Croatia criticized on exodus anniversary

Refugee organizations says that nothing has been done to help the return of Serbs to Croatia, 15 years after they were forced to leave.

Izvor: FoNet

Monday, 02.08.2010.

15:42

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Refugee organizations says that nothing has been done to help the return of Serbs to Croatia, 15 years after they were forced to leave. An estimated quarter of a million ethnic Serbs left Croatia in the summer of 1995, during that country's military-police onslaught against the Serb regions, known as Operation Storm. Croatia criticized on exodus anniversary Reports cite the figure of between 60,000 and 80,000 Serbs who have returned to Croatia in the past 15 years. Refugee association officials, who spoke to reporters ahead of the 15th anniversary of the operation, said its crimes did not end with the military action, but continued in other ways, regardless of the improvements in relations between Serbia and Croatia. The promises coming from the Croatian side are a campaign to facilitate their joining the European Union and fulfilling obligations in the human rights field, the President of the Association of Refugees from Croatia Miljko Budimir said. He told a news conference in Belgrade on Monday that in the last two years, there had been more Serb returnees "returning again to Serbia, than those returning to their homes in Croatia". President of the Association of the Families of the Missing and Victims from Krajina and Croatia Cedomir Maric warned that the slow pace of the exhumation of bodies of victims from was unacceptable, adding that there were more than 1,352 victims who are yet to be exhumed, and were not buried in mass graves of the 2,100 that were reported missing. “Speed up the process, do not hurt us even more with postponing the solving of the fate of our loved ones, and especially do not hide the locations,” Maric said, addressing the Croatian government. President of the Serbian Government’s Missing Persons Commission, Veljko Odalovic, said that he expressed his disappointment at the dynamics of the exhumations in a meeting with Croatian officials, especially considering that there were more than 400 known burial locations.

Croatia criticized on exodus anniversary

Reports cite the figure of between 60,000 and 80,000 Serbs who have returned to Croatia in the past 15 years.

Refugee association officials, who spoke to reporters ahead of the 15th anniversary of the operation, said its crimes did not end with the military action, but continued in other ways, regardless of the improvements in relations between Serbia and Croatia.

The promises coming from the Croatian side are a campaign to facilitate their joining the European Union and fulfilling obligations in the human rights field, the President of the Association of Refugees from Croatia Miljko Budimir said.

He told a news conference in Belgrade on Monday that in the last two years, there had been more Serb returnees "returning again to Serbia, than those returning to their homes in Croatia".

President of the Association of the Families of the Missing and Victims from Krajina and Croatia Čedomir Marić warned that the slow pace of the exhumation of bodies of victims from was unacceptable, adding that there were more than 1,352 victims who are yet to be exhumed, and were not buried in mass graves of the 2,100 that were reported missing.

“Speed up the process, do not hurt us even more with postponing the solving of the fate of our loved ones, and especially do not hide the locations,” Marić said, addressing the Croatian government.

President of the Serbian Government’s Missing Persons Commission, Veljko Odalović, said that he expressed his disappointment at the dynamics of the exhumations in a meeting with Croatian officials, especially considering that there were more than 400 known burial locations.

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