Serb refugees return to their homeland

She returned in the spring of 2002 to a home looted and bare, stripped even of its stairs. Nothing was as Sonja Leka had left it seven years earlier, except the pink roses her aunt had planted there decades before.

In 1995, after four years of fighting between Serbs and Croats, the Croatian army launched "Operation Storm," which drove more than 300,000 ethnic Serbs from their homes in Croatia. Ms. Leka, who's in her late 30s, is among the 137,000 refugees who have returned from neighboring countries.

Returnees face daunting obstacles. Many of their homes have been destroyed or occupied by others, unemployment is high, and there is little infrastructure in the rural areas where a third of the population was once Serb and ethnic tensions still linger.

"To some potential returnees, Croatia as a state evokes ambiguous feelings," says Peter Semneby, ambassador for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Croatia.

Still, repatriation of Serb refugees has become a national priority in order for Croatia to become a member of the European Union in 2007.So policies have been adopted to facilitate housing reconstruction, property repossession, job growth, and social integration.

The early signs are positive. The number of returnees is on the rise. Earlier this month, Kathleen Stephens, US assistant secretary of State for South and Central Europe, praised Croatia for its return policies and noted that the US will continue to encourage the Croatian government to ensure cooperation of local communities in creating a "hospitable" return for refugees.

To create such an environment, the Croatian government has committed $300 million this year to mend homes and compensate those whose houses are occupied. Returnees are eligible for reconstruction funds, free health services, and 50 euros ($60) a month per person.

Yet such entitlements do not always reach the refugees.

The Lekas - Sonja, an only child, lives with her father, Dmitrije - have received no compensation from the state for the repairs to their home.

They did apply for funds to replace the walls and stairs and nearly all of their belongings. But they were rejected because their house in Novo Selo was only a summer house. Their primary residence was an apartment in the city of Karlovac, to which the Lekas have not been allowed to return because it is now occupied by others, as are the homes of an estimated 24,000 other Serb families.

Progress has been made on the repossession and reconstruction of private homes, said Mr. Semneby in a press conference July 6. But he pointed to the lack of housing for refugees who had lived in government-owned apartments as a major obstacle preventing refugees from coming back to Croatia.

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