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Zagreb: UN Should Not Meddle in Croatian Human Rights Issues
‘It is the position of my government that the human rights situation in Croatia does not in any way constitute a threat to peace and security in Croatia, nor in the region...’
"It is the position of my government that the human rights situation in Croatia does not in any way constitute a threat to peace and security in Croatia, nor in the region, and should therefore, consistent with the Charter of the United Nations, be addressed exclusively by the U.N. for a dealing with human rights," Nobilo said in the letter sent on Wednesday.
He also took issue with a recent report from Boutros-Ghali that said the number of Serbs returning to Croatia appeared lower than the 7,065 figure given by Zagreb. Saying Croatia had files to prove its case, he invited the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights to verify the figures.
More Serbs would be allowed to return at a faster rate, he said, "if there were no legitimate security concerns associated with an unmanaged influx of persons that were associated with the party that started the conflict in Croaita in the first place." Nobilo also said that 80,000 Croatians and other non-Serbs
expelled from their homes also had the right to return.
Croatia's army a year ago captured from Serb control about a fourth of the country, causing some 200,000 Serbs to flee to Yugoslavia or Bosnia. On July 3, the Security Council criticised Croatia for failing to protect its Serb citizens from human rights abuses and dragging its feet in allowing them to return home.
It based its statement on a June report from Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who said Zagreb had ignored many applications from Croatia Serbs who wanted to come back and discriminated against those who did return. He said Croatian police had failed to protect Serb citizens adequately and, along with Croatian soldiers, were sometimes themselves responsible for human rights abuses.
In his letter, Nobilo said that his government has "given an open door to more than 300 humanitarian organisations that in one way or another monitor and report on human rights." "We did so with hope that transparency would translate into disciplined, balanced, thorough and coordinated investigations," he added. |
UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (Reuters) - Croatia has told Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that the U.N. Security
Council has no business dealing with alleged human rights abuses on its territory, according to a letter released on Thursday. Zagreb's U.N. ambassador, Mario Nobilo, contended that the 15-member council, which recently issued a statement critical of Croatia on human rights, was created to deal with threats to international peace and security only.
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