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Human Rights Watch says Serb returnees in Croatia face obstacles

ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - Human Rights Watch says in a report on Croatia issued on Tuesday that Serb refugees returning to Croatia are faced with significant obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights, and recalls that Croatia is a candidate for membership in the European Union and that one of the conditions for membership is respecting minorities' rights.
ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - Human Rights Watch says in a report on Croatia issued on Tuesday that Serb refugees returning to Croatia are faced with significant obstacles to the full enjoyment of their human rights, and recalls that Croatia is a candidate for membership in the European Union and that one of the conditions for membership is respecting minorities' rights.

The 41-page report entitled "A Decade of Disappointment: Continuing Obstacles to the Reintegration of Serb Returnees" analyses the key human rights problems Serb returnees are faced with, including violence and intimidation, the loss of tenancy rights and limited access to employment in state services.

The report notes that the government's assistance programmes for Serb refugees have not actually improved living conditions, with the exception of a programme for the reconstruction of houses damaged in the war.

Serb returnees to Croatia continue to live in difficult conditions, HRW director for Europe and Central Asia Holly Cartner has said, adding that the government must take a more serious approach to improving the living conditions of the Serb community if it expects progress regarding EU membership.

The report claims that between 300,000 and 350,000 Serbs left their homes in Croatia during the 1991-95 war. The Croatian government has registered about 120,000 returnees, but the "actual number is believed to be much lower -- many of those who are registered as returnees make only occasional visits to Croatia while continuing to live in Serbia or in Bosnia and Herzegovina," reads the report.

HRW says the failure to resolve the issue of tenancy rights which Croatian Serb refugees have lost "has had a significant impact on refugee return, effectively preventing the return of refugees to urban areas, where many Croatian Serbs lived prior to the war".

Croatia's failure to resolve the issue of tenancy rights lost during the war sends the message that Serbs are second-class citizens, Cartner has said, adding that finding a solution would mark an important change in Croatia's position on its Serb population.

Over the past 18 months, "there has been an upsurge of violence and intimidation against members of the Serb minority in Croatia," according to the report. "An incident involving people from different ethnic groups can be motivated by factors other than ethnicity. In the rash of recent cases, however, the ethnic motivation is often obvious."

HRW recalls that the "Interior Ministry registered forty-eight such incidents with clear or possible ethnic motivation in the first eleven months of 2005," and says "incidents have continued in 2006, particularly in the Zadar area" and that "the police failed to apprehend the perpetrators".

HRW says that despite laws adopted last year in view of promoting the employment of Serbs and members of other minorities in the public sector, very few Serbs are employed in state services in areas to which they have returned.

"Only thirty-four of Croatia's nearly fifteen hundred judges are ethnic Serbs" despite qualified candidates, the report notes, adding that the limited number of Serbs in state services is in opposition to the situation in the private sector, which has made more headway in employing Serb returnees. This gives "rise to credible concerns about discrimination in hiring decisions".

The report includes recommendations to the Croatian government on how to improve Serb returnees' human rights by, among other things, providing permanent accommodation to Serbs who lost tenancy rights during the war and by publicly condemning all ethnic incidents and bringing the perpetrators to justice. HRW has also called on Zagreb to employ more Serbs and members of other minorities in the public sector.

HRW has urged the EU to include progress in the security, housing and employment of Serbs in its membership negotiations with Croatia.

"It is crucial that the EU use its influence through the accession process to ensure that Croatia makes progress in removing the remaining obstacles to return and reintegration of Serb refugees, and to ensure that all persons in Croatia enjoy equal treatment by the state, irrespective of their ethnicity or other characteristics," read the report's conclusions.

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