Croatia considers it unacceptable to be equated with Serbia and treated as an aggressor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as suggested by a book launched by an association bringing together the families of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Sunday.

“The very fact that the book launch coincided with the adoption of the UN resolution (on the Srebrenica genocide) and that it contains leading questions in which Croatia and Serbia are mentioned is not acceptable to Croatia,” Grlic Radman told reporters during a visit to Stolac where he attended the 79th anniversary of the Bleiburg tragedy.

Two days after the adoption of the UN resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, a book published by the Bosniak Genocide Victims Association was launched in Sarajevo.

The book, entitled “Serbia and Croatia in the International Armed Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia Aggressors” (unofficial translation), includes findings of nine judgments of the Hague War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia which state that Serbia and Croatia took part in the international armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

BiH Defence Minister Zukan Helez has said that there was “an international armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the political leaderships of the neighbouring countries having taken part in the aggression against BiH.”

Grlic Radman said that Croatia would request an explanation regarding the narrative “that distorts the facts and historical truth”.

“It is unusual that this is happening at a time when the (UN) Resolution on the Srebrenica Genocide has been adopted,” he said.

The UN General Assembly last Thursday adopted a resolution which recalls the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces against the Bosniaks of Srebrenica in 1995, calls for respecting the victims and facts established by court rulings and for designating 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica.

The non-binding resolution was backed by 84 out of 193 UN member states, with 19 voting against and 68 abstaining, mainly citing a lack of necessary consensus.

The resolution was proposed by Germany and Rwanda, and sponsored by about forty countries, including Croatia, which voted in favour.

Grlic Radman recalled that after the Srebrenica genocide in mid-1995, Croatian forces made up of the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council, prevented a genocide in the western Bosnia and Herzegovina town of Bihac, which had been under strong attacks by Serb forces.

He added that the roles of Croatia and Serbia in the 1990s war “can in no way be compared.”

“If it had not been for Croatia and Croats, there would be no integral, independent and sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.

Grlic Radman added that the new Croatian government would continue advocating the improvement of the status of BiH Croats even more strongly, as well as for the process of BiH's integration with the EU to be stepped up.

“In our third term in office we will advocate even more strongly the need for Croats to be able to exercise the rights they are entitled to. No one has the right to outvote Croats in elections. Croats have the right to their legitimate representatives, not those elected for them by somebody else,” he said.