U.N. TRANSITIONAL ADMINISTRATOR SHOCKED AT VUKOVAR INCIDENT

VUKOVAR, 28 Oct (Hina) - A group of men in cars on Tuesday intercepted and stopped a car carrying the president of the Croatian National Committee for the Establishment of Trust, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, who was on her way to Vukovar where she was to attend a ceremony of handing over the keys to renovated apartments to their pre-war tenants. The attackers shouted threats at Skare-Ozbolt and her associates. The U.N. Transitional Administrator for the Croatian Danube river region, William Walker, said he was shocked and disappointed at the incident. It was ironic that it was exactly the president of the National Committee for the Establishment of Trust who had been attacked, Walker said. We will conduct an investigation. We know who the perpetrators are and we know the numbers of their registration plates. This is simply unallowable behaviour, Walker said adding that according to the information available to him the incident had not been planned. It was, as far as I know at the moment, a spontaneous incident, which suddenly changed into something ugly, Walker said. The incident will not affect the agreement on visits of displaced people to the cemeteries in the region on All Saints' Day, Walker said. According to unofficial information, around 11.20 am, the car carrying Croatian President's Deputy Chief-Of-Staff and the president of the Committee for the Establishment of Trust, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, reached the bridge on the river Vuka outside Vukovar. At that moment or immediately before it, a trailer with firewood overturned and the car with Skare-Ozbolt had to stop, as it could not by-pass the trailer. A woman from a car standing nearby, bearing Novi Sad (a town in Serbia) registration plates, started shouting insults and threats at the passengers in the car carrying Skare- Ozbolt, after which the photographer travelling with Skare-Ozbolt got out of the car and took a picture of the woman's car. Meantime, the bridge was cleared of the firewood, and the car carrying Skare-Ozbolt continued to the town centre. After some five minutes, three cars appeared from a direction which was not allowed for passage and obstructed the way. Some ten armed men got out of the cars, led by a Milenko Cancarevic. They demanded from the photographer to give them the film with the shots of the car of the woman who shouted provocations at Skare-Ozbolt. After they were given the film, they let the car with Skare-Ozbolt get by and the delegation arrived in front of the Vukovar municipal authorities' building. The group led by Cancarevic arrived in front of the building as well. After they waited in front of the entrance for about an hour and their leader Cancarevic spoke to some Transitional Police Force commanders, the group left the building. In the meantime, the Transitional Police Force commander Ivan Babic and the head of the U.N. Civilian Police Walter Fallman arrived in front of the building. According to unofficial information, the Serb Milenko Cancarevic (aged 33 or 34) is a car, alcohol and tobacco smuggler, and is known as the Vukovar mafia boss. He took part in the Serb aggression on Vukovar and later in several armed clashes between Serb criminals in Vukovar. The woman who shouted insults at Skare-Ozbolt and her entourage is said to be Cancarevic's wife, who contacted her husband by mobile phone and told him to intercept the car from Zagreb. (hina) jn rm 282153 MET oct 97