Tadić criticizes Croatian PM's statements

Serbian President Boris Tadic "strongly condemned" a statement by Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, said reports. Kosor praised wartime actions of two former Croatian generals found guilty by the Hague Tribunal of committing war crimes against the country's ethnic Serbs. Tadic criticizes Croatian PM's statements "No election campaigns or struggles for power should be reasons to glorify those who committed war crimes. It is a very irresponsible policy," said Tadic. The Croatian prime minister, who thanked generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac for the way they had conducted the 1995 Croatian military offensive dubbed Operation Storm. According to a statement from his cabinet, Tadic reiterated that Operation Storm had taken a great number of innocent lives and had caused the exodus of more than 200,000 Serbs. "I believe it is very important to know that now all those indicted for war crimes, including the Croatian generals who were convicted in the first instance verdict, are located in The Hague” the press service of the president said. “The statement by Prime Minister Kosor does not contribute to the development of good neighborly relations between our two countries. The two countries have been trying to raise their cooperation to a higher level ever since the serious conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s that left behind a large number of casualties, missing persons and people expelled from their homes,” the Serbian president said. He said that war criminals must never be glorified and recalled that representatives of the democratic state of Serbia, which had been cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and had delivered 46 indicted war criminals to the international war crimes court, had never done anything similar. (Beta, file)

Tadić criticizes Croatian PM's statements

"No election campaigns or struggles for power should be reasons to glorify those who committed war crimes. It is a very irresponsible policy," said Tadić.

The Croatian prime minister, who thanked generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač for the way they had conducted the 1995 Croatian military offensive dubbed Operation Storm.

According to a statement from his cabinet, Tadić reiterated that Operation Storm had taken a great number of innocent lives and had caused the exodus of more than 200,000 Serbs.

"I believe it is very important to know that now all those indicted for war crimes, including the Croatian generals who were convicted in the first instance verdict, are located in The Hague” the press service of the president said.

“The statement by Prime Minister Kosor does not contribute to the development of good neighborly relations between our two countries. The two countries have been trying to raise their cooperation to a higher level ever since the serious conflicts in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s that left behind a large number of casualties, missing persons and people expelled from their homes,” the Serbian president said.

He said that war criminals must never be glorified and recalled that representatives of the democratic state of Serbia, which had been cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and had delivered 46 indicted war criminals to the international war crimes court, had never done anything similar.