VRKIC HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE ON COURSE OF PEACEFUL REINTEGRATION

OSIJEK, Feb 10 (Hina) - The head of the Croatian Government's office for temporary administration, Ivica Vrkic, and his deputy Mirko Tankosic, on Monday held a news conference in the Osijek- based office, for Croatian and Serb journalists to inform them of the process of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area. Vrkic stressed the importance of the forthcoming elections and added that Croatia had met all its commitments concerning the elections. The explanation about technical reasons for holding elections later could not be accepted, Vrkic said adding that first of all it was about political reasons, and Serbs and UNTAES are responsible for that. Vrkic warned that property was being taken away from eastern Slavonia in an organized manner, and said that 122 loaded trucks had left for Serbia in the last 15 days. He said he had notified Transitional Administrator General Jacques Klein of this and requested him to prevent looting. Speaking of departure of Serbs from the Croatian Danubian area, Vrkic confirmed that in one day 60 Serb families had left the area. He added that Croatia wanted native Serbs to stay and those who had arrived (in the last years) to return to places where they used to live. Mirko Tankosic told the conference that the reintegration of public companies and services into the Croatian system had to be completed by February 28. He said that local Serbs had continued to work in their executive committees after a two-day work stoppage and that Croatian and Serb members of committees and sub-committees met every day. Asked by Serb journalists about documents' issuance Vrkic said that a total of 65,000 different documents had been issued, and that by the date of the holding of the elections all documents could be quickly issued in 23 offices in the UNTAES-controlled area. (hina) mm mš 102113 MET feb 97