US embassy cable - 05ZAGREB132

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, PHUM, HR, Refugee 
SUBJECT: A CONFIDENT CRAWL TOWARDS CLOSING THE REFUGEE FILE 
 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
 
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1.  (SBU) Meeting with Ambassador Frank and the Heads of 
Mission of  the OSCE and  UNHCR Missions and European 
Commission Delegation to Croatia for the first time in 2005, 
Croatia's National Refugee Coordinator (Minister of Maritime 
Affairs, Tourism, Transportation, and Development and 
National Refugee Coordinator Bozidar Kalmeta) affirmed 
Croatia's eagerness to close the refugee return file by 2006 
and voiced clear willingness to move forward with the 
lingering issues of housing allocation to former holders of 
occupancy and tenancy rights (OTR) and re-electrification of 
returnee villages.  Housing for tenancy rights holders still 
tops the agenda, though the implementation is increasingly 
technical and less and less political.  Though a strong 
desire to move beyond war legacy issues often leads Croatia 
to set overly ambitious targets for reconstruction, housing 
assistance, and property repossession, high-level monthly 
meetings between the four COMs and the GoC are clearly having 
a positive effect nudging the GoC towards realistic 
benchmarks.  END SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
 
HOUSING ASSISTANCE FOR OTR HOLDERS STILL ON TOP 
 
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2. (SBU) Providing housing to former occupancy and tenancy 
rights (OTR) holders in predominantly urban areas continues 
to top the refugee agenda.  In December, the GoC agreed to a 
proposal from the COMs to extend the application deadline 
through June 30, 2005, pending the start of a GoC-led public 
information campaign about housing assistance.  The GoC has 
thus far received approximately 1600 applications for 
assistance.  Processing applications, investigating property 
claims through former state enterprises, and making a 
decision continues to challenge the public administration. 
While the GoC does not currently notify applicants in the 
case of rejected applications, Minister Kalmeta promised the 
GoC would begin sending out notification letters once an 
application had been adjudicated and pledged to establish an 
appeal process for unsuccessful applicants.  Though an 
estimated 18,000 OTR holders and their families may be 
eligible for housing care, the program has been slow to get 
underway owing largely to a lack of awareness of assistance 
available. 
 
3.  (SBU) The GoC already has some housing units available 
for successful OTR applicants.  The four COMs told Kalmeta 
that allocating housing as soon as applications were decided 
would demonstrate clear GoC seriousness to move forward on 
return issues and encourage other potential beneficiaries to 
apply by showing the benefits of doing so.  Kalmeta agreed to 
start allocations before the June 30 deadline but noted that 
housing should be carefully prioritized to where it is most 
urgently needed. 
 
RE-ELECTRIFICATION 
 
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4.  (U) Kalmeta was clear that the issue of reconnecting 
electricity to a large number of mostly ethnic Serb villages 
in war-affected areas is simply one of money. A recently 
signed 52 million kuna ($9.06 million) agreement between the 
GoC and the national electricity company HEP to finance 
re-electrification is a positive development. Though the Serb 
Democratic Forum has criticized HEP recently for not doing 
enough to accelerate reconnection, Kalmeta has little 
influence over the fiercely-independent electricity company. 
Post is aware of significant discrepancies in the allocation 
of rural electrification projects, with Croat villages fully 
electrified while many predominantly Serb villages remain 
without power. 
 
HIGH-LEVEL MEETINGS BOLSTER EFFICIENCY AND CONFIDENCE 
 
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5. (SBU) After six months of regular high-level meetings, 
Minister Kalmeta is increasingly well-briefed on the 
technical details of return implementation and confident of 
his PM's support to move forward.  Kalmeta's professionalism 
and confidence extend to the working level as well, where the 
GoC with increasing efficiency exchanges information with 
Post on return progress. 
 
FRANK