CROATIAN HELSINKI COMMITTEE CRITICISES RESPONSES TO A.I. REPORT

( Editorial: --> 5449 ) ZAGREB, Aug 23 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) has accused two state ministries of using stereotypical responses to a recent Amnesty International (AI) report. In its latest statement issued on Sunday, the HHO said replies by the Croatian Interior and Justice Ministries were of a spirit which showed stereotypical attitudes to the problem of war crimes in Croatia had not changed at all. On August 4 the AI released a report in London on the third anniversary of the Croatian military operation "Storm" which freed most of its territory from Serb occupation. The AI claimed that three years later, the numerous human rights violations committed after "Storm" remained unconfirmed, uninvestigated and the perpetrators unpunished. Later on the same day the Interior Ministry released data which it said showed that police had resolved significantly more than half of the large number of criminal offences, including 47 murders, committed in the liberated areas. The Justice Ministry had also released its response on August 18, according to the HHO. But the Committee believes that as always up to now, the ministries have dismissed any report by international institutions as average and unfounded. The HHO said that by offering bare data, the Croatian authorities could not respond correctly and concretely to AI questions, nor those of many other human rights organisations. "The Croatian and international public want the concrete names of those who are facing procedures for genocide, their national structure and the sentences on penalties in first-level procedures," it said. "The HHO, which since the beginning has been following events following the military operations 'Flash' and 'Storm', is aware of the fact that in its statements the Croatian authorities try to conceal the truth with the tactic of mixing data. "Data on penalties issued to persons tried for war crimes on the Greater Serbian side, namely, are mixed with the allegedly launched proceedings for criminal offences committed on the Croatian side. "Such 'adding up' creates the illusion of the functioning of a just state, i.e. that justice is equally handed out to Croats and Serbs for committing criminal offences." The HHO called on Croatian authorities to "release in detail the names and national structure of people who since the beginning of the war were trialled in Croatia for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity". The Committee said it confirmed the correctness of data presented in the recent AI report, but stated that even these figures were only partial. (Hina) mbr 232221 MET aug 98