CROATIAN GOVERNMENT DISMISSES INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE AS UNFOUNDED

ZAGREB, Sept 26 (Hina) - The presidential statement of the UN Security Council on the process of peaceful reintegration of the UN- administered Croatian Danube river region disregards the efforts the Croatian government has put in that process, head of the government communications office Neven Jurica said on Friday. The Croatian government has officially expressed its disappointment at the UN's overlooking the reality and responded with a comprehensive report on the implementation of its letter of intent, Jurica told a news conference in Zagreb. Jurica described the government report as "a sort of an inventory of the peaceful reintegration process." Jurica stressed that the Croatian government took "a resolute view" that "there is no reason or need to extend the UNTAES mandate beyond 15 January 1998." "It is necessary to stress that we completely reject a thesis which has appeared recently about an alleged rift or duality between political statements and promises and their implementation at lower, local levels," he said. Jurica recalled that it was Croatia that had initiated the peaceful reintegration of the Danube region. "The policy of pressure and dictate (…) from certain centres is unnecessary, detrimental and counterproductive and has no foundation in reality," Jurica stressed. Emphasising that the State Department initiative in the Council of Europe to suspend Croatia from that organisation coincided with the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention and the accompanying protocols by the Croatian parliament, Jurica said that that initiative was thus all the more inappropriate and incomprehensible. Jurica said that the Croatian government expected positive initiatives from the international community and its important factors, "without any one-sidedness and paternalism," and rejected the attitude of mistrust which disregarded the facts. In response to a question, Jurica said that Transport Minister Zeljko Luzavec would sign an annex to an agreement on border crossings with Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Bosnian Serb-controlled northern town of Bosanska Gradiska later today. Asked whether Slovakian Premier Vladimir Meciar was currently in Croatia, Jurica said that Meciar was on a private visit and that there was a possibility that Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa would meet him unofficially. (hina) vm mm 261522 MET sep 97