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Serbia finds deal with Hungarians over restitution

21 October 2011, 21:34 CET
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(BELGRADE) - Serbia has found a solution in a dispute over a restitution law that was the reason for Hungary's threat to oppose Belgrade's EU bid, considering the legislation discriminatory towards Hungarians.

Authorities agreed with representatives of Serbia's Hungarian minority to clarify the issue with another law, concerning the rehabilitation of those unjustly sentenced by the communists after World War II, lawmaker Laszlo Varga told AFP.

This law will include an article saying that "only those who committed war crimes (and their heirs) have no right" to seek their confiscated property, said Varga, the leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina's Hungarians.

Serbia's parliament adopted on September 26 a law on the return of property confiscated by the Communist regime after World War II, a key piece of legislation for its EU membership bid.

The law excludes Serbia's ethnic Hungarians from the compensation by decreeing that members of occupying forces or their heirs were not entitled to compensation.

In the dispute, Hungary threatened to withdraw its support for Serbia's EU candidacy, expected to be approved in December.

The draft law on rehabilitation will clarify that those who were members of the occupying forces during World War II will have the right to claim back their property confiscated by the Communists if there is no evidence they committed any crimes during the conflict.

"There are several details that remain to be agreed in the text of the draft, but in principle the agreement has been reached," Varga said.

The Hungarian army occupied Serbia's northern territories between 1941 and 1944 and enlisted many local ethnic Hungarians.

More than 350,000 Hungarians now live in Serbia's northern Vojvodina province.


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