OSCE SUPPORTS CRO GOVT PLAN OF RETURN OF PROPERTY TO ALL

ZAGREB, Jan 24 (Hina) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission said on Thursday it supported the commitment of the Croatian government to complete the process of property restitution by the end of 2002. "The OSCE Mission to Croatia supports the announced commitment of the Government of Croatia to 'return all property by the end of 2002', understanding that this is a very ambitious plan which will require a determined political will and all possible efforts of the Croatian authorities and courts at all levels in order to achieve it. The OSCE Mission particularly looks forward to the immediate resolution of the remainder of the 1,520 cases of multiple and illegal property throughout Croatia identified by the Government itself," the Mission says in a statement issued today. The Mission also denies having ever claimed, as reported in an article of a Croatian daily on 23 January, that the "majority of Croatian returnees occupy two or three houses," and believes this claim misrepresents the OSCE position. The Mission reminds that it has repeatedly called for the immediate resolution of multiple and illegal occupancy and other types of abuse of property, regardless of the status and the ethnicity of the occupant, as well as for the adoption of a comprehensive legal regime on property repossession. (hina) sb rml