FM Kovač: Serbia should publish criticisms by ICTY rather than send protest notes

(Hina) - The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Miro Kovač, on Tuesday dismissed the accusations from Belgrade that Croatia was glorifying the pro-Nazi WWII Ustasha regime and terrorists

(Hina) - The Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Miro Kovač, on Tuesday dismissed the accusations from Belgrade that Croatia was glorifying the pro-Nazi WWII Ustasha regime and terrorists, saying that instead of sending protest notes to Croatia, the Serbian authorities should inform their public of strong criticisms by the Hague war crimes tribunal about war criminals continuing to be glorified in Serbia.

The Serbian government sent a protest note to Zagreb on Monday, the fourth in a week, accusing Croatia of rehabilitating the Ustasha movement, glorifying convicted terrorists and claiming that some of the decisions by Croatian courts were aimed against Serbs.

Speaking at a press conference, Kovač again rejected these accusations, saying that the Serbian authorities had better inform their public about the latest report of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to the UN Security Council, which says that Serbia has deviated from the path of cooperation with the tribunal and continues to glorify war criminals.

"It is important that Serbia works on itself, that it does not obscure the reality with letters and that it tells its public that the ICTY president has published a report clearly saying that Serbia is no longer fully cooperating with the ICTY, that it has the obligation to hand over three of its citizens and that war criminals continue to be glorified in Serbia. I think the public should know this," Kovač said.

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