Nikola Selakovic(BETAPHOTO/MINISTARSTVO SPOLJNIH POSLOVA SRBIJE/Cedomir Petaric/DS)
Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic has said, in comment on a statement by his Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlic Radman, that it was important not to misrepresent the position of the Serb community in Croatia and of the Croat community in Serbia.
Late on April 29, Selakovic said Serbia was "consistently committed" to advancing relations with Croatia and stressed the importance of the two sides basing their joint work on this issue "on a realistic foundation," the Foreign Ministry reported.
"If what the the Croatian foreign minister meant when he said that the status of the Croat minority in Serbia was nowhere near the status of the Serb minority in Croatia was that the position of Serbs in Croatia is much worse than the position of Croats in Serbia, I will completely agree with my Croatian colleague," Selakovic said.
"The attitudes of the majority people in Croatia to Serbs remain predominantly negative, which is why Serbs are still marginalized, discriminated against and often stigmatized and treated like second-class citizens," he said.
He added that the rights of Croats, like the rights of all other ethnic minorities in Serbia, were "in accordance with the most progressive European traditions and practices" and that Serbia was "even ready, in the spirit of friendship and trust, to additionally improve the position of the Croat minority, not because anyone is requiring it to do so, but because it is right."
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