EU condemns attack on ethnic Serbs in Croatia
Where was the European Union (EU) when the Yugoslav/Serbs invaded, attacked and occupied the independent and sovereign state of Croatia for 4 years? The Croatian government toes the line with whatever the EU says - no matter what - and openly works against the Croatian people.
EU condemns attack on ethnic Serbs in Croatia
July 26, 2006
ZAGREB, Croatia-The top EU official in Croatia condemned a recent attack on ethnic Serbs, and urged the government to punish the perpetrators and take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
(Picture: Mesic and Vincent Degert, EU delegation chief to Croatia)
In the incident Tuesday morning, one of the most severe since the Serbo-Croat war ended in 1995, four men attacked villagers of Biljani Donji, southern Croatia, throwing stones on their houses, local police said.
They also set fire to several houses, uninhabited and still devastated after the 1991-95 war, and shouted anti-Serb offenses, police and media reported.
Residents notified police, who arrested the four suspects, all from a nearby Croat village.
Croatia's Cabinet and President Stipe Mesic condemned the incident. Mesic's offices said he would visit the village later Wednesday to show support for local Serbs.
The pro-Western government in the past few years has increased funds for local Serb communities, and has worked to include them in its administration. The minority Serb population still complaints of antagonism, however, since the 1991 war that erupted when they rebelled against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.
The head of the European Commission delegation in Croatia criticized the attack, and said the EU would be watching the country closely in the future.
Croatia's treatment of its minority Serbs is a key condition for joining the European Union. Croatia opened membership talks with the EU in October, and hopes to join the bloc in 2009.
"These incidents are against EU values of rule of law and tolerance," said a statement from EU delegation chief Vincent Degert. "The police and the judiciary should deal with this event in an effective and efficient fashion."
He also called on the government to develop legislation to ensure such attacks do not go unpunished, a veiled criticism of Croatia's judiciary which has been seen as lenient in cases of incidents against ethnic Serbs.
"These issues will be discussed and monitored closely" by the EU, he said.
Relations between ethnic Serbs and Croats have improved in the country since the war, but tensions remain in small communities.
The four alleged attackers were from Skabrnja village, where local Serbs during the war killed 34 Croats, including children and elderly.
Croatian newspapers printed photographs of graffiti sprayed on a store in Tuesday's attack that said: "God forgives, but Skabrnja does not."