WASHINGTON, 27 June (Hina) - The U.N. Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein, on Thursday informed the U.N. Security Council in New York about the results of the U.N. mission and
its next steps in the Croatian Danube river region.
ES
WASHINGTON, 27 June (Hina) - The U.N. Transitional Administrator for
Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein, on
Thursday informed the U.N. Security Council in New York about the
results of the U.N. mission and its next steps in the Croatian Danube
river region. #L#
We are now facing the most difficult part of the mission - the
return of displaced persons, Klein said at a press conference in the
United Nations building in New York.
Klein held talks with the members of the Security Council following
this week's proposal by the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on UNTAES
exit strategy, which would be accompanied by the transfer of authority
in the Danube river region to the Croatian authorities.
We asked that the mandate be extended until January 1998 and that
its executive part last at least until October 1997, when the situation
would be reconsidered, Klein said.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had
been asked to take over the mandate after the departure of UNTAES in
January 1998, with the suggestion that the OSCE mission include 150 to
200 people for a period of at least two years.
Asked how many Serbs have left the region so far, Klein said that
some 10% of the population had left the region.
Some will leave because, I think you understand, in the former
Yugoslavia the Serbs had the tendency to dominate Croatia. By that I
mean that they were history professors at Zagreb University, they worked
in the police, administration, they were to a large part infrastructure.
The Serb population decreased from 12% to 5% and for many of these
people it is not only the question of losing power but the question of
whether they see themselves living in the Croatian state, Klein said.
The transfer of authority in the Danube river region will not lean
to an exodus of Serbs, he said.
Some people will leave the region and we cannot prevent them. We
have encouraged them to stay but there is no doubt that there is a
certain number of Serb nationalists who do not want to live in Croatia.
However, most of the Serbs still want to, Klein said, adding that 95% of
people in the region had Croatian citizenship certificates and that some
100,000 people remained in the region.
Asked whether he would replace the High Representative in Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Carl Westendorp, Klein said he had not heard anything about
that, but added that he would not reject such appointment, although it
would mean that he would have to leave his mission in Croatia.
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