ZAGREB, January 28, 2018 – Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić’s statements in which he indirectly accused Croatia of rehabilitating the Ustasha ideology are untrue and insulting, begging the question if Serbia is indeed interested in building good neighbourly relations, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
The Ministry sent a note to the Serbian Embassy in Zagreb, expressing dissatisfaction with Dačić’s statement at the opening of an exhibition on the Jasenovac WWII concentration camp at the UN on January 25.
Dačić said the objective was “not to forget” the crimes committed in the Ustasha-run camp and “not to allow the downplaying and rehabilitation of crimes.” Without explicitly mentioning Croatia, he said there was “a lot of resistance by one state” to staging the display at the UN.
“Minister Dačić’s statements at the UN showed that Serbia is continuing to abuse and manipulate the Jasenovac victims for current political purposes,” the Croatian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
“Such untrue and insulting statements referring to Croatia and its officials bring into doubt the sincerity of Serbia’s declarative statements about its wish for reconciliation and for building good neighbourly relations,” the Ministry said.
