http://www.radioyu.org/index.php3?language=Englis Politics
24.08.2007. AUTONOMY FOR SERBS IN CROATIA According to assessment of the Center for Geo-Strategic Research in Belgrade, establishment of regional stability in the Balkans represents overall and continual process within which it is necessary to approach the resolving of the Serbian issue in Croatia in the same fashion and by principles applied in resolving of other problems in the territory of former Yugoslavia. This motivated the Center to offer a document for the resolving of the issue which offers autonomy for the Serbs in Croatia yet does not jeopardize Croatian sovereignty, Slobodan Eric, Vice President of the Center Board and Editor-in-Chief of the Geopolitika magazine, told the press conference. Mladen Bijelic has more. To approach the resolving of the issue of the Serbs’ return to Croatia efficiently, the status of the Serbs within the Croatian state should be resolved first. According to Eric’s assessment, it is necessary that the document created by the Badinter Commission that is applied in the resolving of the Yugoslav problem should be respected and implemented also when at issue is the position of the Serbs in Croatia, as well as the position of the Albanians in Serbia, that is, the resolving of the Kosmet problem. Totally different positions cannot be taken in regard to the same issue and deny the right to self-determination to the Serbian people in Croatia that represents a constitutive people, while at the same time the same right is offered to the Albanian national minority in Serbia, Eric believes. According to the Center for Geo-Strategic Research, autonomy of the Serbs in Croatia is the only optimal solution for permanent and sustainable return of the Serbian people to Croatia. A certain degree of autonomy, which must be secured for the Serbs, should be harmonized with international legal norms and European values. The Center deems this a proper solution that, on the other hand, does not endanger sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia. Professor with the Geography School in Belgrade Milomir Stepic support this proposition that should represent an initiative and be forwarded to all relevant bodies and institutions in Serbia and Croatia, underlining as extremely hypocritical to call upon the realistic situation. This is today persistently done by the Croatian authorities that claim how, according to the latest census, only 201.000 Serbs live in Croatia which is some 3.5% of the entire population and that therefore they cannot have some status or rights of the constitutive people. “If anything is alterable in the Balkans, it is the realistic situation”, emphasized Professor Stepic, stating that it cannot be an excuse or an argument to obstruct international obligations. He adds that the realistic situation was that according to the census of 1991, before the war, over 600.000 Serbs lived in Croatia. Also, from 1990 till 1994, the Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina had more attributes of statehood than it is the case with Kosmet today, and then that realistic situation was changed by force, concluded Professor Stepic. Sent using cyberus.ca WebMail - http://www.cyberus.ca/ Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
