BELGRADE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The president of the Serb People's Party (SNS) and a Croatian parliament deputy, Milan Djukic, said in Belgrade on Saturday the democratic changes in Croatia and Serbia gave hope that refugee problems would be
resolved faster. Addressing a news conference, Djukic accused Yugoslav authorities of lack of care for refugees, calling collective refugee centres "camps." Djukic said he expected a meeting with Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, adding he resented that Kostunica and other Yugoslav representatives who attended the Zagreb Summit did not meet him, although he was a legitimate representative of the Serb people in the Croatian parliament. The political will to solve refugee problems at a faster pace exists in Croatia, but the country is burdened with problems such as a difficult economic and social situation, he said. The process of 'finding the truth' as to what had been h
BELGRADE, Dec 2 (Hina) - The president of the Serb People's Party
(SNS) and a Croatian parliament deputy, Milan Djukic, said in
Belgrade on Saturday the democratic changes in Croatia and Serbia
gave hope that refugee problems would be resolved faster.
Addressing a news conference, Djukic accused Yugoslav authorities
of lack of care for refugees, calling collective refugee centres
"camps."
Djukic said he expected a meeting with Yugoslav President Vojislav
Kostunica, adding he resented that Kostunica and other Yugoslav
representatives who attended the Zagreb Summit did not meet him,
although he was a legitimate representative of the Serb people in
the Croatian parliament.
The political will to solve refugee problems at a faster pace exists
in Croatia, but the country is burdened with problems such as a
difficult economic and social situation, he said.
The process of 'finding the truth' as to what had been happening to
Croatian Serbs has been opened, Djukic said, assessing Yugoslavia
should now give an answer as to why Croatian Serbs were "traded for
territory".
Djukic expected Yugoslavia would use its improving international
position and do all it could so that the international community
"which has authority over Croatia" saw that the Serb people was
given the same political rights and regulate its status in Croatia.
Djukic stressed the importance for Serbs to participate in the
upcoming local elections in Croatia in large numbers.
The news conference was also addressed by the president of the
Association of Exiled and Expelled Croatian Serbs, Mile Dakic, who
said that of 350,000 Serb refugees, according to a list from 1996,
40,000 had returned to Croatia. Dakic also stressed the importance
of winning the local elections in towns with a Serb majority, with
the aim of achieving the goals of the Croatian Serb people, which,
he said, also included territorial autonomy.
Croatian authorities should allow refugees to vote on the territory
of Yugoslavia, he added.
Dakic also supported the redefinition of the Homeland Defence War,
because, he said, it was not true that all Serbs were "aggressors
and occupiers of their homes." Asked about Serb crimes, Dakic said
that crimes were committed 'on both sides', the truth had to be
established yet and that the war had been planned and waged by the
enemies of the Croatian and Serb peoples.
Answering a reporter's question, Djukic said Kostunica did not have
to apologise to the Croatian people in Zagreb because had he done
so, it would have been only on his own behalf, as a consensus on that
issue had not been adopted yet.
An apology is not a guarantee that it will be accepted by the other
side, Djukic said, stressing that apologies were unnecessary until
the truth was established.
Becoming a constituent people in Croatia "remains for some better
times," Djukic said, adding one had to fight now for the return of
Serbs and their equality.
(hina) rml