MEMBERS OF COMMISSION "ARTICLE 11" VISIT CROATIAN DANUBE REGION

VUKOVAR, Sept 14 (Hina) - Commission "Article 11", authorized to supervise the implementation of the Erdut Agreement in line with the Agreement's Article 11, on Sunday visited the Danube region of eastern Croatia. In Vukovar, members of the Commission held separate talks with the UN transitional administrator for the Danube region, William Walker, the president of the Serb Democratic Independent Party, Vojislav Stanimirovic, and the president of the Joint Council of Municipalities of eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, Milos Vojnovic, while in Erdut they talked to local Serbs. According to U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith, the establishment of Commission "Article 11" was envisaged in the Erdut Agreement in line with the Serb representatives' request that the international community monitor and assist in the implementation of the Agreement. As UNTAES' mandate was nearing end, the Commission would be more active, Galbraith told reporters. Asked if members of the Commission would meet with legally elected Croatian leaders in the Danube region as well, Galbraith announced a meeting with representatives of the Croatian government for next week. The Commission's members would like to meet with local Croat leaders as well, he said, but added many of them were still not in the Danube region doing their job. A journalist remarked this was not true, saying that if local Croatian leaders did not sleep in the Danube region, this was because their houses were either demolished or occupied. Galbraith replied that, according to UNTAES, there were hundreds of houses in the Danube region Croats could, but did not, return to. Galbraith assessed the Croatian government was not fulfilling financial obligations towards some municipalities, citing Erdut where, as he said, a municipal account had still not been opened. The U.S. ambassador assessed the two-way return process as too slow. He also advocated that the Act on the Temporary Take-over of Specific Property be rescinded, and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that, as he said, the Croatian government had as yet not worked out a programme on the reconciliation of Croats and Serbs, despite promising to the contrary. UN's transitional administrator Walker was asked about the report on the situation in the Croatian Danube region he is to submit to the UN Secretary General by early October, but declined to speak about it in detail. However, he said he had "some serious worries" about the Croatian government's standpoint regarding the peaceful reintegration. Alongside Galbraith, Commission "Article 11" includes ambassadors of Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Canada, Norway and Finland, charges d' affaires of France, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands, and representatives of the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the UN. (hina) ha mm 142015 MET sep 97