GOVT ADOPTS PROGRAM OF CARE FOR DISPLACED CROATS ( Editorial: --> 8640 )

( Editorial: --> 8640 ) ZAGREB, 6 Nov (Hina) - The Croatian Government on Thursday adopted a program on accommodating refugees and displaced people temporarily accommodated in abandoned houses in the liberated Croatian areas, where Serb refugees are soon to return. At today's session the Government also adopted a proposal on the establishment of a ministry for care for defenders and victims of the Homeland war, which is to be sent to Parliament to consider it. Under the program on the accommodation of users of property under temporary management, which is to be returned to its owners, those persons whose houses are temporarily occupied by Croat refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina or displaced people from the Danube river region, will return to their houses, said Reconstruction and Development Minister Jure Radic. The program is in line with the Premier's promise that none of the Croats living in the houses abandoned by Serbs following operations 'Flash' and 'Storm' would be left without accommodation. The program envisages the buying of property of those persons who do not want to be Croatian citizens and want to leave. The Agency for Mediation in Certain Real Estate Transactions has so far received 2,000 such requests, Radic said. Serbs who left the areas liberated by operations 'Flash' and 'Storm' have lodged more than 1,000 claims for return from the Danube river region to their homes in other parts of Croatia, Radic said. Radic also informed Government members about the course of reconstruction in the Danube river region, adding that some 30,000 Croats would be able to return to the area in two to three months. Explaining the proposed changes in the organisation and jurisdiction of ministries, Administration Minister Davorin Mlakar proposed that a ministry of Croatian Homeland war defenders be founded because of the importance of care for Croatian defenders and Homeland war victims. (hina) jn rm 061500 MET nov 97