SERB MINORITY REPS DEEM BARANJA GROUP ARREST POLITICAL PRESSURE

SERB MINORITY REPS DEEM BARANJA GROUP ARREST POLITICAL PRESSURE VUKOVAR, Oct 9 (Hina) - Political representatives of the Croatian Serb minority deem that the apprehension of 14 Croatian citizens of Serb nationality, suspected of having committed war crimes against Croat civilians, was politically motivated, and are requesting their release. President of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and appointed MP at the House of Counties, Vojislav Stanimirovic, and the president of the Joint Council of Municipalities (ZVO) Milos Vojnovic on Monday forwarded a letter to Croatian President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan in the wake of the arrests. In the letter they claim the arrests violated agreements with the UN transitional administration in eastern Slavonia and representatives of the current government. "During the UN transitional administration in the Croatian Danubian area it had been agreed that there would be no further prosecutions nor new lists of war crimes suspects without the consent of the Hague-based war crimes tribunal, except the official published list of 25 persons from the 'Sodolovci group'," the letter said. Stanimirovic and Vojnovic recalled that Croatian deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic and justice and internal affairs ministers, Stjepan Ivanisevic and Sime Lucin, had given guarantees that there would be no apprehensions without the previous examination of criminal acts, facts and evidence. Since the agreements have been breached, "we are forced to conclude that political pressure still plays a dominant role in the Croatian judiciary, instead of law, objectivity and independence." "This is in fact an issue of a continuation of a process whose aim is the further dislocation and removal of Serbs from this area, the final result of which will include elements of ethnic cleansing," the letter concludes. Stanimirovic and Vojnovic requested that the members of the so- called Baranja group be released from custody, and the war crimes cases be restored to the "sphere of reached agreements". They expressed regret that the "Article 11 Commission (of the Erdut Agreement) and the Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Croatia showed decreasing interest for the realisation of the Erdut Agreement and respect for agreements reached during the UN transitional administration of Croatia's Danube River region." The letter was also forwarded to the Croatian justice and internal affairs ministers, the OSCE Mission to Croatia, the UN Mission in Zagreb and the Article 11 Commission. The fourteen Serbs were arrested on Saturday and Monday on suspicion of having had committed war crimes against Croat civilians in the eastern Croatian region of Baranja. This area of Croatia was occupied by the Yugoslav People's Army in 1991 and placed under the control of Croatian Serb rebels. The area was later placed under a UN administration, whose mandate concluded on January 15, 1998, thus completing the peaceful reintegration of the Danubian area into the Croatian system. (hina) lml jn