U.N. SPOKESMEN ON NEW U.N. MANDATE FOR CROATIA

ZAGREB, April 4 (Hina) - The spokesman for the UN secretary general's special representative to the former Yugoslavia, Michael Williams, and his assistant, Christopher Gunnes, held a press conference in Zagreb where they responded to numerous questions on the implementation of the new UN mandate for Croatia. It was the first UN press conference in Croatia after the Security Council defined three separate mandates - the UN Confidence Restoration Operation (UNCRO) in Croatia, the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the UN Preventive Deployment (UNPREDEP) for Macedonia. Williams said that it would take about a week to replace old UNPROFOR signs in Croatia with new UNCRO ones. Asked whether signs with the new name of the UN operation would also be installed in occupied Croatian areas, Williams replied affirmatively but added that it had not been done yet. Asked whether UN Protected Areas still existed, Gunnes said "maybe". He added that he thought the Security Council had delayed taking a decision on this matter by invoking article 72 of the latest report to the Security Council by the UN secretary general. Boutros-Ghali said in the article that the parties themselves had to decide on which aspects of the Vance plan and the entire problem of the UNPAs would continue to be relevant. Gunnes went on to say that the parties themselves would decide on the future status of UNPAs. Responding to a question on whether the separation zone still existed, Williams said that the ceasefire zone still existed and that it was a key element linking the latest UN resolution to the 29 March 1994 ceasefire agreement. Gunnes said he believed that the the Croatian government and local Serb authorities shared views on the issue. Asked whether UN peacekeepers would withdraw from areas under Croatian government control, such as Daruvar and Pakrac, Williams declined to give any details, adding that the matter had been discussed last week with the Croatian government and the chief Croatian negotiator with local Serb authorities, Hrvoje Sarinic. Asked to comment on a newspaper article which quoted Belgian Foreign Ministry sources as saying that Yugoslav army forces had crossed the Batina bridge over the Danube river and entered eastern Croatia, Williams stood by his earlier statements that no such incident had happened. US Colonel Gary Bauleke, also present at the press conference, agreed with Williams and said he could not find anyone that could say that they had seen it happen. (hina) jn vm 041913 MET apr 95