PANEL ON EVICTIONS - DEBATE

ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - A two-day panel on legal, moral and social aspects of evictions from former YU-army flats today continued at the Esplanade Hotel in Zagreb. Academician Eugen Pusic suggested that many of the evicted people had valid tenancy documents. "These people were granted by the JNA tenancy with an option to buy, in line with the Housing Requirements Act, which was valid until October 8, 1991, under the Brioni Declaration," Pusic said. He advised that eviction cases should be decided by the court, and not administrative bodies. Ombudsman Branko Babac said the definition of eviction as proposed by non-Government human-rights organisations attributed to the authorities the practice of abetting violence in order to clear the flats. Stjepan Bekavac of the City Housing Department said the Department was acting within the law in carrying out the eviction orders issued by the Public Attorney on behalf of the Defence Ministry. Several Croatian Helsinki Committee activists argued both today and yesterday that most evictions were illegal. Orhideja Martinovic claimed that "eviction proceedings seethed with illegalities." Slobodan Budak invoked the Housing Act, the Courts Act, the Constitution, international instruments and human-rights declarations. Ivo Banac rhetorically asked whether Croatian society was a revolutionary or a law-regulated one. "The evictions are certainly an example of the revolutionary approach, often resulting in excesses," Banac said. Commenting on a recent break-in into the house of human rights activits Budak, Deputy Interior Minister Zlatko Gledec said the supect in the case was a police officer. (hina) jn as mv 031929 MET nov 94