BELGRADE, April 28 (Hina) - Croatia's new authorities will not be able to dodge responsibility for genocide against the Serb people, Croatian Serb People's Party (SNS) president Milan Djukic said in an interview with Saturday's issue
of the Novi Sad daily "Gradjanski list". Djukic believes the exhumation of Serbs killed during and after the Croatian military operation 'Storm' and buried at a cemetery in Knin and other locations will confirm his claims. The SNS president on Friday returned from his three-day visit to Yugoslavia, during which he met representatives of Croatian Serb refugee associations and the head of the Belgrade documentation centre 'Veritas', Savo Strbac. Djukic also visited several refugee camps. At the start of his visit, Djukic and Strbac held a news conference in Belgrade at which they accused the Croatian authorities of failing to "register in the (latest) census 300,000 Serbs" who
BELGRADE, April 28 (Hina) - Croatia's new authorities will not be
able to dodge responsibility for genocide against the Serb people,
Croatian Serb People's Party (SNS) president Milan Djukic said in
an interview with Saturday's issue of the Novi Sad daily
"Gradjanski list".
Djukic believes the exhumation of Serbs killed during and after the
Croatian military operation 'Storm' and buried at a cemetery in
Knin and other locations will confirm his claims.
The SNS president on Friday returned from his three-day visit to
Yugoslavia, during which he met representatives of Croatian Serb
refugee associations and the head of the Belgrade documentation
centre 'Veritas', Savo Strbac. Djukic also visited several refugee
camps.
At the start of his visit, Djukic and Strbac held a news conference
in Belgrade at which they accused the Croatian authorities of
failing to "register in the (latest) census 300,000 Serbs" who fled
Croatia after 'Storm' thus "committing a crime" and "legalising
their expulsion."
Djukic's visit coincided with the announcement of a statement by a
Belgrade-based association of Croatian Serb refugees saying it had
sent the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte a letter requesting
that Croatian President Stjepan Mesic be indicted for "war crimes
and genocide against Croatian Serbs."
Upon his return to Zagreb Djukic held a news conference at which he
said that the census had been carried out unfairly and that Serb
refugees had not been registered.
Djukic's party claims that Serbs will account for 6 to 6.5 percent
of Croatia's population in this year's census, which will
jeopardise their voting right and representation in the bodies of
authority since the law stipulates that there should be at least 8
percent of Serbs in the overall population if they are to
participate in the authority. According to the 1991 census, Serbs
accounted for 12.6 percent of Croatia's population.
Djukic claims that persons conducting the census ignored the census
question which referred to nationality and even suggested to some
elderly Serbs to say that they were Croats of Orthodox religion.
Djukic's main objection is that some 200,000 Croatian Serb refugees
have been registered neither in Croatia nor in Yugoslavia, where
the census was conducted by the Serb Democratic Forum from Zagreb.
(hina) sb rml