SOME HOUSING COMMISSIONS VERY EFFECTIVE DESPITE DIFFICULTIES - OSCE

( Editorial: --> 4372 ) ZAGREB, Sept 30 (Hina) - The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believes that some housing commissions in Croatia's refugee return areas are very effective despite many problems and difficulties, OSCE mission to Croatia spokesman Mark Thompson said on Wednesday. Cooperation between authorities and international representatives is good and practical, Thompson told a press conference in Zagreb held by the OSCE, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN civil police support group. Thompson pointed out that in general many difficulties surrounded the functioning of housing commissions, which are in charge of resolving housing issues in areas to which refugees and displaced persons are returning. The central problem is that housing commissions feel that government instructions are insufficiency clear as to how the commissions should do their job on a daily basis, Thompson said. He said the gap between the government's refugee return programme and the commissions' stand towards its implementation could be overcome only by better communication between the government and the commissions. Thompson believed the implementation of the said government programme was slow, as corroborated by the fact that only a few returnees had been given their property back which, he said, was a key aspect to the return programme. Asked about the termination or extension of the OSCE mission mandate in Croatia, which ends by year's end, Thompson said a decision on the matter would be made at a Vienna OSCE Permanent Council session following consultations with the Croatian government. The OSCE mission spokesman was also asked about an interview he gave to Radio Free Europe, in which the statements by some Croatian public figures reflected an anti-European mood. Thompson said that term had been used by the interviewer himself, but did confirm that the OSCE mission noticed a certain cooling off towards representatives of international community by late summer. UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters that on Monday 21 persons had crossed the Bajakovo border crossing between Croatia and Yugoslavia, a number lower than in the past weeks. (hina) ha 301740 MET sep 98