OSCE ASKS FOR TRANSPARENT MECHANISM OF TWO-WAY RETURN

( Editorial: --> 4516 ) ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The situation in the Croatian Danube River region and the two-way return of displaced people and refugees were the main topics at Wednesday's regular weekly press conference at the Zagreb headquarters of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). During his meeting with President Franjo Tudjman last week, the head of the OSCE Mission in Croatia, Tim Guldimann, expressed concern over the loss of the positive swing registered last year, especially in the two-way return process, said OSCE spokesman Mark Thompson. The OSCE Mission believes that the main obstacle to two-way return is the fact that houses of displaced Serbs in central and southern Croatia (Knin, Sisak, western Slavonia) are currently occupied by Croats who were expelled from their homes during the Serb occupation of parts of Croatia, as well as by Croat refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. On Tuesday, a joint working group met to discuss the problem of housing in the Croatian Danube River region and the OSCE is very satisfied with the way the discussion was held, Thompson said. The OSCE believes that one should develop a transparent mechanism of two-way return, which could enable all those who want to return to do so, the OSCE spokesman said. More than 200 Bosnian Croat families, who are now in the area of Sisak, have turned to the OSCE Mission, seeking help in returning to their homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in this case to Banja Luka, he said. President Tudjman agreed for Council of Europe experts to visit Croatia next week, in order to discuss the situation in the electronic media, Thompson informed. Spokeswoman for the UN Police Support Group (UNPSG), Kirsten Haupt, said the situation in the Danube region was stable, although it had been registered that the number of incidents was increasing. Since last week, 48 mainly minor incidents had been registered. Those incidents are not helping in the process of general reconciliation and they annul efforts by the Croatian government, Haupt said. Despite the incidents, the overall behaviour of police is good, and the UNPSG has judged the behaviour of police in those incidents as adequate and satisfactory, Haupt added. There are some cases where the behaviour of police is not satisfactory, she said, adding UN police were being denied access to files by some members of local police, which was contrary to an agreement between the Croatian Interior Ministry and UNPSG. The UNPSG believes that more should be done in preventing incidents in the Danube region and that the Croatian government should strongly condemn those incidents. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is concerned about a large number of departures from the Danube region, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said. (hina) jn rm 251640 MET feb 98