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Date: 05 Aug 1996 22:37:41
Reply-To: Conference "zamir.chat" 
From: Ivo Skoric 
Subject: (Fwd) FW: Watch This Space:  Croatian Serbs Su
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From: "Ivo Skoric" 
Subject: (Fwd) FW: Watch This Space:  Croatian Serbs Su

         BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuter) - Thirty Serb refugees from
Croatia have begun legal action against the Serbian government,
accusing it of forcing them to fight in neighboring Bosnia, a
Belgrade newspaper reported Saturday.
         The paper, Nasa Borba, quoted Natasa Kandic, director of the
Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Foundation (HLF), as saying the
30 men were among some 40,000 refugees who were press-ganged in
Serbia and transported to the front lines.
         Kandic said the the men were suing Serbia for violating
conventions on the status of refugees -- international documents
ratified by the rump Yugoslav government which covers Serbia.
         He said the first of the law suits were filed in January and
had still not been dealt with.
         Around 250,000 Serbs fled Krajina in Croatia's border
regions in 1995, when Croatian forces stormed and recaptured the
rebel territories which broke away from Zagreb's rule four years
earlier.
         Nasa Borba said that, as the refugees began arriving in
Serbia, local police rounded up men from the refugee columns and
reception centers, raided apartments and combed city streets in
the hunt for able-bodied ``volunteers.''
         The paper said most of the conscripts were taken to military
centers across the border with Bosnia where they were forcibly
``trained'' in camps run by Zeljko ``Arkan'' Raznatovic's Serb
Volunteer Guard, before being sent to front line units.
         The alleged press-ganging took place as Bosnian Serb forces
were struggling to contain a series of military setbacks.
         Nasa Borba quoted one Krajina Serb, a law graduate
identified only as ``D.P.,'' who said he passed through Arkan's
camp and who is one of those suing the Serbian government.
         ``No one can ... deny the fact that the police handed us
over to a paramilitary unit that had no legal authority to run
military operations,'' D.P. said. ``That is the essential
question for us, and one that cannot remain unanswered.''
         According to the HLF between 4,000 and 6,000 drafted Serbs
from the Krajina are listed as killed, wounded, captured or
still missing from battles in western Bosnia.




Ivo Skoric **************************** iskoric@igc.apc.org

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