ZAGREB, Jan 30 (Hina) - The City Council of Vukovar warned the demographic structure recorded at the 1991 population census could be altered and urged for an action to prevent the change. On a Tuesday session held in Zagreb, the
Council said it would accept the disarmament of the paramilitary units, but not the overall demilitarization of the area, which would mean that there would be no Croatian army regular units either.
ZAGREB, Jan 30 (Hina) - The City Council of Vukovar warned the
demographic structure recorded at the 1991 population census could
be altered and urged for an action to prevent the change.
On a Tuesday session held in Zagreb, the Council said it would
accept the disarmament of the paramilitary units, but not the
overall demilitarization of the area, which would mean that there
would be no Croatian army regular units either. #L#
The demographic change, the councilors recalled, was virtually
enabled by articles 4 and 7 of the Erdut agreement, which envisaged
that all Croatian Serb residents be allowed to stay in the region
to be reintegrated. The local elections should not be staged until
the demographic structure is brought in line with the 1991 and 1981
censuses, they insisted.
The Council also demanded the reconstruction of Vukovar to be
undertaken by Croatian institutions, from the city council up to
the government. It also demanded that Croatian economic system be
established immediately after the disarmament, at the latest by
expiry of the U.N. transitional administration (UNTAES) mandate.
Also attending the session, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister
Ivica Kostovic said key problems of the peaceful reintegration were
security of the return, the question of Serbs who were currently in
Croats' houses.
In addition, he added, some of the local Serbs had started
burning Croats' houses recently, for instance in the village of
Nijemci.
"The international community is about to suggest two options
for the Serbs who are currently in Croats' houses --they should
either return to their homes in other parts of Croatia or would
build new houses (in eastern Slavonia)," Kostovic said, adding that
some foreign governments had already earmarked assets for that.
The Council however demanded that the Serbs who had arrived in
the area during the war and would stay there, should not be
encouraged to build houses. They should be accommodated to the
temporary facilities like ones for displaced persons, the
councilors insisted.
Kostovic said that first (Croatian) displaced persons might
return to the villages of Bilje, Tenjski Antunovac, Ceric and
Lipovac.
Head of the government office for relations with UNTAES, Ivica
Vrkic, said that the Serbs living in the Croats' houses should
leave them. He also commented on proposals saying that the
transitional police force should be composed on pattern one Croat,
one Serb, one foreign officer.
"The Croatian government demanded that the proportion would
also be brought in line with the 1991 census," he said.
Also discussed was the problem of missing and detained
Croatian citizens.
(Hina) mm bk
301956 MET jan 96