ZAGREB, Feb 23 (Hina) - The OSCE and UNHCR missions in Croatia welcomed a project on the return of 16,500 Serbs to Croatia which the Croatian Government presented on Monday at the Budapest meeting of the Stability Pact for South-East
Europe' Democratisation Working Table. The project, worth 55.6 million U.S. dollars, should be carried out in the coming six months. This is a very good project and the OSCE mission greets it, but the Croatian Government must take positive moves in the work of housing commissions, the enforcement of laws and the return of property to resume the process of the return, said a spokesman for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission at Wednesday's regular press conference. Citing examples of the blockade in the return, Peter Palmer mentioned the work of housing commission in the eastern town of Vukovar. Those commissions had pro
ZAGREB, Feb 23 (Hina) - The OSCE and UNHCR missions in Croatia
welcomed a project on the return of 16,500 Serbs to Croatia which
the Croatian Government presented on Monday at the Budapest meeting
of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe' Democratisation
Working Table.
The project, worth 55.6 million U.S. dollars, should be carried out
in the coming six months.
This is a very good project and the OSCE mission greets it, but the
Croatian Government must take positive moves in the work of housing
commissions, the enforcement of laws and the return of property to
resume the process of the return, said a spokesman for the OSCE
(Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) mission at
Wednesday's regular press conference.
Citing examples of the blockade in the return, Peter Palmer
mentioned the work of housing commission in the eastern town of
Vukovar. Those commissions had processed a small number of
requests. In addition, Palmer said, they also made decisions on
enabling the owners of houses to come back to their homes, but
failed to ensure simultaneously the alternative accommodation for
temporary tenants, most of whom were Serbs.
It is contrary to the Croatian Government's programme of the
return, Palmer complained adding that there was potentials for
alternative accommodation in that eastern Croatian town.
Flats are being allocated but generally not to Serbs, Palmer
claimed, adding that such practice is undermining efforts of the
current Government.
The OSCE spokesman said discriminatory provisions of some laws,
still in force in Croatia, had a negative impact on the return
process.
The laws in question are the act on reconstruction and on areas of
special state care, and the OSCE mission has been for some time
advocating their annulment, Palmer added.
The fact that the Croatian law makes distinction between notions
"expelled persons" and "displaced persons", has led to the
situation on the ground that assistance for the reconstruction has
been almost exclusively granted to the expelled persons, namely
Croats, to the detriment of "displaced persons", namely Serbs,
Palmer said.
The OSCE spokesman voiced confidence that those laws would be very
soon changed, as the Government is now discussing amendments to
such acts.
A spokesman for the UNHCR, Andrej Mahecic, pointed to a statement of
Reconstruction Minister Radimir Cacic, that although Croatia was
expecting from the international community to allocate $55 million
for this project, Croatia would by itself launch it before Zagreb
got any money for this purpose.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will be a
co-ordinator in that job.
(hina) jn ms