OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL TO DISCUSS REPORT ON CROATIA THURSDAY

ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - The head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Tim Guldimann, will on Thursday present the last quarterly report on Croatia's results in fulfilling its commitments, before the Vienna-based OSCE Permanent Council. Guldimann will put stress on a proposal concerning a "dual" approach towards Croatia, which is addressed in the report, OSCE spokesman Mark Thompson said in Zagreb on Wednesday. The OSCE Mission in Croatia has suggested that the international community continue its dialogue with the Croatian Government on Croatia's further integration into European and Euro-Atlantic processes and offer it greater support in normalisation and democratisation, Thompson told reporters at today's press conference of the OSCE and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Croatia. Thompson recalled the visit of high officials of the OSCE, Council of Europe and the United Nations to Croatia, which ended yesterday, and stressed their talks at the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT). Thompson said that during the talks with HRT director Ivica Vrkic, Guldimann had expressed concern about the "language of hatred", the poor coverage of the return process and establishment of trust as well as about bias in news programmes. On behalf of the OSCE and Council of Europe, Guldimann offered the HRT help in drawing up regulations for the election coverage, Thompson said. The OSCE representative for the media, Freimut Duve, warned that a solution to problems regarding the broadcasting of HRT programmes in Bosnia-Herzegovina should be found as soon as possible. The HRT programmes are being re-broadcast in Bosnia-Herzegovina via transmitters and frequencies which are owned by Bosnia- Herzegovina; the content of those programmes serves the interests of only one group and the HRT is broadcasting foreign programmes outside of Croatia without permit, Thompson said. The HRT will have to start behaving according to the rules applied in television broadcasting all over the world, he added. UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic spoke about the return of refugees from Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina, following the adoption of a law on refugee return by the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, on December 19 last year. The most important regulation of the law is the one saying that claims for the repossession of flats whose pre-war owners had tenancy rights, have to be submitted by June 19 this year. (hina) jn rml