COEXISTENCE OF CROATS AND SERBS IN SISAK COUNTY UNDER STRAIN

GVOZD, July 4 (Hina) - Reacting to last month's murder of Croat Jure Smiljcic in Gvozd, the management of the Union of Associations of Settled (Bosnian) Croats (ZUNH) called an extraordinary session, and concluded Croats in Gvozd will collectively move out of the town if their requests are not met. Smiljcic, a settler from north-west Bosnia, was killed by a resident of Serb nationality, Dragan Borota, in Gvozd, Sisak- Moslavina County (about 70 kilometres south of Zagreb), on June 30. Gvozd was today the stage for gathered representatives of associations from Korenica, Obrovac, Gvozd, Petrinja, Sunja, Staro Petrovo Selo and Okucani. ZUNH president Tomo Aracic told a news conference that even before the murder in Gvozd, Serb returnees (who fled Croatia during the war) killed several Croat settlers in Obrovac, Gracac, Petrinja, Korenica and Sunja. He demanded of the Interior Ministry and other bodies to report on the security situation in the region, and begin confiscating illegal weaponry and ammunition in an organised manner. "We will not sit peacefully and watch Serbs humiliate us, kill us and chase us off again. We shall defend ourselves," Aracic warned. The gathered Croat settlers asked that the government appoint a commissioner to Gvozd until tensions defuse, and that the Croatian Democratic Union and Croatian Identity and Prosperity parties be included in the bodies of local self-government. Municipal head Mile Jerosimic (Social Democratic Party, SDP) told ZUNH representatives the killing of Jure Smiljcic was a "bar conflict" which "has no political background". In a written reply to the Union's requests, Jerosimic said the suggestion on the "mass exodus of Croats from Gvozd is the summit of manipulation with unfortunate people by the policy which brought them into this situation". The Sisak-Moslavina chapter of the Coordination of Associations of the Homeland Defence War expressed solidarity with the union of settled Croat associations, and supported the views of the county assembly on the necessity of a more effective functioning of the law-based state in the area. The coordination advocated the calming of tensions through dialogue and tolerance. Representatives of the coordination have announced they will request to be received by the new leaderships of municipalities in which Serb parties and the SDP are in power, in Gvozd and Dvor, and ask they to influence the defusing of tensions with the majority Serb population. The coordination will ask of local authorities in the two municipalities to speak with Serb returnees so they could help with uncovering the missing graves of soldiers and civilians killed in the area during the Croatian Homeland Defence War. The Homeland War associations will be working on preventing any inappropriate action and disturbance of relations ethnic inter- relations by Bosnian Croat refugees, settlers in Gvozd. They said they will try to organise talks with representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Croatian Helsinki Committee and other international and home non- government organisations which are active in the area. The aim of the meeting would be to have the organisations have equal attitudes towards both Croats and Serbs in providing assistance and humanitarian help, and so the organisations could contribute to the establishment of confidence, dialogue and tolerance. About 1,300 Croats, mostly settled refugees from Bosnia- Herzegovina, and about 5,000 Serbs live in the Gvozd area. (hina) lml sb