ZAGREB, 18 Oct (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee (HOO) on Friday organised a three-day round table entitled 'Serbs in Croatia - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow'.
ZAGREB, 18 Oct (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee (HOO) on
Friday organised a three-day round table entitled 'Serbs in Croatia
- Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow'. #L#
Some 120 representatives of the Serb community in Croatia,
Croatian Displaced Persons' Association, diplomatic corps,
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Croatian
authorities, political parties and experts are taking part in the
discussion.
Ivo Banac, professor at Yale University, opened the
discussion. Banac said that the suppression of 'nationalist public
culture and stimulation of voluntary return of Serb refugees to
Croatia are steps Croatia should make in the normalisation of
Croat-Serb relations in Croatia'.
Serb organisations in Croatia had to cooperate both with
Belgrade and Zagreb, Banac said.
Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic, who is also attending the
discussion, said he was convinced the Government would do all it
can to improve the human rights situation in Croatia.
Kostovic spoke critically of 'double standards' which were
being applied by the international community and non-government
organisations in issues concerning the human rights situation in
Croatia.
'The very same international community is now blaming
Croatia's leadership for the consequences of events it failed to
prevent', Kostovic said, asking why no one was worried about the
fact that not a single displaced Croat had returned to the Croatian
Danubian area.
Deputy Reconstruction and Development Minister Stjepan Sterc
rejected claims saying that 400,000 Croatian Serbs had left Croatia
for other countries, while 60,000 Serbs had left for the UN-
controlled Croatian Danubian area.
(hina) rm mm
181930 MET oct 96