ZAGREB, March 21 (Hina) - All INA employees working at plants, oil-wells and platforms in the Near East countries are absolutely safe, but their quick evacuation has been arranged in the unlikely event of the conflict's spilling over
Iraqi borders, Zeljko Belosic, a management board member in the Croatian oil company, said on Friday.
ZAGREB, March 21 (Hina) - All INA employees working at plants, oil-
wells and platforms in the Near East countries are absolutely safe,
but their quick evacuation has been arranged in the unlikely event
of the conflict's spilling over Iraqi borders, Zeljko Belosic, a
management board member in the Croatian oil company, said on
Friday. #L#
There are 650 INA Group employees working in Tunis, Libya, Egypt,
Syria, Oman, and Qatar, Belosic told a news conference upon
returning from a tour of plants in Syria and Oman.
Although the danger of the war spreading onto Syria or any other
state in which INA has its workers is deemed to be non-existent, an
evacuation plan has nonetheless been worked out with local
authorities, said Belosic.
He added that in case of immediate danger, an agreement had been
reached with a Cypriot shipping company whose vessels could reach
the nearest port in Syria or Lebanon in about four hours, which was
also the time required for the workers to be transferred from plants
to the port.
The ship and evacuation buses are equipped with food and satellite
telephones, said Belosic, adding that there was no confusion or
panic among INA's workers, or requests to be returned to Croatia.
Belosic said the only danger were situations one had no influence
on, such as reduced safety to due to a refugee surge, the use of
biological and chemical weapons, or the spreading of
fundamentalism. He stressed, however, that INA was prepared to deal
with these situations.
(hina) ha