ZAGREB, June 12, 2019 – President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Wednesday said that she in no way regretted that she had invited Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić to Croatia and that she would invite him again.
“Knowing even today that some people object to that and how many times have people complained and attacked me because of his visit, the easiest thing to do would have been to cancel the visit. If I had thought of myself and my rating then I would have certainly done that. But how could I embark on delivering on what I promised families throughout Croatia without taking the first step regardless of what the results and consequences might have been,” Grabar-Kitarović said at a launch of the book entitled “The Missing in the Homeland War 2.”
She recalled that the late president Franjo Tuđman spoke with Serbia’s strongman and the then president, Slobodan Milošević in an effort to resolve the war and implement peaceful reintegration because “that was the only way.”
She said that the issue of the missing will not be resolved by the EU but that we have to do that on our own and that requires the other side too.
Referring to the information that Vučić brought to Zagreb during his visit which turned out to be data on persons that had already been identified, Grabar-Kitarović claimed that he believed that that was credible information.
She apologised to the families of the missing because no progress had been made and announced that the search for them would not end.
The book “The Missing in the Homeland War 2” like its predecessor presents testimonies by parents, spouses, children and siblings of 45 people who went missing during the 1990s war with the aim of encouraging institutions and the public to resolve that tragedy and also to raise awareness among those who today might be hiding documents about the fate of the missing.
The book’s authors Romana Bilešić and Danijela Mikola underscored that the book portrays some truly sad stories and now a quarter of a century since they have been looking for their loved ones, families are beginning to lose all hope.
More news about relations between Croatia and Serbia can be found in the Politics section.
