Refugees and displaced persons called upon to vote at referendum

RELIEF WEB (SWITZERLAND)

 

Source: Government of Serbia

Date: 26 Oct 2006

 

Belgrade, Oct 26, 2006 - Representatives of the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees, the Serbian government's Service for Human and Minority Rights, and associations of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and of internally displaced persons from Kosovo-Metohija called on refugees and displaced persons today to vote at the referendum on Serbia's new Constitution on October 28 and 29.

 

Director of the Service for the Human and Minority Rights Petar Ladjevic specified at a press conference that in Serbia there are 210,000 displaced persons and 400,000 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina who have obtained Serbian citizenship and the right to vote at the referendum.

 

Ladjevic said that article 69 of the new Constitution states that special protection should be provided for invalids, war veterans and victims of the war, and added that the greatest victims of the war are refugees. He added that the new Constitution gives the widest framework for bringing other legislation that will help refugees to fully integrate in Serbia.

 

The call vote at the referendum was also made by Serbian Deputy Commissioner for Refugees Nikola Vukojevic and representative of the Democratic initiative for Knin Rade Matijas, who said that it is necessary to support the Constitution which, under article 13 is committed to take care of all Serbs in all the countries they inhabit.