US AMBASSADOR TO CROATIA GIVES STATEMENT

ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith said on Wednesday that the international community expected the Croatian government to fulfil all commitments from its Letter of Intent about the completion of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, so that elections there could be held on time. Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic and Vice Premier Ivica Kostovic on Wednesday received chiefs of missions of the contact Group, EU Troika and Belgium accredited in Zagreb at their request. Galbraith accented parts of the Letter of Intent which pertain to the right to vote of people living in the area under the UNTAES administration. People who had lived there till 1991 and those who had arrived later from other parts of Croatia needed to receive Croatian citizenship certificates (Domovnica) and ID cards in order to vote, Galbraith said. Contact Group, EU Troika and Belgium representatives had received a positive answer from Foreign Minister Mate Granic, they hailed it and expected the elections to take place on time if these conditions were fulfilled, he added. He announced that the same group of diplomats would travel to Vukovar on Thursday. Galbraith said that they would tell the local Serb leadership that the Letter of the Croatian government which had been endorsed by the Security Council was a very positive step and that the time for negotiations was up. Measures for the full protection of the local Serb population had been ensured and the next step was up to them. Asked about the tension in the Croatian Danubian area recently, Galbraith said that it was not surprising that there was a small number of people who knew that they did not have a future in Croatia and who caused incidents like the tragic one when a Belgian UNTAES soldier had been killed. These extremists must not be allowed to hinder the process of peaceful reintegration and UNTAES was decisive in doing all it could to prevent them, Galbraith said. He added that Granic and Kostovic had pledged that the Croatian government would prevent extremists on the Croatian side. Asked whether local Serb would cease their boycott and return to negotiations, Galbraith said that he had a report of the local Serb assembly in which the leadership supported the political process. The report said that they would continue to participate in the political process and that they would ask the same of the local people, Galbraith said, adding that the local leadership had admitted that it was no longer time for talks, that they had heard the message of the international community and the Security Council Presidential Statement. If the report was correct, Galbraith said, the stance was very constructive. (Hina) lm jn 052213 MET feb 97