TRAVEL REPORT The Hon. Michael Atkinson MP Attorney-General ...

Radio interviews . The deadline for applications for housing is December,2004 . New accommodation will replace what they had lost .The Ministry of Reconstruction is the principal target of . lobbying . Its countyofficers are responsible for the construction of the new housing .A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in May, 2004 with U .N.H.C.R .for a publicity campaign to advertise this resettlement program . There wassome concern at the lack of action so far, mostly in relation to SiM . They arepressuring the Government to extend the deadline for applications to ensurethat as many people as possible can take advantage of the programme .The three OSCE missions, in Croatia, SiM and BiH are co-operating toexchange information regarding those citizens who wanted to return, whoowned property and any other relevant information .The OSCE is also responsible for monitoring the Courts for both war crimestrials and civil cases . In Vukovar, they started some time ago . By the summerof 2003, four war crimes were dealt with by the courts . Three were convictedand sentenced for war crimes against civilians, one for a war crime against aPOW . The cases were mostly related to Krajina and regarded Serbs who hadbeen investigated by Croatian authorities . Five to 20 years is the prescribedpunishment . In these cases, the sentences were between six to eight years .OSCE monitors the procedural aspects . They do not inquire about the meritsof the cases but monitor the independence and capacity of the Croatianjustice system to see whether Croatia can take over I.C .T.Y . cases . Afte reach hearing, a report is produced as well as a monthly report for OSCEheadquarters . Civil cases are also monitored (both at country and municipalcourt level) . The majority are labour cases where workers are seekingentitlements from corporations . There are also compensation cases fordamage caused too properties by squatters .Another major area of work is in Occupancy and Tenancy Rights (O.T.R .) .They also monitor cases of teachers who chose to stay during the war . Theircontracts were cancelled and when this region was re-integrated, they wantedto return to work and when that was not allowed, the Education Ministrycontinued to pay them for years until the Ministry recently cancelled theircontracts . The deadlines for the legal cases are unfortunately very tight .Some NGO's have lawyers who provide plaintiffs with free-of-charge courtrepresentation but it is not the role of the field office . It only co-ordinatessome of these efforts, but principally it provides monitoring and lobbyingsupport .The Attorney enquired whether the Croatian legal system had made upenough ground to deal with I .C .T.Y . cases and if the changes to the criminalcode had gone far enough to allow them to comply .Travel Report, Hon . Michael Atkinson, MP . and Ms. Vini Ciccarello MP., August, 2004 56