100 MILLION BOSNIAN MARKS TO BE ALLOCATED FOR RETURN OF REFUGEES IN 2008

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (February 29,2008) - The Bosnian Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees will allocate this year 40 million Bosnian Marks for refugees and displaced persons, and together with allocations from the entity budgets the sum will increase up to about 100 million Bosnian Marks.

The data were presented by the president of the Bosnian Union of Associations of Refugees, Displaced Persons and Returnees, Merhunisa Zukić, at the press conference held in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar.

She added that revision of viable return strategy is in progress, which was initiated by the Bosnian Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, in which 70 governmental and non-governmental institutions have been included.

“What is most important for us is that it is for the first time since the Dayton Agreement that NGOs have been entrusted to participate in drafting of such document in all segments. In this way we practically change the Bosnian Constitution.Strategy will be a binding one and will have more force than Dayton Agreement”, Mrs Zukić pointed out.

The mentioned strategy should be found in the Bosnian Parliament by the end of March, while its realization could start this summer.

Zukić pointed out that since the end of the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions in entire Bosnia 68 % of the destroyed housing fund have been reconstructed, i.e. 307, 000 houses, while 145, 000 houses have remained unreconstructed.
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