WALKER WORRIED ABOUT SPONTANEOUS RETURN OF DISPLACED PEOPLE

( Editorial: --> 3504 ) OSIJEK, 10 Jan (Hina) - UN Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia William Walker visited the UNTAES office for civil affairs in Osijek on Saturday. The UNTAES office in Osijek, as well as those in Vukovar, Beli Manastir and Ilok, will stop working today. In a statement to reporters Walker expressed deep concern over recent reports on, as he said, spontaneous attempts by displaced people-returnees to retake possession of their pre-war homes. Those who take part in such activities may truly believe they have every right to claim their property. However, no matter what the circumstances are and no matter how legitimate their requests are, if this is allowed to continue - contrary to the regulations and publicly presented policy of the Croatian Government - it will lead to chaos and destroy all efforts directed into the peaceful solution of many problems of the two-way return, Walker said. Walker said that he, as a representative of the international community and the United Nations, had received assurances from Interior Minister Ivan Penic and Assistant Interior Minister Josko Moric that such actions aimed at retaking possession of property would not be tolerated. Both Penic and Moric have personally guaranteed that no one will be allowed to act outside the regular mechanism of return and the solution of requests relating to property, which means that no one will be able to move into his own home before care has been taken of the current tenant, Walker said. This is a very serious problem I am very worried about it, the UN Transitional Administrator said. Walker said he had submitted a list with six such cases to the Croatian Government, adding he held talks with Assistant Interior Minister Moric on three new cases yesterday. Walker did not want to say where the cases of spontaneous return had happened, stressing he did not want to speak about individual cases because he was more concerned about the general meaning of the problem. (hina) rm 101426 MET jan 98