RETURN PROCESS IN W. SLAVONIA SLOW BUT INCIDENT FREE

( Editorial: --> 7351 ) LIPIK, May 28 (Hina) - Members of the Pozega-Slavonia County Trust Establishment Committee and representatives of local authorities me in Lipik on Thursday to discuss the return process and establishment of trust in the western Slavonia region. National Trust Establishment Committee president Vesna Skare- Ozbolt was also present at the meeting. Speaking about the return, Pozega-Slavonia County Prefect Anto Bagaric said it had not been marred by any serious incidents. Mayors from the towns of Daruvar, Pakrac and Lipik and the Okucani municipal head said the largest problem currently was accommodation of displaced Croats from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who were temporarily accommodated in the homes of Serbs now returning. Skare-Ozbolt stressed that no one could be evicted from such a home until he has been provided with new accommodation. This problem has to be resolved through the local office of the Agency for Real Estate Transactions, which should become more efficient, she said. Agency director and National Trust Establishment Committee vice- president Ivica Vrkic said how up until now the Agency had bought 404 homes in western Slavonia from people who had decided to permanently leave Croatia, but only a few in the Pakrac and Lipik areas. Agency offices are to be opened in those towns. Also at the meeting was Veljko Djakula, a representative of the Serb community who is not a member of the county Trust Establishment Committee but was asked to express his views on the return of Serbs. He singled out minor problems, mainly of a bureaucratic nature, which, committee members said, Croats experienced too. Djakula agreed that there had been no major incidents. He said he would be advocating a voluntary return of Croats to the Bosnian Serb entity, which he had already spoken about at a conference in Banja Luka. The meeting emphasised that the main problem in normalising the situation were economic difficulties, unemployment and infection with mines of areas of Western Slavonia that were liberated in 1995 from Serb occupation. Skare-Ozbolt said that meetings such as this one would be held monthly in order to hasten the return and the establishment of trust in the region. (Hina) jn mbr /mro 282119 MET may 98