U.S. AMBASSADOR PELTED BY SERBS IN VUKOVAR

ERDUT/VUKOVAR/ILOK, March 21 (Hina) - The US ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, the US ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, and the transitional administrator of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, Jacques Klein, visited the Serb-occupied area of eastern Croatia on Thursday. Upon arrival in Erdut they met the military commander of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), Joseph Schoups, and other officers of the UN peace operation as well as local Serb officials Milan Milanovic and Borislav Drzaic and the commander of Serb paramilitary forces in the area, General Dusan Loncar. Albright told reporters after the closed-door meeting that she presented the US position on the importance of the Erdut peace agreement and stressed the need for its implementation. She noted that the US wanted the area to be multi-ethnic. Albright stressed that the local Serb population should remain in the area after it was reintegrated into Croatia, adding that UNTAES would do its utmost to make it possible for all people in the area to live in dignity and safety. Milanovic expressed a readiness of the Serb side to cooperate and comply with the agreement. During the tour of an open-air market in Vukovar, Serb civilians jeered and shouted abuse at Albright and threw rocks and other objects at the motorcade of US officials and Croatian and foreign reporters, who hastily returned to their vehicles and left the town. At the end of their visit, the US delegation visited Ilok where they talked with a group of the remaining Croats and ethnic Slovaks in a Catholic church. Galbraith said that Albright's second visit to the area indicated her resolve for the implementation of the peace process and expressed confidence that the current UN mandate would be successful. Commenting on the Vukovar market incident, Albright said that she could understand that she was not liked by people who had contributed to the destruction of Vukovar, adding that she always spoke openly about all brutalities and injustices. Albright said she believed that the incident would not jeopardize the peace process. In the afternoon, the US delegation left for Zagreb by helicopter. (hina) vm jn 212040 MET mar 96