KOSTOVIC ISSUES STATEMENT ON WESTERN SLAVONIA

ZAGREB, May 22 (Hina) - The office of Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic today released a statement on refugees from the recently liberated areas of Pakrac, Okucani, Stara Gradiska and Jasenovac, and on people who remained in the areas after a legitimate Croatian police and military action on May 1 and 2. A population census, conducted in the first 48 hours after the operation, showed that there were 2,922 civilians in the Pakrac area and 500 people in the Okucani, Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska areas, according to the Croatian Red Cross. From May 8 to 19, 1,719 people voluntarily left the region and went to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some 6,000 to 7,000 civilians were estimated to have fled the area during the action. Of the remaining Serb population, 675 were granted Croatian citizenship certificates. There have been 1,070 applications for Croatian citizenship. After Serb aggression on the area in 1991, 14,078 people have been expelled from the area. After the liberation of the area, 188 bodies have been found, of which 127 have been identified. Twenty civilians, later identified, were killed in crossfire caused by paramilitary units. It is assumed that another 34 people whose bodies were found were not members of paramilitary forces. The bodies were buried in several cemeteries in the presence of competent authorities. The families of persons killed during the action can obtain on request all information on the dead and sites where they were buried through the Croatian Red Cross and international humanitarian organisations. After the disarmament, 1,494 military-age men were put in reception facilities and 917 were released without launching legal proceedings. Legal proceedings were instituted against the rest of the captives of whom 186 are still detained in investigation centres. All data, including those on the shelling of Zagreb, were given to all international organisations and the chief prosecutor at the Hague International Tribunal, Richard Goldstone, the statement concluded. (hina) rm vm 221937 MET may 95