OSCE DISSATISFIED WITH FUNCTIONING OF HOUSING COMMISSIONS

( Editorial: --> 7626 ) ZAGREB, Sept 2 (Hina) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of housing commissions in Croatia's return areas. Local housing commissions were established in line with a plan for the return of refugees and displaced persons which the Croatian parliament adopted on June 26. These commissions have the task of resolving housing problems of returnees and persons occupying their homes. Many housing commissions are not working effectively and in some cases correctly, spokesman for the OSCE mission in Croatia Mark Thompson told a regular weekly press conference in Zagreb. Thompson said a government commission on return, which is in charge of implementing the return plan, was not working in an efficient way, and expressed his concern. The OSCE weekly update on the implementation of the return plan states that in many areas local authorities continue to postpone the establishment of housing commissions, that established ones do not meet, while those which do are either inefficient or, as in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar, make their own decisions on evictions of displaced persons. Alongside several instructions as to how the housing commissions should carry their task according to the OSCE, the report also notes that the ineffectiveness of housing commissions in eastern Croatia encourages returnees to evict from their property the displaced persons occupying it. Starting October 16 the monitoring of police in eastern Croatia will be taken over by the OSCE, said the spokesman, adding the first monitors would arrive in a matter of days. The head of the OSCE monitors will be Decklen Brogan, from Ireland, who, according to Thompson, performed a similar task during the UN transitional administration of eastern Croatia. Thompson also said that Croatian Interior Minister Ivan Penic had promised OSCE full assistance in the time the organisation was to take over police monitoring in the east. The spokesman reminded Bosnian refugees currently in Croatia that October 4 was the deadline for claiming tenancy rights over flats they previously owned in Bosnia and which had since been declared as abandoned. Thompson also commented on a prime-time Croatian Television documentary broadcast yesterday. Called "Migration of Serbs Under Mile Martic", the programme, according to Thompson, was in tone and content in contrast with an agreed policy on broadcasting programmes which stimulate reconciliation, tolerance and coexistence of all citizens. The spokeswoman for the UN civil police in eastern Croatia, Kirsten Haupt, expressed satisfaction with the fact that three members of the Sodolovci Group, accused of war crimes against civilians, had been given permission to stand a renewed trial out of custody. We believe their release and the fact that they will wait for the renewed trial out of custody will contribute to strengthening trust among the eastern Croatian population which, said Haupt, could see that authorities are complying with undertaken obligations. The spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees mission in Croatia, Andrej Mahecic, told reporters that on August 31 55 Serbs had returned to Croatia and headed for their homes in Knin in southern Croatia. Another 76 persons are expected to return tomorrow and go back to their homes in the Sisak, Petrinja and Karlovac areas in central Croatia. (hina) ha jn 021722 MET sep 98