VRKIC: SERB EMIGRATION BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION

( Editorial: --> 6886 ) SISAK, Mar 3 (Hina) - Croatia has fulfilled all of its obligations from the agreement on two-way return and made it possible for everyone to return to where they lived in 1991 and restore their property rights, National Trust Establishment Committee vice- president Ivica Vrkic said on Tuesday. People who cannot come to terms with an independent and sovereign Croatia and do not want to live here, have been allowed to sell their property at market value to a state agency and emigrate wherever they want, Vrkic said. On Tuesday Vrkic talked with Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Djuro Brodarac and heads of municipalities from the areas of Banovina, Kordun and western Slavonia, which were liberated in 1995. Speaking about emigration of Serbs from the Danube region to Norway and other countries, where they are seeking political asylum, Vrkic said their reasons for emigration were purely economical and that the matter had been unnecessarily blown out of proportion. Those who have tried to use the problem of unemployment to score political points are neither moral nor politically correct, Vrkic said, adding that in the post-war period life was difficult for both Serbs and Croats in Vukovar, Knin and Dvor. Serbs from the Danube region who are abusing Croatian citizenship documents to emigrate are giving Croatia a bad name instead of helping it, Vrkic said. Croatia was doing its best so that the liberated areas could be finally stabilised. However, Croatia would not be able to reconstruct everything that had been damaged during the Homeland War, Vrkic said. Hence, the international community should assume a different approach and start helping Croatia financially instead of pressuring it. Speaking about activities of the Agency for transactions in certain real estate, Vrkic, its manager, said that the Agency had so far bought 500 buildings from Croatian citizens, including 36 in the area of Banovina and in the Sisak-Moslavina county. More than 1,000 people have officially offered their real estate to the Agency, which has so far surveyed between 600 and 700 buildings. (Hina) jn mr /mb 031908 MET mar 98