CROATIA WANTS TO REDUCE DEMILITARIZATION PERIOD FOR E. SLAVONIA

ZAGREB, March 6 (Hina) - The Croatian government has made comprehensive programs for the process of peaceful reintegration of the occupied areas in line with a UN Security Council resolution. The main purpose of the programs is to reduce as much as possible the period of demilitarization of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem which is expected to begin in early May, the government coordination for peaceful reintegration said on Wednesday at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic. Kostovic, who is also a Croatian representative to the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), said that the UNTAES force should be fully deployed by April 15 when Pakistani and Jordanian troops were expected to arrive. The demilitarization process should begin in early May, he added. A pilot program for return of displaced persons to Lipovac, Bilje, Antunovac, Cerici and Nijemci would mark the beginning of the process of return of all Croatian displaced persons, Kostovic said. Some representatives of the international community, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UN Transitional Administrator Jacques Klein made it a condition that the pilot program be tied to the return of Serbs who had left Croatia. "We don't want the pilot program for return of Croatian displaced persons to be connected to the return of Serbs who left Croatia; this is not even stipulated by the Security Council resolution. Croatia supports the return of Serbs, preparations are under way and everyone with valid personal documents will be allowed to return," Kostovic said. The deputy head of the Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, Damir Zoric, said that statistics on the number of people who had lived in the Croatian Danubian area had been delivered to the UNHCR by both the Croatian and Serb sides. "The list which the Serbs made available to the UNHCR was made according to the Yugoslav census of 1991 and is rather exaggerated," Zoric added. The head of the Croatian office at the UNTAES, Ivica Vrkic, said that negotiations with Serb representatives were held through implementation committees, which he assessed as effective. First Assisant Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic said that the entire Croatian diplomacy would be involved in multilateral contacts aimed at resolving the issue of the peaceful reintegration of the occupied areas. Simonovic announced the arrival of experts from Belgrade after which the Yugoslav foreign minister would arrive to bring into accord the proposed agreements. (hina) vm mm 061947 MET mar 96