ZAGREB, Jan 9 (Hina) - The new Croatian government should put the issues of the return of Serb refugees and the accountability for war crimes high on its political agenda, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.
ZAGREB, Jan 9 (Hina) - The new Croatian government should put the
issues of the return of Serb refugees and the accountability for war
crimes high on its political agenda, Human Rights Watch said on
Thursday.#L#
The key human rights issues determining Croatia?s path to Europe are
refugee return and accountability for war crimes,? said Rachel Denber,
acting director of Human Rights Watch?s Europe and Central Asia
division.
?There is a fair amount of concern about the new (Croatian Democratic
Union-led) government?s human rights credentials. It can go a long way
to address this by fully adhering to E.U. standards in these areas,?
Denber said.
The New York-based HRW welcomed the fact that the new Croatian Prime
Minister and HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) party leader, Ivo
Sanader, "has repeatedly called on Serb refugees from Croatia to
return to the country, and promised to assist them in doing so",
describing this as a positive move.
The organisation criticised Sanader of being "evasive about the extent
of his commitment to cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). While pledging cooperation
with the tribunal, Sanader has avoided stating that his government
would surrender to the custody of the tribunal Ante Gotovina, a
fugitive general" indicted for war crimes.
Recalling that the European Union makes Croatia's integration
conditional on the settlement of the issues of the refugee returns and
cooperation with the tribunal, HRW proposed "specific steps to measure
Croatia?s implementation of these key demands".
Regarding the return of Serb refugees, it proposes ?effective
implementation of adopted legislation to complete the repossession of
property, take administrative decisions for all pending application
for reconstruction," as well as bids to create an economic and social
climate favourable for the process of the return.
Regarding Zagreb's cooperation with the ICTY, the organisation says
"Croatia should arrest indicted Croatian army general Ante Gotovina
and surrender him to the custody of the ICTY. Furthermore,
"authorities should show a greater commitment to bringing to justice
and trying fairly war crimes suspects irrespective of their ethnic
origin."
The text of recommendations also says that "those indictments for
which the state prosecutor does not have a prima facie case should be
dropped."
(Hina) ms