YUGOSLAV CONSULATE OPENED IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Dec 17 (Hina) - A general consulate of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was opened in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Thursday. The consulate was opened in line with a consular agreement between Croatia and Yugoslavia and the Vienna Consular Declaration. Opening the consulate, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry's main secretary Radovan Matovic said it would provide consular and legal services for about 60,000 Serbs and cover the area of five Slavonian (eastern-Croatian) counties. Matovic said today's event was of special importance for Yugoslavia's relations with Serbs living in Croatia, as well as for the overall relations between the two countries. "Yugoslavia wants to additionally contribute to improving those relations, especially as regards the human and other rights of Croatian Serbs, which is an important precondition of their survival in Croatia", Matovic said. Present at the opening ceremony, on behalf of the Croatian Foreign Ministry, was Assistant Foreign Minister, Tonci Stanicic. Addressing reporters after the ceremony, Stanicic said that the opening of the consulate "painfully coincided with the Belgrade proceedings that are being conducted, as they like to say it there, against unidentified perpetrators of crimes committed in Ovcara, in which Vukovar executioners merely have the role of witnesses". The persons in question are three high-ranking Yugoslav officers who are wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). They are indicted for organising the killing of 260 persons in Vukovar in November 1991. "That is something we cannot pass over in silence and that makes this situation awkward", Stanicic said. Stanicic also said he had heard some of the Yugoslav representatives say during their speech that the consulate in Vukovar would represent the interests of Serbs living in Croatia. "These are Croatian citizens who live on the territory of the Republic of Croatia and the interests of Croatian citizens will be taken care of by Croatian bodies", said Stanicic adding that the activities of the Yugoslav consulate in Vukovar would have to be in line with the consular agreement. Speaking about the possibility of cancelling visa requirements for Yugoslavia, Stanicic said it was still too early to speak about that although the Yugoslav side had mentioned the issue several times. The cancellation of visa requirements comes as a crown of good relations, the Croat official said. Stanicic also said Croatia would open its consulates in Subotica (in the northern Yugoslav province of Vojvodina) and in Kotor, a Montenegrin town on the Adriatic coast, after the upcoming holidays. Today's ceremony in Vukovar was attended by the newly-appointed consul-general Aleksandar Besarabic, Yugoslav Ambassador Veljko Knezevic, Vukovar-Srijem County Deputy Prefect Andrija Matic, Vukovar Mayor Vladimir Stengl, Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) president and MP Vojislav Stanimirovic, Osijek and Baranja Orthodox Bishop Lukijan and other guests. (hina) jn rml