BELGRADE, May 6 (Hina) - Most of electronic media in Serbia on Tuesday evening recalled that the persecution of ethnic Croats from the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina began eleven years ago. On 6 May 1992, Serb Radical leader
Vojislav Seselj, now an indictee of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, read out a list of 17 local Croats, accusing them of belonging to the Croatian armed forces, at a rally in the village of Hrtkovci, Vojvodina.
BELGRADE, May 6 (Hina) - Most of electronic media in Serbia on
Tuesday evening recalled that the persecution of ethnic Croats from
the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina began eleven years ago.
On 6 May 1992, Serb Radical leader Vojislav Seselj, now an indictee
of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, read out a list of 17
local Croats, accusing them of belonging to the Croatian armed
forces, at a rally in the village of Hrtkovci, Vojvodina. #L#
After that event, Ostoja Sibincic, who was the chairman of the
village council and Seselj's follower, launched a campaign of
expelling villagers of Croat origin from Hrtkovci. So far Sibincic
has not answered for his acts, except for being in custody for six
months in mid-1990s.
Last year Sibincic was quoted by a Novi Sad-based production
company, Urbans, as saying that he had not exerted pressure on
Croats and that he had not forced them to leave their homes.
Radio B92 cited that statement by Sibincic today. According to him,
local Croats did not flee Hrtkovci because they were forced to do so
but only because they wanted to depart to Croatia.
The Urbans owner and editor, Marina Fratucan, who in 1992 and 1993
pointed to cases of persecution of ethnic Croats, recalled today
that the new authorities had promised to investigate those events,
after they toppled the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in 2002.
Natasa Kandic, the head of the fund for humanitarian law which has
in detail investigated events in Vojvodina of early 1990s, warned
that Ostoja Sibincic was not the only one who had forced ethnic
Croats, Hungarians and Slovaks to leave their homes in Vojvodina.
Kandic was quoted by Radio B92 as saying that there were other
people besides Sibincic who, being tacitly supported by the then
authorities, persecuted members of minorities.
She warned that this issue had not yet been seriously discussed and
urged that responsible persons for the change of the ethnic layout
of Vojvodina should be taken before justice.
(hina) ms