U.N. REPS ACCUSED OF PERSUADING BOSNIAN CROATS TO LEAVE CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 6486 ) ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - Officials from a Geneva-based United Nations agency have been accused of trying to talk Bosnian Croat refugees currently housed in Croatia into leaving for other countries. On Monday the main secretariat of the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said it had received information that International Organisation for Migration (IOM) representatives had especially targeted Bosnian Croat families in the Knin and Banovina areas and offered them settlement in third countries, so that they could leave these areas. The HDZ main secretariat said it had obtained questionnaires and forms used by IOM officials from Split and Knin in their contacts with Croat families from Bosnia-Herzegovina. The forms relate to the possibility of immigrating to Canada, Australia and other countries. Asked to comment on these actions, the HDZ pointed out the unprincipled nature of such procedures, comparing them to recent incidents related to the departure of Serbs from the Croatian Danube River region to Norway, for which Croatia was blamed. It has to be asked why UN representatives are now issuing offers for the immigration of Bosnian Croat refugee families, HDZ representatives said. While those families are being talked into leaving, Serb families in these areas are being given humanitarian aid, the HDZ secretariat noted. According to party figures, dozens of Croat families have already departed on the basis of the offered requests and questionnaires. (hina) mb /rm 252006 MET may 98