Serbian Ambassador to Croatia Mira Nikolic on Thursday refused to receive a protest note at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia press service reports.
Nikolic informed her interlocutors that it was established, based on checks and interviews with a number of potential witnesses and participants in the event from which competent authorities took statements, that the motive of an incident in the village of Sonta in Serbia was not "the national affiliation of the injured party, or the perpetrators."
It is unclear how the incident could have received such a qualification, considering that persons of the same national affiliation (ethnic Croats) took part in it, the ambassador said.
The incident in question happened in Sonta on December 24 shortly past midnight, when a fight broke out between several persons after a verbal altercation. The police in nearby Sombor in the meantime identified three young men who caused the incident.
The Sombor police then announced that the incident was not ethnically motivated, and that those who took part were under arrest.
However, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic condemned "the attack on three Croat youths in Sonta" and announced a protest note to Serbia.