OSCE SATISFIED WITH GOV'T DECISIONS, BUT NOT WITH IMPLEMENTATION

ZAGREB, Nov 19 (Hina) - In the past six months the Croatian government has made important decisions in fulfilling its international obligations, particularly regarding the return of Serb refugees and the protection of minorities, but the implementation of these decisions is insufficient and too slow, the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Peter Semneby, said in Zagreb on Tuesday. #L# Semneby said this at a press conference at which he presented a regular progress report regarding Croatia's meeting of its international obligations. The OSCE official will present the report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday. On 30 pages, the report tackles in detail all fields from the mission's mandate, including the return of refugees, the judiciary, freedom of media, political issues, activities of non- governmental organisations in Croatia between May and November 2002. The return of refugees remains the key issue, and the OSCE Mission particularly criticises the government's ambivalent attitude towards it. According to Semneby, this was demonstrated by leaving the issue off the list of priorities the government adopted in July. The Mission says some legal changes helped the process of the restitution of Serb property and that reconstruction assistance was expanded considerably to Serb beneficiaries. The OSCE, however, says the implementation of these decisions is insufficient because legal deadlines are not respected. The Mission demands the Croatian government adopt decisions regarding the restitution of land and business facilities, as well as other occupied property. The report also tackles minority rights which, according to the Mission, are closely connected with the return issue because the majority of the minority population is still out of the country. The OSCE Mission said a draft constitutional law on national minority rights was very acceptable but expressed regret that it had not yet been adopted. Problems regarding the functioning of the rule-of-law continue to burden the Croatian society. At his presentation in Vienna, Semneby will, however, praise the government for adopting an overall programme of judiciary reforms and for the intensified efforts the State Prosecutor's Office invested in revising war crimes indictments, among which unfounded ones should be revoked while war criminals should be brought to justice. Commenting on the law on media, the OSCE Mission said that steps had been taken to bring the law up-to-date, particularly the law on radio and television. The Mission said, however, that these efforts had revealed harshly opposed interests regarding key issues. The progress report hails the government's decision regarding the development of the police in the community programme and said Croatia acted in line with its obligations regarding the share of Serb representatives in the police forces in the Croatian Danube River region. The Mission, however, assessed that Croatia was late in implementing the key reform of the entire police sector. The conclusion of the report refers to the role of non-governmental organisations and the development of civil society. According to the OSCE report, the awareness about the importance of NGOs and civil society in Croatia is rising. The OSCE, however, said that their further progress was obstructed by a lack of finances. The OSCE Mission is particularly satisfied with the improvement in joint activities with the government, which it often criticised in the past. Commenting on next year's prospects regarding Croatia's fulfilling of its international obligations, Ambassador Semneby said they were relatively encouraging but added that progress would demand a stronger political commitment and engagement by the government in supporting sustainable return, minority rights and the functioning of the rule-of-law. (hina) it sb