Serbian President Boris Tadic and his Croatian colleague Ivo Josipovic said in Zagreb on Wednesday that the two countries have settled many mutual issues in the past 10 months, and that the people who went missing during the 90s war in Croatia are still a priority.

“The missing persons issue is central. We will do everything to solve that issue and show that we are able to take care of war victims,” Tadic said at the joint news conference after the meeting with Josipovic.

The two presidents first talked in private and were joined later by their countries’ delegations. Both officials are in favour of providing access to government archives in order to solve the issue.

According to Josipovic, there can be no reconciliation in the region without bringing closure to missing persons cases. Everyone has to understand that missing persons are a priority and everyone has to work to solve the issue, Josipovic noted.

Tadic and Josipovic among returning Serbs that were ethnically cleansed by Croats

“There has been significant progress when it comes to minorities, but there is still room for improvement,” Josipovic remarked.
 
The Croatian president is satisfied with the process of returning Croatian cultural heritage that was taken during the war. According to Josipovic, he and Tadic will visit the Serbian Orthodox monastery Krupa on Thursday.

The monastery lost its treasury in the war, but it was recently returned. The two presidents discussed the position of Serbs in Croatia and Croats in Serbia and ways of protecting their culture, identity and language, according to Josipovic.

“As President of Serbia, I wish to preserve Serb culture wherever Serbs live in the region, but I also protect the rights of all other ethnic communities, including Croats,” Tadic stated. There has been progress when it comes to preserving Serbian language and culture in Croatia, but a lot more needs to be done, especially in education, Tadic pointed out

The Serbian president is satisfied with Croatia’s achievements in terms of refugee return, housing for the returnees and their integration. He added that a donor conference would soon be organized

“All those who wish to return to Croatia can enter the programme that will provide them with housing, but if they do not wish to do so, the donor fund will provide a solution for them,” Josipovic explained.

Speaking about EU accession, which is the common strategic goal of the two countries’, Tadic said that both Zagreb and Belgrade remain committed to it. He said that Serbia strongly supports Croatia, which is about to obtain full EU membership, and added that Croatia’s EU accession is good for the region and Serbia. According to Josipovic, when Croatia becomes an EU member, it will continue to support Serbia’s EU accession as it does now.

Tadic stated that Serbia and Croatia share a long and painful history, which includes war devastation, victims and discord. However, he noted that the fact both sides had expressed regret over the issue represented an important step ahead. Without good bilateral relations, Serbia and Croatia cannot hope for stability either on the national or the regional level, Tadic said.

Tadic announced the holding of an international donors conference for assistance to Serbian refugees wishing to return to Croatia, and pointed out that the people whose fate depends on it are eager to see the conference completed successfully.

The conference will resolve the housing problems of many refugees, he said. Political agreement has been reached on the basic principles on which this issue will be resolved permanently, Tadic noted.

The care for the people who suffered the ordeal of war, as well as the all-round reconciliation process, give a new dimension to bilateral relations, he said, adding that this does not refer only to the events in Ovcara, Vukovar and Paulin Dvor.

“If your neighbors have a positive political development, you can expect your country and your citizens to feel good economic and political consequences of such progress. It should be a new spirit of relations in Southeast Europe”, said Tadic.

Tanjug
November 24, 2010

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