FOUR RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS OPENED IN VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 9990 ) VUKOVAR, June 9 (Hina) - Vukovar mayor Vladimir Stengl and the Norwegian National Aid permanent representative for the former Yugoslavia Sverre Johan Kvale Tuesday opened four reconstructed residential buildings in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar. The reconstruction of Olajnica I, II and III and the Vuka skyscraper, with a total of 133 flats, was paid for by the Norwegian government, with DM1.5 million, and the Croatian Ministry of Reconstruction and Development, with DM3 million. The Vuka skyscraper is as yet uninhabited, while the three other buildings currently accommodate displaced persons. Vukovar mayor Stengl thanked the Norwegian government for its assistance. The town is in great need of help and the Norwegian government has demonstrated the best way of helping it, said Stengl. Norway's Kvale hoped Vukovar would soon access European values. According to the second secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Zagreb, Tornin Langlete, Norway has invested about US$15 million in the Danube river region of eastern Croatia. The requirements of reconstruction in eastern Croatia are huge and reconstruction could last many years, said Souren Seraydarian, commander of the United Nations Civil Police Support Group in the area. People cannot wait that long, he said, adding schools, hospitals and factories had to be built there. Financial assistance and a revived economy are conditions for an accelerated return of refugees and displaced persons to the area, Seraydarian pointed out. He believed people would not feel reconciled in an area lacking economic prospects or reconstructed houses. Reconciliation, economic reconstruction and a two-way return are mutually linked, Seraydarian said, emphasising a slow economic revival prevented the re-establishment of multiethnicity in eastern Croatia. (hina) ha 091707 MET jun 98