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U.N Calls on Croatia to Broaden Serb Amnesty Laws
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Reuters) — The Security Council on Wednesday called on Croatia to broaden its amnesty laws in Eastern Slavonia, which U.N. officials have criticised privately as flawed and inadequate. In a statement read at a formal meeting, it said Croatia should pardon those who served under the former rebel Serb authorities except for war criminals as defined under international law.
The United Nations has fielded 5,000 peacekeepers and set up a temporary administration in Eastern Slavonia to disarm Serb combatants and initiate confidence-building measures among civilians before the region reverts back to Croatia. Croatia last year had threatened to take Eastern Slavonia back by force. The region on the banks of the Danube, bordering Yugoslavia, was the scene of bitter battles in 1991, with the city of Vukovar devastated.
"The Security Council calls upon (Croatia) to grant amnesty to all persons, who, either voluntarily or by coercion, served in the civil administration, military or police forces of the local Serb authorities in the U.N. Protected Areas with the exception of those who committed war crimes as defined in international law," the statement said.
Croatia on Friday enacted legislation pardoning Serbs in Eastern Slavonia said to have taken up arms against Croatia in a bid for independence. But the parliament excluded all Serbs who were not living in Eastern Slavonia in 1991. Left out were thousands who fled to the enclave to escape Zagreb's successful 1995 offensive to recapture other nearby Serb separatist regions.
U.N. officials also fear that politically influenced police and courts would not define war crimes as strictly as they would be defined under international standards. Calling the new amnesty law a step in the right direction,
the Security Council said Croatia should "make this amnesty comprehensive as soon as possible" and stressed "the importance such a measure would have for maintaining public confidence and stability during the demilitarization and demobilization process."
The U.N. mission in Croatia, known as UNTAES, was negotiated on the fringes of the Dayton, Ohio, peace talks last November by Presidents Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia. Demilitarization of the region, the last Serb-held enclave in Croatia, began on Tuesday after American Jacques Klein, the U.N. administrator there, said U.N. peacekeepers had now been fully deployed. |
Berserkistan, May 21 · Croatian Amnesty Law for Serbs Said Flawed
Berserkistan, May 7 · Team Berserkistan First Across Yugoslav Confrontation Line
Berserkistan, May 7 · Delay Seen in Returning Eastern Slavonia to Croatia
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