ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The demilitarization of the Croatian Danubian area should begin in the Spring as planned, U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith said on Friday in Zagreb.
ZAGREB, March 8 (Hina) - The demilitarization of the Croatian
Danubian area should begin in the Spring as planned, U.S.
Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith said on Friday in Zagreb.
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Galbraith held talks Friday with the Croatian Deputy Prime
Minister, Ivica Kostovic, about the process of reintegration of
the Danubian area.
The Croatian government and the internatonal community
agreed that the demilitarization should begin as soon as
possible, but it could not be done before UNTAES troops were
fully deployed in the area, Galbraith said.
Recalling the Croatian government's decision that Croatian
police officers had to wear their own uniforms and not those of
the UNTAES, Kostovic said, "Under a UN Security Council
resolution, General Klein and his administration are to form the
police force, but it is up to us to accept or refuse their
suggestions".
He expressed his hopes that the views of the Croatian
government would be taken into consideration.
Galbraith said he talked to Kostovic about human rights
issues and about the return of both Croatians and Serbs to
Croatia.
Kostovic said he clarified the differing views of the
Croatian government and the UNHCR as regards a pilot programme
for the return of Croat refugees to parts of the Croatian
Danubian area.
The talks also tackled the ways in which persons indicted of
war crimes could be excluded from the process of peaceful
reintegration.
Kostovic said he had thanked the U.S. for the decision to
send 200 police officers to Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in an
effort to help the process of peaceful reintegration of occupied
areas in Croatia and to support peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
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