SARAJEVO, Nov 24 (Hina) - The president of the Party of Democratic Action of Croatia (SDA) accused Croatian authorities of deliberate attempts to negate the existence of the Bosniak nation during the 2001 census.
SARAJEVO, Nov 24 (Hina) - The president of the Party of Democratic
Action of Croatia (SDA) accused Croatian authorities of deliberate
attempts to negate the existence of the Bosniak nation during the
2001 census. #L#
The Croatian SDA leader, Semso Tankosic, said in an interview with
the Sarajevo-based "Dnevni Avaz" daily that the results of the
census show that "the elimination of one people can be achieved in
other ways and not only with war and ethnic cleansing, like Serb
forces did in Srebrenica in 1995."
"The census-takers were trained to persuade members of our people
(Muslims or Bosniaks) that the Bosniak ethnicity did not exist,"
Tankosic said accusing the Croatian Central Bureau of Statistics
for masterminding this project.
He claimed that his party had enough arguments for such
allegations, although the Bureau rebutted them.
He added that the column in the lists, called "others", concealed
over 17,000 Bosniaks registered as Muslims.
Tankosic described Zagreb's treatment of Bosniaks as ambiguous.
The Bosniak ethnic community and Croatian Bosniaks' cultural
society are included in some projects financed by the government,
while on the grounds Bosniaks are faced with many problems in
exercising their rights, Tankosic said.
(hina) ms