Ambassador Ivan Simonovic, who spoke on Friday at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, said the human rights situation in Croatia significantly improved with the election of the new, pro-Western government here in January, the state-run news agency HINA reported.
Therefore, the U.N. special envoy for human rights, Jiri Dienstbier, "should exclude Croatia from his monitoring" of its human rights record as he earlier did with two other former Yugoslav republics, Slovenia and Macedonia, Simonovic said.
Dienstbier's latest report on Yugoslavia, Croatia and Bosnia was released Thursday.
In the report, Dienstbier admitted some progress in Croatia's human rights record. But he criticized the recent arrest here of 13 Serb war crimes suspects, saying the move would frighten Croatia's Serbs and could discourage others who fled the country in 1995 from returning.
Simonovic protested, saying that the new government is "committed to prosecute all war crimes."
"That is a duty of every state, and should we fail to do so we would violate humanitarian law," HINA quoted Simonovic as saying.
Last month, Croatia arrested a dozen Croats suspected of atrocities committed against Serbs during the 1991 Croatian war, which erupted when ethnic Serbs took up arms to oppose Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.
The previous government of the late President Franjo Tudjman never charged Croats with war crimes against Serbs, and the arrests triggered some fierce protests in Croatia, where memories of Serb war crimes are still vivid.
The vast majority of victims of the 1991 war were Croats, but independent reports show that Serb civilians were slain, too.
Thirteen Serb war crimes suspects were also arrested earlier this month, prompting protests from the Serb community here.
In his report on Yugoslavia, Dienstbier failed to emphasize Yugoslavia's refusal to cooperate with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, said Simonovic. Croatia's new government has cooperated with the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands.
In his report, Dienstbier also called on the Bosnia's neighbors to recognize that country. Simonovic protested, saying that Croatia _ one of the only two Bosnian neighbors _ recognized Bosnia already in 1991.
"Dienstbier's criticism should be addressed to Yugoslavia only," Simonovic said.
(sda)