SARAJEVO, July 8 (Hina) - US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Clifford Bond and representatives of the state and entity Ministries for Refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Monday signed a protocol in Sarajevo on the implementation of a
new project to sustain returns to Srebrenica.
SARAJEVO, July 8 (Hina) - US Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Clifford Bond and representatives of the state and entity
Ministries for Refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Monday signed a
protocol in Sarajevo on the implementation of a new project to
sustain returns to Srebrenica. #L#
The aim of the project, valued at two and a half million dollars, of
which the US government came up with one million, is earmarked for
refugee returns and for the first time will be entirely co-
ordinated by the foreign and B-H partners.
Since last year we have united our political readiness so that we
motivate refugee returns and now with the same objective we are
uniting the material sources at our disposal, Minister for Human
Rights and Refugees in Bosnia, Kresimir Zubak said.
He explained that efforts this time were directed not only to
reconstructing damaged houses in Srebrenica but also to the revival
of the infrastructure and the economy so that returnees can be given
an opportunity to live.
We expect that with this project, we will motivate not only returns
by Bosniak (Muslim) but Serb refugees too. We are taking part in the
project because we value its multiethnic dimension, Ambassador
Bond said.
The US "Mercy Corp." humanitarian organisation will implement the
project that is to be financed by the US Government. It is intended
to reconstruct 100 residential units in Srebrenica as well as 82 in
surrounding quarters with a majority Serb population.
As the deputy director of this organisation for Bosnia, Marko
Nisandzic explained to Hina, it is assumed that in that way the
return of about 2,500 and 2,700 refugees will be able to return to
their homes.
The entire Muslim population was forced to flee from the area in
July 1995 following a massacre committed by Serb units when they
entered Srebrenica which until then had been a UN safe haven.
Seven years after the massacre of at least eight thousand Bosniaks
(Muslims) from Srebrenica, a mere thousand four hundred survivors
have managed to return to their pre-war homes.
Of the 28 thousand residents of Srebrenica - Bosniaks - who,
according to official statistics, lived there prior to the war,
about four thousand have registered their interest to return. They
have been waiting for years for an opportunity to do so.
The majority of them will arrive on July 11 at a commemoration to be
held at the former Battery factory in Potocari, near Srebrenica,
where last year a founding stone was laid for a future memorial
complex to be built in honour of the victims who in 1995 were killed
by forces commanded by Ratko Mladic, now wanted by the UN war crimes
tribunal.
(hina) sp ms