HUMAN RIGHTS FIELD OPERATION ISSUES REPORT

GENEVA, Feb 28 (Hina) - As part of the preparations for the forthcoming session of the UN Conference for Human Rights, a report of the so-called Human Rights Field Operation in the Former Yugoslavia) was issued in Geneva on Thursday. The Field Operation acts as part of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. A part of the report concerning Croatia reiterates assessments stated by Special Rapporteur Elizabeth Rehn, that, despite some improvement in the human rights situation in the recently liberated areas of Croatia, there were still reasons for concern. The report said that the Croatian Justice Ministry had reported that the previous general amnesty had involved 3,857 persons. After the General Amnesty Law came into effect, another 96 persons who were in jail were exonerated, but 27 were arrested again, pending trial. In the description of the situation in Vukovar (under UNTAES administration), the report said that residents of the Croatian Danubian area who had applied for Croatian documents had been physically attacked by local extremists. The report also cited a list of 1,200 names of undesirable persons which had been forwarded from the free part of Croatia to many addresses of local Serbs. The report also said that the Croatian government had dismissed any ties with the pamphlet and during Rehn's visit, it had announced the publishing of a list of about 170 war crimes suspects. Regarding the general atmosphere in the Danubian area, the report said that it was not helping the establishment of trust. Thus, the number of families leaving the area had risen acutely in the past several weeks, the report said, adding that 1,836 families had left the region in the first three weeks of February. The report also estimated that many of these families were only moving their property, but that they would stay in the Danube river region and await for the development of the situation. Regarding Bosnia-Herzegovina, most attention was paid to the situation in Mostar, especially after the incident of 10 February. The report stressed that the Neretva Canton Interior Minister, Valentin Coric, had ordered the arrest of several Croats for having participated in the incident or in events preceding the committed criminal acts. The report estimated that the consequence of the Mostar incident was the deterioration of the human rights situation in the whole of the Bosnian Federation, especially in the Neretva, Central Bosnian and Zenica cantons. Catholic priests and churches in Sarajevo and elsewhere had been attacked the most, the report said. (hina) lm jn 281248 MET feb 97