UNPROFOR ON EXPLOSION OF WATER PUMP NEAR KAKMA

ZADAR, June 8 (Hina) - The U.N. Force command in Sector South issued an official statement today saying that they have been investigating the cause of an explosion which damaged a part of the water supply 400 m far from the pump site near Kakma, the main source of water for the Biograd area. According to the first reports by the Canadian Battalion, which control the area, the explosion was put underneath. The incident took place at 22:44 hours on Friday, 3 June, said the UNPROFOR for Sector South, based in the occupied Knin, in the statement issued on Wednesday, 8 June. The water pipe was destroyed while the pump site near Kakma was not damaged, said the statement. In the same statement the UNPROFOR command condemned this act but said that despite the explosion it is ready to help the Croatian and Serb negotiators to reach an agreement on repairing the water pipe and the pump site near Kakma. Since the Serb paramilitary formations together with the former Yugoslav Army (JNA) occupied the hinterland in north Dalmatia, the areas of Biograd and Zadar have been suffering from a shortage of water because Serbs turned off pump sites in the hinterland. The pump site near Kakma, 5 km far from Biograd, is included in the exclusion zone and it should be controlled by the UNPROFOR only in conformity with the 29 March agreement. The Croatian authorities have been warning the UNPROFOR many times in the last three years that Serb rebels turned off the pump sites and they requested that the issue should be regarded and solved as a humanitarian problem, but no results were achieved. Prefect Sime Prtenjaca recently talked with UNPROFOR representatives about that problem. Croatian parliamentary member Drago Krpina requested two days ago from the government to demand that the U.N. Security Council should discuss the problem. 081555 MET jun 94