FACILITIES OF RETURNEES' ASSOCIATION OPENED IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Jan 21 (Hina) - On Thursday, the head of the Croatian National Committee for the Trust Building, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, opened facilities of the returnees' association in Vukovar-Sirmium County. She wished the best in the work of the association and added that 1999 would be distinguished by the strenuous efforts to help an increasing number of the displaced people to return to their homes. She pointed to the necessity of taking urgent measures aimed at revitalising the economy in this part of Croatia, adding that it was a precondition for the return of people. Vukovar-Sirmium County Prefect, Rudolf Koenig, voiced dissatisfaction with plans of the Reconstruction and Development Ministry to reconstruct about 6,500 houses in the whole of the Croatian Danube river region in 1999. We wanted that this number of houses could be renovated in our county this year, but now we are discouraged by the fact that the Ministry plans to reconstruct 6,500 houses in a wider area, Prefect Koenig said. He feared that this might affect plans for the return of those who are still in exile. The head of the Government's office for the displaced persons and refugees, Lovre Pejkovic, said about 52,000 displaced people were still waiting for the return to the Danubian area. According to him, five thousand of them are changing their status of the displace persons into the status of returnees. Representatives of the displaced people, gathered at the ceremony of the opening, said the Government had to allocate more means to give an incentive to the return, since times had gone when the returnees could come back being led only by their wish to live in their hometowns from which they had been expelled. (hina) jn/ms