ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - Italian minority MP Furio Radin's claim that Croatian Serbs were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the first half of the 1990s opened yet another debate about the Homeland War in the Croatian parliament on
Friday.
ZAGREB, Feb 27 (Hina) - Italian minority MP Furio Radin's claim that
Croatian Serbs were subjected to ethnic cleansing in the first half of
the 1990s opened yet another debate about the Homeland War in the
Croatian parliament on Friday.#L#
"I will now say something that some people may not like, and that is
that not only Jews, Roma, Italians and Germans were subjected to
ethnic cleansing during or in the wake of World War II, but Serbs,
too, were (subjected to ethnic cleansing) in the first half of the
1990s," Radin said on behalf of the minority club of deputies during a
discussion about a draft state budget for 2004.
Anto Djapic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) reacted to the
statement, requesting that the chairman of the session, Darko
Milinovic of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), reprimand Radin.
Claiming that he had overheard Radin's statement, Milinovic ordered a
20-minute break, after which Djapic said that this was the gravest
accusation about the Homeland War and the creation of the Croatian
state uttered in the parliament.
He requested the HDZ to voice its position on Radin's statement, as
the strongest parliamentary party whose government was supported by
minority deputies, and that other minority deputies on whose behalf
Radin spoke distance themselves from his statement.
Parliament President Vladimir Seks said Radin had suggested that Serbs
in Croatia in the 1990s were the victims of the Croatian state policy,
which he resolutely dismissed.
He called on Radin to explain his statement and to refrain from
provoking situations in which the parliament was forced to react.
Radin said that his statement represented his personal opinion and not
that of the minority club of deputies and that he did not want to make
any blanket accusations, but only state the fact that 300,000 citizens
had disappeared from Croatia and never returned.
A representative of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS),
Milorad Pupovac, said that "a discussion on such a painful issue
should be approached seriously out of respect for the victims" and
that "if that discussion is opened in the Sabor, it will not be
academic and scientific but exclusively political".
At Pupovac's and Seks's urging, the MPs resumed the debate on the
draft budget.
(Hina) rml sb