Istrian county veterinarians reported on Friday that the exhumation of the carcass of a mare had been carried out following a report by the Croatian police on the suspicion that animal remains was buried near the border area in the municipality of Buje, contrary to relevant laws and sanitary regulations.
Joras is suspected to have been the owner of the mare, and after the police establish who was the owner of the dead animal, chargers will be pressed against him or her.
Th exhumed animal remains were transferred to the veterinary station in Rijeka for autopsy tests to be conducted by the Croatian Veterinary Institute to establish whether the mare died of a contagious disease.
The Slovene protest note reads that Croatian veterinary services had dug up the carcass "on the Slovene territory" and that this was one of a series of "unilateral moves" through which Croatia was trying to prejudge the outcome of the settlement of the border dispute.
According to a press release the Slovene ministry issued on its web site, Ljubljana calls on Croatia to abide by the 2005 Brijuni agreement on the avoidance of incidents.
The said area along the Dragonja river was treated by Slovenia as a disputable region until recently. Two months ago during the ratification of Croatia's NATO accession protocol, the Slovene parliament adopted a declaration labelling the said area as part of Slovenia's territory.