or even block the already slow-moving talks.
Ahead of the visit, the representatives of ethnic Croats in Serbia and Serbs in Croatia signed a declaration of cooperation, encouraging the two governments to work on solving problems instead of reviving conflicts, Danas.hr reported.
(Zoran Radosavljevic | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
