The minister presented the main guidelines of the programme
The minister presented, in view of the upcoming Donor Conference 24 April in Sarajevo, the main guidelines of the programme. Apart from Pusić, talks were given by Chairman of the Croatian Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee Milorad Pupovac and Personal Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Anne Willem Bijleveld.
Pusić said that the armed conflicts of the 1990s left more than three million displaced persons in the four countries included in the programme. In order to deal with the issue, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia, together with the European Commission, UNHCR, OSCE and the United States, have launched a regional initiative, one of the results of which is the Regional Programme, Pusić said.
She pointed out the number of users – some 27,000 households or 74,000 refugees and displaced persons, as well as the €583-million worth of funding. The regional initiative supports the free choice of refugees and displaced persons – voluntary return and reintegration or local integration, and ensures sustainable and quality housing while fully respecting their rights.
The minister sent two important messages in terms of resolving the status of refugees and displaced persons – the identification of concrete persons in need, so that they could finally regulate their citizenship, and the funding of the programme through housing as the principal precondition for solving the rest of the socioeconomic issues.
Pupovac recalled the roots of the initiative and said that housing should be viewed as
the first step in dealing with the rest of the issues, such as traffic and social infrastructure. He added that the initiative itself was also an instrument that could augment further reconciliation in the region.
Bijleveld emphasized the importance of processing the initiative by strengthening the responsibility of countries in the region through special working groups dealing with individual issues in regard to return and integration, as well as the role of the Council of Europe Development Bank which would, in cooperation with the countries encompassed by the programme and UNHCR and OSCE as the main donors, direct all of the collected resources towards the realization of the programme.
Representatives of the diplomatic corps, notably the European Commission and the U.S., expressed support for the programme and the upcoming Donor Conference, announcing high-level participation and contributions.
Conclusively, Pusić noted the €5.2 billion that Croatia had invested in reconstruction and refugee return. She also expressed belief in the positive outcome of the “last collective effort by the international community in closing the refugee issue in the region” and invited the present parties to attend the Donor Conference.
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