BANJA LUKA CARITAS CARES FOR 17,000 PERSONS

BANJA LUKA, 27 Aug (Hina) - The Banja Luka Caritas cared for some 17,000 persons, head of the Banja Luka Caritas, Rev. Pero Ivan Grgic said. 'Some 60% of them are Catholics, mostly Croats, and there are some Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians and Germans', Grgic said, adding that 35% of the people the Caritas cared for were Serbs, mainly from mixed marriages. Five percent were Muslims. Most of them were elderly people, living in the city, Grgic said. There were some 6,500 Croats who had remained in Banja Luka and since Caritas' warehouses were empty, their survival was uncertain. Church service was being conducted on 20 makeshift places, since a large number of Catholic churches had been destroyed, Grgic said, calling on Banja Luka authorities to reveal the truth about the fate of Ratko Grgic, a priest who had been abducted from Nova Topola in June 1992 as well as the fate of the priest Tomislav Matanovic and his parents, who had disappeared from Prijedor in August last year. 'Generally speaking, the Catholics in Banja Luka are not under the pressure they once used to be, but one still cannot speak about their rights and freedoms', Rev. Grgic said. (hina) rm 272055 MET aug 96