Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor received Mile Dedakovic, war-time commander of the defence of Vukovar in 1991, on Monday to discuss the government's efforts to solve the cases of war veterans Tihomir Purda and Veljko Maric, the government said in a press release.
The Prime Minister reassured Dedakovic that the government was doing its utmost to solve the cases of veterans Tihomir Purda and Veljko Maric.
According to the press release, Dedakovic suggested that any processes in such cases should be conducted only in Croatia, and called for unity. He praised Kosor for her genuine care for war veterans over the last 20 years, and expressed hope that Tihomir Purda, who is being held in extradition custody in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Veljko Maric, who is standing trial in Belgrade for war crimes, would be soon released.
After the talks with PM Kosor who received him at his own request, Dedakovic told reporters that their talks focused on war veterans. He said that all associations of Homeland War veterans should be partners to the government and vice versa, adding that Kosor was a good interlocutor and partner.
It is the right time to defuse tensions and to begin solving everything through the institutions of the system, Dedakovic said.
Dedakovic confirmed that they had talked about the Purda case and that it was very important to him that the Croatian institutions had found that Purda was not responsible for war crimes. Dedakovic expects the Serbian authorities to confirm the same so that Purda would soon return to Croatia.
He said he had proposed to the PM Kosor that possible proceedings against war veterans should be exclusively conducted by institutions of the Republic of Croatia.
Saying that there was no need for the radicalisation of the situation, Dedakovic said that the current government and PM Kosor at its helm were doing all that was possible under the current circumstances.
"You should have in mind that neither she (Kosor) nor Justice Minister Bosnjakovic nor Interior Minister Karamarko are responsible for what happened. Those were some other people," Dedakovic said, alluding to former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, former Justice Minister Ana Lovrin, and former interior and defence minister Berislav Roncevic.
In response to reporters' remarks that some war veterans were calling for street protests, Dedakovic said that only a negligible number of veterans were in favour of protests. He said that everything should be done to prevent unrest.
