CROATIAN VILLAGERS TO LEAVE MAJDAN, HVO COMMANDER SAYS

MRKONJIC GRAD, Jan 28 (Hina) - Croats in the municipality of Mrkonjic Grad (northwestern Bosnia), would not wait for the arrival of authorities of "Republic Srpska" who will take over the municipalities of Mrkonjic and Sipovo as of February 3, the commander of Bosnian Croat forces (HVO) in Mrkonjic, Colonel Zivko Totic said on Sunday. #L# Totic said that villagers of Majdan (in that municipality) who had experienced the Bosnian Serb occupation, plunder and massacres for more than three years, would leave the area soon. The areas of Mrkonjic Grad and Sipovo were liberated by HVO forces in summer 1995, but under the Dayton deals they should be retaken by Serbs. Colonel Totic said that even Roman Catholic Bishop of Banja Luka, Msgr. Franjo Komarica, and the commander of the IFOR 4th armoured brigade, Brigadier-General Richard Dannet, who visited the village of Majdan on January 25, could not persuade villagers to remain in their homes. The villagers seem to have decided to leave for Glamoc and Jajce (Bosnian municipalities under the HVO control) and Croatia, according to Toxic. The villagers' decision to leave Majdan was especially prompted by a recent tour to the area of Serb representatives, including Doctor Culic who has been remembered for his bad treatment of Croats during the Serb occupation, Totic added. "We have sent via Gen. Dannet to Carl Bildt a letter with request that the Croatian villages of Majdan and Liskovac and the Bosniac (Moslem) village of Djumezlije, as they are at the boundary of the Serb entity, should join the Federation (of Bosnia- Herzegovina. This is the last hope that about 2,000 Croats and some 500 Bosniacs (Moslems) may stay in their homes," the HVO commander said. (hina) mms 281815 MET jan 96