ZAGREB, 2 November, 2021 - The Democratic Alliance of Croats of Vojvodina, the Croatian minority's political party in Serbia, on Tuesday welcomed an online version of a dossier on crimes against Croats in Vojvodina committed in the 1990s and warned that policies denying or keeping silent about those crimes are still in force in Serbia.
The dossier is based on several years of research and was released by the Humanitarian Law Fund, a Serbian regional NGO for human rights which established that a campaign was conducted in Serbia between 1991 and 1995 against the Croat population in Vojvodina.
The campaign consisted of expulsion, looting, confiscation of houses and flats, arrests, detention in concentration camps, abuse, harassment, kidnapping and murder.
The campaign was aimed at forcing Croats to leave their homes and Serbia, in which advocates of ethnic cleansing succeeded to a great extent as tens of thousands of Croats were expelled from Vojvodina, the dossier says.
The intimidation campaign was conducted with the silent approval of political structures in Serbia and in some cases the police too were involved in violent acts against Croats, as were reservists of the now-defunct Yugoslav People's Army, the document adds.
DSHV notes that Vojislav Šešelj's conviction by the international tribunal in The Hague is the only one to have been delivered in international and domestic courts relating to the forced expulsion of Croats from Vojvodina.
DSHV claims that is due to the fact that the policies of dealing with the past in Serbia continue to negate and keep silent about the crimes committed against Vojvodina Croats in the 1990s.
That is also the main reason why there is not one memorial in Vojvodina for those innocent victims and why they are not commemorated, DSHV said, adding that those who point to that fact are frequently identified as enemies of Serbia.
DSHV expects authorities in Serbia to provide the satisfaction the Croat victims in Vojvodina deserve, and not only for the purpose of the country's European prospects.
According to DSHV, during the war in the 1990s, almost 40,000 Croats were expelled from Vojvodina, mostly from Srijem, and 25 Croats were killed.
The dossier was released at the following link: www.zonaneodgovornosti.net
