OSIJEK PANEL ON PEACEFUL REINTEGRATION ENDS

OSIJEK, July 13 (Hina) - A two-day panel on peaceful integration of the Croatian Danubian area ended on Saturday. Deputy Presidential Chief-of-Staff Vesna Skare Ozbolt stressed that by signing the Erdut Agreement Croatia had shown "that it is a constructive factor in this area and that it is consistent in its politics of creating peace." #L# "This agreement hindered any calculations that this area could remain in Serb hands and by signing the agreement, the Serb politics lost the war in Croatia," Ozbolt said. Stressing that by the implementation of the peaceful reintegration permanent peace would be created, Ozbolt warned that any kind of special Serb autonomy in the area was not acceptable. Speaking of the possible extension of the UNTAES mandate, Ozbolt said that Croatia "might accept a 3-month extension, but not the whole mandate, only some sections of it". "The Croatian government is satisfied with the work of General Klein, he is a guarantee for the successful execution of the UNTAES mandate," Ozbolt said. Agriculture and Forestry Minister Matej Jankovic recalled that the basic aim of paying pensions and issuing of documents to citizens in the UNTAES-controlled areas was to introduce the Croatian legislature and kuna as a means of payment. Croatian deputy premier Ivica Kostovic said that the problem of protecting the remainder of the non-Serb population in the recently liberated Croatian areas, mostly older people, was solved by the UNTAES. Speaking of resolving the issue of 1,300 persons who were missing in the Danubian area, Kostovic said that the exact information about some 20 Croatian detainees held in Serbia's prisons were expected in August. "The conditions for the exhumation and identification of persons buried in Ovcara have been created and will be done in the presence of international monitors, and I think that by 15 October we could have the first results of investigations from this location," Kostovic said. (hina) lm 131547 MET jul 96