ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - The refusal to accept Croatia's independence, which the Croatian Serb community or most Croatian Serbs did not want and fought against during the 1991-1995 war, is the most important factor of the continued
exodus of local Serbs since 1991, a demographer and associate of Zagreb's "Ivo Pilar" institute, Drazen Zivic, said on Thursday.
ZAGREB, April 8 (Hina) - The refusal to accept Croatia's independence,
which the Croatian Serb community or most Croatian Serbs did not want
and fought against during the 1991-1995 war, is the most important
factor of the continued exodus of local Serbs since 1991, a
demographer and associate of Zagreb's "Ivo Pilar" institute, Drazen
Zivic, said on Thursday.#L#
According to UNHCR data, more than one-fifth of the entire Croatian
Serb population which by mid-1996 left the formerly occupied areas,
left Croatia at the time of the so-called Serb Republic of Krajina,
Zivic said, adding that this happened before Croatian army liberation
operations "Flash" and "Storm".
Those who left Croatia in 1995, particularly in August that year, fled
because their political structures had ordered their evacuation, Zivic
said, adding that this happened before the arrival of Croatian troops
and the establishment of Croatian authority in the liberated areas.
According to data from the UNHCR and other international
organisations, 340,000-370,000 Serbs left Croatia, Zivic said, adding
that most of the Serbs fled to Serbia and Montenegro, while smaller
groups left to Bosnia-Herzegovina and third countries.
Fear of direct war threat, draft dodging, psychological warfare etc.
are not the only factors of the exodus, Zivic said, adding that the
exodus was to a considerable extent also the result of economic
reasons because the formerly occupied areas had been marked by lack of
economic development even before the war.
Permanent emigration is an important characteristic of the demographic
regression of Croatian Serbs, Zivic said, dismissing as unfounded
accusations that Croatian authorities committed mass-scale ethnic
cleansing of the Serb population during the operations "Flash" and
"Storm".
Ethnic cleansing is the expulsion of an ethnic group from an occupied
area and its relocation, aimed at changing the ethnic structure of the
area. Given that most Serbs left Croatia's occupied areas before their
liberation and the establishment of Croatian state authority, their
exodus can in no way be considered ethnic cleansing, Zivic said.
(Hina) rml