PEACEFUL REINTEGRATION IS CROATIA'S IDENTITY CARD - SKARE-OZBOLT

( Editorial: --> 4593 ) NOVSKA (train), 15 Jan (Hina) - "Today is a special day for me because it is the day of completion of the UNTAES mandate and withdrawal of international forces from Croatia," said Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, President of the National Trust Establishment Committee, aboard a special train which left Zagreb for Vukovar Thursday morning. Skare-Ozbolt further stressed that the international community would never again be present in Croatia in its current form. "All of us who have worked for the peaceful reintegration have exclusively implemented the policy of the President of the Republic, Franjo Tudjman," said Skare-Ozbolt, agreeing with a statement by UN Transitional Administrator William Walker saying that real reintegration is yet to start. The reintegration of the territory and institutions has been completed and what remains to be done is to organise the return of people to their homes, organise life, remove mines from the area, repair houses and revive the economy, which represents a great challenge for Croatia, Skare-Ozbolt said. "The way we have approached this is Croatia's photo and personal identity card for its entry into Europe," she added. Thanks to Croatia, preconditions for the establishment of peace in the area have been created, said Vice President of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Ivica Vrkic. "I express my deepest gratitude to the UNTAES and General Klein, as well as to Mr Walker, but the Croatian Government is the one who, in cooperation with local Serb representatives, managed to create the Croatian peace mission which ends today," Vrkic stressed. Lovre Pejkovic, head of the Government Office for Displaced People and Refugees said the accelerated return of displaced people would follow after the completion of the UNTAES mandate. "We are all going to work seriously on that, as we have worked before, but some of the obstacles for a quicker return were caused by the Transitional Administration. Now all responsibility rests with Croatian authorities and we hope to see an accelerated two-way return in the next several days," said Pejkovic. (hina) jn rm 151118 MET jan 98