KINKEL AND VEDRINE MEET CROAT & SERB REPS FROM DANUBE REGION

( Editorial: --> 0688 ) ZAGREB, March 18 (Hina) - Croat and Serb representatives from the Croatian Danube River region on Wednesday informed the German and French Foreign Ministers Klaus Kinkel and Hubert Vedrine about the need for the international community to provide financial help so that the two way return to and reconstruction of the region could be accelerated. The Danube River region was reintegrated into Croatia's constitutional and legal system two months ago. Kinkel and Vedrine arrived in Zagreb on Wednesday for a one-day visit. "We will do what we can but the financial help of the international community is needed, especially when it comes to the two-way return and reconstruction of the region," Ivica Vrkic, vice president of the National Trust Establishment Committee, said after the meeting. A Serb representative in the Committee and its vice president, Vojislav Stanimirovic, said that the two ministers had been informed about "the need for help by the international community in the reconstruction, because Croatia can do some things by itself but some not." Vrkic said that the two ministers expressed interest in keeping the Danubian region stable and creating normal living conditions both for Croats who were returning and Serbs who were living in the region. The Committee had been supported in continuing its work, Vrkic said. The German authorities are interested primarily in returning refugees, currently living in Germany, to their homes, said Stanimirovic. Kinkel and Vedrine also wanted to know why Serbs were leaving the region and they showed interest in the return of part of Serbs from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he added. Assistant Interior Minister Josko Moric acquainted Kinkel and Vedrine with the security situation in the region. "From the point of view of the police, the situation in the region is not only stable and good, but in some of its segments it is better than in some other parts of the state," said Moric. Moric said he made it clear that from the point of view of the police, there were no security reasons whatsoever for the departure of Croatian citizens, regardless of their ethnic background. Highly frustrated people were returning to the region after years of exile and the police respected and took seriously that fact, Moric said adding the police acted timely "in preventing incidents in the process of two-way return". The meeting with the German and French foreign minister was also attended by the President of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt and the head of the OSCE Mission in Croatia, Tim Guldimann. (hina) jn rm 182258 MET mar 98