OSIJEK, March 5 (Hina) - The return of Croat displaced persons to eastern Slavonia would start with the return of displaced persons to the villages of Bilje, Antunovac, Nijemci and Lipovac, Croatian Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic said
today after his meeting with the head of the Government Office for Temporary Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, Ivica Vrkic and local officials and representatives of the Croatian Association of Displaced Persons. The talks were also attended by the head of President Tudjman's Military Cabinet, Major General Slavko Baric.
OSIJEK, March 5 (Hina) - The return of Croat displaced persons to
eastern Slavonia would start with the return of displaced persons
to the villages of Bilje, Antunovac, Nijemci and Lipovac, Croatian
Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic said today after his meeting with the
head of the Government Office for Temporary Administration in
Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, Ivica Vrkic and local
officials and representatives of the Croatian Association of
Displaced Persons. The talks were also attended by the head of
President Tudjman's Military Cabinet, Major General Slavko Baric.
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The return of Croat displaced persons to eastern Slavonia
would be integral and it would start with pilot-projects for the
villages of Bilje, Antunovac, Nijemci and Lipovac, Kostovic told a
press conference.
Asked what the Croatian Government would do in order to prompt
the return of displaced, Kostovic said that the Government was
preparing a bill on reconstruction and return as well as additional
bills on the Croatian Danubian area and Vukovar. It was necessary
to reconstruct infrastructure and Croatia expected help from the
international community, Kostovic said.
The deployment of all UNTAES (United Nations Task Force for
Easter Slavonia) units would start on March 15 and the disarmament,
which would start on May 1, should not be a problem, Kostovic said.
That referred to heavy weaponry and it was still to be seen how
other weapons, 'the ones that can not be seen', would be removed,
Kostovic said.
The Serb project aimed at colonizing the Croatian occupied
areas had failed, although it had been carried out to some extent
in Bapska and Boksic, where some 500 new residents, Serbs, were
living now, Kostovic said.
Asked to comment on the news published in the Belgrade-based
daily 'Express Politika' according to which the Transitional
Administrator of Eastern Slavonia Jacques Klein had said that the
Osijek County Prefect Branimir Glavas should be arrested, with
which the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman allegedly had agreed,
Kostovic said that he could not comment on that because he had not
read the article.
The head of the Government Office for Temporary
Administration, Ivica Vrkic said that the article was one among
numerous articles of the Serbian propaganda, aimed at removing
people who had created the Croatian state. Those who had occupied
Croatia could not decide who would negotiate with whom, Vrkic said,
stressing Glavas' role in the creation of conditions for the
peaceful reintegration and defence of the Croatian state.
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