DISPLACED PERSONS BLOCK UNPROFOR CHECKPOINTS IN NOVSKA AREA

NOVSKA, July 2 (Hina) - Displaced persons from the occupied part of the Novska municipality (UNPA West) on Saturday morning blocked the Zagreb-Belgrade highway near Novska (Đ80 km E. of Zagreb) and the UNPROFOR checkpoints in Stari Grabovac and Brocice. The displaced said they were losing patience after waiting for three years to return to their destroyed houses, as had been promised them by the Vance Plan. Several UNPROFOR vehicles appeared at the checkpoints, but seeing the roadblocks returned to starting point. The displaced from Novska thus joined nationwide refugees' protests against UNPROFOR's inefficiency. The Union of Refugees of Croatia is planning to prolong the protests until the expiry of the UNPROFOR mandate on September 30. The protests are aimed at drawing the attention of the international community to the fact that UNPROFOR did not implement even one of the relevant Security Council resolutions and was not likely to under the present mandate. 021251 MET jul 94