Some opposition MPs "expressed fear on Wednesday" that a law on civilian victims of the 1991-95 war could also give some rights to "collaborators of the aggressor," state agency Hina reported, adding that the ruling majority called this "politicisation," saying that the law applied only to innocent victims of war.

A parliamentary debate on a final bill on civilian victims of the war saw the discussion veer into a bizarre debate about “the lack of a register of aggressors” and the possibility that “collaborators of enemy units be granted civilian war victim rights,” Hina reported. Hina did not clarify what kind of rights the new bill would regulate.

MP Miro Bulj (Most party) warned about the lack of such a register, while MP Stipo Mlinaric (Homeland Movement) said he suspected that the law was being adopted “because of the ruling coalition between the HDZ and the SDSS (Independent Democratic Serb Party).”

Mlinaric said that “it was symptomatic” that the law was being adopted after local elections and that SDSS MPs were not participating in the debate.

War Veterans Minister, Tomo Medved, said that these were “distorted arguments aimed at diverting attention from the merit of the law.”

“This law applies solely to civilian war victims,” he said, denying that Croatia did not have records of persons who committed military aggression against Croatia.

He said any possible abuse of the law would be prevented with Croatian institutions’ resources and data and that the Homeland War Memorial and Documentation Centre would play an important part in that.

Marijan Pavlicek (Sovereignists) said it was “symptomatic that the Serb National Council gave its consent to such a law” and that he feared Croatian institutions did not have a list of all the persons who took part in the aggression and in paramilitary units.

The Sovereignists demanded that the records of civilian war victims be made public, with their MP Zeljko Sacic saying there were 26,000 potential beneficiaries, not 2,500 as claimed by Medved.

Josip Djakic of the ruling HDZ said the bill represented “a repayment of the debt to civilian war victims” and that it envisaged security mechanisms and a procedure to obtain rights.

Ursa Raukar-Gabulin and Sandra Bencic of the Green-Left Bloc welcomed the bill, but warned about possible discrimination on ethnic grounds. Bencic said the civilian victims of crimes committed by the Croatian side should also be given rights.

Vesna Nadj (Social Democratics) said the law would cost the state budget HRK 108 million over the next three years and that the HDZ was passing it due to pressure from its coalition partner SDSS.

She said the bill was a copy of an SDP bill which was withdrawn due to demand from war veterans. “You accused us then of wanting to equate victims and aggressors.”

“We are glad the government accepted the direction the (former) SDP-led government showed them in regulating civilian victims’ rights,” she said, adding that the SDP would support the bill.

Medved dismissed “any insinuation that the bill is in line with the SDP’s idea.”