The Security Council this afternoon called upon the Croatian Government to facilitate the return of Croatian Serbs to the former Sectors West, North and South -- the Western Slavonia and Krajina regions -- by improving conditions of personal and economic security, resolving the return-of-property issue and removing uncertainty about the implementation of the amnesty law.

In a statement read out by President Zbigniew Maria Wlosowicz (Poland), the Council called upon the Government to finalize without delay the list of war crime suspects in strict accordance with international law and to put an end to arbitrary arrests, particularly of Serbs returning to Croatia.

The Council, in expressing concern that the Croatian Government continued to withhold its full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, also called upon it to conduct investigations and the prosecution of persons accused of serious violations of international humanitarian law, especially those committed in the course of military operations in 1995 when Croatia recovered the formerly Serb-controlled areas.

Welcoming the improvement in living conditions for the remaining Serbs in the region, the Council called upon the Government to assume fully its responsibilities to ensure that the social and economic situation of all inhabitants in the former Sectors improves. It expressed deep concern, however, that Croatian Serbs continued to live in conditions of serious insecurity throughout the former United Nations Protected Areas (UNPAs) and called on the Government to restore a climate of law and order.

For further details please see official record:
S/PV.3753

For further details please see source:
href="https://www.un.org/press/en/1997/19970319.sc6341.html" target="_blank">MEETINGS COVERAGE