The two countries expressed their readiness to strengthen cooperation in prosecuting war criminals, particularly those having Croatian or Serbian citizenship or living in either country.
"We are confident that cooperation and exchanges of evidence and other documents and data will contribute to the common interests of our two countries in effectively investigating, providing evidence and punishing all perpetrators of war crimes," Bajic told reporters after the signing ceremony.
Since both countries' constitutions prohibit the extradition of their own citizens and the referral of war crimes cases to another country, the Croatian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office believe that by exchanging evidence and providing assistance in gathering further evidence the goal of bringing all perpetrators of serious war crimes to justice can be achieved.
"With this agreement we will overcome the fact that war crimes were committed in either country and that perpetrators are living in the country in which they did not commit the crimes, thereby evading justice," Bajic said.
Bajic expressed confidence that either country would refer to the other those cases for which there was enough evidence for a trial. He said that the agreement stipulated that the referral of a case required the consent of the other party.
"It has to be voluntary, both sides have to be willing to work on those cases. In that way we will surmount constitutional barriers to the extradition of our own citizens to the other country," he said.
"Mr Bajic and I have made a great procedural step forward for this region and removed those barriers," Vukcevic said.