Amnesty International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights.
The majority of crimes committed in the said period by members of the Croatian Army and police forces against Croatian Serbs have not been punished, the London-based organisation said.
"While the perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity and, in some cases, are still in positions of power at local level, the victims of past human rights violations and their families are denied justice and redress," Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said.
As Europe prepares to discuss setting a date to discuss Croatia's EU entry, and with Britain and Germany reportedly at loggerheads over the issue, Amnesty International released a new report on Monday revealing the Croatian authorities' failure to bring the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to justice.
"The Croatian judicial system has overwhelmingly failed to address these violations and courts are applying ethnic criteria in investigating and prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity," Allen said.
Amnesty International urges the Croatian authorities to actively conduct thorough and impartial investigations into all cases of war-time human rights violations, regardless of the ethnicity of the victims or of the suspected perpetrators; and to bring to justice those responsible for these crimes in proceedings that meet international standards of fairness.
The organisation urges the government to thoroughly and promptly investigate unlawful killings, extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations and to disclose information on the fate and whereabouts of missing Croatian Serbs and to bring to justice members of the Croatian Army and police forces responsible for "disappearances".
According to Amnesty International, approximately 300,000 Croatian Serbs left Croatia during the conflict. More than 200,000 Croatian refugees, mostly Croatian Serbs, are estimated to be still in neighbouring countries, the organisation said and added that Croatian Serbs who returned continued to face discrimination in employment and housing and access to other economic and social rights.
Although the Croatian government has pledged full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the authorities have so far been unwilling or unable to arrest and transfer to the Tribunal's custody Ante Gotovina, the organisation said in its report.
Amnesty International notes that the European Commission and the European Council have concluded that Croatia meets the political criteria set by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993. The Copenhagen Criteria require that institutions in candidate countries guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of ethnic minorities.
Amnesty International considers that the failure of the Croatian authorities to address the human rights legacy of the war continues to be an obstacle to the full realization of the principle of the rule of law and seriously undermines post-war reconciliation.