ZAGREB, June 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan called on Thursday on all refugees who are Croatian citizens to return to Croatia and take the opportunity given them by measures securing the right to a home which the government
adopted today.
ZAGREB, June 12 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan called on
Thursday on all refugees who are Croatian citizens to return to
Croatia and take the opportunity given them by measures securing
the right to a home which the government adopted today. #L#
By adopting decisions on providing housing for returnees and
refugees -- former tenancy rights holders without property -- the
government completed a package of measures securing the right to a
home to all returnees and refugees willing to return and
permanently reside in Croatia, Racan said in his call.
Housing is no longer an obstacle for refugee returns in Croatia, the
PM said.
The government's housing measures offer two possibilities -- the
state buys flats and leases them to returnees, or refugees who wish
to do so may take part in the programme of state-subsidised house-
building.
The entire process should be completed by the end of 2006.
Applications will be accepted by the reconstruction ministry
through the end of 2004.
Reconstruction Minister Radimir Cacic said that all citizens would
be treated equally, regardless of nationality. He stressed the
decision on housing arrangements did not mean the renewal of former
tenancy rights.
The condition for refugees to get a flat is not to have another house
or flat on the territory of the ex-Yugoslavia and that they did not
sell or give in present such property after 8 October 1991.
Cacic said the number of expected applications was not known,
although sources close to the government estimate it will not
exceed 5,000.
The cost of the venture next year alone is expected to be 400 million
kuna, of which 300 million will cover start-up funds for the
purchase of flats from the state-subsidised programme, and the rest
loan repayment.
Croatia will cover virtually the entire cost, said Deputy PM Goran
Granic, adding that claims about international assistance were
just propaganda. Croatia will deal with this problem by itself, he
said.
European Integration Minister Neven Mimica said the return of Serb
refugees, the reform of the justice system, and cooperation with
the war crimes tribunal in The Hague were the key political
conditions in Croatia's drawing closer to the European Union. He
recalled that not one state had started negotiations with the Union
without having first met the political requirements.
Mimica said Croatia did not choose the housing model for Serb
refugees because of pressure from the EU and the international
community but in order to apply values on which every democracy was
based.
(hina) ha