DISPLACED PERSONS OPPOSE GENERAL AMNESTY AND EXTENSION OF UNTAES M

M $ ANDATE OSIJEK, Sept 10 (Hina) - Displaced persons from the occupied area of eastern Croatia which is under the UN Transitional Administration are opposing the passing of the amnesty law, extension of the UNTAES mandate and organization of local elections, until they can return to their homes. The Osijek County Displaced Persons' Society issued a statement opposing any negotiations about the extension of the UNTAES mandate, because after eight months of their mandate not one displaced person had returned to the Croatian Danubian area. They also protested because the Croatian public had been shut out from the process of exhumation of the mass grave at Ovcara near Vukovar. It would be blasphemous to, at the moment of exhumation, talk about general amnesty for criminals who had filled Ovcara and at the same Parliament session discuss rights and social status of homeland war invalids and other victims of the homeland war, and about the amnesty of those who had caused it, the statement said. They asked the government to respect the deadline for the start of the pilot-project of return of displaced persons, which is the end of September. The displaced persons warned the government that if the deadline was not respected, the Displaced Persons' Society would again start preparations for their own programmes of return. (hina) lm jn 101638 MET sep 96