UNTAES MEMBER, CRO DOCUMENT OFFICE MEMBER ATTACKED NEAR VUKOVAR

OSIJEK, Sept 27 (Hina) - Croatian government Office of the Temporary Administration for the establishment of Croatian Authority in the Croatian Danubian area on Friday issued a statement which said that an employee of the Vukovar Office for issuing Croatian documents Tomo Rajkovic and a member of UNTAES troops had been attacked by unidentified persons on Thursday when the two entered the local office in Trpinja to inspect the registers of births, marriages and deaths. #L# They had been attacked because of misinformation that the two meant to take the registers from the office, the statement said. About 1,000 people had gathered in front of the office in Trpinja and UNTAES has sent three personnel carrier vehicles to the scene, but the troops had not intervened, the statement said. The people broke up at 12.30 hours after local authority representatives intervened. Rajkovic and the UNTAES member had suffered physical injuries and two vehicles of the UN civilian police had been damaged, the statement said. UNTAES also issued a statement on Friday, expressing deep concern about the brutal incident when a member of the Croatian Office for Documents and an UNTAES member had been attacked while on duty with the cooperation and coordination of the local authorities. UNTAES had filed an energetic protest with the local authorities and had initiated an investigation through the Transitional police force and UN civilian police, the statement said. UNTAES appreciated the support and cooperation of most of the resident in the region and most severely condemned uncivilized actions of the few irresponsible persons who had chosen to obstruct the implementation of the UNTAES mandate whose goal was to bring peace to the area, the UNTAES statement said. (hina) lm 271313 MET sep 96