ZADAR, June 5 (Hina) Owners of the "Pinija" hotel in Petrcani, near the central Adriatic town of Zadar, on Monday discontinued the food supply to 270 displaced persons accommodated in the hotel. Director of the hotel Biserko Visic
said he was implementing a decision of the management committee, which decided to discontinue the food supply to the displaced persons because the state failed to fulfil its obligations towards them for over a year. Several months ago, the "Pinija" hotel was purchased by the "Intermod" company for DM1.7 million paid in cash to the account of the "Velebit" privatisation fund. According to owner of "Intermod" and Hotel "Pinija" Ante Kovacevic, during the purchase he was told that the displaced persons would be accommodated in other objects. "Because of this, I have already invested several million German marks in the reconstruction of the hotel, and arranged several visits of fo
ZADAR, June 5 (Hina) Owners of the "Pinija" hotel in Petrcani, near
the central Adriatic town of Zadar, on Monday discontinued the food
supply to 270 displaced persons accommodated in the hotel.
Director of the hotel Biserko Visic said he was implementing a
decision of the management committee, which decided to discontinue
the food supply to the displaced persons because the state failed to
fulfil its obligations towards them for over a year.
Several months ago, the "Pinija" hotel was purchased by the
"Intermod" company for DM1.7 million paid in cash to the account of
the "Velebit" privatisation fund.
According to owner of "Intermod" and Hotel "Pinija" Ante Kovacevic,
during the purchase he was told that the displaced persons would be
accommodated in other objects.
"Because of this, I have already invested several million German
marks in the reconstruction of the hotel, and arranged several
visits of foreign guests. I cannot finish the reconstruction nor
conduct business because the displaced persons have not yet been
accommodated elsewhere. All requests forwarded to the Government
to solve this issue remained unanswered. So, I am forced to make
this move.", Kovacevic said.
The displaced persons were not addressed by authorised persons on
Monday, and they ate at their own expense.
The Government Office for Refugees and Displaced Persons claims it
owes nothing, but is neither offering a solution for the fate of 270
exiles.
"At this moment we owe nothing, because all debts of the former
owner have been transferred to other companies and have been
settled, and since March we have received no new invoice," Office
head Lovre Pejkovic told Croatian Television's central news
programme.
The Office will not allow exiles to be evicted, Pejkovic said. A
small number of displaced persons will solve their problem as it is
the end of the school year and they are about to return to their pre-
war homes. However, Pejkovic warned, in Zadar County in the last
year and a half not one house has been reconstructed, so most
refugees have nowhere to return.
The Government decided hotels must be cleared and returned to their
tourist aim, but the problem of dislocating the refugees remains
unsolved, the Office said.
The hotel management announced it would in the next several days cut
off the electricity and water.
(hina) it lml jn