Responding to Hina's query about the protest, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday the Croatian government in due time and of its own initiative slammed the setting of the memorial plaque and urged competent bodies to remove it.
The ministry added that Croatia's government and leading political parties assessed that the memorial plaque harmed Croatia, its national interests and goals as well as burdened relations on the local level. The ministry underlined that the Croatian government's assessments reflected its responsibility to past events and national interests.
The ministry concluded by saying the case of the Budak memorial plaque should not be brought in the context of Croatia-Serbia and Montenegro relations, which it added were developing well.
The Serbia and Montenegro Foreign Ministry said on its website that Assistant Foreign Minister Dusan Crnogorcevic today invited Croatian Ambassador Tonci Stanicic over to protest against and ask for an explanation of the unveiling of the memorial plaque to Budak, whom it described as an "ideologist of the Nazi-Ustasha movement".
According to the same source, Crnogorcevic said he expected competent Croatian bodies to remove the plaque.
The plaque was placed on the wall of the parish church in Sveti Rok, 40 km northeast of the central coastal city of Zadar, by a group of Croatian emigrants from Canada in the early hours of August 22, eliciting numerous reactions.