CRO RETURNEES' ASSOCIATION ON DIFFICULTIES IN RECONSTRUCTION

BELI MANASTIR, Oct 15 (Hina) - The Association of Returnees of Croatia (ZPH) is satisfied with the beginning of this year's round of reconstruction in the Danube River Region, but will continue to point out difficulties encountered in the process, the ZPH board of administration concluded at a Friday session in Beli Manastir. ZPH president Mato Simic said the association will have to intensify efforts to ensure that as much funds as possible be earmarked for reconstruction from next year's state budget. "If reconstruction continues to proceed at the present intensity, we shall have displaced persons for another several years," Simic said, adding the ZPH would continue focusing competent bodies' attention to the issues of economic revival and the employment of returnees. "The return doesn't end with the reconstruction of houses," he asserted. The president of the Osijek-Baranja County Association of Returnees, Josip Kompanovic, said that private law-suits owners of housing buildings have been raising to evict returnees from their houses would no longer be automatically settled at municipal courts. The owner will have to respect the procedure stipulated in the return programme, i.e. refer first to the competent housing commission. The number of houses reconstructed in Croatia to date is 26,083; the number of houses purchased by the Agency for Legal Transactions and Real Estate Management is 3,271. (hina) ha