Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic suggested that a bilateral agreement should be closed with Serbia as regards the treatment of open issues related to the war period so that the suits could be withdrawn.

In an interview for the Vienna-based daily Der Standard, Pusic recalled that Serbia and Croatia filed suits to the International Court of Justice, that not a single case of the fate of around 1.000 Croats has been resolved and that no progress has been made in the are for years.

Still, we do not want to exert pressure as regards the elections in Serbia because this would be pointless, she said and added that Croatia and Serbia should close a bilateral agreement and determine how they would treat open issues, such as restoration of Croatian property carried off to Serbia, the missing persons issue and the issue of war crimes indictees.

If such an agreement could be closed, we could include the genocide issue in the agenda and see how suits could be withdrawn simultaneously, Pusic said and added that the issue could be seriously addressed after the elections in Serbia. Although the Serbian side has sent some positive signs, it remains who will win in the forthcoming elections in the country, Pusic noted.