CROATIAN DOCUMENTS ISSUED TO 2/3 OF SERBS IN CRO DANUBIAN AREA

ZAGREB, Feb 6 (Hina) - As of February 3, 1997, the Government has issued 57,143 documents to the residents of the Danubian region of Croatia, out of 68,310 requests, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. " The issuance success rate of 84 percent is exceptionally high considering that the Government often lacks the needed verifying documents from the areas under Serb control. In most cases such government registers were destroyed intentionally, some were destroyed due to fighting. The success of the documents program is helped in part by tremendous resources the Government has committed to the task. Its 23 documents issuance offices are open - accepting applications and distributing documents - despite a number of violent attacks and other forms of interference. Most offices are reporting that they are operating with substantial excess capacity. The number of issued documents is already almost equal to two-thirds of the number of Serbs presently living in the Danubian region. The Government estimates that 88,000 Serbs now live there. The pre-war population of the Danubian region included 67,576 Serbs and 125,937 non- Serbs. Most of the non-Serbs have been ethnically cleansed, most now live in Croatia as displaced persons (96,000). In a recent Government survey of the displaced persons from the Danubian region, only six percent said that they do not want to return to live there, " the statement said. In the statement the Ministry warned that "there has been a lot of speculation about a possible organised Serb exodus, similar to the exodus that took place during the security operation Storm, and during the IFOR take-over of Sarajevo." It stressed that "the Government has encouraged the Serbs living in the Danubian region to stay on numerous occasions, and at various levels. President Franjo Tudjman alone has made four such public overtures to the Serbs over the past year. The Government has also offered the Serbs minority concessions in its Letter of Intent that other minorities in Croatia severely criticized as excessive." It also added that "the Government has been very forthcoming to Serbs in other areas as well. It has facilitated the return of forty percent of the Serbs who fled Croatia, and have since made request to return. Another one third of the requests have been rejected due to unreasonable or disingenuous demands. The remaining requests are being met. The Government is the only party in the region that has brought back refugees that were not affiliated with it during the war, into its areas of control. Quite often it is overlooked that over past five years about 145,000 Serbs have lived in Croatia in areas not affected by war. Their lives were substantially no different from the lives of their non-Serb neighbours. Five members of that community are presently serving in Sabor (The Croatian Parliament), three under the minority quota. Close to 9,000 ethnic Serbs have served in the Croatian armed forces during the war, and they were largest ethnic contingent in the Croatian Army." At the end the ministry said that "Croatia is a multi-ethnic country. In addition to ethnic Serbs, 450,000 other citizens of Croatia declare themselves to belong to a minority group. About fifteen percent of its population is minority group affiliated, surpassing in this regard most western European states. Studies by western institution have shown that Croats are among the most tolerant of publics in Europe in their views on minorities." (hina) jn mš 061635 MET feb 97