Serbia to return horses to Croatia

BELGRADE, Serbia, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A Serbian government minister said Belgrade is ready to return Croatian Lipizzaner horses taken to Serbia during an armed conflict in 1991.

Agriculture Ministers Slobodan Milosavljevic of Serbia and Petar Cobankovic of Croatia met on the issue this week when they visited a farm and horse stables outside of Novi Sad, 50 miles north of Belgrade, the Croatian news agency Hina reported Thursday.

An unknown number of Lipizzaners was taken from the northern Croatian town of Lipik to Serbia at the start of war between the two former Yugoslav republics in 1991.

Milosavljevic and Cobankovic decided to dispatch a team of experts to the Novi Sad stables, currently managed by a private farmer, in mid-September to establish the number and condition of the horses.

The Lipizzaner horses were bred in the 16th century in the Slovenian town of Lipica, which was part of Austria’s Habsburg Empire.