Croatian FM slams statements by Serbian government ministers

"It's regrettable that senior Serbian officials continue making tendentious and malicious statements about Croatia," she said in an appearance on public broadcaster HRT's evening news programme Dnevnik, adding that this was no way to build good neighbourly relations.

Pejcinovic-Buric was responding to a statement by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who had described Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's statement on peaceful re-integration "shameless."

Plenkovic had previously said that the process of peaceful re-integration of parts of eastern Croatia in the late 1990s was "one of the key legacies of Croatia's first President Franjo Tudjman."

Dacic called Plenkovic's remark "shameless" and added that he wasn't sure whether "Plenkovic is also referring to our 220,000 unfortunates from Operation Storm."

On Thursday, Serbia's Defence Minister, Aleksandar Vulin, said, among other things, that "Croatians want to expel the few ethnic Serbs that are still left."

When asked to comment, Pejcinovic-Buric slammed statements by both Dacic and Vulin.

"These are two men who come from the closest circles of Slobodan Milosevic... and as long as such people are members of the Serbian government, it's hard to expect such malicious statements to stop, aimed at Croatia, but also other countries," she said.

She added that Belgrade should come to terms with its role in the wars of the 1990s in order for relations of Serbia and Croatia to improve, and added that it's difficult to expect positive steps are as long as the Serbian cabinet includes men who were once close associates of Slobodan Milosevic.

"We are hoping that some day Serbia would develop awareness that there can be no peace and prosperity in our neighbourhood without it," Pejcinovic-Buric said.

"The starting point is for the aggressor to face its past - and that was, as we all know, Serbia," she added, saying that after that step is taken the two countries could discuss all other unresolved issues between them.

"We are neighbours, and we will remain neighbours," said Pejcinovic-Buric.

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