NEWLY-APPOINTED UNTAES COMMANDER HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE

VUKOVAR, Jan 13 (Hina) - The newly-appointed UNTAES commander, Lieutenant-General, Willy Hanset, on Monday held a news conference for Croatian and Serb reporters at the UNTAES headquarters in Vukovar and announced that the takeover of command would be at Klisa on Wednesday. A spokesman for the UNTAES, Phillip Arnold, told the conference that four young people had been apprehended who destroyed the church in UN-administrated town of Ilok on December 24. Lt. Gen. Hanset described his new job as challenging. He said he believed that he would do it successfully. Lt. Gen. Hanset also said that he would be open and sincere in contacts. He stressed that his primary task would be to maintain security in the UN-administrated sector, and vowed to do it by all available means. My first step would be to tour the entire area and commanders of all four battalions - Belgian, Jordan, Russian and Pakistani, he added. Asked how the UNTAES military force would respond in case that mass volatile rallies be again staged by people, he said that if such events happened, first the Transitional Police should react, and if it was not enough, the UNTAES military force would be involved. He described the current situation in the Croatian Danubian area as stable and voiced belief that it would remain. After July 15, 1997, when the mandate expires, it will take another six months for withdrawal of troops and equipment, he added and stressed that he firmly believed that job would be done within the set time limits. Arnold announced that as of the next week 500 kuna in aid would be paid to some 21,000 retirees who used to get pensions before 1991. According to Arnold, in the Croatian Danubian area there are 13,000 retirees who used to get pensions there before 1991, and other 8,000 people have come from other parts of Croatia. The UNTAES spokesman added that there were currently 28,000 requests for issuing citizenship certificates and other Croatian documents, and that the Croatian Government was very cooperative in this field. The receiving of Croatian documents is the pre-condition for the forthcoming elections, he said and noted that it would be very good if local Serb leaders applied for the documents and thus set an example for others. Asked about residents in the Croatian Danubian area who did not want to apply for Croatian documents, Arnold said it meant that they did not want to live in Croatia and that they did not accept this country and so they must go. He expressed his opinion that nowhere would they have better life than in Croatia. (hina) mš 131951 MET jan 97