UNHCR BELIEVES IN SUCCESS OF CONFERENCE ON RECONSTRUCTION

ZAGREB, Dec 3 (Hina) - The Conference on the Reconstruction and Development of Croatia which will take place in Zagreb on Friday and Saturday is only the beginning of a long process, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) believes in its success, UNHCR spokesman in Zagreb, Andrej Mahecic, told reporters on Thursday. It is only the start of a process, Mahecic told a regular news conference of the UNHCR and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Mahecic described articles in some Croatian papers who announced the conference would be unsuccessful as a premature judgement on an event which has not yet happened. Speaking about the return of refugees to Croatia, Mahecic mentioned two organised returns on Tuesday. fourteen persons returned to Knin from the Federal republic of Yugoslavia, and 12 persons from the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska to the wider Sisak area. In the period between November 16 to 29, the UNHCR received 837 requests for return, and in the same period, 121 persons returned under the organisation of the UNHCR and the Croatian Government's Office for refugees and Displaced Persons, while 86 persons returned individually. (hina) lml