VUKOVAR MAYOR ON CITY COUNCIL BOYCOTT, SERBS DISMISS SENIOR SDSS PARTY OFFICIALS

SDSS PARTY OFFICIALS ( Editorial: --> 5898 ) VUKOVAR, May 22 (Hina) - Vukovar Mayor Vladimir Stengl on Friday called a press conference to air the many troubles besetting the city administration and the city council. Both these bodies were recently boycotted by their Serbian members who all belong to the Independent Demoratic Serb Party (SDSS). Part of the trouble stems from the difference between the two major parties - HDZ and SDSS - as to the number of councilmen each is entitled to in the city council. The SDSS advocates the last election results as the criterion for dividing the seats, while the HDZ insists on the 1991 census results being respected. Twelve HDZ councilmen, as many SDSS members and two Croatian members from Mercep's roster were elected to the City Council at the local elections in April 1997. According to the 1991 census, Croats accounted for 43.8 percent of the population of Vukovar and Serbs had 37.4 percent. Stengl invited local SDSS officials to reflect that they "were appointed, not elected, to their posts and could be replaced by new people." He discussed at length the oft-heard Serbian complaint about the small number of Serbs employed in the city authority. It was true that there were 9 Serbs out of the 32 city hall employees, he conceded. But in the public companies run by the city, the scale was heavily tipped in the favour of Serb employees, he emphasised. The local waterworks employed 64 Serbs and only six Croats; the public utility company, 80 Serbs and four Croats, the Town Museum, six Serbs, four Croats and one Ukrainian, the city library, four Serbs and one Croat. In the meantime, the SDSS main committee convened in Vukovar on Friday afternoon to discuss the party's relations with HDZ. The committee accepted the resignations of its vice-president for Baranja Novak Vukcevic and Beli Manastir branch chairman Milan Bogunovic. The committee stressed that any problems in communication with HDZ should be overcome at the highest level. It also welcomed the recent establishment of the Danubian Serbs' Party as a contribution to the multi-party system in Croatia. (hina) jn as 222113 MET may 98