The Bosnian state commission for refugees on Monday granted around EUR 211,500 for the reconstruction of Roman Catholic places of worship in the Banja Luka diocese that had been destroyed in the 1990s war, Bosnian Serb officials said.
Contracts on the grants were signed in Banja Luka between representatives of 17 Catholic parishes and the state commission for refugees.
"A sustainable refugee return is not possible without the reconstruction of religious buildings," Bosnian Serb Vice President Davor Cordas said.
Cordas said that of some 11.5 million euros ensured for the return of Croat refugees through the national Fund for Return, around EUR 7 million was allocated to the Croat-Muslim entity and 4.5 million to the Serb entity.
The chairman of the state commission for refugees and displaced people, Slavko Marin, said the commission had received more than 5,000 applications for aid from the Fund for Return, which he said proved the still great need for reconstruction 15 years after the war in the country.
