ROGGIA: TWO-WAY RETURN PROCESS IS GIVING GOOD RESULTS

( Editorial: --> 6873 ) SISAK, Dec 8 (hina) - An official of the UNHCR office in Karlovac, Marco Roggia on Monday evening spoke about the implementation of the two-way return process in Croatia, the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia and the restoration of inter-ethnic trust. He spoke at a meeting of the Democratic Society School organized in Sisak by the Local Democracy Embassy of Sisak and under the sponsorship of the Council of Europe and the European Union. According to Roggia, UNHCR estimates showed that more than 180,000 people had left Croatian territories liberated from Serb control since the Flash and Storm military operations in 1995. Some 40,000 people had gone to eastern Croatia, 30,000 to the Bosnian Serb entity, while 110,000 had gone to Yugoslavia. Roggia said the return of displaced persons to their homes, the normalization of relations between Croatia and Yugoslavia and the restoration of inter-ethnic trust were crucial to normalization of social relations within Croatia and the integration of Croatia into European institutions. The UNHCR official pointed out the implementation of an agreement on a two-way return of displaced persons had given encouraging results. The UNHCR estimated that some 10,000 Serbs had returned from eastern Croatia and Yugoslavia to other parts of Croatia, he said, adding 2,500 of these had returned to their homes. Between 3,500 and 4,000 people had returned to eastern Croatia, Roggia said. The Croatian government had demonstrated good will, cooperativeness and determination to comply with its commitments from the Erdut and Dayton agreements and to implement both the agreement on the return and the one on the restoration of inter- ethnic trust, Roggia said. Roggia believed the time had come for Croatia to switch its perspective from war to peace time. There were no reasons not to rescind a law on the temporary take-over of abandoned property. Roggia assessed a programme on the restoration of trust as well conceived. It will win Croatia recognition as a country where basic human rights to private property and ownership, as well as the rights of minorities, are respected, he added. (hina) ha 090002 MET dec 97