He was visiting Glina, Dvor and Hrvatska Kostajnica to find out about development programmes in this area of special state concern and to support refugee returns, reconstruction and economic development.
In Glina, at the invitation of the Serb Democratic Forum (SDF), he attended a presentation of the "Support for Rule of Law" project, highlighting afterwards the importance of respecting the highest standards of citizen equality and of justly treating the past.
He also laid a wreath in memory of the victims of a 1941 Ustasha massacre. "I laid a wreath where once, during World War II, there was an Orthodox Church in which the Ustasha shut and burned many citizens. We also found a plate which is a memento of that event. It should be restored and will be put on an appropriate spot."
We owe that both to the past and the future, the president said.
The "Support for Rule of Law" project was implemented over 20 months in four counties of special state concern to help the returnee and minority population as well as strengthen civil society.
During the project, 3,000 people asked for free legal aid, which shows that the problem in accessing justice and the law is big, said Nemanja Relic of the SDF.
The project included monitoring the enforcement of the constitutional law on national minorities' rights in terms of representation in bodies of local self-government.
Relic said national minorities were under-represented, notably in Dvor, where Serbs account for 70 per cent of the population but their representation in the public sector is only 20 per cent.
He praised the alignment of local statutes with the constitutional law on national minorities' rights but said there were still problems with the use of their languages and scripts.
Josipovic said these were "our society's real problems" but that he was glad that Croatian society was positively oriented.
He said the government was dealing with those problems "within the financial possibilities... But we have to do more."
More policy and less politicking is necessary in dealing with the problems between the minority and the majority, he said. "The formula is, yes to integration, no to assimilation, Practical measures, life on the ground, and cooperation with the local self-government, towns, municipalities and counties are immeasurably important.
SDF president Veljko Dzakula said European Union projects provided a big chance for development and underlined the importance of dialogue in the local community.