VUKOVAR SEES NEW REGISTRATION OF DISPLACED PEOPLE

( Editorial: --> 7451 ) VUKOVAR, March 5 (Hina) - On Thursday re-registration of displaced people, which has been carried out in the Danube region since 2 February, was extended to Vukovar. So far re-registration has been completed in 40 villages. According to the Office for Re-registration, so far the process included 4,705 displaced families, including 2,846 families which have not been found at designated addresses. Out of 1,859 families that have been contacted, 695 wish to return to other Croatian areas, 714 want to sell their property and leave Croatia, 264 want to stay in the Danube region and 186 are undecided. According to the head of the regional office for refugees and displaced persons for the area of Vinkovici, Ante Drmic, the re- registration has identified a large number of individuals who occupy entire houses and thus obstruct return of displaced families. The process also brought to the fore the problem of so-called internally displaced people, i.e. people who moved out of communal living, e.g. from a family home, and occupied someone else's house or flat. Other than staff of the re-registration teams, the field work is also done by officials of commissions for real estate and accmodation. However, the town of Vukovar has still not selected people who would go to the field together with the teams, Drmic said. During the past nine months about 12,000 displaced people have left the region, both in an organised and in an unorganised manner. As far as returnees are concerned, so far 3,584 displaced people have returned to the Danube region, while the number of returnees who have not been registered amounts to about 1,500. (Hina) jn mr /mb 052040 MET mar 98