PUZIGAĆA: NEW LAW ON CEMETERIES - CONTINUATION OF ETHNIC CLEANSING OF SERBS

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 8 /SRNA/ - The president of the Association of Workers and Disabled Workers Refugees from Croatia with BiH citizenship, Nikola Puzigaća, said, regarding the new law on cemeteries in Croatia, that the authorities in that country obstruct the status rights of Serbs and do not allow them to live normally, let alone respect their dead and their tombstones, which do not bother anyone.

Puzigaća assessed for SRNA that the adoption of this law represents the continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs.

He emphasized that the EU, which advocates for the protection of basic human rights and freedoms, must demand that Croatia immediately withdraw this bill from the parliamentary procedure.

"Croatia persistently does not want to resolve the status rights of Serbs from Croatia, which are related to the return of property, tenancy, work, pension rights, and rights from the privatization of public companies in this country," Puzigaća pointed out.

Last week, the Government of Croatia submitted to the parliamentary procedure a new law on cemeteries, which foresees the removal of Serbian monuments erected after May 30, 1990.

Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Branko Bačić said that one of the reasons that prompted them to pass the new law was that after the last war there were graves on whose monuments and memorial plaques were inscribed, as he stated, inappropriate names contrary to the constitutional and legal order of Croatia.

If the owners do not remove such a monument, they face a fine of EUR1,000 to 5,000.