CROATIAN PREMIER ON LIBERATION OF HIGHWAY IN WEST SLAVONIA

ZAGREB, May 2 (Hina) - Croatian police and territorial defence forces joined today at the highway. The town of Okucani is free, the purpose of the limited police action has been fulfilled and it can be said that the operation is completed for the most part, Croatian Premier Nikica Valentic said while opening today's session of the government. The Government required from the Transport and Communications Minister Ivica Mudrinic to create in the next 24 hours prerequisites for the normal traffic along the highway, and in the further 48 hours conditions for the reopening the railway. Premier Valentic said that by the end of the week normal traffic along the highway and railway should be restored from Zagreb through western Slavonia to eastern Slavonia. Premier Valentic told the session that the police station was today set up in Jasenovac (about 90 kms southeast of Zagreb). The establishment of police stations in other liberated towns and villages would guarantee law and order as well as full security to the population who were to return to their hometowns, Valentic added. Valentic once again called on all Serbs, particularly those who live in the Pakrac area (about 100kms east of Zagreb), to lay down their arms and thus to avoid further casualties. " The Croatian State guarantees to them security and civilian rights, except to war criminals on the grounds of international conventions," he stressed and called on the refugees to return to their homes. "Croatia remains committed to the peaceful reintegration of its occupied areas," Valentic said. He said that today's attack on Zagreb showed that those who had launched such an assault would like to wage war at any cost. (hina) jn mms 022048 MET may 95