Internally Displaced Persons – 2005

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Internally Displaced Persons – 2005

2005

Intermediate Implementation Intermediate implementation

A senior Croatian diplomat tells the newspaper, The Independent, that “there are reasonable grounds for believing” that the swindle of Serbian homes in Croatia was deliberate and part of a “refined method of ethnic cleansing.” Out of the 600,000 Serbs that lived in Croatia before the war, in 2005 only 200,000 remained.1 The same new story reveals that 186 Serb villages still lack electricity in 2004.2 A decade after the accord, the GoC continued to face criticism by the OSCE over judicial bias against Serbs preventing them from returning to their occupied homes.3 The US State Department reported in 2005 that they saw major problems with the process of property restitution for Serb refugees.4 A European Commission report in 2005 echoes the claim that Serbs cannot return to their homes if they do not have the legal means to reclaim their houses and property.5

  1. “Balkan Home Truths: How Croatia swindled its exiled Serbs,” The Independent, February 4, 2005.
  2. Ibid.
  3. “OSCE criticizes Croatia over judicial bias against Serbs,” Agence France Presse, April 26, 2005.
  4. “US Department notes problems with Serbs, Roma rights in Croatia,” BBC Monitoring Europe, March 1, 2005.
  5. “European Commission issues report on Croatia,” BBC Monitoring Europe, November 9, 2005.