Initiatives for the return of all those expelled must now be pressed!

The division of Bosnia is not removed by the arrest of the presumed war criminal Radovan Karadzic, pointed out the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) on Tuesday. The GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch, said: "Initiatives must now be pressed immediately for the return of all those expelled, in order to overcome the division of the country. Only when the last Bosnian family has been able to return to the part of the country under Serb administration divided through war and genocide can there be any thought of Serbia being admitted to the EU."

Approximately 620,000 non-Serb Bosnians were driven out by the end of the war in 1995 from the so-called "Republika Srpska". They made up previously more than half of the population. Out of fear of harassment and infringements of rights, but also of meeting the war criminals only eight percent have been able to return to their hometowns. In the Serb-dominated part of Bosnia all important posts in politics, administration and offices are up to the present day held by Karadzic supporters. The official commission entrusted with the clearing up of the crimes in Srebrenica has listed the names of 19,473 Serbs who took part in the massacre and in military and police operations in and around the former UN protected zone. 982 of them continue to hold important positions in the police, in schools and in the courts.