CROATIA: OSCE CHAIRMAN PRAISES EFFORTS BY CROATIA TO HELP BALKAN WAR REFUGEES RETURN.

Record ID: 646901

  • Title: CROATIA: OSCE CHAIRMAN PRAISES EFFORTS BY CROATIA TO HELP BALKAN WAR REFUGEES RETURN.
  • Date: 13th May 2004
  • Summary: (CEEF) ZEMUNIK DONJI, CROATIA (MAY 11, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. TRACTOR ON VILLAGE RAOD, PAN ONTO GRAVE BY THE ROAD 2. DESTROYED HOUSE 3. DRAWING OF HUMAN FIGURE ON HOUSE WALL, BULLET HOLES ON AND AROUND THE DRAWING 4. BOZICA BIJELIC, MILAN BIJELICS WIFE STANDING IN FRONT OF DESTROYED HOUSE, MILAN BIJELIC IN THE BACKGROUND, LOOKING THROUGH WINDOW FRAME 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) MILAN BIJELIC SAYING: "They (the rest of the minority Serbs who left Croatia in 1991-1995) would all return tomorrow if the houses were fixed and if they could find a job, something they could live off. We used to have farming machinery and all, but now we dont have any of that." 6. SHEEP ON THE VILLAGE ROAD, MOTORCADE WITH OSCE CHAIRMAN SOLOMON PASSY AND CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER IVO SANADER ARRIVING 7. CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER IVO SANADER SHAKING HANDS WITH MILAN BIJELIC ASKING HIM HOW HE IS. 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) MILAN BIJELIC SAYING: "Today I feel excellent, the best in a long time." 9. OSCE CHAIRMAN SOLOMON PASSY SHAKING HANDS WITH MILAN BIJELIC 10. MILANS WIFE BOZICA STANDING IN FRONT YARD WITH NEIGHBOURS 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) OSCE CHAIRMAN SOLOMON PASSY SHAKING HANDS WITH MILAN BIJELIC, MILAN BIJELIC SAYING: I am very pleased. I am veryhappy today. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) SOLOMON PASSY SAYING :(Croatian): I hope to find you in good health. Milan Bijelic saying: And me too, and I will never forget that you came to visit me. 12. NEIGHBOURS AND REPORTERS IN BIJELICS FRONTYARD 13. OSCE CHAIRMAN SOLOMON PASSY AND CROATIAN PM LIFTING TWO WHEEL-BARROWS IN A SYMBOLIC GESTURE SIGNIFYING THE CONTINUATION OF REBUILDING OF HOUSES 14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) OSCE CHAIRMAN SOLOMON PASSY SAYING:I am very much encouraged by what we witnessed today. Obviously, Croatia is making tremendous progress in this process (of returning refugees) and we would like to encourage it to complete the mission. Obviously, Croatia is having the right target and the right speed and it is now our obligaton, the international community, to help do the job. 15. DUCKS IN FRONT OF A RUIN OF A HOUSE 16. ELDERLY WOMAN STANDING IN FRONT OF ENTRANCE OF HOUSE 17. PARTIALLY REBUILT HOUSE BELONGING TO MIRO RAKIC; MIRO RAKIC POINTING AT HIS HOUSE 18. SOUNDBITE (CROATIAN) MIRO RAKIC SAYING: How wouldnt I be happy. My father and my granparents were born here, their graves are here. It is not enough to say I am content, I am happy. 19. MIRO RAKICS NIGHBOURS LOOKING ON 20. ROAD SIGN FOR ZEMUNIK DONJI ON ROAD, DESTROYED HOUSE BY THE ROAD 21. WIDE OF CENTRAL, RECONSTRUCTED PART OF ZEMUNIK DONJI Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZEMUNIK DONJI, CROATIA
  • Country: Croatia
  • Reuters ID: LVAENAX8QAIDWEJR10X6XL36SJ0U
  • Story Text: Chairman of the OSCE, Solomon Passy praises efforts
    by Croatia to help Balkan war refugess return.



    Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader accompanied OSCE
    Chariman Solomon Passy to villages in the war-affected area
    near the Adriatic port of Zadar on Tuesday (May 11), in a
    drive to encourage refugees to return to this ethnically
    mixed region.

    The traces of 1991-1995 Balkan war are still visible in
    this fertile plain between the mountains and the sea.

    Milan Bijelic, a seventy eight year old ethnic Serb
    returnee was visibly shaken as he welcomed Sanader and
    Passy in his home in Zemunik Donji.

    His house was recently reconstructed with finances
    provided by the Croatian government as part of effort to
    speed up the process of the retrun of refugees.

    Although the war ended in 1995, only three out of 15
    Serbian families have returned to Zemunik Donji.

    Milan hopes Croatias new government will stick to its
    promise, and continue with recontruction. "They would all
    return tomorrow if the houses were fixed and if they could
    find a job", Milan said.

    Miro Rakic, his sixty-nine-year-old neighbour could not
    hide his joy as he showed off his newly reconstructed
    house which he moved into with his wife on May 1.

    "How wouldnt I be happy? My father and my grandparents
    were born here", Rakic said.

    Like thousands of Serbs, Milan and Miro fled with
    their families to Serbia when Croat troops captured the
    Serb enclave of Krajina in 1995.

    After visiting several villages in the area Solomon
    Passy said he was encouraged by what his team witnessed and
    praised Croatias latest efforts to speed up reconstruction of
    destroyed houses.

    "Obviously, Croatia is making tremendous progress
    in this process (of returning refugees). Croatia is having
    the right target and the right speed and it is now our
    obligaton, the international community, to help it do the
    job, he said."
    Croatia says 110,000 Serb refugees have returned since the
    war ended while a further 15,000 of some 200,000
    still
    living in Bosnia and Serbia want to come back. Poor housing
    and scarce jobs in Croatia still act as a deterrent for the
    rest.

    Their return, along with better conditions for Serbs
    who have already come back, is among the key political
    issues Croatia must address as it seeks membership of the
    recently expanded, 25-member European Union.

    The EU's executive Commission said in April that
    Croatia had met basic conditions for starting entry talks.

    But it also urged Zagreb to address political issues before an
    EU summit in June, when the country expects to become a
    formal candidate.
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