ZAGREB, July 13 (Hina) - A United States assistant state secretary, Julia Taft, on Tuesday welcomed the increase in the spontaneous return of Croatian Serbs. "I view the spontaneous return as a sign that people outside of Croatia, who
belong here, are finding a more optimistic environment for wanting to return to," Taft, the U.S. state secretary's assistant for population, refugees, and migrations, said in Zagreb. Talking to reporters at the end of her visit to the region, Taft said several thousand people have recently returned to Croatia, both by organised returns or spontaneously, even though they "are not getting all the assistance they are entitled to." Last week, Taft visited Macedonia, Kosovo, and Republika Srpska (RS), Bosnia's Serb entity. Today, while in Zagreb, she held talks with Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic "We are seeing some encouraging signs that Croatia (...
ZAGREB, July 13 (Hina) - A United States assistant state secretary,
Julia Taft, on Tuesday welcomed the increase in the spontaneous
return of Croatian Serbs.
"I view the spontaneous return as a sign that people outside of
Croatia, who belong here, are finding a more optimistic environment
for wanting to return to," Taft, the U.S. state secretary's
assistant for population, refugees, and migrations, said in
Zagreb.
Talking to reporters at the end of her visit to the region, Taft said
several thousand people have recently returned to Croatia, both by
organised returns or spontaneously, even though they "are not
getting all the assistance they are entitled to."
Last week, Taft visited Macedonia, Kosovo, and Republika Srpska
(RS), Bosnia's Serb entity. Today, while in Zagreb, she held talks
with Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic
"We are seeing some encouraging signs that Croatia (...) is trying
to take affirmative steps to move forward in meeting its
commitment" to the Dayton peace agreement, and in accelerating a
"more aggressive return of Croatian Serbs", Taft said.
She welcomed Granic's announcement that Croatian consulates in
Banja Luka, RS, and Yugoslav capital Belgrade would work full hours
to accelerate administrative procedures necessary for the
returns.
To date, ten percent of the Serbs who fled Croatia in 1991 have come
back, Taft said, adding the U.S. government will incite the
Croatian government to raise the percentage.
The U.S. is investing US$25 million via the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees to accelerate the return process.
Another US$5 million is expected to accelerate the return and
integration of Serbs who fled Croatia in 1995 and are currently
living in Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia.
Taft assessed Croatia's reconstruction programme is
discriminatory, as it provides conditions for the return of only
Croats.
She said her Monday meetings with RS Premier Milorad Dodik and the
ministers for refugees in both the RS and Bosnia's other entity, the
Croat-Muslim federation, brought announcements of great changes in
ensuring returns to those areas as well.
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