HEADQUARTERS FOR TWO-WAY RETURN HOLDS FIRST SESSION IN VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 3912 ) VUKOVAR, 12 Jan (Hina) - The operational headquarters for following the organised two-way return on Monday called on displaced people to respect the procedure of two-way return, as prescribed by the Agreement on Operational Activities of the Croatian Government, the UNTAES and the UNHCR. The headquarters, established following a proposal by the National Trust Establishment Committee, held its first meeting behind closed doors in Vukovar today. The headquarters will be composed of representatives of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Croatian government Office for Displaced People and Refugees, Agency for Mediation in Certain Real Estate Transactions, Joint Council of (Serb- dominated) Municipalities, Interior Ministry, Croatian Returnees' Association, Reconstruction and Development Ministry and local authorities in the Croatian Danube river region. It was agreed that the headquarters would meet every week, and its work will be coordinated by Lovre Pejkovic, head of the Office for Displaced People and Refugees. The Vice President of the National Trust Establishment Committee and member of the headquarters, Ivica Vrkic, told reporters after the meeting that respect for the procedure was "the only way for the Croatian Danube river region to remain stable". The whole process could be destabilised if we allow individuals to take the law into their own hands and solve questions which should be solved by the state, Vrkic said, adding that every municipality and town in the Danube river region would have property commissions which would control the condition of property and, in cooperation with authorised services, solve concrete questions concerning the return. Speaking about recent incidents the UN Transitional Administrator William Walker had spoken about, Vrkic said that the incidents had happened in several villages in the Danube river region, in particular in Baranja. "Owners returned to houses which had no tenants. When they entered them, temporary tenants appeared and there followed an argument on who was the real owner of the house whose owner is unquestionably known," Vrkic explained. "Those who advocate a mass return on 16 January are wrong, because it would certainly cause incidents. Therefore we advocate the organised two-way return," Vice President of the National Trust Establishment Committee and member of the headquarters, Vojislav Stanimirovic, said. Headquarters' coordinator Lovre Pejkovic called on persons who are not Croatian citizens and reside in the Croatian Danube river region to move to a refugee centre in Gasinci in eastern Croatia within seven days at the latest, so that houses they occupy could be freed for Croatian displaced people. "Those who fail to comply with this will be treated by the Croatian state in line with the Law on Residence and Movement of Strangers," said Pejkovic. Asked how long a temporary tenant can be absent from the house he is occupying, without a displaced person moving in, Pejkovic said that a temporary tenant should live in the house he was occupying. "Croatian houses are not country houses where one can live from time to time," he said. (hina) mm rm 122035 MET jan 98