STATE COMMISSION POSITIVELY ASSESSES PEACEFUL REINTEGRATION PROCESS

PROCESS $ ZAGREB, Aug 26 (Hina) - The State Commission for the Restoration of Croatian Authority in the UN-administered areas of Osijek and Vukovar counties met in Zagreb on Tuesday to discuss the reintegration of the Croatian Danube region and the next steps in its implementation, the Ministry of Development and Reconstruction said in a statement. The Commission Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Jure Radic, reported on the registration of houses in 24 villages in the two counties. He said that 9,090 houses had been registered, of which 30 per cent were undamaged, 47.5 per cent belonged to damage categories 1-3 while others, belonging to categories 4-6, suffered heavier damage. The Commission would propose to the Government that houses belonging to the first three categories should also be rebuilt in an organised way in order to make them suitable for habitation as soon as possible and to step up the return of displaced persons, Radic said. Houses and people in 45 more villages were also being registered. Assistant Interior Minister Josko Moric said that the work of all police stations in the Croatian Danube region had been adjusted to the regulations of the Croatian Interior Ministry and that chiefs of all stations had been named. Transitional police forces were also responsible for their work to county police departments, and began to use only official forms of the Croatian Interior Ministry as of August 15, he said. Moric said that night patrols along the Danube river had been introduced and that control of the state border with Yugoslavia had been improved. About 8,500 applications for vehicle registration had been granted and more than 15,000 applications for the exchange of driver's licenses had been received, he said. It was expected that Croatia and Yugoslavia would soon sign an already adjusted agreement on border crossings and an agreement on border traffic. Head of the Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees Lovre Pejkovic said that 10,058 families with about 20,000 members had filed applications for the sale of property or for the return to other areas of Croatia, adding that approximately half of them wanted to return to other parts of Croatia while the other half wanted to sell their property and move to third countries. The office had so far issued 1,380 certificates on return to other parts of Croatia and 1,072 certificates on the return of displaced Croats to the Danube region, Pejkovic said. Real Estate Agency Director Ivica Vrkic said that the agency was fully operational and that it regularly received requests for mediation. Speaking of mine clearance, Major General Slavko Baric said that the Osijek-Bilje and Osijek-Darda power transmission lines had been successfully demined and that the mine clearance process along the Valpovo-Beli Manastir line was nearing completion while the Vukovar-Vinkovci power transmission lines were still being demined. Baric said that individuals risked their lives trying to remove mines from their own fields and houses. He cited the problem of too small a number of machines and personnel involved in mine clearing operations. In order for those operations to be successful, it was necessary to ascertain the state of mined areas throughout the country, which would be done by the end of November, Baric stressed. The Croatian President's Deputy Chief of Staff, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, and State Commission Deputy Chairman Vladimir Drakulic reported on the state of the judicial system in the region. Considering the recent appointment of nine judges, and the fact that for the last two months regional court employees had received salaries from the Croatian budget, they said that despite some misunderstandings on the ethnic composition of judges, there were no obstacles to the full application of the Croatian legal system in the region, stressing that the further existence of the present legal parasystem was untenable. Despite the above-mentioned problems, the Commission assessed the process of peaceful reintegration as positive, expressing satisfaction with the reconstruction process and the harvest. Estimating that the further presence of the UNTAES military component at the checkpoints hindered reconstruction and the return of displaced Croats, the Commission demanded that UNTAES remove its military personnel from the checkpoints. Assessing that local government bodies, except in a few cases, did not function according to their powers and the needs of people and reintegration, the Commission demanded that all local government bodies fully assume their responsibilities by September 1 and be in their places of domicile. The Commission said that more than 5,000 Serbs had so far returned from the Danube region to other areas of Croatia while a considerably fewer number of Croats returned to the region, for which reason the return process in that direction should be stepped up, which would be facilitated by the completion of the reconstruction of villages from Lipovac to Antunovac. The Commission urged all local government bodies and particularly UNTAES to make it possible for displaced persons who had not yet returned to their homes to work on their farms and to enable the work of craftsmen. In order to step up the peaceful reintegration process and encourage the return of displaced persons, the Commission will propose to the Government to set October 1 as a date for submitting applications for return to the Danube region or from the region to other areas of Croatia, the statement concluded. (hina) vm 262256 MET aug 97