VZCZCXRO2045
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0630/01 1761748
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 241748Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0101
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000630 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O.  12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREL PREF PGOV PHUM HR REFUGEES
 
SUBJECT: PRM TRIP REPORT: CROATIA'S PROGRESS ON REFUGEE RETURN, 
REINTEGRATION 
 
REF: ZAGREB 468 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Belgrade-based Regional Refugee Coordinator for the 
Balkans traveled to Croatia, June 10-13, to assess the status of 
refugee returns and to discuss concerns of displaced persons and 
returnees.  Meetings with representatives of the Government of 
Croatia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 
civil society, local government entities, and returnees focused on 
sustainability of minority returns.  Although conditions for 
returnees have improved and Croatia has made strides to promote a 
multi-ethnic state, interlocutors emphasized the need for the GOC's 
continued action and the international community's engagement to 
resolve outstanding issues related to return and reintegration of 
ethnic minorities. 
 
ACCELERATED PLAN TO RESOLVE OCCUPANCY TENANCY RIGHTS CASES 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The GOC's draft Action Plan for the Accelerated 
Implementation of the Housing Care Program, which was shared with 
the Embassy and other international community officials in early 
June, calls for the government to resolve outstanding claims of 
former occupancy and tenancy rights holders (ex-OTR holders) who 
seek to return to Croatia by the end of 2009, two years ahead of 
earlier deadlines.  Milivoj Mikulic, State Secretary of the Ministry 
for Regional Development, Reconstruction, and Return, told RefCoord 
on June 10, that he was committed to implement the detailed plan. 
Mikulic said that the government had committed sufficient funds to 
resolve all claims.  He attributed delays in resolving 1,400 tenancy 
rights cases during 2007 to administrative setbacks in dealing with 
property and land issues, rather than budgetary concerns.  "We will 
handle housing care.  The money is there," he said.  Mikulic said 
that the government would process the backlog of cases by June 30 
and aimed to resolve the remaining caseload of about 4,400 claims by 
the end of 2009. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Mikulic told us the GOC was focusing first on resolving 
housing care for ex-OTR holders, approximately 60% of whom are 
ethnic Serbs and 40% of whom currently reside in Serbia awaiting a 
decision on their claims.  He noted that the government would also 
need to resolve the claims of Bosnian Croats to housing solutions. 
Regarding ex-OTR holders with claims involving property outside the 
designated (mainly war-affected) Areas of Special State Concern 
(ASSC) who had yet to apply for housing care, Mikulic said that the 
September 2005 deadline had already passed, but that they could 
apply for housing care inside the ASSC, noting that there was no 
deadline for applying for housing care inside the ASSC. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Referring to the quality of the housing care allocated, 
Mikulic and his assistant said the apartments were generally in 
average to good condition.  (NOTE: In a subsequent meeting with 
representatives of the international community (REFTEL), GoC 
officials acknowledged that some of the housing still required 
repairs, and committed to doing them.  END NOTE) Mikulic added that 
returnees received 500 HRK (approximately US $106) per month for six 
months following their return.  Finally, he claimed the GOC was very 
much in favor of return, arguing that they had been few cases of 
ethnic tension related to returnees in the country. 
 
UNHCR: RENEWED GOC FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS ENCOURAGING 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Outstanding issues related to housing care for ex-OTR 
holders and claims to pension rights earned between 1991 and 1995 in 
areas outside of Croatian control during the war were on our agenda 
for a June 10 meeting with UNHCR Croatia Representative Wilfried 
Buchhorn, Associate Protection Officer Mario Pavlovic and Durable 
Solutions Assistant Borka Vukelic.  Buchhorn noted that the 
formation of the new government in late 2007 signaled a 
reinvigorated focus on durable solutions for returnees.  He said the 
swift compilation and May publication of the "Rulebook on 
Convalidation of Working Years" was a positive step toward a 
permanent solution.  He cautioned, however, that the existing decree 
on convalidation, which required applications to be submitted by 
April 10, 1999, had either to be voided or overlooked for officials 
to process new requests. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) UNHCR staff told us that the government was still working 
to meet certain benchmarks for housing care for ex-OTR holders that 
were part of Croatia's opening negotiations on Chapter 23 (Judicial 
and Fundamental Rights) of the EU Accession process.  Pavlovic 
emphasized that it was not just the "hardware" of housing and 
reconstruction that was most important, but the process of 
reconciliation for ethnic minorities and the majority that mattered 
for the long term sustainability of return.  He said that one key 
component of this would be the implementation of the new law on 
employment of minorities in public administration as a percentage of 
 
BELGRADE 00000630  002 OF 003 
 
 
the population. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Following the closure of the OSCE Croatia mission in late 
2007, UNHCR has taken on a more central role in monitoring Croatia's 
progress on remaining issues related to returns, Pavlovic said. 
Pavlovic told us that the Ministry for Regional Development had 
asked UNHCR to review about 850 negative applications for housing 
care outside the ASSC, under a newly established appeals process 
(REFTEL).  Pavlovic said that 50% of the 177 cases he had personally 
reviewed to date required revisions.  He considered the government's 
willingness to involve UNHCR in the process and to reverse its own 
decisions a sign of increased transparency and commitment. 
 
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ZAGREB AND REST OF CROATIA 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) According to Tomo Aracic, president of the Association of 
Settlers and an advisor to the GOC on regional development, 
reconstruction, and return, the key ingredient to the normalization 
of life in war-torn areas is property repossession.  Economic 
revitalization follows a close second.  Based in Knin, in the 
Dalmatian hinterland, Aracic works closely with ethnically diverse 
communities and has good insight into life outside the capital.  He 
told us, during a June 11 visit to Knin, of the work still to be 
done to bridge the gap between the political will in the capital and 
the lack of capacity and expertise of government offices outside 
Zagreb to actually implement the government's decisions and provide 
the durable solutions for refugees and returnees. 
 
CROATIAN RED CROSS ASSISTANCE TO VULNERABLE RETURNEES 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) According to Croatian Red Cross (CRC) Regional Coordinator 
Mirjana Ercegovic, returnees, particularly elderly women and 
individuals in poor health continue to trickle into Croatia. 
Ercegovic told us on June 12, that, the previous week, CRC had 
assisted the return of two extremely vulnerable returnees, aged 95 
and 97.  Ercegovic said these individuals had returned to Croatia to 
die where they had been born.  (In partnership with UNHCR, the CRC 
assists elderly returnees to access health care and to reintegrate 
in their place of origin.  The CRC also monitors the health of 
returnees via mobile teams in remote locations of the country.) 
 
SERBIAN DEMOCRATIC FORUM: DPM LEADERSHIP PROMISING 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Leaders of the Serbian Democratic Forum (SDF), an NGO, 
told us during a June 12 meeting that they are impressed with Deputy 
Prime Minister Uzelac and that they appreciated the opportunity to 
speak with his staff candidly, and on a regular basis, about 
minority issues.  SDF, a UNHCR implementing partner, provides free 
legal aid to minority returnees in three phases of return: personal 
documentation, property repossession and integration.  SDF leaders 
stressed that more work was needed to resolve the still outstanding 
housing reconstruction cases, but conceded that much reconstruction 
that had already taken place was of high quality. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Although SDF staff expressed concern that the GOC had 
provided insufficient guidance on the implementation of the Rulebook 
on Convalidation, they noted a significant increase in requests for 
convalidation since the publication of the Rulebook in May -- fifty 
requests daily, in the past month.  SDF leadership was cautiously 
optimistic that the process would go well.  SDF expected that the 
GOC would continue to accept applications, but predicted that some 
applications would likely be denied for insufficient or improper 
documentation. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) SDF leaders also said that OTR cases that the GOC had 
considered "resolved" would take some time to complete.  They said 
some housing units were of questionable quality and/or were 
occupied. They estimated that 30% of the "resolved" cases still 
require additional work.  Our SDF interlocutors said that there were 
no guarantees that the government would resolve all of the remaining 
cases, but acknowledged that the GOC was making steady, albeit slow 
progress on housing care. 
 
KNIN LEADERS CLAIM CITY AN EXAMPLE OF ETHNIC HARMONY 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Knin Deputy Mayor Dragan Jerkovic and local MP Tomislav 
Vrdoljak told us that they considered Knin an ideal example of 
ethnic harmony.  "We have had no inter-ethnic disputes, and we are 
proud that unlike in Vukovar, for example, children of all 
ethnicities here attend school together," Jerkovic said.  Vrdoljak 
added that the return process in Knin was on balance successful; 
2,000 of the city's current 17,000 residents were ethnic Serbs. 
Jerkovic said housing care for 28 families in Knin had been 
resolved, and he anticipated resolving an additional 200 by the end 
of the year.  "All ex-OTR holders who want to return to Knin and who 
request housing care will receive it," he said.  Vrdoljak concluded 
 
BELGRADE 00000630  003 OF 003 
 
 
that Knin was in the process of implementing Croatia's new 
constitutional law on minorities, which he deemed one of the best in 
Europe. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) We visited Susa Vukosava, a former OTR holder who 
received an apartment in central Knin in 2007 through the housing 
care program.  Vukosava, a single mother, told us that she had not 
yet moved into the apartment and was staying with family in a nearby 
village.  We toured the apartment, which requires some basic repair, 
but is in overall fair condition, with running water and 
electricity.  According to UNHCR, the apartment was representative 
of the "average" allocated under the housing care program. 
 
RETURNEES GLAD TO BE BACK, DESPITE CHALLENGES 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Satisfaction to be back in their homes was the defining 
sentiment for several ethnic Serb returnee families we visited in 
the Lika and Zadar Hinterlands.  For the Buljevic family, who 
returned to the small village of Muskovci in 2000 with UNHCR 
assistance, hard work and the resolve to make peace with former 
neighbors are critical to sustainable return.  "I have former 
neighbors who still live in dilapidated shelters in Vojvodina and 
are interested in returning, but they think it can be done 
overnight; it just isn't possible," said Buljevic.  Buljevic told us 
that he had invested much of his own labor into rebuilding his home 
with the reconstruction materials he received from the government. 
 
 
¶16.  (SBU) For others like the Lakic family, the process of return 
proved more challenging.  The family was among the first to return, 
in 2006, to the devastated, heavily mined Benkovac region.  The 
Lakic home, now a solid stone structure, has been completely 
rebuilt.  The family depends on agricultural activity for a 
subsistence-level income.  Nevertheless, for the elder Lakic, he 
would not trade being home for anything in the world.  "There were 
many obstacles to my return, but I am happy to be back in my home," 
he said. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶17.  (SBU) Croatia has made steady progress in recent years on 
return and reintegration of ethnic minorities. As the Croatian 
government recognizes, more remains to be done.  As the country 
continues along its European path, engagement from European 
institutions, particularly the EU, will be important to encouraging 
the GoC to resolve these issues. 
 
¶18. (U) Embassy Zagreb has cleared this cable. 
 
MUNTER