PREFECT KOENIG MEETS MAYORS AND HEADS OF MUNICIPALITIES

( Editorial: --> 8075 ) VUKOVAR, July 16 (Hina)- By the end of the month, local authorities in the Danube region must establish housing commissions as an essential prerequisite for implementation of the Government's demanding programme for the accommodation of DPs and refugees, the prefect of the Vukovar-Srijem county Rudolf Koenig said on Thursday. The commissions, envisaged in the Programme, should not be confused with commissions for settlement of disputes between house owners and temporary occupants of their property in the Danube region. Each new commission will comprise five experts, including two representatives of ethnic minorities, who will carry out the demanding and sensitive task of the implementation of the Programme, Koening told the mayors and heads of municipalities from the Danube part of the Vukovar-Srijem county in Vukovar. Over the next five years, as many as 220,000 persons will have to be restored to their homes throughout Croatia or accommodated, Koenig said. According to Koenig, as many as 27,341 DP families will return to the Vukovar-Srijem county and 1,750 Serb families from there to other Croatian areas. The county is presently accommodating 1,260 families of BH Croats, said he. As the result of fighting in the Vukovar-Srijem county, approx. 7,500 houses were seriously damaged and approx. 14,000 lightly. The prefect reiterated that by the end of the month displaced persons should supplement their requests for repair of houses by certificates proving that they are not using a house or a flat elsewhere in Croatia. DPs who fail to produce the certificate on time will lose both the DP status and the reconstruction entitlement. Officials of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Development called on the local government bodies to draft reconstruction projects that they want to be presented at a donor's conference on Croatia's reconstruction and development which is expected to take place in October. (Hina) jn mr 162006 MET jul 98