GRANIC TALKS WITH GERMAN GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

( Editorial: --> 3234 ) BONN, June 23 (Hina) - During his working visit to Germany, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic held talks on Tuesday afternoon in Bonn with the German Government's commissioner for refugees Dietmar Schlee. They discussed the Croatian Government's plan for the return of refugees and the course of the return process. Schlee welcomed the Government's plan. This is the first important step towards the implementation of the plan's objectives. However, it must be followed by other steps, Schlee said after the meeting. He pointed out that Germany considered the return of refugees very important due to a large presence in Germany of Croat and Bosniak (Muslim) refugees from the Bosnian Serb entity (Republika Srpska) who will be able to return home when Croatian Serbs presently accommodated in the RS return to theirs. The RS is also expected to do its share, but it is essential that Croatia makes it clearer than it has been doing so far that it welcomes back Croatian Serbs, Schlee emphasised. He stressed that such a development would encourage refugees who are planning to return to proceed with their plans. At the end of his visit to Bonn, Minister Granic presented a lecture to a German parliamentarian association on the present state of affairs in Croatia and its international standing. On Tuesday night the Croatian Foreign Minister will leave Bonn for London, for a meeting on Wednesday with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. (Hina) mro /mbr 232158 MET jun 98