RADIC RECEIVES OSCE COMMISSIONER FOR MINORITIES

ZAGREB, Sept 16 (Hina) - The return of displaced people and refugees and the reconstruction of their houses were the main topics of talks held by Croatian Development and Reconstruction Minister Jure Radic and the OSCE high commissioner for national minorities, Max van der Stoel, in Zagreb on Tuesday. According to a statement of the reconstruction ministry, Minister Radic notified the official of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) of the situation in reconstruction and of Croatia's care for the displaced and refugees. Croatia has invested more than a billion U.S. dollars only in the reconstruction of houses and basic infrastructure so far, and at least the same amount of money is necessary for renovation of other destroyed or damaged houses in the country. Therefore, Croatia is expecting legitimately the assistance of the international community for this job, according to Radic. Radic added that yet 80,000 Croatian displaced people should come back to the Croatian Danube river area and that their return was going on slowly, primarily, because of obstacles imposed by the UN Transitional Administration of the area (UNTAES). The OSCE high commissioner was interested in the two-way return, in accommodation of Serbs returning to Croatian areas liberated in the "Flash" and "Storm" operations as well as in the restitution of property to their owners or the moving out of illegal tenants of such houses. Minister Radic stressed that Croatia was caring for its citizens according to priorities defined by a reconstruction law and a law on the right of the displaced and refugees. According to the statement, the basic stand is that everybody has the right to their home or to adequate accommodation. Croatia is faced with a big job to return the displaced and refugees: to return Croats in the Danube river area and to return Serbs who want to leave the Danube area and come back to other parts of Croatia, and to return Bosnian Croats to their homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in these efforts Croatia is expecting rightly the international community's help. (hina) jn mš 161318 MET sep 97