SERB OFFICIAL SAYS CROATIA AWARE IT MUST MEET INT. COMMITMENTS

ZAGREB, Jan 24 (Hina) - The president of the Serb People's Party (SNS) is satisfied Croatia has realised it must meet international commitments but maintains it is far from fulfilling those pertaining to human rights. Over the last month the Croatian government has demonstrated a strong political will as regards legislative reforms in connection with human rights, for instance the right to property repossession and reconstruction, SNS president Milan Djukic told reporters in Zagreb on Thursday, commenting on a paper the government issued in response to a note from J.B. Mot Amaral, the chairman of the Council of Europe committee monitoring how member-states comply with commitments. Dissatisfied with the fact that the status and position of 600,000 Croatian Serbs in the Constitutional Law on the Protection of Human Rights remains open, Djukic said the SNS would soon issue its own status solution for Croatia's Serbs. "We will not seek that the Serbs be a constituent people in Croatia, we will not seek a republic and secession," he said of the project. As for freedom of the media, Djukic thinks only a minimal step forward has been made. He complained about the fact that the SNS was not featured on state television, which he said worked for the intelligence, a claim he corroborated by saying he had been told that he had been tailed. The SNS leader maintains the refugee return process would be over if 88,000 Croatian Serbs had indeed returned to pre-war homes, as the government claims. Only 28,000 Serbs have returned to formerly war- affected areas, and it is certain that Serbs have not returned to Zagreb because they are still waiting to be given their flats back. Speaking about reconstruction, Djukic said funds were insufficient, Serb returnees discriminated against, and that the process could not be completed by 2003. (hina) ha