HOO ACCUSES CROATIA AND GERMANY OF RENEGING ON DAYTON

( Editorial: --> 5901 ) ZAGREB, May 22 (Hina) - Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO) on Friday was "appalled" by an unofficial Croatian proposal to settle 80,000 Croats from Bosnia-Herzegovina, currently refugees in Germany, accusing Croatian authorities and some German politicians of openly negotiation colonisation. The settlement of Croats from Bosnia-Herzegovina was recently proposed to a German parliamentary delegation by Parliament Speaker Vlatko Pavletic, who announced that it could be done this year if Croatia received financial assistance. The fact that German representatives accepted such talks struck Ivan Zvonimir Cicak as suspicious, indicating that "some German politicians may be reneging on the Dayton Agreement". In a telephome conversation with Hina, the HHO President condemned such a policy of the ruling Christian Democrats in Germany. HHO also issued a written statement, warning that this was an "obvious attempt on the part of the Croatian Government to prevent at all costs both the return of Serbs to Croatia and the return of Croats to Bosnia-Herzegovina, in order to create an ethnically clean Croatian state, enlarged by parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina." HHO says it is in possession of documents which confirm that Bosnian Croats are being pressured into giving up return by HDZ authorities. In the same telephone conversation Cicak specified that this evidence includes the HHO's first official report to the OSCE concerning the election in Bosnia-Herzegovina last year, as well as the letters and statements of citizens who say that they are being threatened by Croatian authorities "if they as much as open their mouth about returning to Bosnia-Herzegovina." (hina) jn jfk/as 222023 MET may 98