"Introducing some special categories to which the bill applies, without concrete deadlines within which they should exercise their rights, discriminates against all other citizens," Davorin Mlakar of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said commenting on the exemption envisaged by the government in the final draft of a permanent residence bill.
Dinko Buric of the Croatian Democratic Party of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) too said the bill was discriminatory and that it "favours certain target groups of Croatian citizens."
"One wants to bring order when it comes to the rights of Croatian citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while on the other hand, when it comes to the rights of Croatian Serb citizens who live in Serbia, this bill retains the status quo," he said.
Pupovac accused his colleagues of having prejudices.
"I can understand that there are people who aren't bothered by the fact that more than 200,000 people left in tractors without the possibility to sit on a bus, but they are bothered when several buses appear with 1,000-1,500 possible voters in local elections because they can't exercise the local voting right in the country they are in either as refugees or some other way," said Pupovac.
He said that from 1993 to 2007, through "administrative measures", half a million Bosnian Croats were settled in Croatia for whom the state cared "by relocating them to Croatia in places where Serbs should have been returning."
Ana Lovrin of the HDZ said the discussion "isn't about Croats or Serbs or Eskimos but about bringing order for all Croatian citizens equally," to which Pupovac replied that equating Croatian citizens from Bosnia and Serb refugees was unacceptable.
He said such equation was based on prejudice, hypocrisy and the policy of ethnic cleansing, adding that this bill would further cement such a policy.
Drazen Djurovic said Pupovac was explicitly accusing Croatia of ethnic cleansing, adding that such arguments were rejected by the Hague war crimes tribunal with its acquittal of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and that no international body had made them either.