WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Hina) - Croatia generally respects the human rights of its citizens; however, there are problems in treatment of ethnic Serbs, restitution of their property, in war crimes trial as well as in Zagreb's cooperation
with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) pertaining to the fugitive general Ante Gotovina, the US State Department said in its annual report on human rights in 196 countries of the world in 2003.
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Hina) - Croatia generally respects the human rights
of its citizens; however, there are problems in treatment of ethnic
Serbs, restitution of their property, in war crimes trial as well as
in Zagreb's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) pertaining to the fugitive general Ante
Gotovina, the US State Department said in its annual report on human
rights in 196 countries of the world in 2003.#L#
According to the report the State Department issued on Wednesday,
despite the efforts of Croatian authorities to solve them, a series of
property, judicial and security problems led to slow and problematic
return of Serb refugees to Croatia.
Despite the legal protection of ethnic minorities "in several areas,
including in administration of justice, employment, housing, and
freedom of movement ethnic Serbs were discriminated against. Ethnic
Serbs in war-affected regions continued to be subject to harassment,
intimidation, and occasional violence," the report reads.
In cases regarding property claims many thousands of ethnic Serb
property owners, who fled homes that were later occupied by ethnic
Croats, remained unable to access their property. The authorities
continued to favour the temporary occupants, mostly Croats to the
detriment of the real owners of the property, mostly Serbs.
"During the year, the Government did not implement its plan to
facilitate the return of largely ethnic Serb refugees by making
available state housing to those who previously enjoyed occupancy and
tenancy rights outside war-affected areas in the former Socialist
Republic of Croatia," the report said.
The report criticised some local authorities for obstructing the
process of issuing documents to Croatia Serb returnees, which they
needed for being granted Croatian citizenship. In addition, some
problems were registered in recognition of documents which had been
issued in the war-stricken areas during the occupation.
"The return of ethnic Croats to their prewar domiciles was virtually
complete; however, the Serbian minority still faced significant
obstacles to return," the report said adding that this resulted in
significant changes of the ethnic composition of a majority of
municipalities.
"The Government in general cooperated with the ICTY," the report read
adding that the problem of Zagreb's willingness to find the fugitive
general Gotovina's whereabouts remained open. "Questions continued
about the Government's diligence in tracking down 2001 indictee former
General Ante Gotovina. The lack of progress in locating Gotovina
called into question the seriousness of the Government's efforts to
fulfill its legal and political commitments to the ICTY."
According to the report, "the courts were subject to political
influence and suffered from bureaucratic inefficiency, insufficient
funding, and a severe backlog of cases." The State Department is
concerned over the criminal justice system's ability to conduct fair
and transparent war crimes trials and to treat equally defendants
regardless of their ethnic background.
The State Department cited findings of the OSCE mission as saying that
"war crimes prosecutions continued to be motivated more by ethnic
considerations than by the impartial administration of justice".
"For example, in 2002, there was a significantly different rate of
conviction and acquittal depending on the ethnic identity of the
defendant; 82 percent of all ethnic Serbs were found guilty, whereas
only 18 percent of Croats were found guilty. Similar rates were found
for the first part of the year". The report said that the positive
example of fair court trials was the trial and verdict in the case of
Croatian General Mirko Norac and others before the Rijeka County
Court, while the trial of the so-called Lora group was flawed.
Commenting on media freedoms in Croatia, the State Department said
that the Croatian government did not interfere into the editorial
policy of the press but electronic media was susceptible to political
pressure as most of electronic media was owned by local authorities.
After the adoption of the law on Croatian Television, that Croatian
Helsinki Committee (HHO) reported that the HTV was no longer exposed
to the influence of the government, "but its programming remained
biased in its objectivity and quality of coverage. According to HHO,
HTV paid insufficient attention to important post-war issues such as
refugee return, war crimes, minority issues, and human rights".
The State Department's report also criticises Croatia over
discrimination against Roma.
The report pointed out that trafficking in women for the purposes of
sexual exploitation remained a problem, although Croatia was only a
transit country for smugglers of white slaves.
(Hina) ms