COMMITTEE AGAINST POLITICIAL VIOLENCE CONDEMNS MURDER OF SERB RETURNEE

ZAGREB, Mar (Hina) - The Committee Against Political Violence on Wednesday strongly condemned the crime which happened last Wednesday on the central Adriatic island of Vir, when three local residents beat Nedjeljko Stulic, a returnee from Yugoslavia, to death. The investigation shows that the murder was politically motivated, which, the Committee said in a statement, is the consequence of institutionally generated hatred and a thesis that all Croatian citizens of Serb origin are guilty of the war in Croatia. The Committee demands that the investigation be completed quickly and that the perpetrators be prosecuted and punished adequately, with the aim of discouraging possible new "just avengers" and eliminating the possibility of linking the heinous murder with the official Croatian policy. The murder has already had a negative effect on the implementation of the Government plan on the return of Croatian Serb refugees, the Committee assessed. The Committee Against Political Violence was founded last June by a dozen parties, unions and civic associations. It is chaired by Boris Kunst, president of the Association of Workers' Unions of Croatia. (hina) jn rml