ZAGREB, Oct 27 (Hina) - Croatia's permanent representative at the United Nations, Ivan Simonovic, asked UN special rapporteur for human rights, Jiri Dienstbier, to bypass Croatia in his mandate. At a session of the UN General Assembly
in New York Friday, Simonovic said Dienstbier should recognise an improvement of the human rights situation in Croatia and omit Croatia from his mandate at the next session of the human rights commission, as had previously been done with Slovenia and Macedonia. In his speech Simonovic reacted to Dienstbier's comments on this month's apprehension of 13 Croatian Serbs suspected of war crimes in Croatia's eastern region of Baranja. According to Dienstbier, the Serb community in Croatia finds the arrests a final attempt for the remaining Serbs to be exiled from the country. When it comes to persecuting war crimes suspects, Simonovic said, it is the duty of any country, and the failure of
ZAGREB, Oct 27 (Hina) - Croatia's permanent representative at the
United Nations, Ivan Simonovic, asked UN special rapporteur for
human rights, Jiri Dienstbier, to bypass Croatia in his mandate.
At a session of the UN General Assembly in New York Friday,
Simonovic said Dienstbier should recognise an improvement of the
human rights situation in Croatia and omit Croatia from his mandate
at the next session of the human rights commission, as had
previously been done with Slovenia and Macedonia.
In his speech Simonovic reacted to Dienstbier's comments on this
month's apprehension of 13 Croatian Serbs suspected of war crimes
in Croatia's eastern region of Baranja. According to Dienstbier,
the Serb community in Croatia finds the arrests a final attempt for
the remaining Serbs to be exiled from the country.
When it comes to persecuting war crimes suspects, Simonovic said,
it is the duty of any country, and the failure of doing so is a grave
violation of the humanitarian law.
It is thus surprising that Yugoslavia's failure to cooperate with
the international war crimes tribunal had not been mentioned.
Moreover, Dienstbier had in his report stressed the need for
Bosnia-Herzegovina to be recognised by neighbouring countries.
Simonovic recalled Bosnia-Herzegovina had only two neighbours,
Croatia and Yugoslavia. Croatia was among the first to recognise
it, Simonovic said, adding Dienstbier's comment, thus, related
only to Yugoslavia.
(hina) lml