OSCE COMMISSIONER, VAN DER STOEL IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - OSCE High Commissioner for ethnic minorities, Max van der Stoel, today held separate meetings with the Head of the Croatian lower house human and ethnic rights committee, Miroslav Kis, two Serb MPs, Milorad Pupovac and Milan Dukic and an Italian MP, Furio Radin. #L# Kis said that he had informed Stoel of the initiative for providing care to old people who have remained in the liberated area after Operation "Storm". "I informed him of the "Save Lives" Project which is being carried out in the liberated area. We are caring for 10,000 old people this winter through the Project which was organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Danish and Swedish Red Cross organizations, UNHCR, UNICEF, the Croatian Health and Social Welfare Ministry as well as the Foreign Ministry. The Project is supervised by the Croatian President, Franjo Tudjman, himself, that is, by the President's Advisor, Slobodan Lang and Deputy Prime Minister, Ivica Kostovic," Kis said. Kis also informed Stoel that a number of Serb settlers was gravitating to the Croatian Danubian area. He cited the village of Petrovci south of Vukovar as an example. During the last two weeks, Serbs have been moving into houses formerly belonging to ethnic Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Petrovci. (hina) lm jn 052114 MET feb 96