BANJA LUKA, March 6 (Hina) - There are almost no Croats in the Bosnian Serb entity as less than three percent have returned since the war ended, participants in Saturday's round-table debate on the sustainable return of Croats to
Republika Srpska said.
BANJA LUKA, March 6 (Hina) - There are almost no Croats in the Bosnian
Serb entity as less than three percent have returned since the war
ended, participants in Saturday's round-table debate on the
sustainable return of Croats to Republika Srpska said.#L#
"The international community is trying to create the impression that
the return of refugees and displaced persons is over. No one has the
right to put a time limit on the return process," Martin Raguz, deputy
chairman of the Bosnian parliament's House of Representatives, said at
the debate organised by Bosnia's Association of Displaced and Refugee
Croats and Alliance of Croats.
The director of Caritas of the Banja Luka diocese, Miljenko Anicic,
said that only 2,152 of 70,000 Croats from this diocese had returned
so far, which is less than three percent.
According to professor Ante Markotic, a demographer, ethnically
cleansed parts in Bosnia-Herzegovina were "cemented" after the war.
There are no more Croats in areas where they lived before the war,
while Serbs and Muslims fared better, he said, adding that he doubted
Bosnia's current demographic picture would change. For that to happen
Serbs need to return to Croatia and Bosnia's Croat-Muslim entity so
that Croats and Muslims can return to Republika Srpska, he said.
Josip Jurcevic, a professor from Zagreb, said that "the entity of
Republika Srpska by definition cannot be inclined towards returns as
it was born out of crime".
Father Anicic accused the international community for the current
state of affairs, notably of failing to secure any financial
assistance to the return of Croats and of spreading "the platitude
that Croats don't want to come back to these parts".
Bosnian Serb entity President Dragan Cavic called on Croats to return.
He agreed that the return of refugees was slow.
Croatian Ambassador to Bosnia Josip Vrbosic thanked Cavic for his
public call on Croats to come back to pre-war homes, and reiterated
the Croatian government's willingness to support the return of all
refugees to their homes, saying that "otherwise reconciliation is not
possible".
(Hina) ha sb