Taking Tudjman to account

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

/* Written  5:48 pm  Aug  5, 1995 by DEBRA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in 
gn:yugo.antiwar */

/* ---------- "HRV: President Tudjman's Proclamati" ---------- */
## Original in: /HRNET/EUROPE&MIDEAST
## author     : bruna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
## date       : 04.08.95

--------------------------------------------------------------
Zagreb, Friday, August 4, 1995


[Extracts]

To the Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality from the
occupied areas of Knin, Gracac, Lapac, Korenica, Slunj,
Glina, Dvor and Petrinja
. . .

And since all the attempts of the Croatian State and of the
international community to peacefully restore Croatia's
sovereignty over parts of Croatian territories alienated by
the rebellion have been rejected and flouted, the Croatian
State is forced to take police-military steps in order to
reintegrate these occupied areas into its constitutional and
juridical system.

. . .

I call upon the Croatian citizens of Serbian nationality who
have not taken active part in the rebellion to stay in their
homes and without fear for their life and property, await
Croatian authorities, with the guarantee that they will be
granted all civil rights, and that elections will be held
for local self-government pursuant to the Croatian
Constitution and Constitutional Law with the presence of
international observers;


. . .

We are determined to put an end to the suffering and
uncertainty of Croatian displaced persons from the occupied
areas and to guarantee to the Croatian Serbs human and
ethnic rights within the constitutional and legal order of
democratic Croatia.

The President of the Republic of Croatia Dr. Franjo Tudjman

_______________________________________________________


London Guardian, 21.8.95

The Croatian government has formally invited back the Krajina Serbs
who fled from Bosnia and Serbia earlier this month. But in reality the door
is closing behind them. According to the United Nations and the
International Helsinki  Federation for Human Rights, Serb villages are
being systematically razed.

President Tudjman confirmed on Friday that the constitution would soon be
adjusted to remove all vestiges of the Serb presence, erasing clauses
giving special status to ethnic minorities exceeding 8 percent of the
population. The formerly Serb settlements of Knin and Glina would also
lose their minority privileges."


__________________________________________________________

So considering that western governments criticised the Croat attack,
however gently, the door is now open to any individual to write calling
on Tudjman to be held to account for his promises.

Even now, even if on our own we are all fleas, that might reduce
infinitesimally, but still valuably, the chances of a similar attack on
Eastern Slavonia, and promote the chances of a negotiated settlement,
now that Greater Serb Nationalism is no longer overwhelmingly the main
threat to democratic rights in former Yugoslavia.


These are some of the things that a movement for solidarity, peace and
reconstruction with the people of the former Yugoslavia, could in
principle and in practice, be doing.


Chris B, London




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