Original scientific paper
THE CAUSES OF EXILE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CROATIAN DISPLACED PERSONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORLD REFUGEE ISSUE
Vlado Šakić
; Institute for Applied Social Research University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Zora Raboteg-Šarić
; Institute for Applied Social Research University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Andreja Brajša-Žganec
; Institute for Applied Social Research University of Zagreb, Zagreb
Abstract
Inspite of the fact that war and armed conflicts are mostly the
cause of an immense number of refugees throughout the world,
the international community uses legal definitions of the refugee
status based on the concept of individual persecution, which do
not include this form of exile. International organizations have
refrained from defining the cause due to which people are forced
to leave their homes, because they wanted to act as non-political,
strictly humanitarian factors. More recent considerations of the
refugee issue worldwide indicate that dealing with this problem
from a purely humanitarian viewpoint is inadequate, because it
neglects the basic question of war and peace, Le. conditions
which give rise to a mass exodus of people. Authors analyze the
basic socio-demographic characteristics of the refugee
population in Croatia. An analysis is proposed, according to the
most relevant characteristics, which could help organize aid and
the return of refugees to their abandoned homes with more
success. Comparison of the national structure of displaced
persons from occupied territories with the national structure of
inhabitants from the same regions before the war, indicates that
in these areas ethnic cleansing of the non-Serbian population
took place. The problems of displaced persons and refugees in
Croatia are considered within the framework of new approaches
in dealing with the refugee problem worldwide, according to which
it is necessary in the first place to clearly define aggression and
war as the cause of exile, and then undertake political, and not
only humanitarian initiatives for solving this problem.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
32534
URI
Publication date:
1.3.1993.
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