The document has not been signed as laws of some countries are not adjusted with regard to the extradition of their citizens, who are war crimes suspects, Boris Frlec, an ambassador of Slovenia which is currently chairing the OSCE that organised the Brijuni event, told a news conference.
"This is not about a lack of willingness of the countries but the problem is that they cannot implement the draft declaration because of laws which are valid in those countries. This does not mean that we are scrapping this political project. We are trying to reach agreement on the matter of the amending legislation in the countries where the declaration is not acceptable," the Slovene diplomat explained.
Croatia's Skare-Ozbolt described the conference as very useful as it proved that the ministers of the three countries were cooperating openly and sincerely.
The Croatian minister announced that expert groups of each of the three countries would work on the adjustment of their national laws showing their unequivocal commitment to punish war crimes for the sake of the future.
Serbia-Montenegro's Minister, Rasim Ljajic, expressed full support to the OSCE process and voiced readiness to cooperate with neighbouring countries in court proceedings regarding war crimes for the sake of reconciliation.
In this context he said that Serbia was cooperating with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal over the matter of the hand-over of war crimes indictees, and stressed that his country was ready to take over cases from the Hague tribunal.
"In Serbia, 38 investigations in war crimes are now under way. Last year we carried out the reform in the legal system and adopted 20 laws, including the law regulating the prosecution of war crimes," Ljajic said.
He pledged that Belgrade would until the end of this year meet all the remaining obligations of the transfer of war crimes indictees, including the arrest of seven war crimes indictees one of whom is Ratko Mladic.
Bosnia-Herzegovina's Slobodan Kovac said that his country showed readiness to cope with the gravest war crimes cases and institutions dealing with such cases became more efficient in line with European standards.
"Bosnia cannot on its own respond to all challenges of this kind and therefore it expects of its neighbouring countries to cooperate," Kovac added.