The press asked Peter Semneby in Zagreb on Monday to explain why OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) should remain in Croatia given that its mission is virtually identical to the European Union's membership criteria for Croatia.
Semneby said there was a difference in individual international organisations' responsibilities in Croatia, but that OSCE had a unique comparative advantage due to the knowledge and experience it had accumulated as well as the presence on the ground throughout the country. He added the goals were identical but the work methods were different.
Semneby said the reduction of the mission in 2005 would step up its effectiveness, adding that it reflected the progress Croatia had achieved in certain areas as well as the change in the nature of things the OSCE dealt with.
He said the mission would close some regional offices, relocate others, and reduce its presence on the ground, limiting it to regional political centres.
The mission called today's press conference so that Semneby could present the 15th Progress Report on the implementation of Croatia's international commitments. He will present the report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday.
Semneby said the general message of the report was that the Government carried out reforms in most areas within the mission's jurisdiction, which he added was reflected in the notable progress Croatia had made in Euro-Atlantic integration.
According to the report, Croatia has made headway in some refugee-related housing issues, notably the reconstruction and restitution of occupied property, and considerable progress has been made in preparing the national judiciary for the possible takeover of some war crimes cases from the UN tribunal in The Hague.
At the same time, reforms in some areas slowed down, which Semneby said was due to the diminished support for EU entry recently noticed among the population and in the media, the difficult financial situation the Government was faced with, and the forthcoming presidential elections.
The OSCE mission noted the implementation pace was particularly slow in the media legislation reform, the failure to implement decisions on national minorities' participation in the judiciary, the authorities, and the police, and the amending of election legislation in line with international recommendations.
Another problem is the courts' ethnic bias, as well as the widespread looting of property after temporary occupants have left and before it is returned to the original owners, which prompted the OSCE to ask for additional measures to deal with this issue.
The report highlights the problem of accommodation for former tenancy rights owners who would like to return to Croatia, stating that nothing of what had been agreed on was done over the past year. It adds that the information campaign in this issue was launched only three months before the deadline for the submission of applications expired, which prompted the OSCE to ask for an extension of the deadline.
Citing court documents, Semneby said there could be 30,000 beneficiaries of the housing programme for former tenancy rights owners, but added that only a little over 1,000 applications had been submitted, which he said was mainly due to the fact that information about the programme had been available only these past two weeks.
Asked how the latest Progress Report differed from the previous one, Semneby said the Government now had a firm commitment stemming from various documents regulating Croatia's EU integration progress. He added that unlike previous reports, the OSCE now had clear guidelines to measure the progress.
Semneby reiterated the mission would not monitor the presidential elections because the parliamentary pools held in late 2003 were carried out successfully. He said the mission still maintained it was necessary to set up a permanent election monitoring body.
He was asked to comment on the three Belgrade students who last weekend took pictures of themselves in Zagreb's central square bearing a photograph of convicted WWII criminal and Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic.
Semneby said that any form of glorification of totalitarian ideologies was unacceptable, but added that he was not familiar with the details of the incident. He added the Progress Report commended the Croatian Government for how it clearly distanced itself from such ideologies by recently removing monuments honouring the Ustasha.