Croatia: Human Rights Concerns
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Subject: Croatia: Human Rights Concerns
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
Croatia: Human Rights Concerns
Croatian Helsinki Committee
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BULLETIN NO. 12
August 20, 1998
Amnesty International: Impunity for killings after "Storm"
Amnesty International immediately reacted to the Croatian Ministry of
Interior's "response" to AI latest report "Croatia: Impunity for
killings after Storm", presented to the public on the third
Anniversary of the military operation "Storm". Amnesty International
challenged the Ministry to elaborate on its "response" about the real
number of killings committed in the Krajina in 1995.
Responding to the AI's queries about government statistics which cited
more than 450 civilian deaths, the Ministry of Interior stated that it
had documented 47 cases of killings.
Of that number, the Minister of Interior claimed approximately half
were resolved and that special instructions had been given to police
officers in the Krajina after operation Storm had ended on 8th August
1995 to protect the Croatian Serb civilian population remaining there.
Amnesty International is asking the Minister of Interior to respond to
these specific questions:
� How does the number of 47 killings relate to the 53 people charged
or under investigation in June 1996, in particular since some of them
were suspected of more than one act of murder?
� Where are the autopsy reports for the more than 400 other civilians
the authorities themselves reported had been killed?
� Why were bodies which have been allegedly buried in official grave
sites not there when relatives sought the transfer of remains to
family plots?
� If the policing authorities were under such strict instructions as
alleged by the Ministry of Interior, why did some testify in court
that they had "informal orders" to shoot at anything which moved?
� Why, in June 1996, did the United Nations report that Croatian
police officers did not pursue investigations into other cases when
provided with specific details about the perpetrators?
What we want is specific information on the specific cases which we
have cited, Amnesty International said.
"The statistics and vague statements such as those offered by the
Ministry of interior are precisely the type of meaningless information
which are unacceptable as an answer from the Croatian authorities," AI
said and added: "The cases cited in the Report are only a scratch on
the surface of the cases which have been brought to the attention of
the authorities. However, it is not necessary to look to Amnesty
International's information to discover that the numbers of unlawful
deaths far exceeds the 47 cited by the Croatian Ministry of Interior.
In addition to the more than 200 such cases documented by
intergovernmental organizations and brought to the authorities'
attention in 1995 and 1996, human rights organizations within Croatia,
in particular the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights,
have been documenting many more".
BULLETIN NO. 12
August 20, 1998
Married Couple killed in Eastern Slavonia
The state of security in Eastern Slavonia (former UNTAES Region) is
not satisfactory: There is a lot of tension, interethnic mistrust, and
numerous incidents including the latest murder of a married couple,
female Croat and male Serb, committed by a returnee of Croat
ethnicity.
The murderer admitted that he killed Katica, 55 year old woman, and a
62 year old man named �arko Nedeljkovi� in the village of Topolje with
an axe and knife on 28 July 1998 in their home. The perpetrator was
arrested and investigators acknowledged the murder, stating that he
had been filled with hatred against Serbs when he killed the couple.
Croatian media sources followed the incident, but some of them, the
Croatian National Television for example, concealed data concerning
the ethnic identity of the married couple and that murder was
committed due to ethnic intolerance.
Twelve Croat refugee families returned at the end of July 1998 to
Borovo Selo, a village mainly inhabited by Serbs. At this time, there
have not been any actual clashes, but each group fears the other. A
troubling fact for Croat returnees is that the names of streets are
still written in one language and in Cyrillic. Such is the case for
them regarding other public utilities - such as garbage transport
bills, which are also printed in Cyrillic. Serbs, who are a majority
here, likewise fear and increasingly distrust the Croat government and
Croat returnees. A month and a half ago the police in the village
arrested 19 Serbs, mostly young men, without any explanation and
without presenting any kind of warant for arrest. The police took them
to a detention center in Osijek, even though they were not suspected
of any crime. After verbal abuse and threatening "severe
consequences", 18 of the men were released while one was retained and
subject to additional verbal and physical abuse. The event provoked
fear and mistrust against everything and everyone in the village and
was followed by intensified Serb emigration.
Mistrust of the Serb families whose relatives disappeared during the
beginning of the war also reinforces the unwillingness of the Croatian
government to offer information on their disappearance. Croatian
government agencies do not answer inquiries from Serb families,
denying that there were also innocent and victimized Serbs who opposed
Serb rebellion during the war. At the beginning of the exhumation of
860 victims killed by former Yugoslav National Army soldiers and Serbs
extremists in Vukovar and their burial in a massive grave, Croatian
Television announced that killed Serbs were also found among the
remains. However, during the solemn funeral ceremonies, which are
organized every Saturday for the Croatian TV cameras, Serb ethnic
identities among the identified victims were concealed.
BULLETIN NO. 12
August 20, 1998
CHC Summer School for Human Rights on 23-30 August in Hvar
This year's theme at the CHC Summer School for Human Rights is titled
"Social Rights as Human Rights": a few aspects of this theme are
rights in theory an in practice during a period of transition ; worker
- employer relations and the right to form a union; displaced persons,
refugees and property rights; and political parties relation to social
rights.
Considering the selection of this year's theme for the traditional
Summer School on Human Rights, the Croatian Helsinki Committee has
endeavoured to recognize current problems tied to those human rights
most frequently denied to the majority of Croatian citizens.
Lately the most abundant category of citizens who contact the Croatian
Helsinki Committee for help are precisely those citizens whose
fundamental social rights are threatened: disabled persons - defenders
in the National War, pensioners, unemployed persons and displaced
persons or returnees. During the War, the Croatian Helsinki Committee
for Human Rights was intensively engaged in defending the right to
life, the right to personal security and the right to have a roof over
one's head. The shift away from war diminished human rights violations
conditioned by the war made it possible for the Committee do devote
itself more to other aspects of human rights. In regards to social
rights, the CHC emphasises the political philosophy of human rights by
which every Croatian citizen has the right to social and public
security, workers have the right to employment, and pensioners have
the right to an adequate pension. The CHC advocates that all social
rights are to be available equally to all citizens, regardless of
race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender and so on. CHC speaks out
for all of these rights equally for all citizens: the right to work;
the right to adequate wages for work; right to remuneration for
soldiers disabled in war; the right to a decent pension. In a word,
CHC defends the individual right to life and dignity.
The School will be divided in a theoretical and practical seminars in
which the most prominent experts - University professors, leaders of
various trade unions, political parties and pensioners' organizations
as well as of non-governmental organizations human rights activists
will take part.
BULLETIN NO. 12
August 20, 1998
Removal of bilingual signs in Istria
"This is an insult to all Istrian Croats and Italians who support
Istria's multiculturality"", declared Furio Radin, the parliamentary
representative and a member of the Croatian Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights, on a press conference in Pula on August 7,1998.
He was reacting to a decree by the Ministry of Administration to
remove the bilingual sign in Italian and Croatian languages from the
Istria County building in Pazin. Radin called a decree "a barbaric act
and expression of ethnocentric ideology without legal or moral
justification" and "the logical continuation of anti-Italian HDZ
policy". He evaluated the decision as contrary to all European
commitments and oaths to respect already established national minority
rights.
Parliamentary representative Damir Kajin, who was also present at the
conference, said that since the 13th century more than one language
has been spoken and written in Istria. The authorities who are
removing the inscribed sign disregards the specific history of the
Region. Kajin sees the problem in Constitutional Law which denies the
County the authority to define minority problems. According to him
this Law acts primarily to deny the Serb community their corresponding
minority status. The Law's undemocratic edge affects even those who
were originally not likely intended to be denied rights, such as
Istrian Italians.
In media sources under Croatian government control, emphasis on the
bilingual sign was evaluated as an extension of autonomous policy and
a kind of provocation.
According to Radin, should the Croatian government persist with the
decision to remove the bilingual sign, it may contribute to further
undermining Croatia's reputation in the international arena where
there is particular focus on respecting minority rights.
BULLTENI NO. 12
August 20, 1998
Hare Krishna members take over Serb homes
The Hare Krishna take-over of Serb homes in the village of Li�ka
Jesenica demonstrates that the Croatian government is prepared to use
even bizzare methods to thwart the return of Serb refugees to their
homes.
Luka Hodak, the mayor of Saborsko Municipality, is acting on behalf of
the Croatian government to give away Serb houses for use by members of
the hare Krishna religious community. According to an agreement signed
by the Croatian government, UNTAES and UNHCR regarding the return
operation, issuing permission for the temporary use of property was
supposed to be suspended. However, that law does not apparently apply
to Li�ka Jesenica, since the owners of a home who wanted to return
there found a sign on the door which declared: "Municipality
authorities - Occupied". Thereafter a Hare Krishna religious group
moved into the house, depriving the owners that "they will not leave
the house without blood," even though Hare Krishna followers are
world-renown for being vegetarian and pacifists.
So far twenty-one houses in Li�ka Jesenica have been taken in a such
manner, while ten others are prepared for take-overs. In order to
prepare the houses for moving in, the above-mentioned religious
community removes all construction material from nearby abandoned
houses. Hare Krishna followers usurp the most fertile plots of lands,
where they develop their agribusiness by ploughing the original
owner's fields with complete disregard for property rights and
boundaries. Ivan Rukavina from Gospi� operated in this business as a
Hare Krishna member and a close collaborator of Luka Hodak. Luka Hodak
was the spiritual leader of the entire project who announced a program
for the gradual settlement of a growing number of the religious sect.
After an unsuccessful attempt to use the Orthodox Church of Saint Elia
as their temple, the group took over the houses of Milan and Nikola
Milakovi�.
Numerous Serb returnees had to leave the Republic of Croatia again
since they were unable to withstand such scandalous policies. These
policies are carried out by the mayor of Saborsko Municipality, Luka
Hodak, who holds HDZ (ruling party) membership and is a high-ranking
major in the Croatian Army.
CHC for Human Rights expresses concern that the abuse of this
religious community is part of a concrete political aim to obstruct
the return of rightful owners to their homes. CHC holds that this case
is just one in a series of recent attempts by the Croatian government
to avoid their accepted commitments regarding the return of Croatian
citizens of Serb ethnicity.
EDITED BY: THE MEDIA DEPARTMENT
Address: [email protected]
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Greek Helsinki Monitor &
Minority Rights Group - Greece
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GR-14510 Kifisia
Greece
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Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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