OSCE KNIN OFFICE: SECURITY GOOD, BUT MEDIA REPORTS ARE INCORRECT

SPLIT, June 11 (Hina) - The security situation in the Knin area is good, but could worsen if some media continued to publish false information about a mass return of Serb refugees and the eviction of Croats from flats and homes, an official of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and head of the Knin coordination office, Richard Gibson, said in Split on Friday. Gibson did not say which those media were, but he dismissed recent claims that 20,000 Serbs have returned to Knin. According to a pre-war census, less than 10,000 Serbs lived in Knin and today, according to UNHCR data, there are about 3,000, he added. According to Gibson, the media have falsely reported that Serbs were returning to Knin and Benkovac in large numbers, and that the local housing commissions were evicting Croats from flats and houses so that Serbs could move in. Gibson said there was no mass return of Serbs nor were the housing commissions, which barely operated, evicting anyone. He said the returnees were mostly elderly people, often women, who returned to claim their pensions and die where they had been born. Those are not dangerous people, Gibson added. The OSCE official expressed satisfaction with the fact that the number of incidents in the Knin area had decreased and that there were no more mining incidents in the Gospic area. He said a recent investigation by the civilian, military and police authorities had contributed to this. Asked about a recent report by the Croatian Helsinki Committee on crimes committed in southern Croatia, liberated by Operation "Storm", Gibson said he had not read the document. (hina) rml