ZAGREB, Feb 29 (Hina) - Displaced persons from the eastern-most Croatian town of Vukovar who are accommodated in Zagreb and Zagreb County expect Croatia's new authorities will enable them to finally return to their hometown. Croatia's
Association of Displaced Persons, which gathers mainly displaced Croats, welcomes a decision on a European Community-financed return of Serbs, but believes Croatia should be the one taking care of the return of Vukovar's residents. The former government did not have a vision for the return of Vukovar's residents, which resulted in many finding permanent settlement in other parts of the country. This affected the demographic picture of Vukovar, Brane Crlenjak, a member of the Association of Displaced Refugees board, told an Association meeting in Zagreb on Tuesday. He corroborated his claim by stating that Vukovar's current population numbers 20,000, of w
ZAGREB, Feb 29 (Hina) - Displaced persons from the eastern-most
Croatian town of Vukovar who are accommodated in Zagreb and Zagreb
County expect Croatia's new authorities will enable them to finally
return to their hometown.
Croatia's Association of Displaced Persons, which gathers mainly
displaced Croats, welcomes a decision on a European Community-
financed return of Serbs, but believes Croatia should be the one
taking care of the return of Vukovar's residents.
The former government did not have a vision for the return of
Vukovar's residents, which resulted in many finding permanent
settlement in other parts of the country. This affected the
demographic picture of Vukovar, Brane Crlenjak, a member of the
Association of Displaced Refugees board, told an Association
meeting in Zagreb on Tuesday.
He corroborated his claim by stating that Vukovar's current
population numbers 20,000, of which only a quarter are Croats,
whereas a 1991 census stated Vukovar had 44,950 residents, of which
47.3 percent were Croats, and 32.2 percent Serbs.
To date, 5,400 displaced persons have returned to Vukovar and its
suburbs, while 21,703 of the town's residents still live in exile.
Zagreb accommodates more than 11,000 people from the Danube River
Region in eastern Croatia, of which 95 percent are from the Vukovar
area, said the president of the Association of Displaced Persons,
Julije Skeledzic.
He said Vukovar's residents lived poorly in Zagreb, and that of late
they were being denied accommodation, food, and heating.
It was also said today that 650 houses and 1,400 flats have been
rebuilt in Vukovar thus far. Currently in the reconstruction
process are 400 houses, and another 760 will be built by year's end,
said Crlenjak. He assessed rebuilding was slow and rebuilding
legislation and standards "absurd".
Vukovar's residents want the new rebuilding law to regulate that
rebuilt houses have both heating and insulation, and to also
regulate the revival of economy and the rebuilding of
infrastructure.
(hina) ha jn