ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - Croatia had started legal actions against 1,005 persons, suspected of having committed criminal acts after the Croatian military action 'Storm', Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said Friday night, after his
meeting with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Elisabeth Rehn.
ZAGREB, Feb 3 (Hina) - Croatia had started legal actions against
1,005 persons, suspected of having committed criminal acts after
the Croatian military action 'Storm', Croatian Foreign Minister
Mate Granic said Friday night, after his meeting with the U.N.
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Elisabeth Rehn. #L#
The suspects were being tried for looting, burning of houses
and for 26 murders. A certain number of suspects were in prisons,
Granic added.
'We are not hiding anything, on the contrary, we will give all
the data on this issue to the international community', he said,
answering to accusations in the foreign press on the behaviour of
the Croatian authorities towards the Serbs who remained in the
liberated areas.
Croatia wanted to protect 9,800 mainly elderly persons, who
remained in the areas liberated by 'Storm', by opening social
welfare centres, Granic said.
Just above 4,000 Serbs, who had fled Croatia after the
military action, had filed requests for the return. Croatia had
answered affirmatively to 1,841 requests. 'I believe that this
would be no longer a problem. We have allowed the return in cases
of family reunions and to those persons who, on the individual
basis, meet our requirements. There were cases of manipulation with
numbers, but we have our computer data which can be checked',
Croatian Foreign Minister said.
Elisabeth Rehn, who is visiting the area of former Yugoslavia,
said she was satisfied because she had received guarantees that she
would have free access to the areas under Serb control.
She said that all sides had promised her full access to all
areas she wanted to visit. Croatia had always been exemplary,
because the U.N. Special Rapporteur could visit Croatia whenever he
wanted it. The permit by the Bosnian Serbs, granting the freedom of
movement, was a new fact, Rehn said.
Rehn is also to visit Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Pale.
After that, she would again visit Zagreb. During her visit to
Srebrenica, Rehn would travel on the same road that the Srebrenica
refugees had used when they were fleeing their town.
Rehn said she was especially interested in the situation in
the Kupljensko refugee camp, which accommodates Velika Kladusa
refugees.
Out of 22,000 refugees who had sought refuge in Kupljensko,
14,000 refugees had already returned on their own accord to Velika
Kladusa and Cazin, Minister Granic said. He expressed wish that the
remaining 8,000 people from the camp return on their own accord as
well, stressing the importance of safety guarantees which should be
provided by the Governments of the Republic and the Federation of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the meantime, one should help these people
to organise their life in the difficult conditions under which they
currently live, Granic added.
The Croatian Foreign Minister informed Elisabeth Rehn about
the overall human rights situation in Croatia, the reintegration of
eastern Slavonia, where Rehn is to open her office, as well as
about Croatia's cooperation with the Organization on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
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