ZAGREB, Oct 15 (Hina) - Not one settler in Croatia will be left unprovided for, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said on Wednesday at a convention of the Alliance of Croatian Settlers, which gathers Croats who were expelled or fled
from Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1990s war.
ZAGREB, Oct 15 (Hina) - Not one settler in Croatia will be left
unprovided for, Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said on
Wednesday at a convention of the Alliance of Croatian Settlers,
which gathers Croats who were expelled or fled from Bosnia-
Herzegovina during the 1990s war. #L#
"We will help both those who wish to return and those who wish to
stay," Granic said.
"Our top priority is to provide everyone with a roof over their
heads, but this isn't enough," he added.
Granic went on to say that EUR107 million had been secured this year
for those people, and that a variety of measures had been taken to
create new jobs, although war-ravaged areas, where most settlers
live, are not sufficiently interesting to investors.
Alliance president Tomo Aracic said major progress had been made
over the past year in providing housing for settlers, which he added
was the first step in their integration into Croatian society.
He warned that a new exodus of Bosnian Croats could be expected
since nobody in Bosnia was working on the return of the displaced to
their pre-war homes. He added that in the Bosnian Serb entity there
were forces obstructing that process.
The main objectives of the Alliance in the coming period will be to
settle property claims in Bosnia, deal with the issues of Bosnian
Croatian Defence Council disabled war veterans living in Croatia,
and draw up economic development plans.
(hina) ha sb