OSCE SAYS CROATIA MADE ADVANCES IN FULFILLING OBLIGATIONS

( Editorial: --> 0375 ) ZAGREB, Sept 14 (Hina) - Croatia has recorded progress in fulfilling its international obligations in the period from mid- May to the beginning of September thanks to the adoption of the government's Return Programme and improving cooperation with the international community. This was stated in the latest report by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Croatia. However, the report said if these positive advances were to remain, there would need to be without delay a quickening in the return of refugees and displaced people, the carrying out of reforms in electoral laws and the media, especially in Croatian Radio Television (HRT), the report said. The OSCE mission report has been sent to the OSCE headquarters in Vienna, member-countries and the Croatian Government. Hina understands that in the report, the OSCE mission claims that despite implementation of the Return Programme being stalled because of political resistance at a local level and administrative obstacles, a growth in the number of returnees had been noticed. The OSCE emphasised the positive trends in the return of refugees (mostly those of Serb nationality) to Croatia, displaced people of Croat and other non-Serb nationality to the Danube River region and displaced people of Serb nationality from the Danube region to other parts of Croatia. But, according to the OSCE report, there was an absence of progress in the return of Croats to neighbouring countries (Bosnia- Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and in the stopping of Serbs leaving the Croatian Danube region. The OSCE mission also said there were several areas in which small or no steps forward had been made. It holds that there was negligible progress in removing the discriminatory parts of laws regulating ownership-property issues related to the return process. The mission outlines the need to remove ineffectiveness in the work of judicial organs and carrying out the rule of law. The OSCE recorded poor results in the carrying out of the government's Trust Establishment Programme. The integration of citizens of Serb nationality - on an individual or community basis - had still not succeeded, it said. A key element for improving exposure in the Croatian media was transforming the HRT from a state to a public broadcasting institution. As far as the press media was concerned, the OSCE believes that, apart from the Zagreb daily "Vjesnik", there had been some progress in relation to more balanced reporting on political themes. In the chapter dedicated to the electoral law, the OSCE especially criticised the regulation which allows Croatian citizens outside of Croatia to have their representatives in parliament. Also criticised was the method of forming electoral commissions which are dominated by people loyal to the governing party, the OSCE said. The report said the Croatian Citizenship Law, which also influenced the electoral process, was not compatible with OSCE standards. The law enables the receiving of citizenship on the basis of ethnic criteria by which, the OSCE said, theoretically up to 300,000 Croatian citizens (mostly of ethnic Serbs who are refugees in Yugoslavia and Bosnia) had been stripped of voting rights, while about 330,000 Croats who have permanent residence in Bosnia vote in Croatian elections. Reforms in the areas of electoral laws and the media represent the key steps in the process of strengthening democratic institutions in Croatia, the OSCE report said. (Hina) mbr jn 142300 MET sep 98