To the Croatian Government
* The Croatian government should create a detailed plan for the comprehensive resolution of property disputes and issues relating to the return of displaced persons and refugees, ensuring equal treatment of both Serbs and Croats. Failure to establish soon a comprehensive and detailed mechanism for resolving these issues will only serve to heighten tensions and hostilities as the elections approach.
* The Croatian government should also take more vigorous steps to protect Serbs living in the Krajina and to facilitate the voluntary return of Serbs from Eastern Slavonia and elsewhere to those areas. These steps should include the following:
* annul the "Decree on the Temporary Take-Over and Administration of Certain Property" and reverse the de facto expropriations of Serbian property by the Croatian government since the law's adoption in September 1995;
* amend the Reconstruction Law by removing the law's restriction on applicability only to destruction resulting from Serb and Montenegrin forces, so that displaced Serbs in Eastern Slavonia may also apply for reconstruction funds;
* arrest, prosecute and punish all those responsible for crimes committed during and after "Operation Storm," including those committed in early 1997, particularly by members of the Croatian miliary and police force. Trials should be conducted in public according to due process norms;
* likewise, arrest, prosecute and punish those responsible for crimes directed at intimidating or harassing Serbs or members of other ethnic minorities who choose to remain in Eastern Slavonia. Croatian authorities should respond quickly and firmly to all abuses, especially those committed by authorities including the police;
* release immediately any detainee arrested for war crimes who has already been amnestied and against whom there is no credible evidence on which to base new charges. Croatia should hold accountable all those who have committed war crimes regardless of their ethnicity. However, unfounded charges of war crimes violations must not become a tool of intimidation and harassment.
To the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
* The OSCE should, as a matter of urgency, organize and deploy a post-UNTAES human rights monitoring mission. Such an OSCE endeavor, which can be established within the current mandate for the OSCE's monitoring effort in Croatia, must be deployed well in advance of the expiration of the UNTAES mandate in order to facilitate effective continuity in human rights monitoring.
* The OSCE should give its human rights monitors, at a minimum, the authority to:
* receive complaints from any person or group;
* interview persons, including detainees, freely and without interference;
* travel freely and visit any site, including prisons and places of detention;
* provide adequate protection for witnesses;
* raise specific cases with national and local authorities, as well as with the appropriate intergovernmental organizations (IGOs); and
* monitor and assist in investigations by law enforcement authorities and report on progress, obstacles and cases of non-cooperation by local and/or government authorities.
* The OSCE, at its highest levels, should condemn human rights violations and other breaches of OSCE documents;
* The OSCE should ensure an adequate budget and a staff with field experience in human rights monitoring and law enforcement. Field staff must be well briefed on the local situation in Eastern Slavonia and on the norms they will be upholding and should always receive intensive training upon arrival "sur place."
To the United States Government and to Members of the European Union
Croatia was admitted to the Council of Europe on November 7, 1996. Its admission had been prefaced in 1996 by two sets of undertakings that Croatia needed to honor in order to qualify for admission. The first was a twenty-one-point document signed by Croatia on March 15, 1996; the second was a list of fourteen conditions created by the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and Committee of Ministers in late May and early June 1996. Both sets of undertakings included the protection of the rights of Serbs and facilitation of the return of Serbs to the Krajina, with the March 15 document specifying also facilitation of the recovery of Serbs' property or compensation for the loss thereof. On October 30-31, 1995, the E.U. Council of Foreign Ministers declared: "The granting of reconstruction assistance to Croatia should be linked to the creation of real return options by the Croat government for the Serbs . . . and to strict respect for human and minority rights." The E.U. and the U.S. should hold the government of Croatia to these earlier pledges and make them express conditions for further aid, including some US $1.2 billion in foreign aid Croatia is currently seeking for the reconstruction of Eastern Slavonia.
In addition, the E.U. and the U.S. should take the following steps to improve respect for the rule of law and human rights and to further reconstruction of infrastructure and the return of all displaced persons and refugees from Croatia:
* use economic and political leverage to urge President Tudjman and the Croatian government to end abuses in the Krajina and prevent abuses in Eastern Slavonia. Underscore that the failure to do so will adversely affect Croatia's full membership in regional military institutions, namely the Partnership for Peace, and future eligibility for reconstruction and economic aid;
* condition aid, including aid for the reconstruction of Eastern Slavonia, on the prompt creation of a comprehensive plan of property disputes and issues relating to the return of displaced persons and refugees that would give real meaning to the otherwise hollow declarations that displaced Serbs have the right to return to their homes or to remain in Eastern Slavonia;
* grant aid in a manner that facilitates the repatriation of persons displaced from various parts of Croatia, including Eastern Slavonia and the Krajina, and the rebuilding of homes and infrastructure ravaged by the war. However, such aid should be disbursed in a way that ensures that the monies are used proportionately to assist both displaced Serbs and Croats from Croatia; and
* monitor and assist the return of all persons to their homes in the former United Nations Protected Areas.
To the United Nations Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES)
* The U.N.'s peacekeeping force in Eastern Slavonia should deploy a specific human rights monitoring component of UNTAES immediately, cooperating closely with other entities currently monitoring human rights in Eastern Slavonia including the United Nations Centre for Human Rights (UNCHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UNHCR, European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and nongovernmental organizations such as the Civil Rights Project and Oxfam. In addition, UNTAES should:
* emphasize the rule of law principles that must ultimately govern the validity of any list of war crimes suspects (e.g., the evidentiary bases for inclusion of suspects on a list), as well as any trials of these suspects. This entails emphasizing that anyone whose name appears on the list will be entitled to all due process protections in a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal, and that UNTAES and the international community will monitor these trials closely;
* refrain from demanding from the Croatian government a "final" list of Serbs suspected of committing war crimes, exclusion from which would guarantee that one has been amnestied. The indictment of persons suspected of being war criminals should be carried out on the basis of the sufficiency of evidence, rather than as the result of political negotiations. Only if the issue of persons suspected of being war criminals is addressed expressly under legal principles will the outcome of these proceedings have sufficient legitimacy to establish genuine finality; and
* ensure that the Transitional Police Force (TPF) and the UNTAES border monitors undertake stronger measures to stop the looting and theft of property by Serbs who are leaving or preparing to leave Eastern Slavonia. These measures should include increased patrols. It is critical that such measures be widely and vigorously implemented, as there is a significant danger that such looting will increase at the time of the elections and afterwards if the departure of Serbs from the region accelerates. Given that there have already been some threats from individual Serbs of widespread destruction of property before they leave the region, UNTAES must be prepared for the situation to worsen.