AFTER SIX YEARS, VUKOVAR'S RIVER PORT BECOMES ACTIVE AGAIN

AGAIN $ VUKOVAR, July 31 (Hina) - Two port cranes set in motion on Thursday marked the beginning of work in the Port of Vukovar (on the Danube river, eastern Croatia). The funds for the USD 850,000-worth investment were provided by the Belgian Government. The port cranes were set to work by the UN transitional administrator for eastern Croatia, Jacques Klein, and Belgian Foreign Minister Eric Derycke. The used cranes were purchased in Kiev, Ukraine, for about USD 710,000. The remaining USD 140,000 financed the power supply, enclosure and port-cleaning. Five cranes operated in the Vukovar port before the war. They were then incapacitated and in February this year taken to Serbia. The Belgian Foreign Minister called today's event as historic, and assessed it as the beginning of a new life for this region. The time for reconciliation has come, Derycke said and expressed hope that Croatia's Danube region and the whole Croatia will meet a better life in Europe. He also expressed gratitude to General Klein for the successful UNTAES mission. Thanking the Belgian Government for the overall assistance it offered UNTAES, Klein pointed out the reconstruction of the Vukovar port was the first major economic project in the Danube region of eastern Croatia. To date, the international community has invested USD 81 million into this region through 152 smaller projects, he said, explaining that 78 projects were currently being carried out. A further USD 40 million has been gathered for the reconstruction, Klein pointed out. The international community has done all it could, the transitional administrator said, and called on Croatian and local companies to invest in this region and to create partner relations since, as Klein ascertained, conditions for it existed. Vukovar-Srijem County Prefect Rudolf Koenig thanked the Belgian Government for the important donation, and announced that a new Vukovar port would be built at the mouth of the future Danube-Sava canal, which should be built next year. The European Union's head economy advisor at UNTAES, Didier Fau, who was directly included in the crane-purchase negotiations, also addressed the present at today's event. The president of the Joint Council of Municipalities of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Milos Vojnovic, expressed the hope that the Vukovar port would regain its pre-war importance. The Port of Vukovar, which before the war employed some 100 people, reached a sudden commerce increase in the late 1980s. Cargo handling in 1990 amounted to 1.2 million tons, which made it Croatia's harbour number two. (hina) ha mm 311451 MET jul 97