LESKOVAC CALLS ON SERB PARTIES TO UNIFIED ELECTORAL COALITION

VUKOVAR, Sept 24 (Hina) - President of the Party of Danube Region Serbs, Rade Leskovac on Friday publicly called on all Serb national political parties in Croatia to compete in the coming Parliamentary elections as a unified coalition of the Serb people in Croatia. "We would like to reach a consensus on this issue, not on minimum but maximum election objectives. If we do not succeed, we would consider it satisfactory if we could agree that during the election campaign we at least did not cause each other harm", Leskovac said at a press conference, emphasising that a unified Serb coalition would be preferable for several reasons. "At first glance, this is required due to the interests of the Serb people in Croatia who expect to be led by serious political representatives", he said adding that Croat Serb refugees in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro too, expect this. According to Leskovac, an election coalition of Serb political parties in Croatia is vital for the Croatian public too. "We need to show Croatia and its people that Serbs are not a destructive factor but rather people who accept the Croatian State and wish to be creative within it", he said. He expressed public gratitude to the Croatian Helsinki Committee who are bearing witness to the calamities faced by Serbs in western Slavonia, Banovina and Kordun during the "Storm" military-police action. According to UN statistics, Leskovac said, some 3 thousand Serbs went missing during this military action. Many Serbs were killed or shelled in refugee columns, adding that Serb politicians in Croatia have to date not given much account to the Serbs in these regions. (hina) sp