U.N. NEEDS US$44.6 MILLION FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 7059 ) ZAGREB, 9 Dec (Hina) - Representatives of the United Nations called on donors to raise US$44.6 million for the next year for the reconstruction of Croatia and for humanitarian programs which are aimed at supporting the reconciliation process. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) puts great hopes on the national program of trust and reconciliation devised by Croatia, the head of the UNHCR Mission in Croatia, Robert Robinson, said in Zagreb on Tuesday. Robinson spoke at a meeting of donors held under the chairmanship of the UNHCR. The meeting was attended by representatives of the UNHCR, UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Mine Action Centre (UNMAC), International Organisation for Migrations (IOM), UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation and UN Human Rights Commission, who presented their programs. The program of the work of the Croatian Government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees in 1998 was presented by the Office's head Lovre Pejkovic. Deputy UN Transitional Administrator Souren Seaydarian spoke about the situation in the Croatian Danube river region. Thanking the Croatian Government representatives, diplomatic community, donors, non-government organisations and colleagues from the UN agencies, Robinson called on donors to gather a total of US$407,699,390 in the next year for the former Yugoslavia. The money would be divided among Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia and Macedonia, Robinson said, adding that similar meetings on humanitarian needs of the four countries, which were of informational character, had been held in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Geneva. Robinson reminded participants in the meeting that almost 1.6 million displaced people and refugees had not returned to their homes. Several million anti-personnel mines were preventing the restoration of normal life and the return of refugees and a large part of war-destroyed infrastructure remained to be reconstructed, he said. (hina) jn rm 091830 MET dec 97