Belgrade to stop responding to Croatian statements, says PM Vucic

Belgrade, 23 August 2016 (MIA) - Serbia's Prime Minister has said that the country's political leadership will no longer comment on statements about Serbia coming from Croatia.

Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference that "we have been witnesses in recent days to brutal verbal attacks against the Republic of Serbia by the Republic of Croatia," media in Serbia reported.

"We have always told the truth about the suffering of our people in Gradina, Jasenovac...," he said, referring to WW2 death camps ran by the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), and added:

"We spoke also about Operation Storm, and stand behind all those words."

"A top-ranking Croatian official said I spoke about the gouging of Serb eyes, I am sorry that in Croatia they did not consider the facts and condemn the crime. We did not ask them to admit the crime, all we seek is remorse. Bearing in mind that we have said all about that, that we have responded to Croatia in the politest way countless times, from this day we will abstain from any comment coming from the Republic of Croatia, because we want to put an end to the immature game of ping pong played with statements. They can continue to insult us, while we will continue with the successes and growth, because they see that as their defeat," said Vucic.

"Not because we are afraid of them," he added, "but because we want them to stop with the policy where they want to present Croatia and Serbia as two immature states playing ping pong."

Vucic then said he was saddened to see Croatian officials "unwilling to abandon this kind of fascist past, which is expressed in their comments on the anniversary of the killings of Serbs that we commemorated recently, and say they do not agree with it and are condemning those crimes in the fiercest manner."

"We are not asking them to say it was genocide, although it was, but only to offer condolences and express remorse toward the families of the victims, instead of condemning in their statements the victims' grandchildren, while glorifying the executioner grandfathers."

"We will continue with the policy of maintaining peace and stability in the entire territory, we will continue to build, despite the problems, better and better relations in the future," said Vucic.