RETURNEES FACE HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE, ACTIVIST SAYS

ZAGREB, Oct 22 (Hina)- President of the Metropolitan Committee Return Home, Slavko Zlatic, told the press on Thursday that next winter a large number of returnees could face a humanitarian catastrophe if their basic needs were not urgently met. "That is a serious political problem for Croatia", Zlatic said at a briefing organised by organisations that collect and distribute humanitarian aid for returnees and provide them with legal assistance. Zoran Pusic, president of the Metropolitan Committee for Human Rights (GOLJP), said that poverty, famine, inadequate housing conditions and lack of humanitarian aid could result in the death from malnutrition or cold of a significant number of returnees, especially the elderly, over the next six months. GOLJP's leader noted that aid for returnees was collected and distributed by 16 different organisations. He appealed for a more abundant supply of humanitarian aid by the Government, the Red Cross and by international organisations. Head of the Pula based organisation Homo, Mirjana Galo, who has been monitoring the plight of returnees in the Lika region for years, said that every month her organisation registered 250-300 appeals and requests regarding difficult humanitarian situation and violations of human rights, addressed to relevant ministries and institutions. Darinka Janjanin, president of the Association of the Rijeka Serbs, appealed to volunteers from all over Croatia to back the efforts of NGOs for pooling and distribution of humanitarian aid. Representatives of the Serb Democratic Forum and the Karlovac Committee for Human Rights also appealed to the public to step up efforts for care about the returnees, "regardless of their nationality". The press was warned about the deterioration of the security situation is some of the areas of return. (Hina) mr