ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Croatia on Monday began the audit of all 18,000 decisions temporarily allocating the property of Serb refugees who fled Croatia for third countries to Croat displaced persons and refugees, the Ministry for
Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction reported. "We are beginning the pilot-project today in Petrinja, and we will perform the audit with municipal and town housing commissions, mostly in areas of special government care (areas of Croatia particularly affected by the 1990's Serb aggression), assistant minister Lovro Pejkovic told Hina, announcing an audit of the total of 18,000 issued decisions. Decisions on the temporary allocation of property were issued in the period from 1996 to 1998. "In all cases where it is found that the temporary users have been taken care of, in the sense of reconstruction of their homes, or flats or houses had been given to them by other state b
ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Croatia on Monday began the audit of all
18,000 decisions temporarily allocating the property of Serb
refugees who fled Croatia for third countries to Croat displaced
persons and refugees, the Ministry for Public Works,
Reconstruction and Construction reported.
"We are beginning the pilot-project today in Petrinja, and we will
perform the audit with municipal and town housing commissions,
mostly in areas of special government care (areas of Croatia
particularly affected by the 1990's Serb aggression), assistant
minister Lovro Pejkovic told Hina, announcing an audit of the total
of 18,000 issued decisions.
Decisions on the temporary allocation of property were issued in
the period from 1996 to 1998.
"In all cases where it is found that the temporary users have been
taken care of, in the sense of reconstruction of their homes, or
flats or houses had been given to them by other state bodies,
commissions are obliged to rescind their decisions for temporary
allocation of Serb property," Pejkovic said, adding this would
provide them with information on the number of people who have the
right to alternate accommodation in state-owned homes.
Out of the 140,000 Bosnian Croats accommodated in Croatia, about
40,000 are currently in other people's homes. It has been estimated
that about 60,000 Croats have so far returned to Bosnia-
Herzegovina. Most, however, have expressed no wish to return, but
announced they would rather go off to third countries than return to
areas under Serb or Bosniak (Muslim) authority.
According to information by the government, in the year 2000 some
18,109 Croatian citizens of Serb nationality returned to Croatia,
through which, Pejkovic said, the government has fulfilled its
pledge that 16,000 Serb refugees would return to Croatia in 2000.
The biggest number of Serb returnees are in Sisak-Moslavina County
(5,993), followed by Sibenik-Knin County (3,867), Karlovac County
(2,151), Zadar County (1,533) and Lika-Senj County (1,296).
A third of the 300,000 Serbs who fled Croatia since 1990 have
returned to the country, Pejkovic said, stressing this was
unofficial information being examined by the UNHCR in the field.
Before Croatian liberation operations in 1995, Flash and Storm,
about 50,000 Serbs traded their property with Croats in Yugoslav's
province in Vojvodina, and it is unrealistic to expect them to
return, he asserted, estimating another 20,000 to 30,000 Serbs
could yet return to Croatia, making up more than a half of the Serb
refugee corps.
(hina) lml sb