Croatian Ministers and OSCE Mission launch media campaign on return and reintegration of refugees

ZAGREB, 1 December 2005 - The Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Maritime Affairs, Tourism, Transport and Development Minister Bozidar Kalmeta, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Croatia, Jorge Fuentes, presented on 30 November a media campaign on the return and reintegration of all refugees and displaced persons (Public Awareness Campaign - PAC).

The Government of the Republic of Croatia, together with the OSCE Mission to Croatia, launched the Public Awareness Campaign on Sustainable Return. The aim of this campaign is to contribute to the increase of public awareness on issues related to the return of refugees, minority rights and reconciliation, as well as to create a climate conducive to sustainable return.

The campaign has two goals:

1) provide refugees who live outside Croatia with substantial and factual information, on the basis of which they will be able to make a reasonable decision on return; and

2) contribute to the creation of a climate conducive to sustainable return by promoting the importance of building tolerance in the society based on European values.

Through the implementation of policy for the establishment of trust, the Croatian Government made a clear commitment and it is consistently implementing the programme of return of refugees and completion of the reconstruction process.

Today, the Republic of Croatia is pleased to emphasize that the issue of the implementation of the Programme of Return and Reconstruction is a part of the overall Government's efforts aimed at enhancing the broadest democratic and social stability in the country, to further expand the internal harmony and cohesion and to introduce European standards and values into all segments of social relations and state commitments.

The Public Awareness Campaign is a joint venture of the Croatian Government and the International Community (the OSCE Mission, UNHCR, Delegation of the European Commission to Croatia and other international partners), which is yet another proof of the Government's openness towards the return of all those who want to return and their integration into the Croatian democratic civil society.

Croatia will continue to respect and implement, without losing momentum and with full determination, the legal commitments which, coinciding with individual areas covered by the Mandate of the OSCE Mission, should provide for sustainable return, accelerate the judicial reform and proceed to further improvement of human rights, freedom of the media and civil society.