Statements by Serbian officials show Serbia has a long way to go in dealing with the past

Once again we are witnesses to malicious and completely unfounded statements by Serbian officials about the Republic of Croatia, which we reject in their entirety

Once again we are witnesses to malicious and completely unfounded statements by Serbian officials about the Republic of Croatia, which we reject in their entirety.

Comparisons with the Nazi regime are a mixed-up argument because it was former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević’s regime, with the help of the Yugoslav army and some Croatian and Bosnian Serbs, which was responsible for the return of ethnic cleansing in Europe after WWII by attempting to create a so-called ethnically clean Serbia in one third of Croatia, all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Montenegro and Kosovo. It was clearly established at the relevant international forums and courts that Serbia had stopped at nothing to achieve its expansionist goals, including ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Moreover, the argument that Slovenia and Croatia illegally separated from the former Yugoslavia, made this year, shows Serbia has still a long way to go in dealing with the recent past, its role in the break-up of the former federation and its military aggression on its neighbours. But instead of going down that road, Serbian officials seem increasingly disoriented in time and space and continue with their defamatory campaign against Croatia.

With Operation Storm, the Croatian army and police liberated most of Croatia’s occupied territory, paving the way for the end of the military aggression against Croatia, peaceful reintegration of the occupied parts of Croatia’s Danube river region and peace and freedom in Croatia.

Decisive dealing with the past and a constructive approach based on fact is the only right path towards building good-neighbourly relations and true reconciliation, for which Croatia has been offering cooperation since 1996. However, the unwillingness of some to deal with the past only delays true reconciliation.

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