The Croatian government, together with the OSCE Mission, in September 2004 launched a campaign to raise public awareness about sustainable return and issues related to refugee return, minority rights and reconciliation, and the creation of a climate encouraging sustainable return, it was said at a news conference.
The news conference was held by Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, Tourism, Transport and Development Minister Bozidar Kalmeta, and OSCE Mission Head Jorge Fuentes.
The purpose of the campaign is to provide substantial and factual information to refugees living outside Croatia on the basis of which they will be able to make a sensible decision about return, as well as to contribute to creating an atmosphere facilitating sustainable return by promoting the importance of strengthening tolerance based on European values, Grabar Kitarovic said. She added that the Croatian government "has committed itself and has been consistently implementing the programme of refugee return and completion of the reconstruction process".
She recalled that the Sarajevo Declaration of January 2005, signed by Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro, envisaged settling the issue of refugees and displaced people by the end of 2006.
Croatia will continue, persistently and with full determination, to respect and implement its legal obligations which are aimed at ensuring sustainable return, accelerating reform of the judiciary and leading to the further promotion of human rights, freedom of the media and civil society, Grabar Kitarovic said.
Minister Kalmeta said the state had the task to ensure equal return conditions for all. Around 8,600 housing units will be completed by the end of the year, and another 4,000 will be reconstructed during 2006, Kalmeta said. So far, 137,337 houses and flats, worth some 15 billion kuna, have been reconstructed, Kalmeta said.
As for provision of accommodation to former tenancy rights holders, 4,100 applications have been submitted. Kalmeta said there would be no restitution of tenancy rights and that former tenancy rights holders could ensure housing accommodation by purchasing a flat under conditions offered by a government-subsidised housing construction plan or by renting a flat.
"This year we have started dealing with the first such cases. Forty-four million kuna of budgetary funds have been set aside for that purpose this year and that amount will certainly be spent by the end of the year," the minister said.
The refugee return campaign starts on Thursday and it will last 15 days, said Fuentes. Two video clips and one radio clip have been recorded for the purpose of the campaign, 250 billboards will be set up throughout the country, placards have been made and the web site www.povratak.hr has been designed as part of the campaign, Fuentes said. The campaign will be implemented in Croatia, as well as in some cities in Bosnia-Herezegovina and most likely in Serbia and Montenegro as well.