MEETING ON RETURN HELD IN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Bosnia (October 19,2007) – Meeting of the Union of Associations of Refugees, Displaced Persons, and Returnees; the Association of Displaced Persons of Mostar City “My Home”; and representatives of returnees to Mostar, was held yesterday in Mostar.

On the occasion problem regarding the return to Mostar was the topic of the meeting as well as reconstruction of buildings in the central part of the city.

Although little has been done on reconstruction of the devastated buildings in the central part of Mostar, the chairwoman of the Union of Associations of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Bosnia, Mirhunisa Zukić, declared for journalists that they are encouraged by the fact that Bosnian state allocated 300, 000 Bosnian Marks for reconstruction of housing structures in Mostar, as well as that FBiH Entity Government will until 2009 allocate 5.4 million Bosnian Marks for the same purpose, Mrs Zukić said.

She pointed out that the Union forwarded to the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO) in Geneva photos of the devastated housing structures in Mostar, asking for them to be included into the report of the Contact Group Countries G8, so that these countries would support them.

President of the Association of Displaced Persons of Mostar City “My Home”, Muradif Kurtović, expressed his skepticism about the promises on the beginning of reconstruction of the remaining housing units in the central zone of Mostar, because so far all promises have been broken.

He pointed out that returnees to Mostar are mostly bothered with the failure of their criterion and proposals regarding the priorities for reconstructions to be respected.

He added that in the central zone of Mostar there are another 110 housing units which have not been reconstructed yet.