STATUS OF SERBS IN LIBERATED CRO AREAS DISASTROUS - DJUKIC

ZAGREB, June 7 (Hina) - Leaders of the Serb Peoples' party (SNS) on Friday said that the status of the remainder of Serbs in the liberated Croatian areas was a catastrophe. President of the SNS Milan Djukic told a news conference in Zagreb regarding his visit to areas liberated last summer, that "there are a large number of problems and most of them are related to the impossibility of obtaining a citizenship certificate, ID's, pensions, registry into the register of births of children who had been born during the period when the areas were under Serb control, issuing of death certificates for persons who were killed (in the military operation) 'Storm' and after it." He added that most of the area where Serbs lived did not have electricity or water, even ten months after the establishment of Croatian authority in the area. Mostly elder people had remained in the areas, their homes had been looted and they did not receive medical or social welfare, Djukic said. "Frequent physical and psychological abuse of the remainder of Serbs and arson" caused most concern, Djukic said. He said that the SNS would inform the domestic and international public, the Croatian government and international institutions about it. SNS deputy president Dragan Hinic harshly condemned the murder of retired bishop Ivo Gugic, but he also condemned attempts of politicizing the case, one example of which he cited a protesting note of the Croatian Foreign ministry. (hina) lm jn 071540 MET jun 96