Meeting on Return of Serb Refugees Held in Vukovar

Yesterday, Serb Democratic Forum (SDF) organized a meeting in Vukovar. At the meeting, they discussed the issue of faster return of Serb refugees in Croatia and problems of working with refugee-IDP population with the representatives of Vukovar-Srijem District and the Executive Council of Vojvodina. Milan SImurdic, Ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro to Croatia, was also present at the meeting.

Katica Bengin, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Executive Council, said that, according to the 2001 Census in SCG, about 200,000 refugees from Croatia and B&H live in Vojvodina only.

According to Veljko Dzakula, the Chairman of the Executive Board of SDF, the key demands of refugees that left Croatia remain the return of property, reconstruction of houses, resident rights and employment.

Having in mind the fact the SCG will continue with the termination of the collective refugee housing centres, some of them will literally be forced to return. Therefore, it is essential to solve some basic existential conditions in the places of return.

Katica Bengin also said that over 52 percent of all refugees stays in Vojvodina. The Vice-President of Vojvodina Executive Council, Dusko Radosavljevic, added that, regardless of who will hold power in Vojvodina over the next period, nothing would interfere in the regional relations. In his words, 'our goal is to live in a mutual state again, just this time that state will be the European Union.'