DISPLACED BOSNIAN CROATS SEND OPEN LETTER TO HIGH REPRESENTATIVE

MOSTAR, Sept 28 (Hina) - Two Bosnian Croat associations of refugees and displaced persons sent an open letter to High Representative Paddy Ashdown on Sunday urging him to annul what they called a discriminating decision to allocate housing reconstruction assistance largely to Bosniak returnees. #L# The two organisations described the decision by the Federal Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons as a conscious and intolerable attempt at obstructing the return of displaced Croats and refugees to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Noting that only 28 out of the 480 selected beneficiaries were Croats, they complained that two Croat majority cantons -- Posavina and Herzegovina -- were not included in the plan for the reconstruction of housing destroyed during the 1992-1995 war. Displaced Croats demand that Federal Minister for Refugees Edin Music allocate at least one-third of the federal budget funds for the reconstruction of their houses, or else they will stage protest rallies in Sarajevo and Mostar on October 10. (hina) vm