Serb refugees: Extra pressure on Croatia to obey obligations

BELGRADE - After the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Serb refugees expect the international community to react and exert additional pressure on Croatia to obey the obligations it took on and to restore all the rights the Serbs had by the end of 1990, the Association of Refugee and Other Associations of Serbs from Croatia released on Wednesday.

In the release, the Association recalls that ICJ rejected mutual genocide suits filed by Croatia and Serbia, but it did establish that political and military leadership of Croatia planned and carried out Operation Storm in the awareness that it would provoke a mass exodus of the Serb population, which they considered not only probable, but desirable.

The banished Serbs and Serb refugees expect Croatia to stop celebrating Operation Storm as the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and to finally start prosecuting all individuals who committed crimes, the release states.

In addition to this, Serbs from Croatia expect prompt return of their illegally seized property and other property and vested rights because only such a step would create the conditions for normalisation of relations between Serbia and Croatia, the Association stated in the release.

In case Croatia continues to ignore our justified requests, this ruling will have no importance whatsoever, states the release.

According to the assessment of the Association, the only logical point in the ICJ ruling is the rejection of the Croatian suit against Serbia for genocide and crimes committed before April 27, 1992 as the day when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia being its successor, officially became a member of the UN.

Nevertheless, in the year to mark the 20th anniversary...