Croatia's president said Thursday that citizens had to admit that crimes were committed by fellow Croats in Bosnia, a day after a Bosnian Croat war criminal appeared to take his own life at a court The Hague.

"We Croats need to have the strength to admit that some of our fellow compatriots in Bosnia committed crimes and they have to be held responsible for them," Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in a televised address, referring to the bloody 1990s war in Bosnia.