CROATIA GUARANTEES SAFETY TO SERBS IN DANUBIAN AREA

ZAGREB, Feb 17 (Hina) - Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman on Monday talked with the UN Transitional Administrator of the Croatian Danubian area, General Jacques Klein, and a local Serb leader, Vojislav Stanimirovic, about the process of the peaceful reintegration of the Danubian area and about questions of amnesty, cases of Serbs' departure from the area and preparations for the forthcoming elections. Present at the talks, held in Zagreb, was a Croatian Deputy Prime Minister, Ivica Kostovic. "President Tudjman guaranteed to Serbs that there would be no revanchism," Kostovic said to reporters after the meeting. "A list of criminals will be known in a few days, and the rest of the population can be calm in this way," Kostovic said. It was necessary to calm people and to assure them that they were welcome in Croatia, that they had future here, that there would be no revenge and that they had no reason for departure, General Klein said after the meeting. He believed that the revealing of a final list of war criminals in order to be made public who was on the list and who was not, would contribute to that. Vojislav Stanimirovic held that the announcement of the list of alleged war criminals would surely had positive impact on the population in the area so that people who were not on the list knew that they could stay in the area. Stanimirovic said there was a considerable number of people who were leaving for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Bosnian Serb entity, and most of them were taking their property. However, some of them were returning and some were not. He could not give exact figures about this. Kostovic said that "political guarantees of the Croatian Government" and promotion of tolerance by the media should stop that process (of departing). Gen. Klein described as very important the forthcoming visit of Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic to Belgrade, scheduled for February 19. The entire process of the reintegration was very connected with relations between Zagreb and Belgrade, he added. The UN Transitional Administrator held that many issues in the area were linked with the demilitarization and the border regime in July. He portrayed as good the course of preparations for the elections in the area on the grounds of the Croatian Government's Letter of Intent on the completion of the peaceful reintegration and the UN SC Presidential Statement. "The preparations for elections have been very well done and we hope that this political process will end successfully," Kostovic said. Stanimirovic said that one or two parties would be registered UN-administrated area which would be probably included into the electoral procedure. Klein said that some questions that were now of the interest were what two Serb Deputy Prefects would do or posts in ministries, which the Croatian Government guaranteed to Serbs. He added that he had discussed this matter with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. (hina) jn mš 171811 MET feb 97