SERB DISPLACED PERSONS ASK FOR CROATIAN DISPLACED PERSONS' STATUS

( Editorial: --> 9395 ) ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Association of displaced Serbs and Serb returnees requested an urgent defusing of tension among returnees and the current residents of the Croatian Danube river region, especially in the Osijek-Baranja County, as well as an equalisation of conditions for the two-way return of displaced persons and the status of all returnees. The Association's Main Committee requested in Vukovar at Wednesday's session a radical change or the annulment of the Provision on the leasing of apartments in the Danube region owned by the state of Croatia. "This provision is a slap to Croatian politics in regard to the peaceful reintegration," president of the Serb National Council and member of the Croatian National Committee for the Establishment of Trust, Milorad Pupovac. The Main Committee requested amendments to the Law on areas of special government care and the Law on Displaced Persons. It also requested the start of the return of Croatian Serbs from Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska. The Committee warned that less damaged Serbs' houses in the places of return were not being reconstructed. Association representatives said that Croatian and Serb displaced persons' associations should form some sort of a unified organisation. Present at the meeting were also deputy chairmen of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Ivica Vrkic and Vojislav Stanimirovic, as well as assistant interior ministers Josko Moric and Dragan Djukic. (hina) lm jn 041739 MET feb 98