"We need to continue to broaden our donor base, but I am delighted that new States are starting to step forward. So far, we can welcome Croatia, Libya, Romania and Venezuela into the club of donor states for the first time," the statement cited UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers as saying.
Croatia's first-time pledge to contribute to the UN Refugees Agency reflects the tremendous changes the young state has undergone since UNHCR arrived in the country in 1991 -- from the receiver of UN humanitarian assistance in the last decade of the 20th century, when it was hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, to a donor country of UNHCR, the statement said.