OSCE Concerned Over Street Names In Serbian City

(RFE/RL) April 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Serbia today said it was concerned over a decision by a city assembly earlier this week to name two streets after military commanders who were allegedly involved in atrocities during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

In a statement, the mission's acting chief, Anthony Pahigian, said such a naming "contradicts the important process of bringing justice to all victims of war crimes, the need for regional reconciliation and co-operation, and for resolving the regional refugee problems."

The two streets in the city of Novi Sad were named after Veljko Milankovic and Mladen Bratic.

Milankovic was killed in 1993 as a paramilitary commander in western Croatia during Serbian-Croatian fighting. Bratic, a general in command of the Yugoslav Army's Novi Sad corps, was killed in 1991 during the seige of the Croatian city of Vukovar.

Human rights activists in Serbia are also voicing their concern over the Novi Sad city assembly's decision. The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) is in control of the Novi Sad assembly.

(with material from AP)