"We are satisfied with the text of the draft constitution and the formulation that Serbia is the state of the Serb people, because we opposed from the start the impersonal determination as a civic state," Association president Branislav Svonja told the press in Belgrade. He said this nongovernmental association numbered 170,000 Croatian and Bosnian Serb refugees.
Svonja said the Association was dissatisfied with the position of Serbs in Croatia because they were endangered and could not exercise their rights.
"Serbs are exposed to discrimination on national grounds," he said, adding the government was to blame for the position of the Serb community. He accused the government of "obstructing refugee returns" and creating "the illusion for the international community that the position of the Serb minority has improved".
The Association's representatives called on Serbian authorities and the international community to exert diplomatic pressure on Zagreb "so that the position of the Serbs in Croatia could be improved".