Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik accused Croatia on Sunday of having committed an act of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war in the 1990s. He emphasised that today's Croatia is also responsible for crimes committed by the regime of the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during the Second World War.

Dodik was reacting to a statement by Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman, who had earlier, during a visit to the southern town of Stolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, criticised a publication released in Sarajevo on Saturday claiming that both Croatia and Serbia committed an act of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, as the publication claims, was established by judgements of the Hague War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Grlic-Radman said that the roles of Croatia and Serbia in the war of the 1990s could not be compared and that there would not have been an integral, independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina if it had not been for Croatia and Croats.

“Croatia actively participated in the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unlike Serbia, which did not have a single military unit on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has categorised Croatia’s participation in the civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a joint criminal enterprise,” Dodik told local media. He was angered by the fact that Croatia was among the supporters of a UN resolution condemning the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was adopted last week.

He added that Croatia would now like to forget “some sponsorships” but cannot because of court judgements. He also accused today’s Croatia of crimes against the Serbs during the Second World War.

“Croatia should at least now remain silent, because the NDH regime committed the most serious crimes in this region, it committed an undeniable genocide against the Serbian people,” he said.