OSIJEK COUNTY PREFECT MEETS BELGRADE OPPOSITION JOURNALISTS

OSIJEK, May 23 (Hina) - Three journalists from the Belgrade-based weekly opposition magazine 'VREME' and radio B-92 talked today at their request with the prefect of the Osijek county, Branimir Glavas. Glavas informed the journalists about the situation in sector Eastern Slavonia and the county from the beginning of the Serb aggression in 1991 to the latest events. Glavas reiterated that the Croatian government favoured peaceful reintegration of the occupied areas but added that Croatian army, unlike in 1991, was now equipped and strong enough to retrieve its territories in other ways as well. The consequences of the Serb aggression in sector Eastern Slavonia were 43,500 refugees and displaced persons now accommodated in the Osijek county. From 1992 to 1994, 3,422 non-Serbs were expelled from the former Sector East (eastern Slavonia), 233 were killed and 28 were missing, Glavas said. In 1994, 612 people of non-Serb nationality were expelled from Baranja and 891 person was expelled from the whole of the occupied region. Until May 22 this year, 183 people were expelled, Glavas said. Glavas reminded the journalists of the Croatian peace initiatives and said that they met no response from the authorities in the occupied region. This meant that extremists were still in power, Glavas said. Glavas stressed that the Croatian state would restore its authority in all its regions. He said that he spoke to an UNHCR official and was told that 5,000 Serbs from western Slavonia were heading for eastern parts of Croatia. Around 1,000 of them were accommodated in the occupied areas of former Sector East, for example in Dalj and elsewhere. UNHCR officials wanted to know whether Croatian authorities would allow people from western Slavonia, who fled to the occupied areas in eastern Slavonia and now wanted to return, to do so, Glavas said. I told them that Croatian authorities would grant their return to the area, Glavas said and added that an appeal be sent to the citizens who left western Slavonia to come back. The journalists were interested in the military-political situation and wanted to know how many Serbs still lived in Osijek and how many had left the town. After the meeting with Glavas, Belgrade journalists were received by the Osijek mayor, Zlatko Kramaric. The visit of the journalists was organised by the Croatian Association of Displaced People. (hina) rm 231741 MET may 95