"Croatia is a law-government state today and lots of things have changed over the past ten years or so," Mesic told a crowd of some 500 applauding residents in the local cinema.
Speaking of requests for housing reconstruction and property restitution, Mesic said that many of such cases had not been dealt with yet due to red tape. "Each such case must be dealt with," the president stressed, adding that former tenancy rights holders could not be given back their tenancy rights, but that those people should be provided with alternative housing.
Mesic commented on a statement made by Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic during the recent presidential race in Serbia, that the borders in the region would be changed again in the future. Mesic said that it was not a good message from Serbia. "The border will not be changed again, only opened," he stressed.
"I advocate Europeanisation of this region where everyone will cooperate within a Europe of open borders," he stressed.
Mesic said that Croatia had to turn to Europe and embrace European standards, and that this was also in the interests of Donji Lapac and the entire Lika region. "Our first task, along with the return of all refugees, is to create job opportunities for them."
Before speaking to residents of Donji Lapac, Mesic had a working meeting with municipal leaders and representatives of local public companies.
Mayor Milan Djukic said that his municipality of 3,500 inhabitants, including 450 ethnic Croats, had been hit hardest by the 1991-1995 war. He warned that many houses had not yet been rebuilt and that 50 per cent of the prewar population had not returned.
Djukic mentioned undeveloped infrastructure, the local economy destroyed by the war, a poor power supply grid and poor health services. He noted that local agriculture was being revived as people were returning.
The head of Lika County, Milan Jurkovic, said that Donji Lapac would be connected to Gospic as the county town as soon as the construction of a 23-km-long asphalt road was completed. He said that Donji Lapac was now supplied with water from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was too expensive, and that a water supply project and the construction of a new primary school and a health care centre were nearing completion.