BELGRADE, July 24 (Hina) - The submission of lists of people who have been charged by Croatia with committing war crimes "will spell the end of uncertainty for thousands and thousands of refugees who do not know if they are on such a
list and if they can expect to be arrested even outside Croatia," Savo Strbac, director of the Veritas Documentation Centre, told the Novi Sad-based Dnevnik daily in an interview published on Thursday.
BELGRADE, July 24 (Hina) - The submission of lists of people who
have been charged by Croatia with committing war crimes "will spell
the end of uncertainty for thousands and thousands of refugees who
do not know if they are on such a list and if they can expect to be
arrested even outside Croatia," Savo Strbac, director of the
Veritas Documentation Centre, told the Novi Sad-based Dnevnik
daily in an interview published on Thursday. #L#
"So far 1,746 Serbs have been accused of war crimes in Croatia, 727
have been convicted and the judgements against them have become
effective, whereas only 89 have been acquitted. According to our
information, Croatia has pardoned 21,000 Serbs, but has never sent
any lists to the authorities in Belgrade," he said.
Croatian courts have processed 4,626 cases and only about 40 of them
refer to Croats, he added.
Strbac said that the relevant authorities in Serbia were not
interested in the fact that Veritas had a lot of information about
crimes committed against Serbs by the Croatian side, "which is
shown by the fact that 54 Serbs serving their sentences in Lepoglava
are still awaiting a response to their request that, being citizens
of Serbia, they should be relocated to Serbia to serve their
sentences there."
The Serbian justice minister announced a few days ago that Croatia
and Serbia had agreed to set up joint task forces and exchange lists
of suspects or those convicted of war crimes. Under the agreement,
each country would try its own citizens and those sentenced to
prison terms would be able to serve their sentences in their own
country.
(hina) vm