ZAGREB, 7 January, 2022 - The Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs on Friday condemned the criticism by the Serbian Ministry of the Interior of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's comments on the search for a young Croatian who went missing in Belgrade a week ago.
The Serbian Ministry of the Interior said on Thursday it was not surprised that "Plenković has no respect for the work of the Serbian police." It called on the Croatian prime minister "to show respect for the missing person's family," adding that he was only obstructing the work of the Serbian police "with his absurd comments on the disappearance of the young man, a visitor to Belgrade."
Its reaction came after Plenković had said that "it is not important at all what (Serbian Interior Minister) Mr Vulin said" and that he was only interested in complete information of the young man's disappearance.
Defending Plenković, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs said: "It is our shared priority to shed light on the fate of the missing Matej Periša and obtain full information on the sequence of events, and that is the only meaning of the Prime Minister's statement."
"The allegations by the Serbian Ministry of the Interior that the Croatian authorities are obstructing the work of the Serbian police during the search are counterproductive and unfounded and have no basis in what the Croatian prime minister said," the Croatian ministry said, adding that Plenković had called for the search to continue and stressed the contribution of all services involved in this effort.
Noting that the Serbian ministry's reaction was "pointless and inexplicable," the Croatian ministry stressed that the Croatian prime minister only said that "only official information on the results of the search" was important, rather than someone's statements, regardless of who made them, and that "any well-meaning person can understand that."
The Serbian ministry's reaction was all the more "surprising" because in his speech at the Christmas reception given by the Serb National Council in Zagreb, Plenković had pointed out that "the Croatian government will persist with the policy of dialogue and peace and the inclusion of ethnic minorities in Croatia while looking to the future and to cooperation with Serbia on all open issues," the Croatian ministry said.
It expressed hope that the good cooperation between the two countries' police forces would continue in the case at hand in the interests of shedding light on the fate of the missing Croatian national.
