Some of the war veterans’ associations want Serbia to abolish its law which gives it right to prosecute war crimes committed on the territory of the whole of former Yugoslavia.
Association of Disabled Croatian Homeland War Veterans (HVIDRA) expressed on Friday its strong opposition to Croatia’s approval for the opening of accession negotiations between the European Union and Serbia in Chapter 23, which covers judiciary and fundamental rights, until Serbia fulfils all Croatian conditions, report Večernji List and 24sata.hr on July 15, 2016.
HVIDRA believes that Croatia “should not even think about unblocking the negotiations, nor can it allow Serbia to join the EU until it abolishes its law on the universal jurisdiction for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and is giving itself the right to arrest any Croatian war veteran on the basis of false charges”.
Diplomatic definition that Serbia will “avoid conflicts of jurisdiction” does not mean anything to veterans nor does it commit Serbia to anything. If the law is not abolished, war veterans will constantly live in fear of European arrest warrants issued by Serbia, said HVIDRA in a statement.
In addition to the abolition of the controversial law, Croatia must demand that Serbia urgently addresses the issue of missing persons and the issue of compensation for war damages. “We point out that Croatia has passed a long and difficult path to full membership in the EU, with all the problems, and has successfully fulfilled all the requirements”, reads the statement.
At the same time, members of the Committee for Defence of Croatian Vukovar, association of some war veterans in that town, said on Friday that they would support at September’s early parliamentary elections those political parties which will insist that Serbia pays war damages for excessive shelling of Vukovar in 1991 and the compensation for prisoners of war detained in Serbian camps.
Tomislav Josić, president of the Committee for the Defence of Croatian Vukovar, said that Croatia had been in a state of “total destruction and destabilization” for almost five years. “In the next two months, we will see mutual insinuations, accusations, false and true scandals of politicians, all because of one goal – to get to a comfortable seat in the government and parliament”, said Josić. He added that the Committee had not yet decided which political party it would support.
Several years ago, the Committee for the Defence of Croatian Vukovar organized demonstrations against the decision of then SDP-led government to install public signs in Vukovar in Serbian language and Cyrillic script.
