Serbia’s defence ministry believes that the original archive material of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) must remain in Serbia's possession, and that any copies may only be issued in line with international agreements signed by Serbia, Politika daily reported on Wednesday.

The Serbian state news agency Tanjug said the paper had received the defence ministry’s position on the matter after Croatian authorities had requested the return of the original archive material of the World War II Ustasha regime through the Commission for Succession of former Yugoslavia.

The Serbian government on 1 April 2010 formed a cross-departmental task force to implement Annex D to the Succession Agreement, entrusting it with preparing proposals for a government coordinating body dealing with requests by successor states regarding the State Archive of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), the Serbian ministry said.

“The coordinating body has so far not requested the defence ministry to state its official position on Croatia’s request seeking the archival material on the NDH and the Military Archive consequently did not state its position on the matter,” the Serbian ministry told the paper, adding that Annex D to the Succession Agreement pertaining to archives defined principles in line with which successor states may request archive material, and that their possible application referred also to the NDH archival fund.

Politika reported that the Military Archive keeps archive material related to the NDH and that 555 boxes of archival material have been analysed and accompanying documentation has been made.

Sources at the Serbian defence ministry confirmed that physical and legal persons from Croatia had researched parts of that archive material in recent years.