(srpski) Nestanak oca bio je signal Hrvatima da se isele iz Vojvodine
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Sorry, this entry is only available in srpski.
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented its eleventh dossier on possible perpetrators of war crimes during the armed conflicts of the 90s in the former Yugoslavia. The Dossier “Crimes against the Croats in Vojvodina” shows that in the period 1991-1995, in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, there was a campaign of intimidation and pressure on Croatian civilians, with the aim to force them to leave their homes, and Serbia as well.
Opening the event, the director of the HLC legal programme, Ivana Žanić, stated that evidence was presented in Dossier about threats, intimidation, destruction of property and the disappearances and murders of Croats throughout Vojvodina. The main inspirers of the campaign of intimidation and persecution of Croats were members of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), led by Vojislav Šešelj, as well as various groups associated with this party. In this persecution of Croats, members of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior (MUP) also participated, including the State Security Service (RDB). Šešelj explicitly called for the persecution of Vojvodina Croats in his speeches, advocating for the forced removal of as many Croats from Serbia as of Serbs forced to move from Croatia. At that meeting in Hrtkovci, on May 6, 1992, Vojislav Šešelj said that there was no place for Croats in Vojvodina, which is why Serbs from Hrtkovci should “get rid of them” as soon as possible. After this speech, a campaign of intimidation began, which resulted in the departure of around 450 Croatian families from Hrtkovci. Žanić concluded that there is nothing surprising about the absence of any reaction by state organs to the statement made by Vojislav Šešelj after the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had convicted him of persecuting Croats from Hrtkovci – that he would gladly repeat his war crimes – since the current political officials of Serbia were mostly members of the SRS at the time when the Croats were expelled from Vojvodina.
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In the period 1991-1995, in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, there was a campaign of intimidation and pressure on Croatian civilians with the aim to force them to leave their homes, and Serbia as well. The campaign, the intensity of which changed and reached its highest peaks in the second half of 1991, from spring to autumn 1992 and in summer of 1995, resulted in the expulsion of several tens of thousands of Croats from Vojvodina. Violence against Croats in Vojvodina included attacks on their private property and religious buildings, as well as threats, physical attacks and murders.
Vojislav Šešelj and his Serbian Radical Party (SRS) were the main advocates and inspirers of the campaign of intimidation and pressure on the Croat population in Vojvodina. The persecution of Croatian families was carried out under the pressure of various groups close to the SRS, composed of the local population, a militant part of the Serbian refugees from Croatia, and of members of volunteer units from Serbia who had participated in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This intimidation campaign took place with the awareness and tacit approval of the political structures of the Republic of Serbia. The evidence presented in this Dossier shows that in some acts of violence against Croats, persons from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) of the Republic of Serbia also took part. In addition, in the forced eviction of Vojvodina Croats, the State Security Department (RDB) of the MUP of the Republic of Serbia played a significant role.
In the period between the two population censuses of 1991 and 2002, the number of Croats and members of other non-Serb populations in the territory of Vojvodina was noticeably reduced. The number of Croats was reduced in 39 out of 45 municipalities in Vojvodina; and across the territory of the entire Vojvodina, the number of Croats decreased by 18,262, i.e. by 24.41%.
In this Dossier, evidence of events in certain Vojvodina municipalities (Ruma, Šid, Stara Pazova, Inđija, Petrovaradin and Apatin) has been presented, showing how strong the pressure on the Croats to emigrate was, and where the ethnic picture was changed the most. The Dossier is based on the testimonies of witnesses and families of victims given to the Humanitarian Law Center, RDB documents, judgments of the courts in Serbia, and documents presented to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as media reports.
Dossier: Crimes against Croats in Vojvodina is available here.
On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, a meeting of representatives of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IRMCT) and of non-governmental organizations from Serbia was held at the premises of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The meeting was attended by the IRMCT Secretary-General, Olufemi Elias, and his associates, and by representatives of the HLC, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and the Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights. Participants in the meeting discussed the continuation of the cooperation as regards the transfer of facts established by the courts in The Hague, which were responsible for helping to punish violations of international humanitarian law during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The need for a new and more active approach to the younger generations, the importance of their receiving continuous information and education on events from the recent past, the need to overcome the social climate of denial of crimes and denial of responsibility, and a vigorous advocacy for removing impunity for war crimes, were emphasized.
Representatives of the IRMCT visited the library and archive of the HLC, and were informed in more detail about the transfer of the publicly accessible archives of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which the HLC has been carrying out for almost 15 years.
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On January 29, 2019, Professor Zdravko Grebo, a long-time friend, associate and member of the HLC Executive Board, passed away in Sarajevo. Always perspicacious, amusing and charming, ever ready to share an anecdote from his life regarding almost any topic, he had a proposal for a solution to the challenges we might be facing. Until the very end of his life, he consistently and firmly advocated for establishing the truth and responsibility for the crimes committed during the wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The passing of Professor Grebo is a great loss for all sincere advocates of a civil society, but his works remain, for all his admirers to be proud of. We will remember him and keep him in our memories always.
Sorry, this entry is only available in srpski.
Sorry, this entry is only available in srpski.
