NUMBER OF SERB FAMILIES WHO WANT TO RETURN ON THE INCREASE

( Editorial: --> 8775 ) OSIJEK, March 11 (Hina) - Close to 4,000 people have been registered at the Osijek regional office for displaced persons and refugees with the status of returnees to the part of Osijek-Baranja County reintegrated into Croatia's constitutional and legal order on 15 January, office head Nada Arbanas told reporters Wednesday. If the reconstruction process manages to keep up with the number of requests to return to the Croatian Danube River region we could have 6,000 returnees in the area by summer, Arbanas said. She announced the preregistration of refugees who moved to the Danube region part of Osijek-Baranja County would end Thursday. Her office staff visited the addresses of 4,354 families, and ascertained that 2,259 families, i.e. 52 per cent of those registered last year were no longer living at the reported address. Arbanas said that 1,005 families (23 per cent) declared they wanted to return to their former place of residence and 701 families (16 per cent) wanted to sell their property and leave Croatia, while 332 families (8 per cent) said they wanted to stay in eastern Croatia. During preregistration, many families had a change of heart, among whom the most numerous were those who eventually opted for the reconstruction of their houses and return to their former place of residence. Arbanas said 70 displaced families living in houses of Croatian displaced persons immediately agreed to have temporary accommodation provided by the office for the displaced and refugees, while 20 families had already been accommodated at a refugee centre in Gasinci and elsewhere in Croatia, where they will wait to return to their homes. The office for the displaced and refugees in Osijek forwarded to Croatian Reconstruction and Development Minister Jure Radic a list of all displaced people in the Danube region who said they wanted to return to their place of residence. (hina) ha jn /mb 111502 MET mar 98