ZAGREB, Nov 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee will propose that the governments of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia request that the statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia be changed
so that persons who were unjustly imprisoned could seek compensation, HHO president Zarko Puhovski said in Zagreb on Saturday. "We have launched an initiative for the Helsinki Committees of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro to ask their governments to submit a joint request that the U.N. Security Council change the statute of the Hague tribunal so that those who were detained and later acquitted and released be guaranteed compensation," Puhovski told Hina, adding it would be "politically impossible for the Security Council not to respond to the request." Puhovski said the initiative had been discussed with the Croatian and Yugoslav for
ZAGREB, Nov 17 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee will
propose that the governments of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Yugoslavia request that the statute of the International Criminal
Tribunal for former Yugoslavia be changed so that persons who were
unjustly imprisoned could seek compensation, HHO president Zarko
Puhovski said in Zagreb on Saturday.
"We have launched an initiative for the Helsinki Committees of
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro to ask their
governments to submit a joint request that the U.N. Security
Council change the statute of the Hague tribunal so that those who
were detained and later acquitted and released be guaranteed
compensation," Puhovski told Hina, adding it would be "politically
impossible for the Security Council not to respond to the
request."
Puhovski said the initiative had been discussed with the Croatian
and Yugoslav foreign ministers and expressed confidence they would
support the initiative like their Bosnian counterpart.
The HHO president expressed satisfaction with the fact that the
annual conference of the International Helsinki Federation for
Human Rights was being held in Croatia, which he described as "an
acknowledgement of HHO's work."
Representatives of Helsinki Committees from more than 40
countries, who are attending the annual conference of the IHF in
Zagreb, which started on Thursday, spoke on Saturday about the
human rights situation in their respective countries.
The most frequently addressed problems at the conference were
xenophobia, discrimination against the Romany and problems related
to the return of refugees and confiscated property.
The conference was today addressed by Foreign Minister Tonino
Picula, who stressed the determination of his government to promote
human rights. Picula said he was relatively satisfied with the
human rights situation in Croatia, stressing the importance of
cooperation between governments and non-government organisations
in the protection of human rights.
The IHF, which was founded in 1982 and is based in Vienna, is an
association of non-government organisations for the protection of
human rights.
(hina) rml