BELGRADE, Nov 17 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic Marinovic on Monday took over from her Serbian counterpart Vladan Batic registers of births, marriages and deaths and citizenship registers stolen from Croatia at
the end of the war in 1995.
BELGRADE, Nov 17 (Hina) - Croatian Justice Minister Ingrid
Anticevic Marinovic on Monday took over from her Serbian
counterpart Vladan Batic registers of births, marriages and deaths
and citizenship registers stolen from Croatia at the end of the war
in 1995. #L#
The Croatian minister took over 514 registers of births, marriages
and deaths and citizenship registers which were taken to Serbia
from formerly occupied areas of Sisak-Moslavina, Karlovac, Lika-
Senj, Virovitica-Podravina, Pozega-Slavonski Brod, and Zadar and
Sibenik counties.
"The transfer of the registers to Croatia is important for the
relations and cooperation between the two countries, as well as for
all Croatian citizens, because issues which are important for their
legal status and exercise of rights can be regulated only on the
basis of those registers," said Anticevic Marinovic.
The two ministers also discussed war crimes trials that were being
conducted in Croatia against Croatian citizens of Serb origin.
Anticevic Marinovic said that many such trials had been conducted
in the absence of the accused, but that Croatia had accepted
recommendations by the Council of Europe that such trials be put on
hold until the accused were arrested.
"We have received from the State Prosecutor's Office a list of all
the accused and those who have received final sentences, as well as
those against whom preliminary proceedings have been launched and
those whose verdicts were quashed by the Croatian Supreme Court.
The revision of indictments has been carried out to a great extent
and criminal proceedings against 249 persons have been stopped,"
Anticevic Marinovic said.
The Serbian Justice Ministry expects to receive the list in line
with today's agreement, Batic said.
After the last ministerial meeting in Zagreb, the Croatian Justice
Ministry started working on the transfer of convicted persons to
their countries of origin at their request.
Anticevic Marinovic said that such requests had been submitted by
some 70 persons, and one convict had been transferred from a prison
in Croatia to a prison in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Another 43 requests
for transfer to prisons in Serbia, submitted by citizens of Serbia
and Montenegro, should be approved as well, but some of the convicts
first have to obtain Serbia-Montenegro citizenship certificates,
the minister said.
(hina) rml sb