ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) - Please note that some mistakes have occurred in the news item headlined "OSCE Mission Very Encouraged By New Cro Authorities' Priorities", released on Wednesday, January 19.We are re-broadcasting the news item,
including the corrected section: ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia is very encouraged by the newly elected authorities' statements regarding their priorities, OSCE spokesman Peter Palmer told reporters in Zagreb on Wednesday. The priorities Croatia's new authorities mentioned included Euro-Atlantic integration, meeting international obligations, cooperation with The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, refugee returns, and the democratisation of the media, especially national television. Palmer said the OSCE
ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) - Please note that some mistakes have occurred
in the news item headlined "OSCE Mission Very Encouraged By New Cro
Authorities' Priorities", released on Wednesday, January 19.
We are re-broadcasting the news item, including the corrected
section:
ZAGREB, Jan 19 (Hina) - The Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia is very encouraged
by the newly elected authorities' statements regarding their
priorities, OSCE spokesman Peter Palmer told reporters in Zagreb on
Wednesday.
The priorities Croatia's new authorities mentioned included Euro-
Atlantic integration, meeting international obligations,
cooperation with The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia, refugee returns, and the
democratisation of the media, especially national television.
Palmer said the OSCE Mission welcomed the new authorities' focus on
progress in Croatia's integration with European and Euro-Atlantic
structures.
The new authorities' intention to comply with the international
obligations Croatia has undertaken are very positive and welcome,
said the OSCE Mission spokesman.
Promises to the effect of promoting and encouraging the return of
refugees and displaced persons, fully cooperating with The Hague
Tribunal, and transforming Croatian Radio-Television into a public
medium are very encouraging, Palmer asserted.
The OSCE Mission expects fruitful cooperation with Croatia's new
authorities, he added.
OSCE Mission to Croatia head Bernard Poncet will put forward the
positive assessment to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on
Thursday, in the form of a report on Croatia's January 3
parliamentary elections and the ensuing changes, Palmer
announced.
He said the OSCE Mission was willing to assist and advise the
Croatian government, in cooperation with international partners,
in meeting its international obligations.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expects
Croatia's new government to continue with implementing a refuge
return programme, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told today's same
press conference.
CORRECTED:
The UNHCR, as the leading humanitarian agency, will in the course of
this year endorse return programmes with a budget of US$11.4
million, Mahecic said.
He put forward the latest data on refugee returns. To date, 30,218
Croatian Serbs have returned from the Danube River Region in
eastern Croatia to their pre-war homes in other parts of the
country, including 5,699 in the course of the past year, while
45,859 Croat displaced persons have returned to their pre-war homes
in the Danube River Region, of whom 19,704 in the past year."
END CORRECTED
A total of 36,279 Serbs have returned to Croatia from Yugoslavia,
Bosnia-Herzegovina and other countries, including 10,698 in the
past year.
According to the UNHCR, the total figure of persons who returned to
their pre-war place of residence in Croatia is 112,365, including
36,101 who did so between January 1, 1999 and the present.
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