Group of ethnic Serb refugees return to Croatia

Some fifty ethnic Serb refugees, whose return is key for Croatia to join the EU, on Tuesday regained their homes they had fled during the war, the UN refugee agency said.

The head of the local UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) mission said the group was made up of 47 people of all ages who returned to their homes in central and southern Croatia.

The refugee convoy left Serbia early Tuesday and was taken over by the Croatian Red Cross, Catherine Bertrand, whose agency organized the convoy, told AFP by telephone.

The return of Serb refugees started in 1998, and since then the UNHCR has organized nearly 400 such operations, Bertrand added.

Out of some 280,00 ethnic Serbs who fled Croatia during its 1991-95 war of independence from Yugoslavia so far only some 100,000 have returned, according to the UN.

Croatian authorities have pledged their return and the restitution of their property, which both figure among key conditions for Zagreb if it wants its aspirations to European Union membership to be successful.

Croatia is hoping to join the EU by the end of the decade.

The head of the pan-European Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) mission to Croatia, Peter Semneby, visited Belgrade over the weekend to encourage ethnic Serbs to return.

"The basic message is that it is important for them to take the opportunity at hand and that they apply to the program announced by the Croatian government," he said.