STATEMENT BY CROATIAN PRESIDENT TUDJMAN IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Dec 3 (Hina) - Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman gave a statement following Tuesday's talks with General Klein and local Serb representatives in Vukovar stressing that his "arrival as Croatia's President in Vukovar, under agreement with the Transitional Administrator General Klein, is a sign and proof that the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area into the constitutional and legal system of the Republic of Croatia is on the right path and progressing well." Adding that he had flown above the Croatian border along the Danube, President Tudjman said that not only he had been at the Croatian border along the Danube but also Croatian customs officials were there as of today within the UNTAES. Commenting on the talks with local Serb representatives, Tudjman described them as encouraging. He added that the talks indicated that more and more members of the Serb population had become aware that it was in their interest to accept Croatia as their homeland in order to exercise all civic and ethnic rights guaranteed by the Croatian Constitution and which the democratic Croatia in cooperation with international community is ready to ensure. Asked to comment on his impressions from today's visit to Vukovar President Tudjman said: "I was in Vukovar the last time at the end of July 1991 when Vukovar was under some kind of siege, and I came there with a small group of soldiers. Although I have known how much Vukovar was destroyed, the Hiroshima-style devastation man can see there makes clearly a special impression. But, it leads to a conclusion that such circumstances were created also by the generally complex international situation which wanted to maintain Yugoslavia at all costs and to prevent the creation of the democratic independent Croatia and that they were also the result of the irrational imperialistic politics of Serbian imperialists, state that should be soon overcome." "All of us who are normal people both at the Croatian and the Serb side must contribute to the normalization of relations among Croatia and Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the interest of the Croatian nation and the Serb population, and contribute to the creation of a new international order in this part of Europe which is in the general interest not only of our nation. In this sense my arrival today make me firmer in belief that it is necessary that we achieve this soon," he stressed. Asked whether his arrival as the Croatian statesman in the Croatian Vukovar could mean the beginning of the return of 80,000 Croatian displaced people Tudjman positively answered:" It does mean, understandably." Adding that Croatian people were already coming back to the Sirmium triangle Tudjman said that all would be able to return following the establishment of the Croatian constitutional and legal system after the elections. "We will hold the elections soon, as I have earlier agreed with General Klein. My arrival here is a sign for the Croatian displaced people to return and they will return. This is also a sign for the Serb population that it is time for them to opt for the Croatian state. I have come with several Croatian officials, and I shall bring the entire Croatia into the Croatian Danubian area soon after the establishment of the constitutional and legal system of the Republic of Croatia in the area," he stressed. (hina) mm mš 031835 MET dec 96