TIME RIPE FOR A DONOR'S CONFERENCE

( Editorial: --> 5296 ) ZAGREB, July 2 (Hina)- Commenting on Thursday a presidential statement by the UN Security Council on the situation in the Danube region and the performance of the UN police support group there, Croatia's ambassador to the UN Ivan Simonovic stated that conditions were ripe for a donor's conference. "There are practically no more open questions about the Danube region. That has been partly confirmed by the presidential statement", concludes the Croatian ambassador in a communiqué released in New York. The international community originally had administrative competencies in the region. Later on that was replaced by supervision and now the time has come when stress should be put on economic reconstruction and development, Simonovic says. "We believe that conditions are finally ripe for staging of a donor's conference which has been postponed several times. The credibility of the international community will be tested by how it stages the conference and by its outcome". Commenting on the Security Council's remark on a growing number of ethnically motivated incidents in the Danube region, Simonovic said that it "did not take into account the fact that there can be no return without incidents and that what matters is to keep their number as low as possible by preventive actions and timely and adequate punishment of perpetrators". "By passing a programme for the return of refugees and forging an agreement with the OSCE, Croatia has made a major step towards stability and integration into common Euro-Atlantic mechanisms. The implementation of the programme will be closely scrutinised and Croatia's international standing will depend on its credibility in that area, Simonovic assessed. (Hina)jn mr 022137 MET jul 98