UNHCR RECEIVES 5000 BOSNIAN CROAT REQUESTS FOR RETURN TO BOSNIA

( Editorial: --> 8673 ) ZAGREB, April, 22 (Hina) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has received almost 5,000 applications from Bosnian Croats for their return to Bosnia-Herzegovina. UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahovcic told a press conference in Zagreb on Wednesday that 2,000 applications for return to central Bosnia were from the Knin area. Mahovcic said 30 Serbs who had been accommodated in the Croatian Danube river region had returned to Knin (southern Croatia). Another 21 people of Serb nationality would return to their homes in other parts of Croatia on Thursday, he announced. According to the UNHCR spokesman, the number of people returning on their own initiative is increasing, but they are facing problems with accommodation because their homes are still occupied. Mahovcic said 1,944 Serbs from Croatia were currently in Norway. One hundred and sixty-seven cases had been processed, while 10 people had received residency permits on a humanitarian basis. UN civil police support group spokeswoman Kirsten Haupt said that in the past week 77 incidents had been recorded in the Croatian Danube River region, indicating an increase. She expressed satisfaction with the increased efficiency of police in the area. Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Croatia spokesman Mark Thompson hailed the acquittal of the former editor-in-chief of the weekly "Globus", Davor Butkovic, who was charged with libel by members of the Croatian Government. However, Thompson said freedom of expression would truly change when such cases stop getting into court altogether. Thompson expressed the OSCE's concern over political pressures by representatives of local authorities on the work of a local radio station (Radio Koprivnica). The OSCE was also concerned about the manner in which the Croatian daily "Vjesnik" ran an article on graffiti "We Shall Make Ovcara Happen Again" written on Vukovar's Eltz castle. Ovcara is a farm near Vukovar (east Croatia) to which the former Yugoslav Army and rebelled Serbs took and killed 200 patients of the Vukovar hospital. The graffiti is an incident which should be condemned, but it does not deserve to be exposed on the front page of the paper, the OSCE spokesman said. Thompson also expressed the OSCE's concern over the trial of former OSCE Mission worker in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Milorad Stetic, who had been sentenced by the County Court in Gospic (Croatia) to 10 and a half years in prison last week for having participated, as a member of the Serb paramilitary forces, in an attack on a Croatian police patrol and the killing of a police officer in 1991. OSCE monitors said they had noticed many shortcomings in the court proceedings, and had reported them to the OSCE Standing Commission in Vienna. (hina) lm jn /mb 221831 MET apr 98