ANNIVERSARY OF ERDUT PEACE AGREEMENT MARKED

ERDUT, Nov 12 (Hina) - US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith and former peace mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg of Norway visited the UN-administered region of eastern Croatia on Tuesday to attend a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Erdut agreement on the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem into the Croatian constitutional and administrative system. Stoltenberg and Galbraith, on Tuesday afternoon unveiled a memorial plank in a room of the Erdut castle, where the first signature was put on the Erdut agreement. Stoltenberg and Galbraith were accompanied by the ambassadors of Contact Group member states, Gavin Hewitt of Britain and Jean Jacques Gaillard of France. The ceremony in Erdut was also attended by UN Transitional Administrator US General Jacques Klein, the head of the government office for restoration of Croatian authority in the region, Ivica Vrkic, his deputy Mirko Tankosic, and a local Serb delegation, led by Goran Hadzic and Vojislav Stanimirovic. In the morning, Galbraith and Stoltenberg toured the villages of Lipovac, Apsevci, Podgrade and Nijemci which had been handed over to Croatian authorities and the Djeletovci oil field. Then they travelled to Vukovar and visited the office for issuing Croatian documents outside of which more than a hundred people were queuing. The American Ambassador talked with several persons from the queues. At the Erdut celebration, the U.N. Transitional Administrator Klein said that one of the transitional administration's tasks would to organize a conference of international donors in December, which would be dedicated to the revival of economy in the Croatian Danubian area. Stoltenberg said he was impressed and encouraged by the implementation of the agreement in the last 12 months. American Ambassador said that at heart the Erdut agreement had protection of the human rights of people who were living in the area in question, as well as of those who were forced to flee it during the war. He added that the accord said, without doubt, that all persons who had left area, primarily Croats, Hungarians and others who were expelled from there in 1991, have the right to return. According Galbraith, Serbs who have arrived in the Croatian Danubian are from other parts of Croatia, mostly from the Knin area and western Slavonia, have the right to remain and exercise the equal rights, including the rights of vote as other residents. Galbraith announced the establishment of an international commission with the mandate to monitor the implementation of the Erdut agreement, in line with point 11 of the agreement. The commission would consist of representatives of U.S.A., Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE. After the ceremony Croatia's official Ivica Vrkic said he held that it was most important to determine timetable for the completion of the (UNTAES) mandate and the restoration of Croatian authority, as only that could create all prerequisites for getting the life back to normal in the Croatian Danubian area. There was no mention in any document or in the Erdut Agreement that the area could be a special autonomy, he stressed. (hina) jn vm mš 122136 MET nov 96