EUROPEAN COMMISSION REPRESENTATIVES VISIT GLINA

( Editorial: --> 4589 ) GLINA, Feb 25 (Hina) - Special European Commission representative Colin Andrew Munroe and twelve ambassadors from European Union countries on Wednesday visited Glina, 50 km south of Zagreb. The delegation met Sisak County representatives and discussed the process of two-way return. Sisak County Assembly president Ivan Santek reported that 23,500 people had lived in the area of Glina before the Serb aggression. Of that number, about 8,500 or 38 per cent were Croats, he said. Currently about 10,000 people live in the area of Glina. After the police and military operation 'Storm', 1,200 citizens of Serb nationality remained in their homes and recognised the Croatian authority and state, Santek said. About 250 Serbs had returned to the Glina area from the Croatian Danube region and Yugoslavia, he added. The Serb aggressor had almost completely destroyed the property of Croats and Catholics from the area, Santek said, adding that some 7,000 Croats had returned to Glina, and that some 1,450 Bosnian Croat refugees had settled in the area. Serb citizens are not being denied any human right or civic freedom, Santek said. He warned that both Croats and Serbs in Glina live in hardship and have difficulties in finding jobs due to the consequences of the war. Munroe said the answers he got from the local and county authorities as to what problems had been solved were not satisfactory. He stressed it was important for the local committee for trust establishment to work better and discuss and solve concrete problems in the area. (hina) mm rm 252001 MET feb 98