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Croatia Releases 60 Serbs Under Statehood Day Amnesty Plan
BELGRADE, June 6 (Reuters) - Croatia released 60 Serbs from the rebel Krajina region under an amnesty announced by President Franjo Tudjman a week ago, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officials said on Thursday. The ICRC said they transported the 60 men across the border to Serbia for an emotional reunion with their families in Belgrade. The Serbs were part of a group of 78 prisoners that Croatia had charged with armed rebellion for their role in the 1991 Serb uprising in Krajina and pardoned on May 30.
The ICRC said the remaining 18 prisoners had decided to stay in Croatia. The ICRC said it would continue to visit the more than 200 Krajina Serbs still being held in 14 detention centres throughout Croatia. According to the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug, all had been arrested during "Operation Storm" to recapture Krajina in August last year, before being transferred to prisons in Sisak, Karlovac and Zagreb.
Tanjug quoted the head of the Yugoslav Red Cross search service Ranko Popovic as saying the men were all in relatively good condition, although some had complained that Croatian authorities mistreated them. Tanjug said most men were unwilling to speak of the conditions because they were afraid that friends who remained in prison "could suffer reprisals."
Tudjman pardoned the Serbs as a jesture of mercy on the eve of Croatia's "Statehood Day."
Early last month, the Croatian parliament passed legislation pardoning Serbs in the enclave of Eastern Slavonia said to have taken up arms against Croatia's move to independence from federal Yugoslavia. But the parliament excluded Serbs who were not living in Eastern Slavonia in 1991. Thousands who fled the enclave to escape Zagreb's successful 1995 offensive to recapture other nearby separatist regions were left out of the amnesty.
The United Nations has voiced dismay over the law, urging Croatia to pardon all who served under the former rebel Serb authorities except for war criminals as defined under international law. But Tudjman has said he "resolutely rejected" demands for amending the law.
Eastern Slavonia is the last Serb-held region in the country and is to be peacefully reintegrated into Croatia under the U.N. supervision within two years at the most. |
Berserkistan, May 30 · Croatia Observes Fifth Independence Day
Berserkistan, May 22 · U.N Calls on Croatia to Broaden Serb Amnesty Laws
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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