PRESS CONFERENCE BY HUMAN RIGHTS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY HUMAN RIGHTS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

There were many new abuses of human rights in territory of the former Yugoslavia, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Elizabeth Rehn, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

She said that problems associated with returns and property issues continued. Returning displaced persons often encountered extreme difficulties when they found other displaced persons occupying their homes. One could imagine the hate that was generated by such a situation. For example, Croatian Serbs around Karlovac were crowded into garden houses and cattle shelters, unable to live in their own homes. In other places, Bosniacs were hindered by Serbs or by Croats. It was difficult to find solutions for that continuing problem, she added.

She said there was a special tragedy concerning the Serbs who had left Sarajevo and returned to find the women from Srebrenica in their homes. One could also imagine the feelings of those women, who once again had to give up their homes to those they believed to be responsible for their situation. Much of the difficulty in what was happening was not on a technical level, but in the perceptions of the people who harboured deep hatreds.

The concept of protection was important, but unfortunately there was still a great deal of police brutality, with frequent use of torture, she said. That was especially true in Serbia and towards Albanians in the Kosovo region, but it was also the case in other areas.

It was important that the international police train local police, as the International Police Task Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina had done, she continued. In particular, training should be provided for the police in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, who had shown extreme brutality in Gostivar last summer. She suggested that such tasks be included in the next mandate of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP). In that context, the international police must have a clear mandate, perhaps with the ability to impose sanctions. As it happened, the complaints of abuse were often made against the police and trials rarely took place. Civil police needed greater support and there should be more qualified people from outside to set a good example.

She stressed the importance of the "gender aspect", since many of the surviving victims were women. She recommended that international and local police forces include more women in their ranks. Women victims found it easier to describe incidents of personal abuse, especially rape, to other women. It was particularly difficult for Muslim women to speak to male police.

Rehn Press Conference - 2 - 13 November 1997

Continuing, she said it was essential that indicted war criminals be brought to The Hague and that the governments cooperate in that effort. The examples of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Srpska should be followed to ensure that new aspirants to power would hesitate to use violence. It was a slap in the face to the international community and to the people themselves that people like Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic were able to carry on political activities. It was important to make progress towards prosecutions.

She emphasized that the protection of women witnesses must be guaranteed. Rape victims were already struggling with feelings of shame in their private life, she said. Top priority must be given to providing mechanisms and money to protect rape victims, when and if they came to The Hague as witnesses.

The issue of missing persons -- a total of 20,000 -- was a tragedy for the region, she said. That number included 15,000 Bosniacs, about 3,000 Serbs and almost the same number of Croats. Funds were needed to carry out the search, as 70 per cent of the bodies could still be identified. It was tragic for the relatives, who had to look for those bodies, but also particularly important for widows, who must be able to prove their status to receive social assistance.

On the question of landmines, she said there were about 1 million mines in Bosnia alone, only 1 per cent of which had been cleared. There were approximately 30,000 minefields, 17,000 of which were mapped. The United Nations Mine Action Centre had requested $23 million for the current year, but as of November only $7 million had been provided. That meant they could not train new people or do much in the way of demining. It was especially dangerous for returning refugees and enforced returns from, for example, Germany and Finland, who were not accustomed to looking out for landmines. She expressed disgust over the report that several local commanders had maps of the mine fields, which they would only surrender for a price.

In closing, she said international military efforts were still needed and to leave now would be to throw away everything that had been so far gained. She hoped there would still be a Stabilization Force (SFOR) after June 1998, as well as a strong presence of civilian police.

How could refugees from Germany and Austria possibly go back? a correspondent asked. Mrs. Rehn replied that she had been asking governments to delay sending people back, unless it was clear that they had a place to stay or a job. Some countries, like Germany, which had been very firm about returning refugees in the beginning, were now being more flexible.

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