DISPLACED PERSONS BLOCK ENTRANCE INTO "PINIJA" HOTEL

ZADAR, June 6 (Hina) - Protesting about "Pinija" hotel (near) Zadar) management ceasing providing food to displaced persons on Monday, some fifty exiles accommodated in the hotel blocked the entrance on Tuesday, not allowing workers to continue reconstructing the hotel. Stressing that the blockade will last until their issue is resolved, the displaced persons are asking for someone in authority speaks to them. The "Pinija" hotel, in which 270 exiled are accommodated, was bought for DM1.7million by businessman Ante Kovacevic from the Velebit privatisation fund several months ago. Kovacevic claimed upon purchase he had been promised the displaced persons would be evicted rather quickly, but that nobody in authority had taken care of them any longer, and the state had been for a year settling the debts of accommodation and food supply. He stressed that without the displaced persons being removed from the hotel the hotel could not be reconstructed and receive tourists. The Government Office for Refugees and Displaced Persons claims it owes nothing, but is neither offering a solution for the fate of 270 exiles. Zadar County leadership at Tuesday's session requested of the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry and the Government to quickly solve the issue of exiles in the hotel, and the hotel Supervisory Board had asked the Government to express its opinion on the issue. The Zadar Social Democratic Party (SDP) had called a press conference at which local party official Marin Brajnovic, also a displaced person at the Pinija, said the exiles had been forced to block the entrance to the hotel. According to him, it was false that the homes of displaced persons had been reconstructed. Their houses had not been reconstructed, or had been reconstructed partially, with no living conditions, Brajnovic stressed. (hina) lml jn