NUMBER OF REQUESTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION DECREASES AT HHO

( Editorial: --> 8779 ) ZAGREB, March 11 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO) was in 1997 approached with human rights violation complaints much less than the year before. In 1996, 6,000 persons requested help from the HHO, representatives of the Committee for civilian issues of the North Atlantic Assembly said in Zagreb on Wednesday. The talks between the delegation and HHO representatives also focused on the situation in the media, cooperation with authorities and the ombudsman, the HHO said on Wednesday. HHO representatives said that, in relation to war and post-war years, the "problem of human rights violations has been changing," adding that there were now "increasingly sophisticated ways of human rights violations". Ownership problems (the return of property, tenants rights) are being resolved, and so are problems with obtaining citizenship and identification documents for persons who are not of Croat nationality. Besides refugees and displaced persons, the HHO is increasingly being approached by pensioners, people who live in nationalised flats, Croatian Homeland War soldiers and socially deprived persons, the HHO said. (hina) lm jn 111452 MET mar 98