BELGRADE, July 20 (Hina) - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic has announced that Croatia and Serbia will set up working groups to investigate war crimes, and that the two countries will start "intensive cooperation" this
autumn.
BELGRADE, July 20 (Hina) - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic
has announced that Croatia and Serbia will set up working groups to
investigate war crimes, and that the two countries will start
"intensive cooperation" this autumn. #L#
"One working group will be responsible for returning registers of
births, marriages and deaths, while another will register all
persons against whom charges have been pressed or court judgements
have been passed," Batic told the Novi Sad-based Dnevnik daily in an
interview published on Sunday.
"Citizens on both sides will be able to check if they are on a list of
indictees," he added.
Batic said that Serbia and Croatia had agreed that citizens of
Serbia would be tried in Serbia and citizens of Croatia in Croatia,
and that those convicted would serve their sentences in their
country.
The minister reiterated the position of the government in Belgrade
that Serbia would not extradite to Croatia Borislav Mikelic, former
prime minister of the self-styled Republic of Serbian Krajina, or
Momcilo Perisic, former Yugoslav Army chief of staff, because under
the Constitution Serbian nationals cannot be extradited except to
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
(hina) vm