BUGOJNO AUTHORITIES PERSISTENTLY OBSTRUCTING CROATS' RETURN

BUGOJNO, Mar 2 (Hina) - Croat representatives in the central Bosnian town of Bugojno on Thursday said about 350 Muslim officials were using Bugojno Croats' flats and houses, while Croat returnees had to pay rent. According to Mladen Strujic, the chairman of the Croat representatives bench at the Bugojno Municipal Council, it is imperative to immediately implement a decision the Council passed last year in line with a decision of the international community's High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, which stipulated that no two flats or houses could be used simultaneously. The implementation of the decision would enable numerous Bosnian Croats to return to their pre-war homes, said Strujic. Bugojno, one of Bosnia's most critical towns when it comes to the return of the exiled, is currently the home of only 4,000 Bosnian Croats. Before last decade's war, there were 17,000. Another High Representative's decision, according to which Bugojno Municipality should return the building of the Croat Centre and school to the town's Croats, has also not been implemented, said another Croat councillor. As a result, 170 pupils have to attend school in the parish office, he added. Reminding that the international community had allocated on separate accounts money for the rebuilding of Bosnian Muslim and Croat schools, the Bosnian Croat councillors wondered where was the money intended for Croat schools for which, they said, no building in Bugojno could be found. According to Bugojno Mayor Mustafa Strukar, even though the international community estimated political progress had been made in the town last year, the municipality was not given sufficient money for reconstruction. People who registered for return have to wait a minimum of ten years until their house or flat is built, because the municipality has no money, he said. Strukar added all Muslim municipal officials would move out of Croat family houses and flats, but did not say when. (hina) ha jn