PROTEST LETTER OF CROATIA'S GEN. DECAK TO UN GEN. PERELYAKIN

OSIJEK, Feb 8 (Hina) - Commander of the Croatian Army in the Osijek district, Major General Djuro Decak, today sent a protest letter to the commander to UN forces on East Sector, Major General Alexander Perelyakin, because of statements of a UNPROFOR spokeswoman in East Sector, Kristen Haupt, at Osijek Feb 7 press conference. Major General Decak said the Osijek press conference had described the tension in UNPA Sector East "almost exclusively as a consequence of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's decision not to renew the UNPROFOR current mandate after its expiry on March 31," so that such statement insinuated that the situation had been stable and without difficulty before Croatian President's decision. "However, this is very different from the real state of affairs," Decak stressed. The latest tension was caused by Serbs who set their heavy arms at their positions, following NATO air raid on the Udbina airfield, Decak said. Emphasizing that the current situation did not differ from the situation after the NATO air raid, and supporting his statements, Decak cited an example when on February 4 Serb rebels had carried out military exercises in the occupied Baranja. The Serb insurgents had used mortars in a heavy weapons-exclusion zone which should be controlled by UNPROFOR. Protesting against tendentious allegations by the UNPROFOR spokeswoman, who described an 'incident' near Markusica as an intentional action of the Croatian Army, Decak warned about the problem of Serb rebels' presence at the observing points of Russian UN battalion. Croatia had repeatedly asked UNPROFOR to solve this problem, because the deployment of Serb paramilitaries at the UNPROFOR observing points was not only in contrast to all relevant documents, but also a serious threat to security. Saying that UNPROFOR could not decrease tension by such conduct Decak stressed that Croatian Army would not do anything that might threaten the security of UN peace keepers. "Our potentials, being the service of peace, would be at your disposal as well, while the operations of UNPROFOR's withdrawal from Croatia are to be carried out," Decak said in his protest letter. (hina) jn mms 091937 MET feb 95