CRO DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER ADDRESSES LUXEMBOURG MEETING

LUXEMBOURG, April 8 (Hina) - Croatia has already granted aid for the governments of Albania and Macedonia with the aim of alleviating the refugee crisis, and it has opened its air space, roads and sea for transport of humanitarian aid, Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader said in Luxembourg on Thursday. Croatia is also ready to offer its experts for refugee problems and temporarily accept another 3,000 Kosovo refugees, Sanader told an extraordinary meeting of the European Union Council of Ministers and foreign ministers from countries-neighbours of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia has offered its full support to the international community in forcing the Yugoslav government to sign the Rambouillet peace agreement, Sanader said. "The Croatian Government has decided to allocate 2.25 million euros for urgent humanitarian help for Kosovo refugees in Albania and Macedonia and the aid has already been sent to these countries". Since the beginning of the Kosovo crisis, 5,000-6,000 refugees have arrived in Croatia, and they have been accommodated at their relatives' homes, Sanader said adding that Croatia's readiness to accept more refugees had to be seen in light of the fact that the country was still caring for more than 100,000 internally displaced people and refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sanader recalled that Croatia was currently implementing programmes of return and reconstruction, which, he said, also require more substantial financial and economic support, as the government funds were limited. The Deputy Foreign Minister conveyed Croatia's readiness to offer Albania and Macedonia the assistance of Croatian experts on organisation and technical problems in the accommodation of refugees. Sanader also expressed support for today's meeting, which represents the continuation of the dialogue opened last week in Petersberg near Bonn. He said the meeting offered a chance for direct consultations between Yugoslav neighbours and the EU, with the aim of making joint efforts in alleviating the humanitarian disaster in Kosovo. The international community is demonstrating that Yugoslavia's expansionist and aggressive policy is the chief culprit in the tragedy which started on the territory of the former Yugoslavia ten years ago, and is currently being finished in a most dramatic way in Kosovo. "We have to know that the continuation of the inadmissible policy of the Yugoslav Government is threatening to escalate the crisis, and subsequently destabilise the whole region", he said expressing Croatia's support for international efforts to force Yugoslavia to sign the Ramboullet agreement. A more active political role of the European Union is very important at the moment, he said, expressing belief that the EU could reconsider its policy of regional approach, since adequate solutions for new challenges in the region seemed impossible in some aspects. "That is why I would like to stress that Croatia's international position should be reinforced by intensifying the dialogue and cooperation with the EU and NATO, so that the aims of not only Croatia but of international organisations operating in this part of Europe, could be achieved", the Croatian official concluded. (hina) rml