VUKOVAR MAYOR FORWARDS LETTER TO HEAD OF UNTAES CIVIL AFFAIRS

VUKOVAR, Oct 6 (Hina) - In a Monday letter to UNTAES Civil Affairs head Gerard Fischer, Vukovar Mayor Vladimir Stengl assessed the recent postponement of the Vukovar City Council's third session as a "conscious obstruction of the town administration's work". In the letter delivered to Hina, Stengl recalled the session called for 2 October was postponed. All councillors arrived at the appointed time, he wrote, but on a Serb Democratic Independent Party (SDSS) councillors' demand, who make up the council's minority, council president Marko Ceprnja postponed the session. According to the Vukovar mayor, Ceprnja did not consider the demand most councillors made for the session to be held nevertheless, leaving only unadjusted items for later. For this reason, Stengl wrote, already agreed decisions important for the town's functioning (public utility projects, town taxes) were not reached. Mayor Stengl views such behaviour on the part of the Vukovar City Council president as unacceptable, especially in view of constant criticism by the SDSS that nothing in Vukovar works. It is very indicative, Stengl wrote in the letter, that the SDSS focuses its criticism on those fields in which Croatia is doing its uttermost, such as local government and self-government, health and education. Our suspicions concerning the Serb side's true intentions in relation to the restoration of mutual trust and normalization of relations are therefore justified, Vukovar Mayor Stengl concluded in his letter to the head of UNTAES' Civil Affairs. (hina) ha jn 061741 MET oct 97