The purpose of the visit was to inform diplomats about the work of the OSCE Mission in the field.
The delegation visited the villages of Kasic, Smilcic and Smokvic and held talks with ethnic Serb returnees and Croat settlers as well as Serb representatives and local authorities.
Fuentes said OSCE was satisfied with cooperation with the Croatian Government and the processes of the the reconstruction and return. He said the OSCE Mission would like to see the completion of these processes as soon as possible and voiced confidence the reconstruction would be completed by the end of 2006 so that Croatia would be ready for its entry into the European Union.
On behalf of the European Commission, the head of the European Commission Delegation in Croatia, Vincent Degert, was in the delegation. Degert said that while deciding to launch accession talks with Croatia, the EU had taken into consideration progress the country made in the reconstruction and refugee returns.
According to him, Croatia is bound to fully cooperate with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal as well as to solve the issue of the return of Croatian Serb refugees.
Assistant Reconstruction Minister Stanko Janjic said that since the end of war Croatia had rebuilt 150,000 houses and invested 15.5 billion kuna in the reconstruction.
(1EUR = 7.4 kuna)