PAKRAC RESERVISTS STAGE A PEACEFUL RALLY

PAKRAC, Jan 15 (Hina) - One hundred recently demobilized Croatian army soldiers today staged a quiet demonstration in front of the Pakrac town hall, 100 kilometres east of Zagreb. Representatives of the demobilized Croatian Home Guardsmen (reserve units) met the chairman of the Pakrac municipal council, Damir Spancic. #L# The goal of the rally was to draw public attention to the demobbed soldiers' social situation: some of them were drawing unemployment benefits (amounting to about 150 DM), others lived on welfare and yet others had been promised jobs in industrial facilities in Pakrac and Lipik. However, these facilities, for the most part damaged in the war, had not been rebuilt yet, the soldiers warned. The municipal authorities had proposed to Defence Minister Gojko Susak and Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa to ensure all demobbed soldiers average salaries for six months after demobilization. Funds for these salaries should came from the state budget. The municipal authorities had also suggested other measures, such as speeding up the reconstruction of war-damaged plants in order to ensure the full employment of Homeland War veterans. (hina) 152145 MET jan 96