Serbia's indictment against Croatian pilots for alleged war crimes during the Operation Storm "does not exist as a case" for Croatia, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday, adding that "this attitude will not change in the slightest."

“Serbia’s jurisdiction in cases concerning alleged crimes in the territory of other countries, by citizens of other countries, has been unacceptable to use for years, it is out of the question,” the Croatian premier said in Bled.

On 20 August, the Belgrade Appeals Court upheld the High Court’s decision which upheld an indictment by the War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office against four Croatian Air Force pilots for war crimes committed in 1995 Operation Storm.

Plenkovic said that there was an international instance, the former Hague war crimes tribunal and today’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, so it was out of the question that Serbia “as the aggressor during the Great Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic,” that attacked Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia presumes to be the state that would issue indictments against Croatian pilots during the Homeland War.

“Therefore, that case does not exist for us as a country,” he noted, adding that Serbia “has to face its past and role in the 1990s very, very well.”

As for the possible visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to the former Ustasha concentration camp Jasenovac, Plenkovic said “that would be discussed later.”

Serbian President Vucic intended to visit the former concentration camp on 17 July, but that was supposed to be an unannounced, private visit, which was rejected by Croatian authorities, who said it was not in accordance with the  diplomatic procedure.

“It is known how a visit to another country is announced if one is not going there as a tourist,” Plenkovic said on Monday.