"Those who took sides with Fascism and quislings, were not certainly for anti-fascism," Mesic told reporters on Tuesday while he was visiting the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb.
Mesic has cancelled his planned visit to Belgrade in protest at Sunday's rally of members and sympathisers of the Serbian Chetnik Movement at Ravna Gora, central Serbia, which was organised by Serbian authorities. Addressing the gathering, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic praised the government for adopting a law that equated the status of Chetniks with that of Partisans, and asked for full rehabilitation of Chetniks.
"After Sunday's gathering of Chetniks at Ravna Gora, which was organised by and carried out with the active support of Serbian authorities, and the participation of prominent members of the government, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic, believes that under the present circumstances there are no conditions for the continuation of preparations for his planned visit to Serbia and Montenegro in the foreseeable future," Mesic's office said in a statement on Monday.
Serbia and Montenegro's Foreign Ministry issued a statement later on Monday saying that "historical facts cannot be an obstacle to the best relations between Serbia and Montenegro and Croatia or any other country."
"Let us turn to the future. We shall not make our relations with our neighbours conditional on their position on events of the past, so we expect the same from them. Europe is our common home," the ministry said.