CROATIAN RECONSTRUCTION MINISTER MEETS GERMAN JOURNALISTS

OSIJEK, Sept 29 (Hina) - Croatian Development and Reconstruction Minister Jure Radic on Monday held talks with around 20 German journalists, who are visiting eastern Croatia in organisation of the Croatian Embassy in Bonn. During the Osijek meeting Radic spoke about damage caused by the Greater Serbian aggression against the country and informed journalists that direct war damage amounted to 27.1 billion U.S. dollars. He added that 143,000 houses and flats were ruined in the war, and 60,000 of them have been reconstructed up to now. "Two billion dollars have been earmarked from the state budget into the reconstruction so far, and this is a great burden to the Croatian economy, and the world's assistance for such programmes has been less than two percent of that amount," Croatian Minister Radic told Germans. Another two billion dollars would be needed for creation of minimum conditions for the return of the displaced, he said and added that Croatia intended to allocate a half billion dollars from the budget yearly for reconstruction. "By the completion of the UNTAES mandate (in eastern Croatia), the reconstruction will be accelerated as a number of the administrative difficulties is due to be reduced," he said. He stressed that Croatian laws on reconstruction and rights of those who suffered in the war were the same for all Croatian citizens, and explained that these laws treated equally both Croats and Serbs. He reiterated that an assistance worth 100 million dollars was pledged at two donors' conferences abroad, and 40 million had been donated so far. He informed German journalists that the following conference was scheduled for next year in Vukovar after the expiry of the UNTAES mandate. (hina) jn mš 292042 MET sep 97