OSCE: GOVT DUTIES REGARDING RETURN MUST BE CARRIED OUT IN FIELD

ZAGREB, April 5 (Hina) - The duties taken over by the Croatian government regarding the facilitating of refugee return must be implemented on the ground in which process the announced international assistance will be of significant help to the government, although it cannot replace the initiative of the government itself, OSCE spokesman in Zagreb Peter Palmer said on Wednesday. Speaking at a news conference of the OSCE and UNHCR missions to Croatia, Palmer said it was crucial that commitments taken over by the government in facilitating the process of return be implemented in the field because the success of the government programme of return would be judged exclusively by its results. This requires overcoming obstacles on the ground which so far have impeded the return, and this, in turn, requires clear instructions by the central authorities. Repossession problems and unequal distribution of assistance for the reconstruction of houses are a major obstacle to the return, Palmer said. This requires changes to legal regulations so that they are designed to protect property, and implementation of those regulations, he added. Palmer said that returnees, of whom many are elderly people and people without means of subsistence, often cannot move in their homes because they are unliveable. In practice, this means that returnees often decide not to stay and many of them have not stayed, he said. The security situation in the Danube Region in March was relatively stable and the work of local police forces was judged as acceptable by OSCE monitors. In regard to that, Palmer commented on recent changes in the Interior Ministry, in particular the dismissal of some local police superintendents, saying this had contributed to a much more open cooperation between the OSCE Mission and the police. (hina) mm rml