Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said on Monday that in the course of the day she would most probably talk to Serbian President Boris Tadic about last week's arrest of Croatian war veteran Tihomir Purda in order to avoid similar incidents from happening in the future and "to protect the Croatian veterans who honourably and bravely defended Vukovar and their families."
"Everything should be done to ensure the functioning of the rule of law and to protect those who deserve the greatest credit for the free, independent, European and democratic Croatia," Kosor told reporters during her visit to the Clinic for Children's Diseases in Zagreb. She added that she would meet some of the veterans' representatives later in the day.
Kosor would not comment on the statement issued by President Ivo Josipovic on Sunday that he was disappointed about the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs using the Purda case to justify the policy of refusing to publish the Veterans' Register. "I'm not arguing with the President via the media. If we have something to say to each other, we will do so in private."
