CROATIAN RED CROSS HOLDS CONFERENCE

ZAGREB, March 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Red Cross (HCK) on Friday held a convention on which results on last year's humanitarian work and basic programs for 1996 were given. Last year, HCK provided care for around 400,000 people, said HCK president Ruza Pospis-Baldani. A programme of providing help for elderly people who remained in the liberated areas which was carried out with the assistance of the HCK, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of the Red Crescent (IFRC) gave good results. Five thousand elderly and abandoned people had been visited, 400 of which were placed in proper institutions, IFRC's Sten Swedlund said. Head of the ICRC delegation, Alex Braundwalder, said that an international iniciative for the removal of mines and bringing the danger of 3 million unexploded mines to public awareness would begin next week. Croatian Red Cross volunteers will also participate. Besides receiving and distributing humanitarian help and social welfare for refugees, displaced persons, returnees, invalids and children, the HCK closed 187 missing persons' cases last year. (hina) lm jn 221948 MET mar 96