ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - The president of the Serb People's Council (SNV) has said the SNV will not accept the results of the latest Croatian census and that it insists that the census be revised. Its results "are primarily an
indicator of an ethnic cleansing policy," Milorad Pupovac said on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - The president of the Serb People's Council
(SNV) has said the SNV will not accept the results of the latest
Croatian census and that it insists that the census be revised.
Its results "are primarily an indicator of an ethnic cleansing
policy," Milorad Pupovac said on Tuesday. #L#
Serbs account for more than six percent of Croatia's population,
excluding refugees, he claimed.
According to the official results of the 2002 census, published by
the Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday, the Serbs' share in the
Croatian population is 4.54 percent.
Pupovac told reporters the SNV contested the results as the
Croatian government had neither considered, nor answered, nor met
four SNV demands regarding the census.
Pupovac forwarded these demands to the president and the prime
minister several weeks ago after the media ran unofficial census
data indicating that Serbs accounted for some four percent of the
Croatian population.
Asked what he intended to do should the request for revising the
census be turned down, Pupovac said he would use every available
international instrument as well as refer to the United Nations,
the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The first SNV demand referred to how much of Croatia's population
was covered by the census. Pupovac said it was not known if the
census covered 99, 95, or 90 percent of the population.
This issue is very important for the SNV as many refugees, Croatian
Serbs who have returned, are not in their pre-war homes, which are
either occupied by others or demolished, said Pupovac.
The second demand referred to the number of Croatian inhabitants
who have been outside the country for more than a year. The census
does not include such people.
The third demand referred to the territorial distribution of those
who did not state their nationality. Pupovac said this demand had
been only partially met and presented at the Central Bureau of
Statistics.
In this case too, facts and data were disregarded, he said.
The fourth SNV demand referred to the inclusion in the census of
48,000 Croatian Serbs registered in Yugoslavia and almost 20,000
who returned to Croatia in the period between the registration and
the publication of the results.
Pupovac said it was not true that the Central Bureau of Statistics
had been suggested to conduct the census by specific UN and EU
methodology and standards.
"The UN and the EU did not recommend that Croatia apply that
methodology. That methodology was chosen so that those who settled
in Croatia could be included in Croatia's population and those who
were exiled excluded from it. Somebody applied the UN and EU
methodology to put the census in the function of cementing the
results of the policy of ethnic cleansing," Pupovac concluded.
He added the SNV had still not been given an explanation as to why
the publication of the census results had taken so long.
(hina) ha sb