There is no connection between the present US policy and the presentation of a medal which was awarded 57 years ago, a US State Department official told Hina on Monday.
In other words, it has no influence on US policy, which has not changed, said the official, who asked not to be named.
A delegation of US war veterans presented the daughter of Draza Mihailovic, Gordana, with a Medal of Merit in Belgrade on Monday for saving US airmen during WW2. Mihailovic was posthumously awarded in 1948 by the then US president, Harry Truman.
The presentation prompted a harsh response from the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, which recalled that Chetniks led by Draza Mihailovic were responsible for numerous crimes against Croats and other ethnic groups and antifascist fighters during WW2.
The Croatian ministry said that this would have "inevitable political consequences" although the presentation of the medal was not of a political nature.
The ministry cited numerous crimes against civilians committed in the name of Mihailovic in the 1990s during Serbian aggression against Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It objected that the presentation of the medal coincided with Victory in Europe Day, stressing that the Chetnik Movement of Draza Mihailovic had not participated in the struggle of the anti-Hitler coalition.
The US official said that the medal was awarded in recognition for saving the lives of 500 US airmen in 1944 and that the fact that it was presented now had no special significance.
A group of saved US airmen visited Serbia last September and realised that the medal had not been presented. They found out where it was and did it today, he said.
Mihailovic was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to death in Belgrade in 1946, and was executed.