Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) president Daniel Srb said on Saturday that only the Croatian government could save Vukovar war veteran Tihomir Purda from being extradited to Serbia by submitting to Bosnia and Herzegovina a document signed by the Croatian and Serbian justice ministries saying that statements extorted under duress are not admissible in court.

Addressing a news conference in the eastern city of Osijek, Srb said that he had learned from some Bosnian judicial officials about the existence of that document, which he said was signed by former Croatian Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic and Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic on June 27, 2009.

"The (Bosnian) judiciary is embarrassed about what is going on because they expected that that document would be made available to them, but unfortunately Croatia has not done it," Srb said.

He said that Croatia should send the document within the deadline for the submission of an appeal after the Bosnian State Court approved the extradition of Purda to Serbia, which wants him in connection with alleged war crimes committed against Serb prisoners of war and infirm people in the Vukovar area in 1991.

Purda was arrested in Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 5 on an international warrant issued by Serbia and has been in custody in Zenica prison since.

When asked why the Croatian government had not submitted such an important document to the Bosnian authorities, Srb said that "the Croatian government fears possible criticism from the European Commission."

"Unfortunately, the perfidious and insincere Croatian government, which manipulates Croatian veterans and uses them as its electorate, allowed for the arrest of Tihomir Purda and Veljko Maric to occur even though it has been aware since 2007 that there were warrants for their arrest, but it did not notify the veterans," Srb said.

Srb announced two protest rallies in support of Purda and Maric, who had been arrested before. One will be held in Grubisno Polje on Sunday and the other in Zagreb on February 26.