BANJA LUKA, Sept 29 (Hina) - Only about 2,000 out of the 70,000 Croats who left the Banja Luka region of northwestern Bosnia during the 1992-1995 war have returned, the director of the Banja Luka office of the Catholic charity
Caritas, Msgr Mile Anicic, has said in an interview with the local Nezavisne Novine newspaper published on Monday.
BANJA LUKA, Sept 29 (Hina) - Only about 2,000 out of the 70,000
Croats who left the Banja Luka region of northwestern Bosnia during
the 1992-1995 war have returned, the director of the Banja Luka
office of the Catholic charity Caritas, Msgr Mile Anicic, has said
in an interview with the local Nezavisne Novine newspaper published
on Monday. #L#
By 2002, the government of Republika Srpska assisted in the
reconstruction of only six Croat-owned houses, and this year it is
planning to rebuild several dozen homes. The Croatian government is
currently rebuilding nine houses of Croats in the Banja Luka area
through its consulate-general in Banja Luka.
Caritas has helped in the reconstruction of 1,404 housing units of
Croats in the Banja Luka region.
Anicic said that the number of refugees returning to their pre-war
homes was small because there was no real health insurance or
employment opportunities in the Serb entity. He added that most of
the returnees were pensioners.
(hina) vm sb