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Croatia Clarifies Amnesty Law for Serbs in Eastern Slavonia
By Zoran Radosavljevic
ZAGREB, June 17 (Reuters) - Croatia clarified a controversial
amnesty law on Monday, saying it pardoned all rebel Serbs in a
separatist enclave except war criminals.
Western diplomats had criticised the law as vague and
inadequate after Zagreb passed the legislation last month to
ease its takeover of Eastern Slavonia, the last breakaway Serb
region which is due to revert to Croatian rule by 1997.
"The law clearly applies to all those who happen to be in
that area when it takes effect (this month)," Justice Minister
Miroslav Separovic told a news conference.
"This is positive. We want those people (in Eastern
Slavonia) to realise Croatia can be their state," said deputy
prime minister Ivica Kostovic.
Roughly 150,000 Serbs, at least a third of them refugees
from elsewhere in Croatia, live in the enclave, a fertile plain
on the Danube river border with Serbian-led rump Yugoslavia.
Separovic explained the law after the U.N. administrator of
Eastern Slavonia, U.S. diplomat Jacques Klein, had asked
Croatian President Franjo Tudjman for a clear interpretation of
the amnesty's terms.
"We have been pressing this issue for clarity and
specificity. It seems the Croats have moved in that direction,"
Philip Arnold, spokesman for the U.N. Transitional Authority in
Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), told Reuterss.
Croatia passed the new law at the request of UNTAES and
Western leaders who had doubts that Serbs linked to the 1991
uprising enjoyed broad legal protection needed to encourage them
to remain in or return to their homes.
Separovic said the law pardons Serbs charged with armed
rebellion against Croatia between August 1990 and June 1996.
He said Serbs now in custody or those who have already been
tried and jailed will also be released, with 4,700 court
proceedings already under way to be dropped.
The text of the legislation passed on May 17 clears
"residents of Eastern Slavonia" without specifying if the
amnesty applied to original residents, as defined by the 1991
census before the revolt, or current residents.
Thousands of Serbs fled to Eastern Slavonia when Croatian
troops stormed two other breakaway enclaves in a series of
offensives over U.N. ceasefire lines last year.
The legislation does not apply to perpetrators of graver
offences including terrorism, sabotage and war crimes, such as
atrocities against civilians, defined by international law.
Separovic's clarification confirmed that tens of thousands
of Serbs from enclaves reconquered last year who fled to Bosnia
and Serbia and remain there are excluded by the new amnesty.
But he stressed these Serbs would be covered by a previous,
1992 amnesty law which remains valid and applies to all rebel
minority Serbs except those who committed war crimes.
The European Union recently urged Croatia to lift legal and
red tape barriers to the return of Serb refugees from abroad. |
Berserkistan, June 5 · Serbs in Eastern Slavonia Hand Over Their Weapons
May 24 · UN Pursuing Revised Serb Amnesty in Eastern Slavonia
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