BOSNIA: PROJECT TO RECONSTRUCT SREBRENICA

SARAJEVO, April 16 (Hina) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday announced a special project to reconstruct the Srebrenica area. Srebrenica is remembered for the worst massacre on European soil since World War II, when in 1995, Bosnian Serb forces murdered more than 8,000 Bosniaks. #L# UNDP deputy leader for Bosnia and Herzegovina Moises Venancio stated in Sarajevo on Tuesday that the special project for the reconstruction of Srebrenica was designed on the basis of expert analyses with the objective of indicating the fastest possible method of reconstruction and renewal of human and physical potential in Srebrenica and neighbouring municipalities like Bratunac and Milici. The project will focus to reconstruct residential buildings and the infrastructure, to motivate economic development, support municipal authorities and rebuild civil society. A special donors conference should be held at UN headquarters in New York this May, where plans to reconstruct Srebrenica will be presented. It is estimated that the realisation of all the plans encompassed in the project for the next two to three years should cost about US$12.5 million. A special UN mission fund for Bosnia (UNMIB) to reconstruct Srebrenica has thus far invested around US$1.6 million, mostly to reconstruct the infrastructure. According to UNDP, only about 500 Bosniaks have returned to Srebrenica. (hina) sp sb