The Ministry of War Veterans' Affairs on Thursday condemned Serbia's indictments against Croatian defenders as an act of negation the defensive character of Croatia's 1991-1995 war of independence.

The ministry called Serbia’s insistence on universal jurisdiction “inadmissible and unacceptable.”

According to media reports, the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office has issued an indictment against four Croatian Air Force officers for war crimes against Serb civilians because on 7 and 8 August 1995, during Operation Storm, they allegedly ordered a missile attack on a refugee convoy outside Bosanski Petrovac and in Svodna, near Novi Grad, northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The ministry emphasised the legitimacy and legality of the operations Flash and Storm in 1995 when Croatia restored its legal and constitutional order in the areas until then occupied by Serb rebels.

“We completely reject any attempt to undermine the just character of the 1991-95 War and the dignity of Croatian defenders,” the ministry said, calling on Serbia to provide information about the persons who went missing in the war instead of issuing indictments.