Zagreb, Belgrade turn new page

An almost unanimous assessment of Serbian President Boris Tadic’s first visit to Vukovar is that it is a new page in history of Belgrade and Zagreb. However, what comes next is solving of specific problems, such as exchange of war documents and solving the issue of the missing persons, analysts say. Zagreb, Belgrade turn new page Tadic’s visit to Vukovar was characterized by apologies. The Serbian president apologized at Ovcara and Josipovic in Paulin Dvor. Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Vojislav Stanimirovic told B92 that he thought that Tadic’s visit was historical. He hopes that it will contribute to establishment of better relations between Serbs and Croats. Boris Tadic and Ivo Josipovic at Ovcara (FoNet) Issues of missing persons, lawsuits Zagreb Professor Zarko Puhovski thinks that aside from apologies there were other significant details. “They did their job with words. Secondly, it seems to me that it is very important that it was shown how marginal this group of people is in Croatia who don’t accept any apology from Serbia because it’s from Serbia, who actually want to keep tensions with Serbia. There are those, but it turns out that they were a completely insignificant group even in Vukovar,” he explained. “Thirdly, documents about the missing from the Vukovar hospital were brought, and it’s something that should be worked on now. Therefore, both sides must provide documents about the camps, about the missing,” Puhovski pointed out. Even though majority of Croatian, Serbian and international public are satisfied with the visit, there are still those who are not. Among them are the Serbs who escaped to Serbia. Their representative Director of the Veritas Documentation Center Savo Strbac says that Tadic and Josipovic’s meeting will not solve the issue of Serb refugees. “It’s good that we talked about the missing. We, Serbs from Croatia, really are very interested in the beginning of solving of this difficult issue. In the end, we are still looking for over 2,000 people whose fate we need to solve,” he stressed. However, the issue which was not often mentioned during the Serbian president’s visit to Croatia is Croatia’s lawsuit before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Only Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that the issue came up during her meeting with Tadic. “I think that the issue of lawsuits is going to burden the relations for quite some time. A reason for that is because different institutions are authorized to make a decision about that, it’s the government in Croatia. The government certainly cannot make such a decision before the elections,” Puhovski stressed. “But such decision can be expected from any government after parliamentary elections, in about a year. On the other hand, it seems to me that it is important that these lawsuits actually don’t stand a big chance because according to the international law it can only be tried for genocide,” he said. However, Serbs from Croatia would not be satisfied with withdrawal of the lawsuit. Strbac believes that the full truth will never be discovered that way. “We would really like the highest judicial institution in the world, such as the International Court of Justice to reach the verdict, because for us this verdict, whatever it is, would in the long run lead to reconciliation of these peoples. Politicians find a momentary interest in ‘breaking such a difficult issue over a knee’, others come and solve it differently and I think that the most civilized way to solve this is before the International Court of Justice,” he pointed out. This was Tadic’s first official but not the last visit to Croatia. He will officially visit Zagreb in the second half of November.

Zagreb, Belgrade turn new page

Tadić’s visit to Vukovar was characterized by apologies. The Serbian president apologized at Ovčara and Josipović in Paulin Dvor.

Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Vojislav Stanimirović told B92 that he thought that Tadić’s visit was historical.

He hopes that it will contribute to establishment of better relations between Serbs and Croats.

Issues of missing persons, lawsuits

Zagreb Professor Žarko Puhovski thinks that aside from apologies there were other significant details.

“They did their job with words. Secondly, it seems to me that it is very important that it was shown how marginal this group of people is in Croatia who don’t accept any apology from Serbia because it’s from Serbia, who actually want to keep tensions with Serbia. There are those, but it turns out that they were a completely insignificant group even in Vukovar,” he explained.

“Thirdly, documents about the missing from the Vukovar hospital were brought, and it’s something that should be worked on now. Therefore, both sides must provide documents about the camps, about the missing,” Puhovski pointed out.

Even though majority of Croatian, Serbian and international public are satisfied with the visit, there are still those who are not.

Among them are the Serbs who escaped to Serbia. Their representative Director of the Veritas Documentation Center Savo Štrbac says that Tadić and Josipović’s meeting will not solve the issue of Serb refugees.

“It’s good that we talked about the missing. We, Serbs from Croatia, really are very interested in the beginning of solving of this difficult issue. In the end, we are still looking for over 2,000 people whose fate we need to solve,” he stressed.

However, the issue which was not often mentioned during the Serbian president’s visit to Croatia is Croatia’s lawsuit before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

Only Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that the issue came up during her meeting with Tadić.

“I think that the issue of lawsuits is going to burden the relations for quite some time. A reason for that is because different institutions are authorized to make a decision about that, it’s the government in Croatia. The government certainly cannot make such a decision before the elections,” Puhovski stressed.

“But such decision can be expected from any government after parliamentary elections, in about a year. On the other hand, it seems to me that it is important that these lawsuits actually don’t stand a big chance because according to the international law it can only be tried for genocide,” he said.

However, Serbs from Croatia would not be satisfied with withdrawal of the lawsuit.

Štrbac believes that the full truth will never be discovered that way.

“We would really like the highest judicial institution in the world, such as the International Court of Justice to reach the verdict, because for us this verdict, whatever it is, would in the long run lead to reconciliation of these peoples. Politicians find a momentary interest in ‘breaking such a difficult issue over a knee’, others come and solve it differently and I think that the most civilized way to solve this is before the International Court of Justice,” he pointed out.

This was Tadić’s first official but not the last visit to Croatia. He will officially visit Zagreb in the second half of November.