Sonja
Biserko Gets a High Decoration
February 1, 2010
On February 1, 2010 Chairwoman of the Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights in Serbia received a high decoration from
President of the Republic of Croatia Stjepan Mesic for her outstanding
contribution to the promotion of human and civil rights, rights of
minorities in particular, and for contributing to normalization of
Serbia-Croatia relations. President Mesic pointed out that Ms. Biserko
had been among the first to condemn the nationalistic policy of Slobodan
Milosevic's regime.
Expressing her appreciation of the honor done to her,
Ms. Biserko said that of all the activities of the Helsinki Committee
she considered its work on the return of refugees to Croatia the most
important. This work, she said, placed the issue of the return of all
refugees and displaced persons in the region at the top of the human
rights agenda and actually turned it into an issue preconditioning the
safeguard of multiethnicity of the newly emerged states. This is still
an open problem, she concluded, adding that fresh advances are still
needed and Croatia, as the country closest to the membership of the
European Union, can still contribute much to the establishment of
genuine multiethnicity and serve as an example to the region still
facing problems in the implementation of that concept.
Besides the Chairwoman of the Helsinki Committee,
President Mesic decorated Efraim Zuroff, director of Simon Wiesenthal
Jerusalem Center, and Jorge Huentes Mazoni-Viallongi, former OSCE
ambassador to Croatia and incumbent Spanish ambassador to Bulgaria. |