THERE ARE STILL UNSOLVED ISSUES SIX YEARS AFTER ERDUT AGREEMENT

ZAGREB, Nov 15 (Hina) - The peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia is one of the most successful UN operations in the world, even though six and a half years later there are still some unsolved issues, the head of the UN Liaison Office, Kishore Mandhyan, said on Thursday. He spoke on the anniversary of the signing of the Erdut Agreement which paved the way for the reintegration of eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, implemented during the UNTAES mandate, into the rest of Croatia. Milan Milanovic signed the Agreement on behalf of Croatia's Serbs in Erdut on November 12, 1995 and Hrvoje Sarinic on behalf of Croatia in Zagreb. Six years later, representatives of local authorities, local Serbs and the international community met at the invitation of Croatian Vice Premier Zeljka Antunovic in the government building to analyse what has been done in the reintegration of the Serb population. Mandhyan said that despite the fact that the reintegration was one of the UN's few successful projects, there remained problems, such as the arbitrary arrests of Serbs charged with war crimes in old indictments, the unequal implementation of the Law and Decree Adjustment Act, or the issue of property restitution, including that of the Serb Orthodox Church in Vinkovci. He is confident these problems will be solved. The head of eastern Croatia's predominantly Serb municipalities, Jovan Ajdukovic, said on behalf of the Serb minority the Serb municipalities were satisfied with what had been achieved so far, but also concerned about the fact that not all of their rights had yet been realised. Antunovic said the future of coexistence of all Croatian citizens in Croatia depended "on us alone". (hina) it sb