MEMORANDUM ON THE VIOLATION OF THE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

MGK

2005-06-27 07:55:43 UTC

MEMORANDUM ON THE VIOLATION OF THE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS OF THE
SERBIAN PEOPLE IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

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The territories in which both Croats and Serbs had lived for centuries
were entered into the administrative borders of the former Yugoslav federal

unit of the Socialist Republic of Croatia in 1945. Never in their history

have the ethnic territories of the Serbian people been part of an
independent

Croatian state.

The first records of Serbs in these territories date back to 822

(Frankish chronicler Ainhard). They settled in as many numbers as Croats and

at about the same time. Ainhard's "Annals" recorded that Serbs had lived in

the preponderant part of Dalmatia (Sorabi "quae natio magnum Dalmatise
partem

oblinere dictur"), while Croats lived in the territories west of the Cetina

river.

The settlement of Serbs in greater numbers in the waste lands of Lika,

Kordun, Banija and Slavonia (parts of the present-day Republic of Serbian

Krajina) took place in the XVI and XVII centuries at the invitation of the

then Austrian Emperor. As separate Serbian military units, they put
themselves

under the command of Austrians (Germans) for the purpose of defending the

border from the Turks, establishing in the process a frontier zone, the
Vojna

Krajina (Militaergrenze), which was recognized and granted special
privileges

by Ferdinand I. These privileges were confirmed in the following decades and

centuries. In 1622, Ferdinand II established a special status for these

territories in which Serbs lived within the Austrian Empire. The Serbs were

exempted from all taxes. He confirmed the special status, with elements of a

State, by issuing a special patent in 1630. From the legal point of view,

the Vojna Krajina could not belong to Croatia as the Croatian State ceased
to

exist in 1102. These facts many of the root causes of Serbo-Croatian

conflicts. The Vojna Knajina played an important role in the history of

Europe and in the creation of the community of the Yugoslav peoples.

The downfall of the Ottoman Empire ushered in a process of

germanization and magyarization. To facilitate the process and achieve their

political goals in the Balkans, Vienna and Budapest stopped at nothing to

provoke Serbo-Croatlan conflicts.

Since 1860s, the forcible germanization and subsequent magyarization

were followed by a forcible croatization of Serbs which continued until the

present day.

Following a successful completion of the Balkan wars, Serbia and the

Serbian people assumed a Piedmontese role in the "rassemblement'" of the

South Slavs. South Slav unification was effected after World War One and the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was created. The Preamble of the
Treaty

of Saint Germain says that the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from former
Austria-

Hungary decided of their own free will to unite lastingly with Serbia for
the

purpose of establishing an independent and united State under the name of
the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

since 1929) broke down under the attack of Germany and its fascist allies

(Bulgaria, Italy and Hungary) in 1941.

On its ruins and under the German-Italian tutelage was created the

Independent State of Croatia which carried out a genocide of unprecedented

proportions against Serbs, Jews and Rornanies.

II

Croatian policy, past and present, has been based on the ideology that

there is only one, Croatian, "political". i.e. constituent, people in the

Croatian State territory. It was, and continues to be, the basis of the

Greater Croatia policy, the aim of which has been the creation of ethnically

pure and religiously united Catholic Greater Croatia.

/...

-2-

Through history. Croatian politicians and political parties recognized

the physical existence of Serbs in Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, but they

refused to recognize their political individuality and constituent nature
and

treated them as "Orthodox Croats", with a covert or overt intention to

assimilate them.

The fault line running through these lands divides Catholic Croats from

Orthodox Serbs who were a wall between Islam in the East and Christendom in

the West. A number of Croats embraced militant Catholicism whose ambition
was

to dominate over the Balkans, while the Serbs continued the struggle for the

preservation of their ethnic and spiritual identity. Through history this

struggle assumed different political and military forms and continues also

today.

Cardinal Leopold Kolonic is considered the founder of militant

Catholicism and his ideas were taken over and carried out by Alojzije

Stepinac, Archbishop in Zagreb in 1941 and the vicar of the Army of the

Independent State of Croatia.

The author of the racial, national and religious superiority of Croats

over the Serbs was Ante Starcevic. He maintained that the Croatian people

could not restore its national State without prior extermination of the

Serbian people. With Eugen Kvaternik, he establish the Croatian Party of

Right in 1861. Starcevic predicated his policy on the so-called Croatian

State right and called for the creation of Greater Croatia from the Alps to

the Prokletije Mountains. Denying the political indIviduality of the Serbs

in Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, he and his followers claimed that Serbs

were "Orthodox" Croats. He also thought of Croats as a superior and of Serbs

as an inferior race. The racial theory of Ante Starecevic and his Frankovci

successors resulted in the Ustasa attempts to create a pure Croatian and

Catholic independent State of Croatia in World War Two. Starecevic's

statements that the Serbs were a race of slaves and that, for this reason,

they should be axed was put into practice in the Independent State of
Croatia

from 1941 to 1945. It is estimated that about 900 000 Serbs perished in the

concentration camps at Jasenovac, Jadovno and elsewhere, in karst pits and

village wells and in massacres in Orthodox churches.

The third genocide attempt against the Serbs is taking place today

within the borders of the internationally recognized Republic of Croatia

under the leadership of Franjo Tudjman. The present day Croatian State

continues the State personality of the independent State of Croatia, as was

said unequivocally by Franjo Tudjman at the first congress of the Croatian

Democratic Community. "The Independent State of Croatia was not only a mere

quisling creation and a fascist crime, but also an expression of the

historical aspirations of the Croatian people for its own independent State

and the recognition of international factors. Accordingly, the Independent

State of Croatia did not represent a mere whim of the Axis powers, hut was

also a consequence of certain historical circumstance."

Preparing and carrying out forcible secession from the former

Yugoslavia, Croatia continued also the policy of genocide against the
Serbian

people, the foundations of which were laid down by Ante Starecevic (Croatia

elevated him onto the pedestal of the Father of the Nation) in 1861 and

espoused and zealously pursued by Ante Pavelic from 1941 to 1945.

To facilitate the implementation of the genocidal policy, the Tudjman

regime "expunged" the Serbs from the new Croatian Constitution (in all the

Constitutions of the former Yugoslav federal unit of the SR of Croatia, the

Serbs had the status of a constituent people, not of a national minority),

refusing to guarantee them the basic civil and national rights.

III

FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION AND VIOLATION OF HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS

The rights of the members of the Serbian people, guaranteed by

international law and international covenants on human rights am violated in

the most flagrant way in the Republic of Croatia.

Regardless of the statements of Croatian officials, the Serbian people

in the Republic of Croatia is being persecuted, its property is usurped.

Serbian houses and economic establishments are destroyed, Orthodox churches

are devastated, Serbs are forcibly converted into Catholicism and their

political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights are violated.

/...

-3-

The persecution of the citizens of Serbian nationality began

immediately after the Serbs were denied their status of a constituent people

and the subsequent declaration of the independence end sovereignty of the

Republic of Croatia.

The violence against Serb has also the characteristics of terror as it

is directed both towards the immediate object and towards other members of

the Serbian people with the aim of intimidating them and of sowing

uncertainty and panic in order to compel them to leave the territory of the

Republic of Croatia. The mass exodus of Serbs commenced in the summer of

1991 and continues also today.

From a constituent people, the Serbs were reduced to a national

minority. In that way they lost numerous national and civil rights. The

Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet are no longer in use, while the

societal and cultural identity of the Serbian people is denied. Papers and

magazines are no longer published and radio and television no longer

broadcast in Serbian. The Serbs are discriminated against on the basis of

race, whereby Croatia, as Party Signatory, violates the basic provisions of

the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

The escalation of the war in Croatia brought about even more flagrant

violations of the human rights of the Serbs in all fields and walks of life.

As a rule, the most flagrant violations of human rights (war crimes,
genocide,

ethnic cleansing, physical maltreatment) took place in the first stage of
the

crisis and war, Mass Killings of Serbs in the territory of the former SR of

Croatia began in May 1991 and culminated in the period between November 1991

and March 1992. The mass killings were carried out especially in the

territories where the Serbian population was in the majority and in cities

and town outside combat areas. Lawlessness in the work of all Croatian

authorities escalated dramatically at that time, primarily to the detriment

of the citizens of Serbian nationality. Sect's were dismissed from their

jobs, the families of Serbs and the members of the former JNA were
unlawfully

and forcibly evicted from their apartments and their property was destroyed

on a mass scale. Serbs were harassed during police interrogations and

disparaged and humiliated in their homes. in public places and in the media.

Overall pressure on the Serbs intensified after Croatian political

leaders and prominent lawmen inaugurated in their public statements the

principle of the collective responsibility of the Serbs for war atrocities
in

former Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The citizens who had fled to the
areas

not controlled by Croatian authorities were afraid to return to their homes

because of the fear from police interrogations, accompanied by physical

maltreatment.

In the second phase of the development of the situation in Croatia,

especially in the period after the adoption of the Vance Plan, the most

frequent human rights violations were those in the field of employment.

In the second half of 1992 lawlessness with respect to the citizens of

Serbian nationality continued. They were dismissed from work and had their

requests for citizenship ("domovnica") refused. There were frequent

instances of the failure to take legal actions to prosecute perpetrators of

serious criminal acts, in particular of mass killings and genocidal actions.

The consequences of the lawlessness against the Serbs were felt also by

the Croat members of their families. The persecution of Serbs aimed also at

punishing the Croats who had married Serbs since, by doing so, they had

transgressed against the basic tenet of the purity of faith. This was

particularly evident in the policy of unlawful evictions and the refusal to

grant citizenship.

There is abundant evidence that the citizens of Serbian nationality

were treated as "traitors and Cetniks", who represented a threat to the

constitutional order and territorial integrity of the Republic of Croatia

only because of their national origin. The media often branded them enemies

of sovereign Croatia. In that way they created a very inimical environment

for the Serbs, so that many of them were compelled to forgo all public

engagement or organization and conceal their national origin at their place

of work or while filing personal data in official forms and questionnaires.

They were also reluctant to approach Serbian associations, whose

intercessions with Croatian authorities went unheeded.

Some organs, most often military and municipal, refused even to take

into procedure the requests of the citizens of Serbian nationality related

to the realization of their rights, explaining them away as unfounded and

excusing themselves that it was not their duty to deal with their requests

in the first place. Even if they were taken into procedure, they were

processed very slowly or deliberately delayed. The procedure to obtain

citizenship, for instance, lasted between 6 and 12 months, while cases

related to employment and housing matters lasted up to two years even though

they were considered urgent.

Even the International human rights organizations which are notorious

for their biased reporting of the human rights situation in the former

Yugoslavia, such as Helsinki Watch and Amnesty

/...

-4-

International, registered a large number of serious criminal acts in which

the victims or aggrieved parties were the citizens of Serbian nationality,
so

that they also deemed it necessary to voice their own opinion in this
regard.

The period from mid- 1993 to mid-1994 was characterized by the reduction of

the number of serious criminal acts against the citizens of Serbian

nationality because they had been drastically ethnically cleansed by that

time, which accounted for a large reduction of the number of sorts who still

lived in Croatia. Nevertheless, the authorities continue to violate the
human

rights of Serbs although they resort to less violent and overt forms of

violation and use the instruments and methods of latent pressure and

discrimination within the legal system.

At the political level, problems are explained away as insignificant

and few in numbers, serious cases of lawlessness are covered up, while even

the most grievous crimes are justified as "normal reactions to the Serbian

aggression.

IV

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE SERBIAN PEOPLE IN CROATIA

IN THE FIELD OF NORMATIVE ACTS

The Croatian Constitution and the Constitutional Law treat Serbs as a

national minority. The Preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of

Croatia spells out that Croatia is the national State of the Croatian
people,

as well as the State of equal citizens. Article 14 provides for the equality

of all citizens in the Republic of Croatia irrespective of their
differences;

Article 15 for the equality of the members of all nations and minorities;

Article 43 establishes the right of all citizens to organize themselves

under equal conditions; Article 68 regulates the right to the scientific,

cultural and artistic creation of all citizens of Croatia. On the face of
the

evidence provided by these Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of

Croatia, one is bound to believe that Croatia is a democratic Arcadia.

In its Election Law, the Republic of Croatia provides for the right of

national communities, accounting for over 8 per cent of the overall

population, to be represented in the Croatian Sabor. This provision relates

in fact to the Serbian national community since this community alone fulfils

the 8 per cent "threshold". However, having established this right of Serbs

to be proportionally represented by a normative act, the Republic of Croatia

has taken a number of measures to compel Sets to either change nationality
or

religion or to leave the territory of Croatia.

The basis for the proportional representation in Parliament was the

population census from 1981 (according to this census 531 502. i.e. 11.55
per

cent Serbs and 379 057. i.e, 8.23 per cent of Yugoslavs lived in Croatia).

According to the population census from 1991, 581 663. i.e. 12.2 per cent of

Serbs and 106 041, i.e. 2.2 per cent of Yugoslavs lived in Croatia. However,

it proved out that the "Yugoslav" voters were by and large citizens of

Serbian nationality. For, in the municipalities in which Serbs and Yugoslavs

accounted for over 50 per cent of the overall population, the Croatian

Democratic Community lost the elections and the majority of seats in

Parliament were held by Serbs (Vukovar, for instance).

The Law on Local Government broke up and destroyed the Serbian

electoral corpus*, while the establishment of zupanije and kotars, the
entire

Serbian national corpus was pulverized. The Serbian ethnic wholes were

unnaturally divided whereby their compact and sycchronized political and

every other activities were prevented.

The Law on the Election of Representatives in the Sabor of the Republic

of Croatia and the Law on Election Units made it even more difficult for the

Serbs to be elected into the Sabor. These laws confirmed the solutions,

dictated by political interests and adopted under the influence and pressure

of the Croatian Democratic Community. All this was designed to prevent the

Serbian represeraatives in the Sabor from representing the genuine interests

of their people. These arrangements opened the problem of the legitimacy of

these reprsentatives.

=======

*The Municipality of Knin was divided into the electoral units of Benkovac

and Drnis. This reulted in Croats being the majority in 55 out of 60

constituencies and Serbs were the majority in only one constituency, in

Petrinja; in the remaining four, the Serbs constituted only a relative

majority. The aim of this division was to prevent the election, in the areas

in which the Serbs were the majority, of the legitimate and authentic

representatives of their interests.

/...

-5-

1. Violation of PoW Conventions

----------------------------

In the second half of 1991, the CroatIan military forces massively

violated the Geneva Conventions on PoWs and civil population.

Hundreds of PoWs of Serbian nationality were killed and physically

maltreated in the war affected areas of Croatia.

Particularly abominable was the killing of 13 reservists and soldiers

on the Korana river bridge in Karlovac on 21 September 1991 by the members
of

the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia and the National

Guard and the killing of 12 persons, also of Serbian nationality, at Marino

selo, Municipality of Pakrac, on 15 November 1991 by the members of the

Criatian military. Both cases were reported by Helsinki Watch. The report

says that there were instances of the torture and maltreatment of PoWs

following their capture and detention by the Croatian military police. It

goes on to say that there were many instances of the abuse of duty and the

procedure towards PoWs in local police stations. The report, inter alia says

that it appears that the Croatian forces in Sisak and elsewhere in Western

Slavonla ware particularty ruthless towards those they held prisoner.

Also, in the night between 12 and 13 December 1991 at Gracanica near

Glina, the members of the National Guard and the students of the Univensity

of Zagreb massacred in the most brutal way 28 members of the Serbian

territorial defence which they had taken prisoner. Forensic experts

identified only 19 persons.

Given below are only some of the instances of the inhuman treatment of

the Serbs taken prisoner in Croatia in 1991:

- Osijek, 17-22 September 1991: A group of JNA members taken prisoner at

the Bela barracks spent 5 days and 4 nights in a truck trailer without food

and water as members of the National Guard mistreated them in all sorts of

ways, beating them, extinguishing cigarette betts on their bodies, forcing

them to kneel down and to lean with their elbows on broken glass, stabbing

them with knives and threatening to shoot them with pistols.

- Zagreb, Kerestinec Camp, June 1992-March 1993: Detained together were

Serbian PoWs and civilians. The prisoners expenericed the atrocity

unimaginable to human mind.

The witness whose name is known to the State Committee for the

Collection of Evidence on War Crimes spent about one month (July-August
1992)

in that camp. He had been sent there, they told him, to serve the term to

which he had been sentenced while lying and being interrogated in the

hospital of Slavonski Brod. He had stood no trial before a court of law,

neither had he been given a court decision and was instead only informed
that

he had been sentenced.

In Kerestinec, he was tortured with electricity by having one wire tied

to his ear and the other to his sex organ. The telephone handle was then

repeatedly turn round, whereby he was exposed to high-voltage electricity

shocks, which caused contractions and numbness of his body.

- Zagreb, Kerestinec Camp, January-April 1992: According to the

statement of a woman witness, younger women were taken out of this camp for

Serbs at night and returned after 4-5 hours. The women said that they had

been raped by two or three Croatian policemen at a time.

- Witness M.P. had been employed as a driver in the Bela barracks in

Osijek when the JNA soldiers from the berracks surrendered on 17 September

1991 whereafter they were taken to the Ministry of the Interior premises in

Osijek where they were beaten until they lost consciousness. Particular

atrocity was the forcing of PoWs to run the gauntlet of the members of the

National Guard who would beat them with rifle butts and batons, kicking them

and shooting soldier Jova Banjac who died one hour later.

- Metkovic, Tobacco Station, June-July 1992: Together with the group of

captured JNA officers and soldiers, the witness was incarcerated into a room

of the Tobacco Station at Metkovic, three floors underground which had
served

as an atomic shelter. The room was 2 x 1.1m wide and 2m high and was

hermetically sealed off, so that PoWs suffered from asphyxiation. When they

finally opened the room, all of them were half-dead because of the lack of

oxygen. They spent 7 days in this room. All along they were visited by

civilians, most of them drunk, whom the guards allowed to beat them.

/...

-6-

* Split, "Lora" Prison, June-July 1993: Witness B.K. was taken to this

prison where he spent two months. They but him mere mercilessly regardless
of

the fact that he was a disabled person without a leg. Once they forced him
to

lie down naked on the wet floor, wiereafter they tied the wines of the

induction telephone to his ear and a toe of his left foot and switched

electricity on. Electricity shocks caused contractions and great pain as it

was switched on and off until his mouth started to bleed.

- Wrtness N.K. spent in the same prison only one day. Immediately upon

arrival, he was led to a meadow together with ten other prisoners. Croatian

military policemen appeared soon after, carrying metal pipes about 50cm long

and 3/4 inch thick. They beat them with the pipes all over their bodies even

though the witness had been wounded.

Witness N.K. had his right arm broken in three places, his left arm in

two places and his shoulder in one place. The beatings lasted for two hours

and when he fell down, the policemen kicked and stamped upon him. On that

occison they broke his teeth.

- During the month and a half he spent in "Lora", witness P.S. was

humiliated in all sorts of ways and beaten most mercilessly even though he

had been wounded.

On three occasions, they brought over boys aged between 7 and 8, took

prisoners out of their cells, (witness P.S. was also among them), forced

them to sit on the conerete floor, put boys on chairs beside which the

prisoners were seated and the boys would wet over them from the above.

According to as yet unconfirmed data, 95 camps for Serbian POWS and

civilians and military persons have been registered in the territory of the

Republic of Croatia. Not a small number of these camps were Pavelic-type

concentration camps in the full meaning of the word, in which Serbs were

tortured and killed. The camps were at the following locations: Bjelovar

(prison on the Ministry of the Interior premises); Varazdin; Vinkovci;

Brirgorac (prison); Vukovar (Borovo "Komerc"); Vukovar (Borovo "Nova
obuca");

Vukovar (hangar at the airport); Vukovar (school under construction at
Borovo

Naselje); Vukovar (kindergarten near the Municipality Building); Vukovar

(basement in the Municipality Building); Vukovar (atomic shelter); Vukovar

("Drvopromet" warehouses); Vukovar (catacombs under the cemetery); Vukovar

(Ruthenian Church); Vukovar ("Vladimir Nazor" School); Vukovar (Luzac);

Vukovar ("Abazis" warehouses); Vukovar (Erceg Palace, Chapel); Vukovar

(Ministry of the Interior); Vukovar (Military Department); Gospic (Smiljane

Camp); Gospic (District Prison); Gospic (village or Zablato); Gospic (brick

factory in the village of Perusic); Gospic (Trnovac Zablato); Grubisno Polje

("Bilogora" Hotel); Daruvar; Dubrovnik ("Excelsior", Military Police

Headquarters); Dubrovnik (Villa "Palma"); Dubrovnik (District Court);

Dubrovnik ("Zagreb" Hotel on the island of Lapad, Military Police

Headquarters); Djakovo (Prison); Zadar (Borik); Zadar (Airmen's Club); Zadar

("Velimir Skorpik" school); Zagreb (Vlaska ulica, Ministry of the interior);

Zagreb (Cernomerec, bricks factory); Zagreb (Vukomerec Infractions Prison);

Zagreb (Gajeva ulica 3, Former Military lnterrogation Prison); Zagreb

("Marshal Tito" barracks); Zagreb (Kerestinec); Zagreb (Kuniscak); Zagreb

(Remetinec, Rajtariceva ulica); Zagreb (Petrinjska ulica 12 and 18); Zagreb

(Selska ulica, former JNA barracks); Zagreb (Trstenik); Zagreb (Cernomerec);

Imotski; Karlovac; Lapoglava (Penitentiary); Lipik; Lipovac; Marino Selo

(Fisherman's Hut near Daruvar); Metkovic (Prison); Metkovic (village of

Duboka); Metkovic (Radio Station); Metkovic (Sports Hall); Metkovic (Tobacco

Station, basement); Nesice; Nin; Nova Gradiska (Ministry of the Interior

prison); Nova Gradiska (prison in the military barracks); Nova Gradiska

(basament of the High School building); Novska; Ogulin; Orahovica; Osijek

(Ministry of the Interior): Osijek (Red Barracks); Osijek (camp on the

Stadium); Pag (Slano); Pakrac (basement of a department store); Ploce;

Podravska Slatina; Pula (Katarina); Pula (Krecnjevica); Pula ("Valtura"

Penitentiary); Rijeka (Cijotina, 29th garrison prison); Rijeka ("Via Roma"

Ulica zrtava fasizma); Sinj (the former JNA barracks "First Split Partisan

Detachment); Sisak (the refinery garage); Sisak (Ministry of the Interior);

Slavonska Pozega (District Prison); Slavonski Brod (basement and the bowling

alley of the "Kod Sardaka" Cafe); Slavonski Brod (basement of the Public

Security building); Slavonski Brod (camp in the Fire Department building);

Slavonski Samac; Solin (Silice); Split (Katalinica Brijeg); Split ("Lora");

Split (Dracevac, former JNA barracks); Split, Bilice (between Split and

Solin); Trogir; Turopolje; Sibenik (Mandalina prison) and Sibenik

(Subicevac).

2. Ethnic cleansing and unlawful arrests

-------------------------------------

Since 1 June 1991, the authorities of the Republic of Croatia have

expelled more than 350 000 Serbs from the territories under their control.

The ethnic cleansing was carried out by various methods:

/...

-7-

physical liquidations and the incarceration in camps and prisons, organized

destructions of Serbian houses, forcible evictions, dismissals from work,

prevention of religious life, refusals to grant Croatian citizenshIp, etc.

The ethnic cleansing of Serbs was carried out everywhere in the

Republic of Croatia, particulariy in Western SlavonLa. Serbian villages were

systematically burned and destroyed. According to the data collected since

15 August 1992 (Report of the Serbian Sabor on the persecution of the
Serbian

people and the ethnic cleansing of Western Slavonia by the authorities of
the

Republic of Croatia, published as an official document of the General

Assembly of the United Nations), Croats completely ethnically cleansed 183

Serbian villages and 10 towns, while 87 villages were partially cleansed.

In the Report of the United Nations Secretary General of 15 May 1993

(S/25777), it is said that 250 000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia. These

data include only the registered cases of the expulsion of Serbs who found

sheltef in the Republic of Serbian Krajina and in the territory of the FR of

Yugoslavia.

Most of the Serbs were expelled from a laige number of Croatian cities

and towns by most perfidious methods: 30 000 from Karlovac; 28 000 from

Zadar; 20 000 from Sisak: 5 000 from Gospic; 15 000 from Sibenik; 10 000
from

Vinkovci; 10 000 from Slavonski Brod and 10 000 from Daruvar (documented
data

on ethnic cleansing in Croatia were forwarded by the Government of the FR of

Yugoslavia to the United Nations on several occasions, including the 4

Reports of the Government of the FR of YugoslavIa on War Crimes under

Security Council resolution 780).

Also, according to the data of the European Union Monitoring Mission in

Zagreb, 500 Serbs leave Croatia every day even today basically for the

Republic of Serbia, Republic of Srpska and the Republic of Serbian Krajina.

Dr. Dusan Bilandzic; current Deputy Head of the Office of the Republic

of Croatia in Belgrade, said at the meeting of the State Committee for the

Normalization of Croatian-Serbian Relations, held in Zagreb on 24 May 1993,

that 250 000 Serbe had left the territories under the sovereignty of
Croatia.

"An intimate desire for ethnic cleansing is hidden behind the acts of the

Croatian state authorities," Dr. Bilandzlc went on to say.

Given below are some typlcal examples:

- An exhaustive list of the "enemies" of the sovereignty of the

Republic of Croatia was published by the Croatian armed forces in Daruvar in

the beginning of 1992. This list was published in the form of a booklet

entitled "Who is Who in Daruvar" and contains a short Foreword and the names

and sumames of 6 521 Serbs from 35 settlements of the Daruvar Municlpality

who, by voting for the Serbian cultural autonomy at the autumn 1990

referendum, allegedly sowed the "seeds of evil" in Slavonia. After the

publication of the booklet, a mass exodus of Serbs from this area ensued.

- 10 000 citizens of Serbian nationality left the local communities of

Kozari Bok and Kozari Put at Pescenica under pressure, abandoning all their

property. The perpetrators are known, but they have never been called to

account for their deeds.

- Vodice, June-December 1991: Witness B.M., who had been employed as

a cook assistant in a hotel at Vodice, was isolated like all other Serbs at

his place of work after the election victory of the Croatian Democratic

Community. Their Croat workmates kept away room them, hotel manager Stipe

Loncar told them in June 1991: "Things will get very tough for you. You
Serbs

better don't come to work and leave this place altogether." After this

warning, frightened seibs no longer showed up.

- Village of Dragisic in the vicinity of Vodice, in which witness B.M.

had lived, was surrounded in September 1991 by the members of the Croatian

military. Serbian children stopped going to school in the nearby village of

Cista Mala. The village Serbian Grthodox church was shelled also during
these

days. Serbian houses were destroyed and the village no longer exists.

- Bibinje near Zadar, 2 May 1991: A large group of the citizens of

Zadar and Sibinje carried out organized violence against the property of the

citizens of Bibinje of Serbian nationality with the aim of compelling them
to

leave their village. On that occasion, 37 Serbian houses worn demolished and

destroyed. Their business premises and houses were looted which resulled in
a

mass exodus of Serbs from Zadar and its vicinity.

- Zadar, 2 May 1991: A large group of the citizens of Zadar of

Croatian nationality carried out organized violence against the citizens of

Zadar of Serbian nationality with the aim of compelling them to leave the

town. Over 100 Serbian business premises and houses were burned down. All of

them were looted which nesulted in a mass exodus of Serbs from Zadar. The

branch offices of companies headquartered in Belgrade were devastated and

looted: "Novi dom", "JAT", "Putnik", "Avis", "Beko", "Merkur", "Kluz",

"Beteks" and others.

/...

-8-

- Village of Ratkovlce, Municipality of Slavonska Pozega, December 1991

and the first half of 1992: Powerful pressure was brought to bear on Serbs
in

this village with the Croatian majority in order to compel them to leave the

village. The Serbs were taken to the police, internogated, threatened in all

sorts of ways and their houses were shot at at night. On Catholic Christmas

Eve 1991, a bomb was thrown into the cortyards of Milan Vujocetic and

Nedeljko Treskavica. Soon after, in the first half of 1992, the houses of 8

Serbs were dynamited and destroyed. In additton to the living quarters, the

economic and other auxiliary buildings of Serbs were destroyed and their

haystacks were burned. There were no combat operations in this village and

the nearest place in which combat operations did take place was 50km away.

The anrests and maltreatment of the Serbian population were the most

frequent violations of human rights, caused by the abuses of Croatian

military and civilian authorities.

Even Croatian officials confirmed that more than 30 000 criminal

proceedings were instituted against the members of the Serbian nationality

in Croatia. Some of the numerous cases of arrest are given below:

- Milan Grba, pensioner, former head of the Centre of State Scourity in

Karlovac was detained by the police in Rijeka after allegations in "Vecernji

List" and "Slobodni Tjednik" that he was a "Cetnik slaughterer" and that he

had committed crimes against the Croatian population. Even though it was

established during investigation that he had been at his sisters in Uzice

during the time of the commission of the crimes, he was detained. His
sister,

employed in the police station in Rijeka, had to leave her job under
pressure

and the acousations that she was "leaking secret information"

- At the end of 1991, Dane Drakula was arrested in Gosipic. In February

1992, he was released from prison. After his arrival in Rijeka and

subsequently in Pula, he wes arrested again together with other 13 citizens.

- On 12 March 1993, the police in Rijeka took away 3 citizens of Serbian

nationality from the apartment of Ljubica Bozanic. They were detained in the

police station without a reason where they were maltreated and beaten. On

that occasion, Dusan Dobrota, who had lived and worked in Rijeka for about

20 years, was beaten and seriously injured only because he had been born in

the municipality of Knin. The perpetrators, local officials, remained

"unknown".

- On 30 December 1991, the members of the Virovitica bojna (company)

arrested 36 Serbs in Daruvar, including women. Having spent three days in a

dark basement, the arrested people were released on 2 January 1992. Some men

were beaten.

3. Ruthless killing of civilians and disappeared persons

-----------------------------------------------------

Mass crimes against, and the liquidation of, Serbs in the Republic of

Croatia were carried out for the purpose of the ethnic cleansing of Croatian

territories and the creation of a pure Croatian State.

Acording to available data, obtained by the investigation of Croatian

crimes against the Serb population, the preponderant victims of the killings

and massacres were older men and women.

A large number of Serbs was killed. The exact number of the victims is

not always easy to establish. These crimes were reported also by "Helsinki

Watch", "Amnesty International" and other organizations for the protection
of

human rights. Some of the killings could not remain unreported even in the

strictly controlled Croatian Information media. The general oharacteristic
is

that the Croatian authorities have not completed the investigation in any of

these cases, sentenced the perpetrators of the crimes or informed their

public thereof.

Given below are some cases of these killings:

- From 15 October 1991 to 31 March 1992 about 2 600 Serbs were killed at

Marino Selo and Pakracka Poljana by the death squads of Tomislav Mercep, the

current Assistant Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia.

Drawing upon their own data, the associates of the Information Centre of the

Serbian Sabor accused in their letter to the secretary-General of the United

Nations of 19 February 1992 Franjo Tudjman for the killing of 12 Serbs from

the village of Kip, Municipality of Daruvar, in the death camp at Marino

Selo.

- The case of the killing of the three members of the Serbian family Zec

in Zagreb is frightening. The perpetrators of this heinous crime, Sinisa

Rimac, Munip Suljic, Nebojsa Hedak and Igor Mikula, were acquitted because
of

the alleged failure of the court to honour procedural formalities. In this

way the Croatian authorities gave a signal for the continued killing and

looting of the Serbian population in the Republic of Croatia.

/...

-9-

- in the second half of October 1991, the members of the special units

of the Ministry of the Interior and the National Guard of the Republic of

Croatia picked 490 prominent Serbian civilians from Gospic from a prepared

list, bundled them up in trucks and liquidated them the following night in

the karst pits of Mt. Velebit. The bodies of only 24 Serbs were found and

identified and the relevant data are kept with the State Committee for War

Crimes.

- Medak Pocket near Gospic, 913 September 1993: Janko Bobetko,

Commander of the Supreme Headquarters of the Army of the Republic of
Croatia,

ordered the combat operation "Scorched Earth" for the purpose of taking the

area of "Medak Pocket" in the UNPAs. The operation plan envisaged a sudden

surrounding of the Serbian villages of Divoselo, Pocitelj and Citluk,

liquidation of the population and the total destruction of the settlements.

In carrying out the order the members of the units of the Army of the

Republic of Croatia ("Croatian Wolves". 1rst Company of the National Guard)

killed and massacred over 100 Serbs. Janko Bobetko conferred medals on a

large number of soldiers and officers who had excelled in that action.

- Tomislay Mercep, commander of a special unit of the Ministry of the

Interior of Croatia, also participated in this action. UNPROFOR also
reported

of the atrocities of the Croatian military forces in the Medak Pocket.

- On 5 September 1991, the members of the 1rst Brigade of the National

Guard killed 8 Serbs over 50 years of age in the village of Gredjani (Nova

Gradiska).

- On 29 October 1991, the Croatian authorities issued an order for the

deportation of the population of 28 villages in the Western part of the

Municipality of Slavonska Pozege. On 10 December 1991, Croatian soldiers

liquidated the Serbs who refused to leave their homes (43 Serbs were killed

only in one day).

- On 29 December 1991, the members of the 123th Brigade of the National

Guard killed 18 Serbs, most of them old people, in the villages of Gornji,

Srednji and Donji Grahovljani (Pakrac).

- In the night beween 12-13 December 1991, 18 Serbs were killed in the

village of Paulin near Vinkovci.

- On 21 June 1992, 41 persons of Serbian nationality were killed on the

Miljevacki Plateau and it was never possible to identify their bodies (this

crime was condemned by Security Council resolution 762).

- The members of the Radosavljevic family, Radovan (1956), Jovanka

(1960), Dejan (1978) and Nened (1982) were killed on 25 February 1992 in

their house in Daruvar and were buried on 28 February 1992 in the graveyard

of the village of Imsovac, Municipality of Daruvar. They were killed by the

members of the Croatian military police (one of the perpetrators was Croat

Jozica Mudri, aboot 23 years old). Criminal proceedings were instituted

against them in Croatia but they were dropped due to the "lack of evidence".

- Between July 1991 and March 1992 a large number of people was either

killed or disappeared, but only 40 of them were identified. It is believed

that this number was much higher. In its letter to the President Tudjman of

17 March 1993, the Serbian community in Croatia put that number at 400.

4. Various forms of pressure, threats and maltreatment

---------------------------------------------------

Whenever speaking of Serbs in Croatia in his public appearances since

his election as Head of State, Franjo Tudjman always ended his statements

with threats whose sole aim was the intimidation of Serbs. Speaking on

"Bread Day" (October 1993), for instance, he used the opportunity to
threaten

the Serbs both in Knin and in Zagreb, calling on the latter "to bring their

fellow Seibs in Krajina to their senses."

At the end of July 1993, the President of the Republic of Croatia called

on prominent Serbian intellectuals to help find a solution to the Serbian

question in Croatia. On that occasion, he warned that it would not be

possible to guarantee security to the Serbs living in cities and towns under

the control of Croatian authorities if armed conflicts escalated in Krajina.

Ominous public rehabilitation of the Independent State of Croatia began

at the first party congress of the Croatian Democratic Community by the

statement of its leader Franjo Tudjman to the effect that "the Independent

State of Croatia was not only a fascist creation, but also an expression of

the centuriesold aspiration of the Croatian people for an independent
State."

After the victory of the Croatian Democratic Community, a "hunt" was

unleashed in Zagreb against all things Yugoslav and Serbian in the period

from March 1990 to November 1991. Graffiti

/...

-10-

[ .... unreadable two lines of the text ... ]

the initial letters thereof in Serbo-Croatlan "ZAP" cropped out all over the

city.

A mass exodus of the citizens of Serbian nationality from Zagreb

ensued, of which a few examples are given below;

- Of the total number of 5 300 workers in the "Nikola Tesla"

telecommunicatlon plant where witness J.V. had worked, 420 of them were

Serbs. Things for the Serbs in this plant went from bad to worse since

stricter work and discipline measures and rigorous control were introduced

against them. Their absence from work was related to the on-going

developments - armed conflicts - and insinuations were made that they went
to

fight on the Serban side during weekends. When a son of Creatian woman Ana

Vojtosek was killed as a member of the National Guard, the Croatian women

working in the plant tried to lyhch their SerbIan workmates.

- Due to omnipresent pressure and threats, workers of Serbian

nationality began to leave the plant en masse. When witness J.V. was forced

to tender her resignation, she was told in the Personnel Department that she

was the 50th Serbian woman leaving the plant. Witness J.V. had to leave

Zagreb and she now lives with her family in Serbia as a refugee.

- A circular questionnaire was handed out in the Virovitica sugar plant

in which workers were requested to answer if they wanted to work with Serbs.

The veracity of the questionnaire was confirmed by Rudolf Brijacak, MP in
the

Sabor of the Republic of Croatia.

- A list of houses of the citizens of Serbian nationality was made at

Dramalj near Crikvenica. Pressure was being brought to bear on Serbs to
leave

the place.

- The Petrovic family from Jaksic, Municipality of Pozega, was

threatened on several occasions by the Croatian military. On 2 March 1992, a

bomb was thrown into their sleeping room.

- Due to various forms of pressure against the citizens of Serbian

nationality, there are frequent cases of people changing their names and

surnames in Split, Rijeka and other towns.

- A box of human flesh was left in the Orthodox cemetery in Dubrovnik

on 1 December 1994. It was the placenta taken over on a parturition in the

Dubrovnik Hospltal Maternity Ward. The bog box also contained three bags

leaking blood on a chamel house. In the words of the local sexton, such

packages arrive to this cemetery two times every month.

- On 12 December 1994, 40 pupils of the elementary school in Cavtat

about 10 years old, insulted and stoned their teacher Slavojka Kovacevic-

Glavic because her father was Sorb. The teacher was hit with stones, bottles

and petards, while children shouted at her "Chetnik woman" and "We shall

beat you to death with sticks". Unconscious. she was taken to the hositital.

The principal and other teachers of the school watched the lynching or their

colleague. It is interesting to note that in December 1992 she was made

redundant and dismissed.

5. Demolition of houses and apartments and the destruction of property

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The destruction of property and burning down of villages have been the

most frequently used and the most effective means of Croatian authorities
for

the ethnic cleansing of Serbs. The destruction of Serbian property outside

the war-affected areas was typical for the entire war period. Even though
the

arrival of UNPROFOR put an end to the fighting, the systematic destruction
of

Serbian houses, apartments and economic establishments continued as a

premeditated action of Croatian authorities in Western Slavonia from
Bjelovar

to Pozega during 1992. the aim of which was to prevent Serbs from returning,

to keep possible returnees in constant fear and to create insecurity and

anxiety amongst them.

It is estimated that thousands of Serbian houses, apanments and

economic establishments were burnt and demolished in Zadar, Zagreb,
Karlovac,

Osijek and elsewhere in Croatia. Nobody was called to account for these

crimes, let alone sentenced. Only some of the perootrators were detected.

- According to an August 1991 statement of I. Vekic, the then Croatia's

Interior Minister, there were 2 495 instances of the planting of explosive

devices and of arson. 1 493 cases related to living quarters, 1 002 to

hotels, restaurants, shops, automobiles, railway lines, newsstands, National

Liberation Movement Memorials and places of worship.

- In Ogulin, 65 establishments owned by Serbs who had been forced to

leave the town were dynamited.

/...

-11-

- Since 1991, 180 Serbian houses and apartments have been burglarized in

the area of Osijek, 300 houses and shops owned by Serbs dynamited and 3

terrorist attacks committed against other Serbian establishments and

chunches. According to the report of the poIlce station in Karlovac, 177

establishments (private houses, restaurants, shops, business premises,

kiosks, automobiles) owned by Serbs were dynamited in this region.

- According to a statement of the Head of the Police Department, Ante

Devcec, 207 cases of the planting of explosive devices were registered in

Zagreb (in all these cases the citizens of Serbian nationality were

involved).

- About 130 Serbian houses were dynamited or burned in the nigion of

Novska and an unkown number of houses, shops and restaurants destroyed in
the

Municipality of Virovitica.

- According to the statements or some citizens or Split, about 200

establishments owned mainly by the citizens of Serbilan nationality were

dynamited in this town until the end of December 1991.

- According to numerous statements which it has not been possible to

verify, made by the citizens who fled Zadar, about 1 300 establishments were

destroyed in this town. That these data might be accurate was confirmed by a

report in the "Novi list" of Rijeka which carried a statement of a Zadar

police official to the effect that this number could indeed be accurate

considering the number of establishments destroyed in zadar and its
vicinity.

- In over 20 villages in the Municipality of Podravska Slatina, most of

Serbian houses were destroyed, burned down and looted.

- Over 30 Serbian houses were either dynamited or burned down in

Podravska Slatina itself. This explains the fact that, out of 52 per cent of

the Serbs who had lived in this town before the outbreak of armed conflicts

in Croatia, only 2 per cent remained. It is important to note that there
were

no combat operations in this area so that the exodus of the Serbs was not

caused by combat operations.

- Over 100 Serbian houses were dynamited in Daruvar and sunounding

villages. The dynamiting continued even affer the deployment of UNPROFOR.

Before they were dynamited, the houses were looted.

- In the night between 25 and 26 September 1991, 80 per cent of Serbian

houses were burned down in the action of "cleansing" taken by the Croatian

military in the village of Brlog, Municipality of Otocac. Over 30 families

were made homeless. The representatives of the Intemational Red Cross toured

the village of Brlog on 10 April 1994 and established that Serbs no longer

lived there.

- Six Serbian houses belonging to Milenko Pavlovic, Nikola Stakic, Dane

Pavlovic, Veljko Stakic, Dragan Petric and Nedeljka Paripovic were destroyed

at the end of May 1992 in the village of Studenci, Municipality of Gospic,

in which both Serbs and Croats lived.

- In mid-December 1992, villager NN of Zavrsje near Slavonski Bred had

his economic establishments destroyed and his livestock slaughtered, while

his house was subsequently dynamited four times and thus rendered

uninhabitable.

- The United States Ambassador in Zagreb, Peter Galbraith, also spoke

publicly about the destruction, burning down and looting of Sernian houses.

During a reeeing at the University of Zagreb held on 30 September 1993, he

inter alia said: "Is it possIble to call an accident or a necessary

accompanying phenomenon of the war the fact that about 10 000 Serbian houses

were dynamited in the areas controlled by Croatian authorities."

6. Destruction of churches and places of worship

---------------------------------------------

The Croatian authorities used the crisis and war in Croatia (1991-1994)

to realize the idea of Ante Starcevic and to finish the expulsion of Serbs

from their ethnic territories commenced by Ante Pavelic. The first victims
of

the war were churches and other places of worship of the Serbian Orthodox

Church. These destructions had been meticulously planned. The coordinated

vandalism of Croatian authorities (military, civilian or church) in the

destruction of religious establisnments (some of them date as far back as
the

XVII century, while some of the destroyed priceless exhibits were from the

XIII and XVI centuries) is therefore not surprising at all.

- In the five eparchies of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the territory

of the Republic of Croatia, 294 churches were either destroyed or damaged

(139 churches were destroyed, 36 of them were dynamited, 30 burned and 11

shelled: 155 churches were damaged, 10 of them were demolished and 10

looted); 1 monastery was destroyed and 6 damaged: 2 bishop's residences were

destroyed, one of which

/...

-12-

was looted); 4 bishop's residences were dynamited, 3 were shelled and one

looted (8 on aggregate); 69 bishop's homes and other church establishments

were destroyed, 47 of them were dynamited and 22 burned: 41 parish's homes

and other church establishments were damaged, 29 of them were demolished

and 12 looted; 14 chapels were destroyed and 14 damaged; 10 graveyards were

destroyed and 14 damaged; a church museum was destroyed; 2 church archives

were destroyed; one librriry was looted, 2 burned down and 1 destroyed.

- The library of the Orthodox Church in Pakrac, established 1090, was

destroyed.

- A particularly grave act of of vandalism was the dynamiting of the

seat of the Zagreb eparchy and the museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in

Zagreb with the exhibits dating hack to the XIII and XVI centuries, carried

out on 11 April 1992 by the planting of an explosive device.

The Croatia media reported of the damage done to the museum, but they

did not say anything about the dynamiting and devastation of the seat of the

Zagreb eparchy.

The explosion damaged the invaluable museum exhibits. The collection

consisted of 62 icons, 13 hand-written service books, charters dating from

between the XIII to XIX centuries many of which printed in Cyrillic letters,

10 samples of church embroideries from the XVIII century, many other books,

old archives, about 100 icons and about one hundred valuable church items.

The building of the Eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Karlovac

was destroyed.

- All churches in the Slavonski Brod area were destroyed or burned down.

- On 21 December 1994, the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection of

Virgin Mary in Osijek was dynamited and damaged.

At the same time, Orthodox Priests were arrested and ill-threated

because of which many had to leave the Republic of Croatia.

7. Dismissals from work and the violation of labour relationship rights

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Unequal treatment of, and discrimination against, Serbs in employment

had been very much in evidence in the socialist Republic of Croatia even

before its secession and the outbreak of armed conflicts. With the
escalation

of conflicts, the discrimination against Serbs also escalated and threatened

their existence.

In the 1990-1993 period, the Serbs in the Republic of Croatia were

dismissed en masse. The greatest number of them was dismissed from the State

administration, judical organs, financial institutions, the media and from

managerial posisons. The explanations proferred were that they had been

"privileged" in the first place as members of "communist" nomenclature, that

they were "unqualified" and that after all they were the "victims of the

economic crisis" like everybody else.

Many sets said that immediately after they had been dismissed allegedly

as redundant. Croats were given the same jobs.

Violations of labour relationship rights consisted primarily of

removing Serbs from responsible and well paid jobs to less responsible and

less paid jobs and in unlawful dismissals. This practice reduced the Serbs'

income and inoreased their existential fears.

On 11 February 1992, the Ministry of Labour, Social and Family

Protection issued an instruction to the effect that the return and re-

employment of persons who "had taken to the woods and engaged in hostile

activities against the interests of the Republic of Croatia" be prevented.

The instruction affected in particular those Serbs who, under pressure, had

been forced to leave their permanent places of residence. The few of those

who did return nonetheless were being intenogated, denied employment

opportunities and maltreated in various other ways.

Given below are some typical cases:

- Systematic ethnic cleansing of Croatian ministries and institutions

from sets has gone on since the 1990 elections in the Republic of Croatia.

- In October 1990, the then Defence Minister of the Republic of

Croatia, Martin Spegelj, ordered 20 Serbs to leave their jobs in the Defence

Ministry within one hour. In mid-1992, the same Ministry dismissed other 60

Serbs. Serbs no longer work in the Defence Ministry of the Republic of

Croatia.

- In the early summer of 1991, the City Water Supply Company of Zagreb

purged all those that were considered "unreliable". In a discussion in the

City Assembly of the "personnel situation in the Company", it was said that

there were too many Serbs and that they were potential enemies (of 1 033

employees in this Company, only 59 were Serbs).

/...

-13-

On the basis of the decision of the Commissariat of the Government of

the Republic of Croatia that persons who had signed the petition that the

Daruvar Municipality be annexed to "the Serb Autonomous District of Krajina"

could net work in the "State administration of the Republic of Croatia",

disciplinary measures were taken against Serbs and 25 of them were
dismissed.

7 Serbs were dismissed from the local government administration in Daruvar;
2

in the People's University, 5 in the Secondary School Centre, 1 in the

Medical Centre, while other dismissed sets had worked In elementary schools

in Daruvar, Sirac and Dezanovac.

Furthermore, on the basis of the booklet "who is who in Daruvar",

dismissals of Serbs, primarily from local government administration and then

from companies and institutions, continued in Daruvar.

- Typical examples of the "cleansing" of the police from Serbs were the

dismissals of 37 Serbs, out of 72 officers, from the Podravska Slatina
Police

Station. Similar "purges" were carried out in local government

administnation.

- The few remaining Serbs in the Zagreb Police Headquarters were

subjected to pressure. The customary method of pressure were frequent

transfers from station to station. Not even Croats married to Serbs were

spared.

- At the end of 1991 and early 1992, Serbs were dismissed en masse from

the "Slavija" trade company of Zagreb to prevent them from buying the
Company

shares.

- The general manager of the "AIPK" trade company of Zagreb was

prohibited to enter the company's premises only because he was a Serb.

- Serbs were also dismissed frorn the social Insurance Fund of Zagreb.

- On 9 September 1991, a group of workers in the "TOP" company of

Zagreb requested from their general manager to ban Serbs from that company

only because of their nationality.

- In June 1992, the Railway Transport Company of Zagreb dismissed 14

Serbs despite the fact that many of them had signed the loyalty deolaration

to Croatia as early as 1991.

- The instruction of the Education Ministry of the Republic of Croatia

to the effect that Serbs could not teach the Croatian language, although
they

had adequate qualifications and had taught it for years, was particularly

galling.

- Mass dismissals followed the decision of the Government of the

Republic of Croatia to dismiss unqualified workers, but the crtteria used

were not qualifications but nationality. The example of "`The Bank of Split"

was very illustrative. 52 employees were dismissed, mostly those who had

declared themselves as Serbs and Yugoslavs.

8. Forcible moving into apartments (evictions)**

---------------------------------------------

A particularly effective form of pressure on Serbs in the Republic of

Croatia have bean unlawful eviction of Sets from their apartmerts and the

occupation of these apartments by Croats. After futile attempts to protect

their rights, most of them decide to leave their homes and Croatia for ever.

Unlawful evictions exemplify in the most telling way the organized

terror of the Croatian State and the great nationalistic exclusiveness of

Croats. They are in outright contradiction with the assertions of Croatian

officials and Croatian representatives in international organizations that

Croatia is a democratic State. The gravity of the problem of the eviction of

Serbs from apartments and the serious violations of the basic human rights

are evinced by the fact that the United Mations Special Rapporteur for Human

Rights in the Former Yugoslavia, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, addressed a letter to

Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mate Granic to the
effect

that the practice of unlawful and forcible evictions continued in Croatia.
He

warned that it was the duty of the Croatian Government, in aocordance with
its

international commitments, to take effective measures to end the unlawful
and

---------

** At the meeting discussing unlawful evictions in the Republic of Croatia,

held in Zagreb on 2 and 3 November 1994, the President of the Croatian

Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak (the organizer of the meeting) inter

alia said: "Since the beginning of the war, 2 000 apartments have been taken

over, legally or illegally, in Karlovac. And if Karlovac is taken as a

statistical sample for the 4.5 million population of the Republic of
Croatia,

the number of persons in Croatia evicted from their apanrents could be

expressed in tens of thousands of famllies. There have been similar examples

in other towns of the Republic of Croatia."

/...

-14-

forcible evictions which constituted serious violations of human rights. The

Special Rapporteur reported that there had been about 5 000 unlawful and

forcible evictions in the Republic of Croatia.

The problem of unlawful evictions was pinpointed also in the State

Department report on the human rights situation in Croatia, published in

early March 1994, it is said in the Report that these evictions have not

ceased despite official Croatian promises.

Given below are only some of the numerous cases of unlawful evictions:

- According to incomplete data, 2 000 apartments in Kariovac left by

Serbs under pressure or expelled to the Kordun area have already been

unlawfully re-possessed by - Croats. As it is known that about 30 000 Serbs

have been expelled from Karlovac, it is to be assumed that new tenants in

the remaining apartments will be Croats in which way the Croatian

authorities prevent Serbs from returning to their homes.

- Miroslav Kuljanin, former police officer in Zagreb, was forcibly and

unlawfully evicted from his apartment by the Croatian police.

- In December 1091, Ljiljana Subasic's apartment was raided by a group

of Croatian soldiers who ordered her to leave her apartment. She left the

apartment and her job and fled to Slovenia.

- During their absence for medical treatment, Pera and Nevenka Scekic's

apartment in Zagreb was forcibly occupied by a group of Croatian guards.

- During her absence for family reasons, Nedeljka Prica's apartment in

Zagreb was forcibly occupled by a member of the Croatian army.

- Todor Ilic from Zagreb left temporarily Zagneb because of threats,

which circumstance was used by a member of the Croatian army to move into
his

apartment.

- The apartment of Miroslava Sekulic from 2agreb was forcibly occupied

by a member of the Croatian army, Drazen Culjat, with the permission of the

Defence Ministry of the Republic of Croatia. On that occasion, he threw out

Miroslava and her 8-month pregnant daughter-in-law. The military and civil

police refused to intervene.

- On 7 February 1992, Ankica Dabic's apartment in Zagreb was forcibly

occupied by Croatian police officer Savor Ramijak.

- On 6 April 1992, the apartment of Momir Kelecevic at Djure Pucara 19

in Zagreb was forcibly occupied by a Croat by the name of Dabic.

- During his hospitalization, the apartment of disabled person M.M. from

Karlovac was unlawfully occupied by members of the Croatian army.

- Milos Stojic from Karlovac, professor, was hospitalized towards the

end of 1991 and at the beginning of 1992. His apartment was burglarized and

looted during that period and an unknown person moved into it. He took

necessary action to have the apartment returned, yet he neceived no reply.

He interceded with the competent authorities of the Republic of Croatia

(including the President of the Republic), but all his intenoessions were to

no avail.

- Radmila Rakovic from Daruvar, a chemistry engineer, was pensioned as

a disabled person. During her medical trearnent abroad, nobody lived in her

apartment. By its desision of 4 November 1994, the local Zupanija
authorities

allocated her apartment to another person. By Sisak District Court decision

No. P.791/94, she had the apartment returned, but the present tenant refuses

to move out. He is backed by the Sisak Foundry, the owner of the apartment.

She filed another suit, but the process is very slow since the defendant

refuses to attend court hearings.

A particular problem are former JNA apartments*** allocated in 1991 to

a number of retired officers, civilians who worked for the JNA and active

officers. All these persons received necessary documents from the JNA
Housing

Department. However, on

-----------

*** Ivan Zvonimir Cicak said in his introductory statement at the meeting

referred to above that, according to the data presented by former President

of the Housing Commission of the Croatian Defence Ministry Modrusan in his

interview to the "Vjesnk" daily (1993), the Croatian authorities had taken

over 53 000 apartments from the JNA. However, according to the information

presented recently by former Deputy Prime Minister and present vicepresident

of the Sabor Vladimir Seks the Croatian authorities took over 38 268

apartments. The Government has yet to explain the "disappearance" of about

15 000 apartments, to say whether ii took them over or not.

/...

-15-

24 July 1991, the Croatian Government adopted a decision prohibiting use of

the immovable property of the JNA and the Federation. Proceeding from this

decision, in mid-1992, the Croatian Defence Ministry began eviction of all

tenants through municipal organs. It alleged that officers and civilians who

had worked for the JNA had moved into the apartments unlawfully, although

they possessed legal documents issued by the former JNA. This conduct was
all

the more unlawful as the former military' housing regulations had been

cancelled by the Republic of Croatia only on 8 October 1991. In this way,

about 4 500 military apartments have been seized.

The greatest number of unlawful evictions took place in Split (1 500

families were evicted in the last two years) and Zagreb.

The Croatian Government had planned to evict tenants from 17 000

apartments. So far, about 6 000 families, mainly Serbian, have been evicted.

Despite frequent protestations by influential international institutions and

individuals, such as United Nations Special Rapporteur Tadeusz Mazowlecki,

concerning the practice relative to military apartments, the Croatian

Government continues the abuses, regardless of the agreement it signed with

the JNA in November 1991, witnessed and guaranteed by the European Union.

Croatia postpones adoption of, a law on the punchase of military

apartments, bringing thus several thousand tenants into an unequal position.

Or particular concern is the abuse of rights, especially the cases of

the violation of legal norms, by the State organs and the subsequent

postulation of such violations as a legal basis for court decisions (a
tenant

would first be evicted and after 6 months the court would decide to seize
the

apartment since he/she has not lived in it for 6 month as provided for by

law).

9. Spiritual genecide

------------------

The Orthodox Serbs in the Republic of Croatia are being converted into

Catholicism hy most perfidious methods. As they have resisted the

assimilation over centuries, the present-day Croatian authorities seek to

achieve that goal by the conversion.

Pro-school and school children are the main targets. According to the

available data, over 10 000 Serbian children in Croatia have been converted

into Catholicism since the outbreak of armed conflicts. Religious
instruction

is an optional subject in Croatian schools. It is taught by Catholic priests

and ever since its introduction Orthodox Serbian children have elected not
to

attend it. Because of that, these children were marked out as
non-Christians,

humiliated and even maltreated. To spare their children from the humiliation

and maltreatment and ensure them normal education, their parents ask Serbian

Orthodox priests to issue cerliticates to the effect that their children
have

been baptized in the Orthodox church and present them to Catholic priests
who

take the children to the first Communion in the Catholic church and direct

them to attend Catholic religious instruction.

Deputy Dragan Hinic spoke in the Croatian Sabor about the conversion of

Serbian children into Catholicism. On 20 October 1994, he said that between

11 000 and 14 000 Serbian school children had been converted into

Catholicism, whereupon he was physically attacked by Drago Krpina, Croatian

deputy in the Sabor. Not even the Catholic Church in Zagreb could deny this

fact, which it did on previous occasions.

Attendance of Catholic religion classes is explained away by government

and Catholic Church officials by the desire of non-Catholic parents to send

their children to those ciasses for pragmatic reasons. At the same time,
they

say that no pressure is being put on children and their parents and that,

by attending Catholic religion classes, the children are not required to

change faith, which, however, is contrary to the cannons of the Catholic

Church. Catholic religious teachers say that they cannot refuse the children

wishing to attend Catholic religion classes since this would mean

discrimination against these children. They also say that many of these

children come from mixed marriages. The contention of Catholic Church

officials that the Orthodox Church refused the offer to include its priests

in religious instruction in schools should be understood as an excuse. The

Croatian educational authorities have recently begun to enter wantonly

Serbian children into school registers as Croats.

The disrespect of the Croatian authorities for the Serbian Orthodox

Church and the Serbian people is best illustrated by the fact that they

refuse to use the term "Serbian Orthodox Church" and use "Greek Eastern

Church" instead.

/...

-16-

The greatest number of priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its

five bishops have been expelled from the Republic of Croatia (only 5-6

remained). The Croatian authorities do not allow them to return and even if

they did the priests would have nowhere to go since many Orthodox churches

and priests' residences have been destroyed.

Given below are some cases of the abuse of religion:

- In 1992, S.R., fifth-former in the "K.R." elementary school in Zagneb,

was entered into the school register as a Serb. When her schoolmates learned

of that, they laughed at her, insulted and maltreated her. Teachers took no

educational measures to protect her excusing themselves with the explanation

that the deviant behaviour of other children could not be prevented since

they had been brought up in that spirit in the family. The Serbian girl did

not attend Catholic religion classes and it only added to her maltreatment.

- According to the records of the Serblan Orthodox Church, 41 parents

asked that their children be released from the Orthodox Church, so that they

could attend Catholic religion casses and be converted into Catholicism.

These were elementary school children born between 1978 and 1985 and four

youths born between 1966 and 1968. Their parents explained Serbian Orthodox

Church priests that they wanted their children to attend Catholic religion

classes in order to fit into the environment, avoid harassment and allay

suspicion of their schoolmates and teachers.

- On 21 May 1992, parent N.N. asked his Serbian Orthodox Church priest

to issue his child a baptism certficate and said in his request that he

needed the certificate for his child's first Communion in a Catholic church

and the Catholic priest requested the certificate.

- Parent N.N. asked his Serbian Orthodox Church priest to issue a

certificate to the effect that his children had been baptized in the
Orthodox

Church in order to spare the children from humiliation and from being called

Antichrists.

- Conversion of Serbian Orthodox children into Catholicism is

illustrated by a letter of the Church of St. Cross in Zagreb in which it is

said that N.N. wants to take the first Communion in this Church and the

Serbian Orthodox Church is, therefore, kindly requested to issue the child a

baptism certificate. These acts of educational and church authorities of the

Republic of Croatia directed against Seibian children are aimed at

assimilating the Orthodox population and at cleansing in a most perfidious

way the Serbian people from the areas in which it has lived for centuries.

10. Citizenship problems

--------------------

One of the conditions for the acquisition of "domovnica" (Croatian

citizenship) spelled out in the Law on the Croatian Citizenship is the

possibility to conclude "from one's behaviour that he/she respects the legal

order and customs of the Republic of Croatia and accepts Croatian culture"

(Article 8, para. 1. subpara. 5). Besides, Article 26 of the same Law says

that the Ministry of the Interior can refuse the request fior the
acquisition

or cessetion of citizenship although all conditons are fulfilled if it

assesses that there are reasons of interest for the Republic of Croatia

because of which the request for the acquisition or cessation of citizenship

should be refused. This gives the disctionary nght to the competent

authorities (police) to deny, without explanation, the Serbs the right to

acquire or renounce Croatian cltizenship. Furthermore, the acquisition of

citizenship is conditioned by the requirement that citizens sign a

declaration of loyalty to the regime.

By providing for the power of the authorities to grant or refuse to

grant citizenship at their discretion (the latter provision being most often

applied to Serbs), "democratic" Croatia violates in the most direct way the

basic political, civil, economic and social rights of some of its citizens

and uses "domovnica" as a powerful means of discrimination against them and

their eventual assimilation.

There are many examples of the refusal to grant "domovnica" reported

even in the Croatian press. The given example is very illustrative:

- Dragan Jankovic, Serbian physician from Rijeka, applied for Croatian

citizenship and his request was refused without explanation. In its
decision,

the Ministry of the Interior said that Dragan Jankovic fulfilled the

conditions for the acquisition of Croatian citizenship, but that there were

reasons of interest for the Republic of Croatia because of which his request

had been refused. The Constitutional Court of Croatia overruled the decision

of the Ministry of the Interior with the explanation that because of the
said

reasons, the exercise of the basic human and civil rights contained in the

provisions of Articles 18, 19 and 28 of the Croatian Constitution was being

prevented. After Dragan Jankovic submitted

/...

-17-

another application, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior decided to refuse

his request again with the explanation that the party had not been
registered

as residing continually in the Republic of Croatia over the past 5 years.

Dragan Jankovic had been born in Nis, now in the FR of Yugoslavia, and moved

to Rijeka with his parents when he was one year old. His case remains

pending.

11. Representation in government

----------------------------

Serbs have been removed from all government institutions and agencies:

police, the military and from education, judiciary and health institutions.

In addition, the number of Serbs in other public services is negligIble as

these services and institutions have also been ethnically cicansed.

The political inequality of Serbs has resulted in their economic

inequality. They have been removed from managerial positions in companies,

banks and financial institutions.

Serbs are discriminated against also in the exercise of owneriship

rights and the right to equitable participation in the transformation of

social capital. This is also true of Serb Institutions (Serbian Orthodox

Church, Serbian Cultural Society "Prosveta") which have not realized their

ownerhsip right to nationalized property.

12. Destruction of victims of fascism memorials

-------------------------------------------

Official Croatian authorities turn a blind eye to the ever more frequent

cases of the desecration and destruction of memorials dedicated to the
memory

of the anti-fascist struggle of the Yugoslav peoples. Not only do not

official Croatian authorities prosecute and punish the perpertrators of
these

acts but they have stooped so low as to aid and abet their commission and

often commit them themselves.

It is estimated that over 2 000 memorials commemorating the anti-fascist

struggle have been destroyed or damaged. For example, the Jasenovac memorial

complex has been damaged and museum exhibits testifying to the Ustasha
crimes

committed against the Serbian people in this infamous and one of the biggest

concentration camps in Worid War Two have been either destroyed or

mysteriously spirited away.

A particularly threatening form of the renewal of the Ustasha movement

is the re-introduction of the kuna as the currency of the Republic of
Croatia

and the changing of the names of streets, squares, various establishments
and

institutions, including even geographic names, into the names which, in

Croatia's recent past, symbolized the dark ago of the fascist-Ustasha
regime.

The introduction of the works of the well known Ustasha ideologist of

Pavelic's Independent State of Croatia, Mile Budak, in the curricula of

elementary and secondary schools in Croatia is cynicism of the first order

for the relatives and descendants of the hundreds of thousands of those

hapless Serbian men and women who had been put to death by that nefarious
regime.

===