GRANIC INFORMS CRO LOWER HOUSE ON REINTEGRATION AND ADMISSION INTO

INTO $ COUNCIL OF EUROPE ZAGREB, June 4 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on Tuesday spoke about the current foreign affairs situation at a session of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Croatian House of Representatives. He answered the representatives' questions on the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area and the admission of Croatia into the Council of Europe. Ante Djapic of the Croatian Party of Right (HSP) asked Granic for an account of the Geneva talks between Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia- Herzegovina and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia. Djapic also asked for a commentary on some media reports on an alleged standstill in the process of peaceful reintegration. Answering the questions, Granic said that the talks with President Izetbegovic had been held in a very pleasant atmosphere and focused on several important issues on which both Tudjman and Izetbegovic agreed, such as a defense act, the freedom of the media, the release of some prisoners and the elections. Speaking about Tudjman's talks with Milosevic, Granic said that the Serbian president once again mentioned the issue of the Prevlaka peninsula (the Serb proposal for an exchange of territories in southern Croatia), which Croatia firmly rejected once again. The talks also focused on the requests for the autonomy of the Croatian Danubian area and on this point Milosevic said that it was not Serbia, but local Serbs who encouraged autonomy. Speaking about the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Sirmium, Granic said that there was no standstill in the process, adding that at the moment everything was focused on demilitarization. Croatia would not consent to any talks on autonomy, save for talks on the implementation of the peaceful integration process, Granic stressed. Ivan Jakovcic of the Istrian Democratic Assembly and Zdravko Tomac of the Social Democratic Party wanted to know about the process of Croatia's admission into the Council of Europe. Granic said that four or five items were expected from Strasbourg today on which the Croatian government should issue a statement within a week. After that, a discussion on Croatia was expected on 24 June, and the admission could take place on July 1 or 2. The above mentioned items referred to Croatia's entire contribution to the peace process, the cooperation between Croatia and the Hague-based international tribunal on the return of Serbs, the solution to the problem of the election of the Zagreb mayor and on the media. Granic said that the items were not new obligations on Croatia's part, that nothing had to be signed again, but that the Croatian government was expected to issue a statement on these items. (hina) ha mm 041910 MET jun 96