OSCE PROPOSALS ON TWO-WAY RETURN - FULL TEXT

( Editorial: --> 0746 ) ZAGREB, June 12 (Hina) - The Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has requested Hina to publish the full text of its proposals to the Croatian Government concerning the acceleration of the process of two-way return. The text corrects and completes information presented by the OSCE spokesman Mark Thompson at a press conference in Zagreb on June 10. "As part of its regular consultations with the authorities on this matter, the OSCE Mission has this week presented a number of proposals to the authorities (i.e. the Ministry of Development and Reconstruction, and relevant Government agencies). We believe these proposals can help the Government to unlock the process of two-way returns, allowing progress to be achieved with relative speed and efficiency: First: the Mission is ready to identify multiple occupancy as an impediment to the return process throughout Croatia. This issue has been raised to us in particular by the Association of Returnees, and we are offering our assistance to the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees (ODPR) in order to determine the extent of the problem. Second: we want to address the problem of people who do not reside in a property but who maintain occupancy by paying occasional visits to the property. This mainly concerns people who reside in FRY or in a family home elsewhere in Croatia, while maintaining occupation of another property to which they return occasionally (usually at weekends). Here too it is difficult to estimate numbers, but we have offered our assistance to ODPR to investigate the matter. We suggest a new deadline should be introduced by the authorities (i.e. by ODPR via the Joint Working Group), so that people will lose such occupancy if they do not reside in the property for a period of 30 days. Third: we want to clarify the difficult problem of alternative accommodation. Some displaced persons in the Danube Region, as well as other refugees (mainly Bosnian Croats) in other parts of Croatia, have expressed the wish not to return to their homes of origin. Meanwhile, they continue to occupy property that belongs to someone else - usually to other displaced persons or refugees. We urge the authorities to make more vigorous efforts to provide these people with adequate alternative accommodation, thereby freeing homes for repossession by the owners. Fourth: a number of displaced persons of Croat nationality have been given returnee status, although they have not been able to return into the Danube Region as their homes have not been reconstructed (although such reconstruction was foreseen by the 1997 agreement). We urge the Government to extend these people's returnee status and to reconstruct their homes at the earliest opportunity. These steps would benefit several hundred persons and revive a number of shattered communities in the Region. Fifth: we have urged the Government to provide increased funding for the land bank (APN). If the land bank were able to purchase more homes in the Danube Region from displaced persons who do not want to return, those homes could serve as alternative accommodation for displaced persons who presently occupy the property of other displaced persons who do want to return. Lastly: there is a particular issue of the remaining 2,500 families of displaced persons (Serbs) who want to return from the Region to other parts of Croatia. An estimated 40 per cent of these families need reconstruction assistance - approximately a thousand families. We believe the Government could reconstruct those homes while providing the same level of assistance to a corresponding number of displaced persons (Croats) who want to return into the Region. Therefore, we suggest that the Government should set up a specially targeted reconstruction programme, to expedite the return of these thousand or so families. A special programme of this sort would have a very positive impact on the two-way mechanism, and on the wider perceptions of Croatia's overall approach to the issues of return and reconstruction. (hina) jn rml/bag 121722 MET jun 98