SEMNEBY SAYS CROATIA HAS CHANCE TO RESOLVE ISSUES COVERED BY OSCE MANDATE

ZAGREB, Dec 19 (Hina) - The head of the OSCE Mission in Croatia, Peter Semneby, said after talks with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Friday that Croatia had entered the second phase and now had an opportunity to solve the issues covered by the OSCE mandate which particularly refer to the issue of minority rights, the return of refugees, the restitution of property and cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague.#L# The president and I talked about the new political situation in the country and opportunities it creates in the sense of progress and solving the issues covered by the OSCE mandate which particularly refer to minority rights, the restitution of property, the return of refugees and cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Semneby said after the talks. The fact that senior representatives of the new government called for the return of refugees, that an agreement was reached with representatives of the Serb minority in parliament and the fact that Croatia is entering the crucial phase of the process of joining the EU, show that there are good possibilities for the resolving of those issues, Semneby said. He reiterated that the OSCE still had its role in Croatia and stressed he did not want to speculte about how long the OSCE mission in Croatia would last. Semneby said that during its next mandate, the OSCE would focus on the implementation of legal provisions and government's programmes, particularly the implementation of the Constitutional Law on Minority Rights. The president's advisor on forein affairs, Igor Dekanic, briefly said that Mesic believed that the OSCE role was very significant and that Croatia must look at the OSCE mission as an assistance in the country's development and democratisation. THE OSCE permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday debated a biannual report on Croatia and decided to extend the mandate of the Mission in Croatia until December 31, 2004. (Hina) it