DISPLACED PEOPLE DEMAND IMMEDIATE REINTEGRATION OF E. SLAVONIA

ZAGREB, March 19 (Hina) - The Association of Croatian Displaced Persons on Tuesday sent a letter to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the UN Transitional Administrator of Eastern Slavonia, General Jacques Klein, demanding the immediate reintegration of the still occupied areas of eastern Croatia. The Association demanded that the Croatian president and government consider cancelling the mandate of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) for inefficiency unless the reintegration process started immediately, Association president Mato Simic told a press conference in Zagreb. The Association demanded that UNTAES troops be deployed in the Croatian Danubian region by April 15, that the region be demilitarized by May 15 and that the return of displaced people begin by June 15. Simic said that his Association would support any Croatian government programme aimed at economic recovery but that it demanded clearly defined deadlines for return. Displaced people would agree to be relocated from hotels before the beginning of the tourist season only when a comprehensive relocation programme has been drafted and when the Association and the government sign an agreement providing the displaced with accommodation and financial compensation and esnuring the education of refugee children. Commenting on the privatization of companies in the liberated areas, Simic said that the measures the government had taken in that respect did not enable the displaced people to participate in the economic reconstruction of the areas they came from. (hina) vm jn 192029 MET mar 96