REINTEGRATION OF CROATIA'S OCCUPIED AREA CRUCIAL FOR PEACE

ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - The reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area is crucial for peace because it reflects relations between Croatia and Serb-led Yugoslavia as the main factors in the region, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic said in Zagreb on Monday during talks with the Council of Europe director for political issues, Hans-Peter Fuerrer. #L# Fuerrer said his visit came at an important stage in the process of admitting Croatia to the Council of Europe. He was especially interested in the reintegration of the Danubian area into Croatia, the return to Croatia of those Serbs who wish so and their minority and human rights. Kostovic stressed that Croatia insisted on a peaceful but complete reintegration of the still occupied area into its constitutional and legal system. He reiterated that Croatia would guarantee all human and minority rights to the Serb community in the area. Kostovic said that Croatia could recognize only the demographic situation in the area as recorded in the population census of 1991. All Serbs who came from Serbia or Bosnia must return to where they came from, and the new settlement of Serbs in the area should be prevented. The real test of the willingness of local Serbs to accept the reintegration would be a pilot programme for the return of Croatian refugees to the area. Kostovic said that 26,000 Serbs had submitted applications to the Helsinki Committee in Yugoslavia for return to Croatia. About half of them were serious requests, while the other half were probably a form of pressure because they had made their return conditional upon the replacement of the Croatian government and the restoration of their self-styled "Krajina" state, he added. Kostovic specified that about 2,000 requests had been granted. (hina) lm jn 191801 MET feb 96