FLATS WILL BE RETURNED TO SERB REFUGEES IF THEY LIVE IN THEM FOR 10 YEARS - CACIC

KORNICE, Nov 21 (Hina) - Croatia's Minister of Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction, Radimir Cacic, said in Kornice (Bosnia-Herzegovina) on Wednesday Croatia would grant Croatian Serb refugees the same rights as those granted to other citizens, including the right to purchase socially-owned flats, on condition they live in those flats for ten years, as regulated by the Law on the Purchase of Socially-Owned Flats. This, Cacic said, "would help prevent possible manipulation by those wishing to sell flats without living in them." Cacic and Bosnia's Minister for Refugees and Human Rights, Kresimir Zubak, today signed a contract on the reconstruction of Bosnian Croat houses in Kornice, in the Bosnian Serb entity. Cacic was asked by Bosnian Serb reporters to comment on a statement by Croatian Vice Premier Zeljka Antunovic that Serb refugees who had tenancy rights in Croatia and abandoned their flats of their own accord would not be returned those flats. The minister said the housing sector and the programme of return was within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction and only he was competent for that matter. The number of such flats is not 50,000 but less, he said. (hina) rml