Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1995 - Croatia, 1 January 1995, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9fb24.html [accessed 1 June 2023]
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A small number of men imprisoned for refusing mobilization into the armed forces may have been prisoners of conscience. Trials of defendants accused of politically motivated offences may not have been fair. A number of people were reportedly ill-treated by civilian or military police. There were reports of human rights abuses in rebel Serb-controlled areas. Approximately one third of Croatian territory remained under the control of rebel Serbs in the territories known as the Krajinas. These areas remained UN Protected Areas (UNPAs) and little progress was made towards implementing the UN peace plan of January 1992 which foresaw their reintegration. There were around 200,000 internally displaced people in government-controlled areas as a result of the 1991 war and a further 180,000 refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Around 100,000 people in the UNPAs were refugees or displaced persons. The Croatian authorities exerted pressure on refugees from certain areas of Bosnia to return. The mandate of the UN peace-keeping force, UNPROFOR (UN Protection Force), was extended twice during the year. As in previous years the government threatened to veto the extensions, expressing dissatisfaction with progress towards implementing the peace plan and arguing that UNPROFOR should be given greater powers to enforce the plan. In January the government signed an agreement on the establishment of contacts with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In March the government signed a cease-fire agreement with the de facto authorities in the Krajinas, although some armed clashes still occurred on the front lines. In March the Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, signed an agreement on forming a Bosniac-Croat federation in Bosnia-Herzegovina (see Bosnia and Herzegovina entry). As a result of new research among relatives of missing persons, the Croatian Government revised the figure of those "disappeared" or missing on the Croatian side during the 1991 war down to 2,764. In addition, several hundred people were reported missing from the Serbian side. The Croatian Army was in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the start of the year, fighting against the mainly Muslim Bosnian Government Army. Later in the year it again reportedly took part in the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, fighting Bosnian Serb forces. The Serbian army in the Krajinas supported Bosnian Serb forces in attacking the Bihaç pocket in Bosnia-Herzegovina in November (see Bosnia and Herzegovina entry). There were reports of demonstrations against mobilizations into Serb forces in the Krajinas at the time. Some possible prisoners of conscience were held. In late December 1993 and January 1994 the Croatian Army called up several thousand men in Croatia on behalf of the Bosnian Croat military forces to serve in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The men were Croats or Serbs who had been born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but most had Croatian citizenship. Some who refused mobilization or deserted, including possible conscientious objectors, were reportedly imprisoned in Croatia for up to 30 days in January. There were reports of political trials which did not meet international standards of fair trial. In March the trial began of nine men who were accused of blowing up the offices of the party Dalmatinska Akcija (DA), Dalmatian Action, in Split in September 1993. Some were members of the da. The trial was adjourned several times and no verdict had been reached by the end of the year. There were allegations that several of the accused and at least one witness were forced to make incriminatory statements as a result of having been beaten by police during interrogation. Croatian courts continued to hold trials of people (mainly Serbs) accused of participating in fighting against Croatia during the war in 1991. Most defendants were tried in absentia and the proceedings may have fallen short of fair trial standards. A number of people were reportedly ill-treated by police. In February a Croatian citizen of Bosnian Muslim origin was reportedly severely beaten after being arrested by police in Slavonski Brod. There were allegations that civilian or military police failed to intervene when soldiers or civilians beat protesters during evictions of tenants from former Yugoslav National Army (JNA) apartments. Police also reportedly beat protesters or those being evicted. For example, in Split in February civilian and military police reportedly stood by while paramilitaries and their sympathizers beat Tonci Majiç, an activist in a local human rights organization who had gone to an apartment where the paramilitaries were trying to evict a woman illegally. In Zagreb in September, 11 people were arrested while peacefully protesting against the eviction of another woman from a former JNA apartment. Police reportedly beat several of those arrested. Human rights abuses were reported from the territory controlled by rebel Serbs. The de facto Serbian authorities failed to investigate attacks by uniformed men on civilians in the Krajinas. However, 30 people were arrested in Ilok in March for attacks on both Serbs and on some of the small numbers of Croats or other non-Serbs who remained in the area. There were also reports of politically motivated abductions. In February Veljko Dzakula, a former "Deputy Prime Minister" of the de facto authorities in the Krajinas, was abducted in Belgrade by police from Serbia or the Krajinas. He was in dispute with the de facto authorities over policy towards negotiations with the Croatian Government. After being held incommunicado at an unknown location in the Krajinas for several days, during which he was allegedly tortured, he was transferred to a prison and then released. Foreign journalists were detained in the Krajinas on several occasions and at least one foreign journalist was allegedly ill-treated. In February Amnesty International appealed to the Croatian authorities to ensure that a Croatian citizen of Bosnian Muslim origin was given medical attention and called for an independent and impartial inquiry into allegations of his ill-treatment. In reply the authorities denied that ill-treatment had taken place. The organization also urged the Yugoslav authorities to investigate the "disappearance" of Veljko Dzakula. In June Amnesty International called upon the Croatian authorities to investigate the reported "disappearance" of Rasim Kahrimanoviç, a Muslim, in Dubrovnik in July 1993. In response they denied involvement in his reported "disappearance", but acknowledged that he had been reported as a missing person. In September Amnesty International called for an independent and impartial investigation into the reported beating of several people in the course of an eviction from a former jna apartment in Zagreb. The authorities denied that ill-treatment had taken place.
