ZAGREB, April 25 (Hina/Reuters) - The West has a moral obligation to help Croatia sustain the costs of reconstruction and the return of refugees exiled in the early 1990s, Croatian President Stipe Mesic told Reuters in an interview
released on Tuesday. President Mesic also called on Western powers to press neighbouring Bosnian Serbs to allow Croat refugees to return to their pre-war homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Croatia wants to help democratise the whole region. But Croatia cannot carry the financial burden of refugee returns on its own," the President said. "When we demand that the international community participate in this, we do not ask for charity. "We have a right to those funds because it was the international community's inertia that allowed the conflict to escalate so much," he said, referring to the break-up of the former Yugoslav federation, which prompted bloody ethnic wars bet
ZAGREB, April 25 (Hina/Reuters) - The West has a moral obligation to
help Croatia sustain the costs of reconstruction and the return of
refugees exiled in the early 1990s, Croatian President Stipe Mesic
told Reuters in an interview released on Tuesday.
President Mesic also called on Western powers to press neighbouring
Bosnian Serbs to allow Croat refugees to return to their pre-war
homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"Croatia wants to help democratise the whole region. But Croatia
cannot carry the financial burden of refugee returns on its own,"
the President said.
"When we demand that the international community participate in
this, we do not ask for charity.
"We have a right to those funds because it was the international
community's inertia that allowed the conflict to escalate so much,"
he said, referring to the break-up of the former Yugoslav
federation, which prompted bloody ethnic wars between 1991 and
1995.
According to Reuters, President Mesic said the West had tolerated
the destruction of the Croatian city of Vukovar during Zagreb's
1991 battle for independence with rebel Serbs, and stood by during
the long and brutal siege of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
"Now they must help us repair war damage, individualise guilt for
war crimes and start communicating with each other again. That's
what they expect from us, but we do not have the means."
Reuters says the West has been pressing Croatia to allow the return
of thousands of minority Serbs who fled during the war. It has
criticised a slow pace of return and what it sees as discriminatory
laws and lack of enthusiasm from local Croat authorities.
All Serbs are welcome to return, Mesic said in the interview.
But he added the issue was complicated by the fact that many Serb
houses were occupied by Croats expelled from Serb areas of Bosnia
and still not welcome there despite a 1995 peace accord.
"We want the world to realise that Croatia cannot return the people
without solving the issue of returns to Bosnia.
"No one is returning to the Bosnian Serb republic. The West should
not turn a blind eye to the fact that they (Bosnian Serbs) are not
implementing the peace deal".
Another urgent issue according to the President was the need to
restart the economy in Croatian areas to which Serb refugees were
returning.
"International institutions must enable returnees to rebuild
houses, but also to get a job, educate their children. That means we
have to restart factories and companies or open new ones, and that
requires fresh funds," Mesic said.
"That is where I am not satisfied with how financial aid is coming
in," he said.
Mesic said free return of refugees would send an encouraging
message across the Balkans.
(hina) ha