HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK

Zagreb Jun 19, 1994

Towards the end of May, Military Police in Split finally stopped four members of Croatian Army from evicting a Split family from their home. This was the result of a new order given by Military Police Commander which authorizes military policemen to prevent forcible moving into other people's homes, by hook or by crook. Dalmatian Committee for Protection of Human Rights and its President, Tonci Majic, consider this to be a recognition of their efforts to resist forcible breaking into homes in Split, despite various presures and even violence against them, but ethnically based discharges and dismissals in enterprises as well, mining of houses and business premises of non-Croats, and denial of other civil rights. Should, after the most recent Military Police order, eviction of people from their homes really stop, The Dalmatian Committee will devote special attention to return of those who were evicted to their homes and their indemnification. In this endeavour they will cooperate with international organizations for protection of human rights, but they will also unite with about ten organizations which are engaged in the protection of human rights in Croatia into an alliance ehich will be called "Human Rights Network".

AIM, SPLIT, June 18, 1994

Towards the end of May, early one afternoon, five uniformed members of the Fourth Brigade of the Croatian Army arrived in front of the apartment of Z.M. in Rudjera Boskovica street in Split. At least two of them were armed. They rang the bell, but Mrs. D.M. did not open the door. They went to the neighbouring apartment and asked a woman there to give them tools to break Z.M.'s door. They did not get them, so one of the soldiers jumped over the balcony into the apartment. He then opened the door and his comrades entered.

Then military police came, and then a supervising officer of the Fourth Brigade and a representative of the Housing Committee of the same unit. Z.M. returned in the meantime. Military policemen tried to convince the soldiers for hours that a few days before Military Police was given a new order for action in cases such as this one, and that they would have to throw them out. They called an enforcement. About ten uniformed and armed members of Anti-Terrorist Military Police came. They remained in the hallway. The housebreakers were threatened once again that there is an order to throw them out "by hook or by crook". Only at about 19.30 they assessed that the situation is serious, and they peacefully left the apartment while the family of D.M. remained in it. Several days later, Mrs. D.M. was called to the seat of Military Police to sign the report.

Does the case of Z.M. mark a turning point in the behavior of the Military Police in cases of illegal evictions? It seems that it does - says Tonci Majic, the President of the Dalmatian Committee, who gave us the information about the described case.

  • According to the directives of Mate Lausic, Military Police Commander of the Croatian Army issued on May 19, 1994

  • Majic says - military policemen can pecefully or by force evict those who break into other people's homes. I consider this to be a recognition of the efforts of our Committee and all those actively engaged in protection of human rights in Split who are at the frontline fighting against breaking into people's homes, ethnic cleansing in enterprises, mining of houses and business premises of non-Croats and denial of various civil rights. Previous regulations authorized military policemen just to carry out an investigation on the spot, list the names of all parties concerned, but they were not allowed to even try to evict the "new residents".

  • Should breaking into homes really stop - Majic continues, the issue of the return of those who were evicted will be put forward, and the issue of their indemnification.

All those who turned for help to The Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights are in Split and its surroundings. With a bag of bare necessities, they and the members of their families were forced to seek refuge in the homes of their friends. Only one of them, a retired military misician, T.M., managed to return legally to his apartment. His apartment he was evicted from several months before by persons in uniforms of the Croatian Army was returned to him by a legally valid court decision dated March 15. But, usurpers broke into his apartment again, and again, and several more times. All in all, T.M. entered his apartment five times only to be evicted again. Finally, after six times, he remained in his home.

Forcible evictions are a problem the activists of the Dalmatian Committee dealt with the most. But, cases of other forms of violation of human rights in Split are also equally present in their work. This non-governmental, non-profitable and non-party organization is legally active since December last year, but its members were on hand to anyone who needed their help long before that. Some of its activists, and its President Tonci Majic himself, used to act through the Dalmatian Solidarity Board, founded in June 1992.

  • The struggle for human rights - Majic says - did not begin when this organization was founded, but a part of the men started dealing with these problems spontaneously, because they met people whose rights were jeopardized. There are people among us who never were members of the Dalmatian Solidarity Board, nor the Dalmatian Committee, but are extremely active. Their work is invisible for the public, but they can help by advise, like our friends in the judiciary. And the rest of us, who wish to deal with human rights, we have to take the risk this struggle implies.

Tonci Majic himself felt the force of this risk. In the beginning of February, the photo of this young man with his nose broken and his shirt soaked in blood made a round of the world. While he was trying to protect a woman who was being evicted from her home, he was badly beaten up in the presence of both civilian and military policemen. Majic informed Gojko Susak, Minister of Defense in the Government of the Republic of Croatia about this and several other attacks against him and other members of the Dalmatian Committee: "Mister Minister, We are referring to you with a request to take necessary measures against uniformed terorists, which will finally discourage them from violence against members of the Dalmatian Committee, and unambigously show that Croatian Army disassociates itself from their violent and illegal actions. Otherwise, both you and we will be forced to admit that the Army rules the law in Croatia, and the mob rules the Croatian army".

  • Minister Susak - Majic tells us - never answered this letter. But, never mind, he will. We are waiting.

Dalmatian Committee for Human Rights works with no financial aid from anyone. They do not even have premises of their own, and yet hundreds of people sought their assistance.

  • Human trust is essential - Tonci Majic will say - and after the photo of my head covered with blood, distrust of those who due to everything they experienced did not know whom they could trust disappeared.

Besides helping all those who ask them for help, in the future the activists of the Dalmatian Committee will try to return those who were evicted back to their homes. They will cooperate in their efforts with the International organzation called "Open Eyes", and with a French organization specialized in indemnifications in cases of human rights violations. Their intention is to collect data on ethnic cleansing in enterprises which remained in the shadow of breaking into apartments.

A congress of unification of all organizations in Croatia which deal with protection of human rights will help these ideas come true. Each and every of about ten organizations active in Split, Zagreb, Osijek, Karlovac, Umag and elsewhere will preserve its individuality and independence, but will cooperate with the others within the "Human Rights Network", as this alliance will probably be called.

(l 167=5.5 pages)

LJUBICA VUKO