CONFERENCE ON GENOCIDE IN CROATIA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA STARTS IN ME

ME $ RANO MERANO, March 25 (Hina) - A three-day international conference on ethnic cleansing, genocide and human rights violation in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996 started in Merano, South Tyrol, Italy, Monday. #L# The conference was prompted by the vice president of the autonomous region Trentino-South Tyrol, Franz Pahl. Experts, politicians and journalists from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Austria and other countries are taking part in the conference. Its purpose is to present the impact of war on 'the survival of national communities in post-war and peace-time conditions'. In his opening speech, Pahl expressed his 'human and political solidarity with the victims of the Serb aggression on Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina', adding one had to be clear about 'the aggressor and the victim'. From 1993 to 1996, Trentino-South Tyrol had set aside some 13 million German marks with the aim of financing humanitarian projects in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Pahl said. The former head of the Croatian Government Office for Refugees and Displaced Persons, Adalbert Rebic, is also taking part in the conference. He will address the conference with a report. (hina) rm 251256 MET mar 96