OSCE HEADS HOLD TALKS WITH KARLOVAC PREFECT ( Editorial: --> 1800 )

( Editorial: --> 1800 ) KARLOVAC, Nov 18 (Hina) - Head of the OSCE's Sisak-based Monitors' Coordination Centre, Franz Werner, and head of the Karlovac office of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Kari Vanhanen, on Tuesday held talks with the Karlovac County Prefect Vlado Jelkovac and his associates. Jelkovac informed the OSCE officials about the return of displaced persons and reconstruction in the county. There were still 16,000 displaced persons accommodated in Karlovac, Ogulin and Duga Resa waiting to return, county officials said. Speaking about Serbs returning from the Croatian Danube river region, Jelkovac stressed that 4,041 displaced persons had returned to the county so far, especially in Vojnic and Krnjak municipalities, adding that 195 of them had returned under the organisation of the Croatian government Office for Refugees and Displaced Persons and UNTAES, while the others had returned on their own initiative. Jelkovac said about 3,000 Croats displaced from Bosnia-Herzegovina also lived in the county. He added that problems were starting to arise, especially with the accommodation of Serb displaced persons, because victims of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina were accommodated in abandoned Serb homes. Deputy Prefect Zeljko Sancic described the safety situation in the Karlovac County as very good, but he asked the OSCE officials to cooperate more with local authorities. Some international institutions in the Karlovac County provided unequal care in the area, Sancic said, stressing that many humanitarian organisations cared more for Serb returnees from the Danubian area than Croat displaced persons and refugees. (hina) lm 182055 MET nov 97