915 DISPLACED PERSONS LEFT IN VUKOVAR COUNTY

VUKOVAR, Aug 12 (Hina) - There are 915 displaced persons left in Vukovar County, 710 of whom live in the town of Vukovar, the Regional Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees said on Tuesday. #L# A recent review has shown that much fewer than 3,000 displaced persons registered with the office are living in Croatia's easternmost county. "After the review, we have removed from the records 1,704 people who returned to their pre-war places of residence or moved away," said the head of the office, Ante Drmic, adding that a further 132 people were deregistered. Of the re-registered 915 displaced people, 564 are internally displaced, which means that they have a domicile in Vukovar County but do not live there. The remaining 351 are domiciled elsewhere in Croatia but have not yet returned to their places of residence. According to Drmic, 47 percent of the registered displaced persons want to stay in the Vukovar region, while the rest plan to return to where they lived before 1991. Many of those who want to stay have sold their property, or do not want to sell it, but have applied for housing in contravention of the existing housing regulations for areas ravaged by the 1990s war, Drmic said. (hina) vm