GALBRAITH: WE WANT TO SEE UNTAES MANDATE END ON JANUARY 15

ZAGREB, Sept 16 (Hina) - Members of the Article 11 Commission, authorised to oversee the implementation of the Erdut agreement, presented their concerns to Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic and Reconstruction and Development Minister Jure Radic in Zagreb on Tuesday over "insufficient progress on a number of issues" considering the fact that the end of the UNTAES mandate was nearing, US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith said after the talks. The members of the commission, consisting of ambassadors and charges d'affaires of 13 countries and representatives of the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations, "want to see the mandate end on January 15 if at all possible," Galbraith told Hina. "There are a number of specific actions we want to occur," he said, citing the return of displaced Croats. "There are now 600 houses that Croat refugees may return to. We would like to see that occur. This is a long-standing Croatian demand," the US ambassador stressed. "We want to see the municipalities functioning, we want to see the Amnesty Law clarified, we want to see a programme of reconciliation. We want to be sure that Croats and Serbs can recover their property." "On all these points we had a very good exchange. Minister Granic and Minister Radic promised to take action on all those points. Minister Radic said, 'You're knocking on an open door,'," Galbraith said. He said that Radic "did not agree with the assessment that we had, which came from UNTAES as well as our conversations with local Serbian and Croatian officials." "I didn't agree with all their assessments, but they also recognise that there are problems. So if the commitments are matched by deeds, then we'll be in good shape. We're obviously looking for the deeds," the US diplomat emphasised. Galbraith said that during Sunday's talks with Vojislav Stanimirovic and other local Serb officials in the Croatian Danube region, he criticised the Serb side on behalf of the commission for insufficient progress in the part of the reintegration process for which they were responsible, such as the failure of assistant ministers to come to Zagreb and start working. "But greater responsibility, of course, rests with the government of Croatia because all of this -- Vukovar, Baranja and so on -- it's Croatia," the US ambassador said. Commenting on differing information from the Croatian government commission and UNTAES as to the number of houses to which displaced Croats could return, with the Croatian government saying that there were 2,000 houses and UNTAES saying that there were only 600, Galbraith took a pragmatic stand, saying that people should return to 600 houses "and then deal with the problem of the next 1,400." Responding to a question whether the slowed process of return and insufficient progress in other areas could affect the timely end of the UNTAES mandate, Galbraith said that "the European Union made clear that the orderly and timely end of the mandate will depend on this progress." "I believe that Croatia is fully capable of doing these things. It involves sometimes organising and putting a lot of effort into it. Sometimes maybe there are some recalcitrant officials who need to be either pushed aside or made to change their minds." "There's nothing that I personally would like more to see than this process completed within the two-year period as envisioned. I feel a very deep personal attachment, having negotiated the Erdut agreement. "I want this to work, my country wants it to work and I'm hopeful that it will work," Galbraith concluded. (hina) vm 162256 MET sep 97