AN APPEAL FROM THREATENED SERB CIVILIANS
OF EASTERN SLAVONIA, BARANJA AND WESTERN SREM

JULY 17TH, 1996.

We, the citizens of the Serbian District of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem, in our own name and in the name of all the expelled citizens from the former Socialist Republic of Croatia (SRC), dispersed all over the world (about 800,000), by this letter desire to give our contribution to a lasting and just peace in these regions of the Balkans.

Our misfortune is immense, but our voice is not heard. We are hoping that we are addressing those who wish to hear us and help us in solving our problems. The war which has wrought misfortune to all has ended, and in that coming peace, after secret diplomatic negotiations, no future has been foreseen for us. Republic of Croatia is now an independent, internationally recognized and ethnically the purest state in Europe, while the Serbian people as a whole have been declared guilty for everything that had happened. Because of this presupposed guilt we are punished with the loss of our dearest ones, with the loss of our state and statehood, and thus with the loss of national and human rights that follow from a state.

Dear Sirs, how many human rights has Croatia trampled with the help of its mighty protectors to finally achieve its goal! The Serbian people from the administrative region of Socialist Republic of Croatia have dearly paid for the past policy of neglecting its own victims. Independent State of Croatia formed on 10 April 1941 and founded on Nazi racist theories, declared the Serbian people a lower race. It pursued this policy until the end of WWII with the system - kill one third of the Serbs, convert to Catholicism another third, and expel the remaining third. The result - Karst pits overflowing with Serbian bones, annihilated villages, burnt down churches... Jasenovac - almost one million of Serbian victims.

Fifty years later, on the territories of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), in the federal unit of SR Croatia, a political party founded on the familiar nazi-racist ideology (Starcevic-Frank-Pavelic-Tudjman), HDZ, comes to power. The first moves of the new regime include erasing from the Constitution of Republic of Croatia of Serbs as a constituent people with equal rights. Organized state terror takes place: severe beatings, unlawful arrests, job dismissals, misappropriations of Serb property, night executions...

War takes place. The Serbian people are forced to defend SFRY as a guarantor of its national and human rights. After the dissolution of SFRY, due to premature recognitions of secessionist federal units, Serbian people form the Republic of Serb Krajina on their ethnic territories.

In May and August of 1995, Croatia occupied these Serbian territories using a brute military force, notwithstanding that these were under protection of UNPROFOR, an international military force. Applying the familiar Ustasha methods, the Croat army murdered thousands of Serbian civilians and expelled hundreds of thousands from their homes. Only this Serbian District remained, representing 4.5% of the territory of the former SRC (prior to 1991 Serbs legally owned 34% of the land in the former SRC) where now lives 215,000 citizens of various nationalities including a considerable number of Croats.

Through the Erdut Agreement we have accepted the principle of solving disputes peacefully and an internationalization of problems of the Serbian District. A demilitarization has been accomplished, communications opened. On the other hand, Republic of Croatia is deceiving the international community by a mere appearance of democracy, and is waging a psychological war against the Serbian population drawing recognizable parallels with the WWII Nazi Independent State of Croatia (ISC). Their state flag contains checquer, a symbol of Nazi ISC, their currency is kuna which has been in circulation only in ISC, their military and police uniforms are fashioned after the Nazi Ustasha ones, and their various party leaders and public personalities again refer to Serbs as a lower race. Their language reforms drive even Croats themselves to laughter, so they had to introduce a law that punishes anyone who uses more than five Serbian words while speaking in public. They are amassing armed forces on the borders with the Serbian District and are threatening with a military intervention. They have introduced a law on amnesty which does not amnesty anyone. In their media they announce lists of hundreds of Serbs, supposed war criminals, on the principle - one from every Serbian family. With their regulations they have completely precluded the return of expelled Serbian inhabitants to the Serbian ethnic territories, and by their "Law On The Regions of Special State Needs" they pursue colonization of our territories. They have been and are now applying state terror on the remaining Serbian inhabitants, up to brutal physical executions, as can be seen from the reports of the special UN envoy for human rights Elizabeth Renn, of the UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali, and of the Chairman of the UN Security Council of 3 July 1996.

The members of UNATES and other organizations who are mediating in negotiations are favouring the Croat demands and are solving less essential matters, and are absolutely not acknowledging the Serbian arguments. They insist on acceptance of Croat personal and other documents, certificates on citizenship and alike, and are refusing to support Serbian demands to first solve the most important issues related to human and national rights of Serbian population. This concerns in particular the issues of personal and property security as well as the status of the Serbian District as a whole.

High functionaries of UNATES and other international institutions have promised considerable monetary means for revitalization of the economic system of the District, and for the renovation and rebuilding of Vukovar and individual villages. Nothing has been done yet. On the contrary, since the mandate of UNATES took place, the economic life of the District has come to a stop, and consequences of that are an economic and social exhaustion of the population who have been brought to the brink of misery.

Dear Sirs, we are asking you to use your influence to give us support in realizing our just demands without which we have no future in these regions:

1. That the mandate of UNATES be immediately extended for another year, in accordance with point 1 of the Erdut Agreement

2. That a special status to the District be granted to secure individual and collective human, political and national rights of the citizens of the Serbian District in accordance with the highest world standards

3. That a particular system of international mechanisms and guarantees of the international community be established to secure human, political and national rights of the inhabitants of the District

4. That the District has its own legislative, judiciary and executive powers

5. That the District and its immediate vicinity be permanently demilitarized

6. That the District has right to its own flag, coat of arms and hymn

7. That the District has its own financial and monetary system

8. That the District has right to autonomous education, culture and its own media

9. That the District has right to participation in the central government with the right to reject any applications of common regulations that would contravene the status of the District, the national, human and political rights of the inhabitants of the District

10. That the issues of citizenship, personal and status documents and pensions be resolved collectively and in the same manner for all the inhabitants of the Serb District, as well as for the expelled citizens of the former Socialist Republic of Croatia, including the right to a dual citizenship

11. That the issue of return of refugees be resolved collectively on the principle of reciprocity and proportionality

Dear Sirs, we hereby request your help in realizing our elementary human rights.

Thank you.

Respectfully,

Movement for Rebirth of Vukovar

Alliance of Victims of the Croat Regime of 1990-1991

Alliance of the Refugees and Expelled Serbs from the Serb District of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srem - Vukovar

Alliance of Women of Vukovar

Vukovar Initiative

Alliance for Peace and Human Rights for Eastern Slavonia and Western Srem

Vukovar, 17 July 1996.