"Any rash and inappropriate response would be bad for the Serb minority in Croatia as it would create additional antagonism towards local Serbs," Markovic told the Belgrade-based Blic daily of Monday.
Speaking about incidents directed against Croatian Serbs, Markovic said that four Serbs were killed in Croatia this year and that 38 other incidents, targeting ethnic Serbs, occurred.
"Unfortunately, only a small number of those cases has been solved," Markovic said, adding that it was important that such incidents were condemned in both countries, as well as by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, who she said was one of the few to react to the incidents.
Markovic added that the Croatian judicial authorities had not yet revised lists of Serb war crimes indictees, which was the reason for new, unwarranted arrests of Serb returnees.
Markovic co-chairs the Joint Commission for the Protection of Minorities, established recently in Belgrade by state delegations from Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro ahead of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's visit to Zagreb. The commission was established on the basis of an agreement on the mutual protection of minorities.