ZAGREB, July 7 (Hina) - The new Croatian government, unlike the old one, has demonstrated political readiness to fulfil its obligations and solve burning problems, and this has been recorded in the OSCE Mission's Progress Report, the
head of the OSCE Mission, Bernard Poncet, said in Zagreb on Friday. However, many obligations are yet to be fulfilled, especially in the implementation area, which lags behind the declarative area, Poncet told a news conference, which the Mission called in order to present its new, sixth Progress Report, which will be presented to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on July 13. Most progress has been made in the area of cooperation between Croatia and the Hague war crimes tribunal, implementation of the Dayton peace agreement, cooperation with countries in the region and the improvement of media freedom, Poncet said. Despite some problems which still exist in the return process
ZAGREB, July 7 (Hina) - The new Croatian government, unlike the old
one, has demonstrated political readiness to fulfil its
obligations and solve burning problems, and this has been recorded
in the OSCE Mission's Progress Report, the head of the OSCE Mission,
Bernard Poncet, said in Zagreb on Friday.
However, many obligations are yet to be fulfilled, especially in
the implementation area, which lags behind the declarative area,
Poncet told a news conference, which the Mission called in order to
present its new, sixth Progress Report, which will be presented to
the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on July 13.
Most progress has been made in the area of cooperation between
Croatia and the Hague war crimes tribunal, implementation of the
Dayton peace agreement, cooperation with countries in the region
and the improvement of media freedom, Poncet said.
Despite some problems which still exist in the return process,
senior state officials have with their completely transparent
statements managed to improve the general atmosphere for returns to
and from Croatia, Poncet said.
Regrettably, radical changes on the state level have not had an
appropriate effect on local and county levels yet, especially in
war-affected areas, where the former ruling party is still
individually the strongest party, he said.
Particularly slow is the process of refugee return and property
restitution, Poncet said.
This is why the Mission advises the Croatian government to pay
special attention in coming months to changes to the Law on Areas of
Special State Concern and the Law on Property.
One should also increase the efficiency of the judiciary and see
that court verdicts, including decisions by the Constitutional
Court, are implemented in a transparent manner.
As regards the normalisation of the situation, the most important
problem is the refugee return, i.e., lack of adequate conditions
for a sustainable return, although the number of returnees has been
slightly increasing.
Some persons, who returned, later decided to leave again, some have
difficulty claiming back their property or obtaining assistance in
reconstruction or resolving the problem of inadequate
infrastructure, Poncet said, adding those problems would be
mentioned in the report as well.
(hina) jn rml