Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic

Human rights groups in Serbia and Croatia have called on authorities in both countries to do more to recognise and aid victims of a 1995 Croatian military operation that ended the country's war against rebel Serbs.

Croatia on Monday marked the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm, a military blitz that quashed a breakaway Serb statelet but put to flight almost 200,000 Serb civilians.

As Bandic explained, Jews had to pack their entire lives into a single suitcase, which was then taken from them. The memorial, he said, was an attempt to keep the memory of their stolen humanity alive.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Wednesday said the government was considering an appeal from the famous Zagreb-based football club Dinamo - which had sought his help in dealing with what it called huge pressures from various criminal elements who were planning a "violent takeover".

Germany and France may use it to initiate a new round of talks between Serbia and Kosovo, aiming to resolve their tense relations through a "new deal" that could include "dual sovereignty" and/or "greater autonomy" over some disputed territories, EU officials have said.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic's sudden changes of heart about a World War II salute used by the Ustasa movement reflect her desperate wish to please the international community, which has been criticising Croatia over historical revisionism, and a right-wing constituency that has supported her through four years of her presidency, experts say.

The 19th anniversary of the death of Croatia's first President, Franjo Tudjman, was marked on Monday by the unveiling of a more than four-metre-high monument in Zagreb, near the National University Library and the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall.

More than 150 UN member states signed the Global Compact for Safe and Orderly Migration on Monday in Marrakech, Morocco - which has caused controversy in Balkan countries as it has done elsewhere.

Several countries lining the so-called "Balkan route" will be joining the United States, Austria, and Hungary in opposing the planned international-level deal on easing migration.

More than 700 organisations, individuals, journalists and public figures in Croatia have signed an open letter on Thursday, criticising the media's "one-sided, simplified and ultimately dishonest and unfair reporting" about migrants and refugees.

Ivana Peric, editor of the H-alter website, one of the signatories, told BIRN that the media were overwhelmed by fake news about refugees.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has announced that a planned two-day visit to Croatia will go ahead on Monday and Tuesday - despite contined acrimony between the two countries, and after Serbia's Defence Minister claimed he could even be killed there.