SOUTH CROATIA RESIDENTS ASK TO BE ALLOWED TO PICK OLIVES ON PREVLAKA

DUBROVNIK, Dec 16 (Hina) - The residents of Croatia's southernmost region, who own land on the Prevlaka peninsula, on Wednesday asked the Croatian Government to enable them to pick olives on their estates which are now inaccessible because a United Nations mission has been deployed there. The owners of those estates, gathered in the Association for the Protection of Ownership Rights on the Ostro Peninsula (a cape on the Prevlaka peninsula, bordering with Yugoslavia), presented their request at a press conference in Dubrovnik. The Association said they had sent their appeal to Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa on December 2. The Association's president Ivo Braticevic said the Association would also address all MPs and parties and ask the Croatian National Sabor to voice its opinion on the status of Prevlaka. The Prevlaka peninsula is located within Croatia's internationally recognised borders but Yugoslavia has territorial pretensions towards that part of Croatia's territory. Following the withdrawal of the former Yugoslav army (JNA) from the area of Dubrovnik, Prevlaka was demilitarised and has since 1992 been supervised by UN missions. "We will also insist on our claim for the return of our land that had been illegally confiscated by the former JNA in 1959", said Braticevic. The head of UN military observers in Prevlaka, Graham Williams, said he could not allow the picking of olives until ownership has been proved, Braticevic reported. Present at today's press conference was also Croatian Peasants' Party MP Srecko Kljunak. He said that Foreign Minister Mate Granic should resign because in 1996 he had signed an agreement on normalisation of relations with Yugoslavia, which treats Prevlaka as "an important contentious issue". (hina) jn rml