ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina - by Slavoljub Leko) - A mass return of Croats to the Croatian Danubian area will begin in June 1997, Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic told HINA on Friday.
ZAGREB, Sept 27 (Hina - by Slavoljub Leko) - A mass return of
Croats to the Croatian Danubian area will begin in June 1997,
Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic told HINA on Friday. #L#
"It will be possible only when the Croatian Government takes
over control from UNTAES and creates conditions for the return of
such a large number of people," Kostovic said.
"These conditions will be created in June 1997, but people will
start returning in spring," he said.
None of the 77,287 Croat refugees from the UN-administered
Eastern Slavonia region of eastern Croatia have returned to their
homes.
One of the problems standing in the way is to find housing for
Serb refugees currently living in the houses of Croat refugees.
According to UNHCR estimates, about 60,000 of these Serbs had
left Western Slavonia and other parts of Croatia during or before
military operations last year.
"We regard Eastern Slavonia as the first step in a major
repatriation drive in Croatia," spokeswoman for the UN relief
agency, Alemka Lisinski, told HINA.
The UNHCR policy, based on the right of all refugees to return
to their homes, is to enable Serbs to return to their houses in
other parts of Croatia, which in turn would make it possible for
Croats to return to Eastern Slavonia.
"UNHCR is not considering the possibility of Serbs from other
parts of Croatia staying in the Croatian Danubian area," Lisinski
said.
So far, UNHCR has come up with three pilot projects for the
return of Croats to the Eastern Slavonia villages of Bilje,
Ernestinovo and Antunovo, while Serbs would return to Kusonje and
the outskirts of Pakrac in Western Slavonia.
UNHCR mission chief for former Yugoslavia, Soeren Jessen-
Petersen, has recently said he would be very "unhappy" if the
return of Croats to these villages did not begin before Christmas.
Bilje had a prewar population of 3,500 of whom 2,000 were
Croats, 600 Serbs and 500 Hungarians. The village is currently
populated predominantly by Serbs, of whom 80% have come from other
parts of Croatia.
"UNHCR views the Republic of Croatia as a whole, and not just
Eastern Slavonia - that's why we have a parallel project for
Western Slavonia," Lisinski said.
About 1,000 Serbs currently living in Eastern Slavonia are to
return to Kusonje under the pilot project.
Meanwhile, both Croats and Serbs have visited their houses and
these visits have passed without any incidents, Lisinski said.
"It's a step toward confidence-building," she said.
(hina) as vm
271917 MET sep 96