PAKRAC/DARUVAR, Feb 14 (Hina) - The UN Human Rights Commission's Special Rapporteur, Jiri Dienstbier, toured two Croatian towns - Pakrac and Daruvar (about 100 km east of Zagreb)- on Saturday. In Pakrac, the UN representative held
talks the town's mayor, Damir Spancic, and the commander of the local police, Nikola Ivkanec, on the two-way return and possibilities of speeding up the process of the reconstruction of this war-ravaged area. Pakrac authorities told Dienstbier that from 1995 to date, about 700 Serbs had returned from Yugoslavia or the Croatian Danube river area to this western Slavonian town. Last year, more than 300 Serbs came back. They said the Croatian Government had made the greatest efforts to renovate the town. Besides, the European Union also financed two projects. One of them covered the construction of 22 flats for Bosnian Croats who are being temporarily accommodated
PAKRAC/DARUVAR, Feb 14 (Hina) - The UN Human Rights Commission's
Special Rapporteur, Jiri Dienstbier, toured two Croatian towns -
Pakrac and Daruvar (about 100 km east of Zagreb)- on Saturday.
In Pakrac, the UN representative held talks the town's mayor, Damir
Spancic, and the commander of the local police, Nikola Ivkanec, on
the two-way return and possibilities of speeding up the process of
the reconstruction of this war-ravaged area.
Pakrac authorities told Dienstbier that from 1995 to date, about
700 Serbs had returned from Yugoslavia or the Croatian Danube river
area to this western Slavonian town. Last year, more than 300 Serbs
came back.
They said the Croatian Government had made the greatest efforts to
renovate the town. Besides, the European Union also financed two
projects. One of them covered the construction of 22 flats for
Bosnian Croats who are being temporarily accommodated in the houses
of Serbs, and the other referred to the reconstruction of Serb-
owned houses in the nearby village of Kusonje.
However, the biggest obstacle in the return is the war-affected
economy, and that's why it is very difficult to create jobs for
returnees, local officials said.
The UN rapporteur, who held separate talks with local Serb
representatives, voiced satisfaction with the situation in Pakrac
saying that this Croatian town could serve as an example of the
successful beginning of the trust building.
He also pointed to the necessity of returning property to their
owners in due course.
In Daruvar, Dienstbier met the President of the Association of
Croatian Judges, Vladimir Gredelj, and told him that the Croatian
judiciary was, from his viewpoint, insufficiently independent.
Dienstbier spoke about cases when the final ruling of a court had
not been obeyed in time.
Gredelj replied that such assessment of the Croatian judicial
system was an off-hand remark, and stressed that for one year of its
work, the Association had contributed much to the promotion of
European standards in the Croatian judiciary. He pledged to
continue with such efforts.
At the end of his visit to western Slavonia, Dienstbier met
authorities of Daruvar and representatives of the Czech national
minority in Croatia. Present at this meeting was also Czech
Ambassador in Croatia, Jiri Kudela.
(hina) ms