Croatia: Human Rights Watch on Croatia's Serbs
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Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 12:20:02 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Croatia: Human Rights Watch on Croatia's Serbs
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras <[email protected]>
Croatia: Human Rights Watch on Croatia's Serbs
Second Class Treatment Leaves Future of Croatia's Serbs in Doubt
(Zagreb, March 25) More than three years after the end of the war,
persistent discrimination against Croatian Serbs continues to drive
them from Croatia and leaves most refugees unwilling to risk returning
home, according to a Human Rights Watch report released today.
Serbs lack access to housing and social services, have problems
obtaining citizenship and documentation, and face administrative
roadblocks if they are refugees wishing to return. As a result, Serbs
are departing every day from Eastern Slavonia, and only around 7,000
of the more than 300,000 Croatian Serb refugees living in Bosnia and
Yugoslavia returned home in 1998. Most were elderly.
"Time is running out for Serbs in Croatia," said Holly Cartner,
executive director of Human Right Watch's Europe and Central Asia
division. "Unless Croatian authorities take urgent steps to ensure
equal treatment inside the country, most Serb refugees will never
return home. Leaving hundreds of thousands of refugees in limbo is a
recipe for instability."
The report, "Second Class Citizens: The Serbs of Croatia," describes
how refugee and displaced Serbs often return to find their homes
occupied by Bosnian Croat refugees. Authorities refuse to relocate
these new residents even when other accommodation is available. By
contrast, displaced Serbs temporarily occupying homes in Eastern
Slavonia are forced out even if their own homes are occupied or
destroyed. Long-term Serbs residents of Croatia who lack citizenship
must pay a US$225 naturalization fee from which Croats, including
recent immigrants, are exempt. Mechanisms designed to build
post-conflict confidence have been only partially implemented, leaving
Serbs unable to claim pensions and fearful of arrest on false war
crimes charges.
The trends outlined by the report, which comes on the heels of
critical assessments from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe, bode ill for
Croatia's campaign for greater integration into Euro-Atlantic
institutions. But "Second Class Citizens" also recommends a variety of
measures to improve the situation of Serbs in Croatia, including: the
repeal of discriminatory housing legislation; the creation of a
national register of state accommodation for displaced persons and
refugees; changes to naturalization procedures for long-term Serb
residents; full implementation of the pension law; and increased
international oversight of domestic war crimes prosecutions.
For further information:
Ben Ward, in Zagreb (385 1) 487-3555
Jean-Paul Marthoz, in Brussels: (32 2) 736-7838
Elizabeth Andersen, in New York (1 212) 216-1265
The full text of the report is available at:
<http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/croatia>http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/croatia/
_______________________________________
Greek Helsinki Monitor
P.O. Box 51393
GR-14510 Kifisia
Greece
Tel. +30-1-620.01.20
Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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