OHR Press Release Deadline with regard to the Reconnection of Returnees to Telephone Networks Expires Tomorrow Sarajevo, 24 January 2000

The OHR would like to inform returnees that the deadline for applications for reconnection to the telephone networks in Bosnia and Herzegovina for free or only 50 KM will expire tomorrow, Tuesday 25 January. The High Representative's Decision on the Reconnection of Pre-Conflict Subscribers to the Telephone Networks of 30 July 1999 specifies: PTT BiH, HPT and Telekom Srpska must reconnect returnees who were subscribers before the war, for no more than 50 KM if they file an application by Tuesday 25 January. Those returnees must not pay any phone bills from the period during which they were not in their homes. Subscribers who have lost their telephone line because it was cut during the war or re-allocated to somebody else, must be reconnected for free if they file an application by Tuesday Jan. 25. If returnees do not apply to the PTT operating in their area of return by tomorrow, the PTTs can treat them as new subscribers and charge them the full rate for reconnection. Returnees who have already filed for reconnection with the respective PTT but were refused or consider that they were overcharged, can contact the nearest UNHCR Legal Aid Center to file a complaint. The Legal Aid Centers will pass the complaint on to the Advisory Committee that will take them up with the respective PTT. The provisions of the Decision of the High Representative will remain in force for refugees and displaced people once they return, if they file an application within three months of their return date. OHR Press Release, Sarajevo, 24 January 2000