Vucic: I will not ruin chance to build friendship

BRUSSELS - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said in Brussels that he was taken aback by a decision of Croatia's outgoing President Ivo Josipovic to decorate Ejup Ganic, a member of the wartime presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), and by a statement made by Ganic after receiving the recognition.

"There are people who will want to turn their friends into enemies. I do not belong to that group of people. I will never speak against Bosniaks and Croats and I am not going to ruin the chance for us to build friendship and better relations in the future," Vucic told reporters after meeting with European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn in Brussels on Monday.

Thanking Josipovic for the decoration, Ganic accused Serbia of being "the destroyer of Yugoslavia" and "occupier of BiH," adding that he did not feel it was safe for him to travel to Serbia.

He said he believed that Serbia was "the main problem in the Balkans," adding that he supported Croatia in imposing conditions on Serbia's admission to the EU.

In December 2009, the Serbian Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Ejup Ganic over war crimes committed in an attack on a Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) building in downtown Sarajevo on May 2 and an attack on JNA soldiers during their retreat via an arranged retreat route in Dobrovoljacka Street on May 3, 1992.

According to the Interior Ministry of Republika Srpska, at least 42 people were killed, 73 injured and 215 people imprisoned or kidnapped and phisically abused in the attacks.

The targets of the attacks were not only JNA soldiers and officers, but also civilians of different nationalities, the majority of whom were Serbs.

The...