CROATIAN DEFENCE MINISTER GIVES INTERVIEW TO CNN

( Editorial: --> 8509 ) WASHINTGON, Jan 31 (Hina) - Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Susak who is on a working visit to the United States at the invitation of his US counterpart William Cohen, spoke on the television network CNN on Friday evening. Asked what the Croatian government was doing to protect Serb refugees after the restoration of eastern Slavonia to Croatian control and after the end of the two-year UN administration of the area, Susak said "As far as the protection of Serb refugees in eastern Slavonia, there is no problem. The problem is returning to the places where they came from. That is where we will need help from the international community and our hard work to accomplish that. At the present we still have over 200,000 refugees and displaced persons in Croatia. Many of there are in eastern Slavonia, but a majority of them throughout Croatia. Many Serbs who left Croatia in 1995 are in the area of Banja Luka", Susak said. "I use the opportunity, this was a working visit at the invitation of Secretary Cohen, ...to thank the Americans for their involvement in eastern Slavonia. The whole world knows now that Croatia is within its borders, in many ways thanks to General Klein and General Walker as American representatives in the UNTAES mission," Susak said. Regarding the process of return of displaced persons and refugees Susak said "Last year was the first year that Croatia was not in war. Since the proclamation of independence in 1991 up till 1995, we had five years of war. Last year Croatia either fixed or built 60,000 homes for the refugees and displaced people, a country with (a population of) 4.5 million, without one dollar of international help. The Croatian Constitution and the present Croatian government guarantees every Serb in eastern Slavonia to return to wherever he came from in Croatia. We may not be in a position to offer him a home today, but we can offer him a place to stay till his home is rebuilt. And that is our commitment". In terms of the interest the Croatian President had expressed in joining the NATO and European Union, Susak was asked whether there was a plan to realise the goal. "Four years ago, during one of my visits to Pentagon at the time when Secretary Perry was Secretary of State, we started (a programme of US experts training our army). It cost US$20 million so far in preparing the Croatian army to be compatible with NATO countries and NATO standards. We are more than optimistic that this year, now that Croatia is completely within its borders and can turn to other issues, that of privatisation, freedom of the media and anything else that we could not pay as much attention to because of the war. This coming year and the years to come we will have the opportunity, and are willing to, pay more attention to being more efficient and effective than we were so far," Susak said. (hina) lm 311135 MET jan 98