Community of Serbs in Rijeka
Trg Sv. Barbare 1
51000 Rijeka
Hrvatska
tel. ++385 51 / 330 - 867
fax. ++385 51 / 330 - 873
e-mail: vsnm-ri@net.hr
City Council of Serb National Minority Rijeka
On basis of Clause 30. of the Resolution (97) 10 adopted by the Committee of Ministers in order to monitor according to the Articles 24. to 26. of the Framework Convention for protection national minorities, with the wish to participate actively in the monitoring process regarding the implementation of principles and standards of the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia, aiming to realize its programme determination on the basis of a democratic and open society respecting human rights, the non-governmental organizations of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, the Serbian Democratic Forum, the Civic Committee for Human Rights - Zagreb, and the Community of Serbs in Rijeka, are submitting to the Advisory Committee the following
Additional Information on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia
In January 1999 the Republic of Croatia has submitted a Report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities as well as answers to additional questions of the council of Europe Advisory Committee connected to the Report of the Republic of Croatia on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities June 2000. The public approachability of these documents is still not guaranteed; so the non-governmental organizations were not able to publish their comments on time, as well as the reports on the implementation of the Convention in Croatia. That means that non-governmental organizations have not received a notice to take part in the consultation procedure concerning the State Report elaboration, although these consultations could be useful and would lead to complete objectivity of the Report.
These information contains an overview of the situation the mentioned non-governmental organizations have received, which refers to different forms of non-applicable Convention principles and standards:
Article 3. of the Convention
The right to choose its own affiliation (to a certain national minority) has consequences for the citizens: because there is no so called positive discrimination in the election law, it is impossible for affiliated members of national minority groups to satisfy their interest as citizens and as members of minority groups at the same time. In election places citizens were openly roll-called by their nationality, what caused that citizens decided to vote on so called "citizen lists".
Article 4. of the Convention
The equality of all the citizens in the eyes of the law as well as equal legal protection is being violated: different solutions are being implemented for identical situations. The non-governmental organizations have many examples:
- Changes in the Constitution have unfortunately not lead to the wanted result, which is, that in the preamble the State is defined as a State of Citizens. Because of this it would be important to mention European Gypsies, Slovenians and Bosnians between all the listed minorities.
- Citizens of the Republic of Croatia who have lived in occupied areas in Croatia and who fled after the "Storm" action (Oluja) in 1995, lost their tenancy rights, which were taken away from them according to Applicable Law with no possibility of claiming legal remedy or proceedings in Court, nevertheless they have left homes for justified reasons, because they were afraid of war and unknown new circumstances by which they were put into an unequal position compared with the other citizens of the Republic of Croatia.
- Slow and inefficient return of property and renovation of destroyed property of Serbian refugees who have come back to Croatia;
- There is no programme for minority group members to return back to their jobs in governmental bodies and organs; these people have been thoroughly „cleaned out" from civil service, especially from judicature and administration;
- Fled or expelled national minority members have not participated in the "cupon" privatisation – the result is no equality in these people economy life today;
- There is no parallel (not in equal parts, too) return of property to religious churches;
- In individual cases the Croatian citizenship still can not be obtained, although there are all the legal conditions given – if these citizens are members of certain minority groups.
Concrete i.e. more specific examples of unequal acting toward citizens are listed in all the mentioned organizations.
Article 6. of the Convention
The stimulation of the spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue, as well the undertaking of effective measures to promote respect, understanding and cooperation among all, regardless of their ethnical, cultural or religious affiliation or the language they speak; particularly in the field of education, culture and media are not being carried out consistently.
The situation in Istria is much better than in the other parts of the Republic, but even there we have found clear signs for the rejection of "strangers" the "non-Istrians".
Still, there are joint prejudices in public: against Bosnians/Muslims and some ethnical Croatians (for example from Herzegovina). The situation of the European Romas is still extremely hard – in some regions there are very clear apartheid elements against them.
We have found examples like in the official paper of the Ministry of Defence where all the Serbs are being called a "mass pathological case"; on state television we have spokesmen talking about "the speech of hate", than excessive cases of celebration parties for "famous" Ustasha-members and erection of monuments for them, as well as the desecration of Ustasha victims monuments, which are not being sanctioned.
There are many examples to proof these claims.
Article 9. of the Convention
The Question of the media, particularly the state owned television could not be considered as positive. One programme i.e. broadcast a week for members of minority groups cannot be understood as a "free media approach". The possibility of founding own media systems is limited by economical and legal circumstances. The possibility of broadcasting in the language of a minority group is limited by the percentage i.e. the number of minority group members in a certain region. Daily and weekly papers are writing in a sensationalistic way about everyday things, if the actors in question are of different nationalities. Further, the act of ethnical counting of war-crime-suspects is definitely very disturbing.
Article 10. of the Convention
According to the new law on the use of language and alphabet of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia, minority rights gained on the basis of international agreements (where Croatia is a member) are not being abolished or changed; this goes for the right to use a national minority language or alphabet gained according to law so far. But the equal official use of language and alphabet of other minority groups like the Serbian, will be possible after the population census in 2001, under the condition that the members of a national minority group have the majority in the community or town, and if this question it regulated by the statute of the community or town.
Article 16. of the Convention
The situation in some areas in the Republic of Croatia is that the population structure significantly has been changed. The immigration of many Croatians in the towns i.e. communities Kistanje, Donji Lapac, Korenica, Vojnic and Gvozd has changed the ratio/proportion between the inhabitants, the result of which could be seen during the last local elections. This, along with the denial of the fled Serbians right to vote (the only ones in the area of former Yugoslavia) should all together end in showing a wrong picture of the national area structure, which until now almost entirely was populated by minorities.
The territorial division of the Republic of Croatia has resulted into proportional changes of minority group members in certain regions (Counties).
We would like to point out, that the above mentioned was performed during the HDZ-government.
This additional information is submitted by this NGO’s from Croatia:
Croatian Helsinki Committee, Zagreb
Serbian Democratic Forum, Zagreb
Civic Committee for Human Rights, Zagreb
Community of Serbs in Rijeka