ZORIC RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIANS

ZAGREB, 13 Sept (Hina) - The head of the government Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, Damir Zoric, on Friday received Bizzotis Ghidi, head of the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) in Zagreb, Sten Swedlund, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Mission and Aleksander Lebedov, head of the U.N. Liaison Office in Zagreb. #L# The talks stressed the need and readiness of the three agencies to help the areas of Ston and Slano, which were recently hit by a series of quakes, as well as the area of Ravno, in the neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, a statement from the Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees said. It was agreed that the three agencies would further coordinate their activities in providing help to the quake-hit areas and send their delegations to those areas to assess the needs. So far, an appeal for help of the Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees has been answered by the ECHO Humanitarian Department, International Federation of the Red Cross, U.N. High Commission for Refugees, Italian Embassy Humanitarian Department, Zagreb Diocese Caritas, Adra and others. These agencies have sent several convoys with food and other items and 75 trailers to the quake-hit areas. (hina) rm 131833 MET sep 96