$ ON PROCESS ZAGREB, March 20 (Hina) - Head of the Croatian government Office of the Temporary Administration for the establishment of Croatian authority in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, Ivica Vrkic, said on Thursday
that the "Croatian authority's goal was not only to arrive at the state border, but also permanent peace in the Croatian Danubian area".
REINTEGRATI
$ ON PROCESS
ZAGREB, March 20 (Hina) - Head of the Croatian government Office of
the Temporary Administration for the establishment of Croatian
authority in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, Ivica
Vrkic, said on Thursday that the "Croatian authority's goal was not
only to arrive at the state border, but also permanent peace in the
Croatian Danubian area". #L#
Speaking at a conference of the Croatian PanEuropean Union
about the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area into
Croatia's political and economic system, Vrkic stressed that "the
establishment of good neighbourly relations with the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia most successfully supervises the Croatian
border and keeps peace in the bordering area".
"The establishment of Croatian sovereignty in its whole area
will, for the most part, relieve Croatia of the "yoke" of the
international community," Vrkic said, adding that the expansion of
Croatian authority over its whole territory would enable full
establishment of a democratic society.
"Permanent peace in the Croatian Danubian area cannot be
established if the Croatian authority turns against Serbs who did
not violate the law and want to stay in Croatia," Vrkic stressed,
describing the stay of native Serbs in the area as strategically
important.
One whole nation could not bear the collective responsibility
and suspicion, and Croatian courts were the only ones which must
decide about the responsibility of Serbs suspected of having
committed crimes, Vrkic said.
Security conditions and 775 Croatian police officers in the
Croatian Danubian area guaranteed the continuation of the
integration of the region into Croatia's constitutional and legal
system, and excluded a possible armed obstruction of the
reintegration process, Vrkic said, stressing that the forthcoming
elections would establish in a legitimate way "only the Croatian
authority in the Danubian area, notwithstanding the fact that Serbs
would be in posts of authority in some municipalities".
Vrkic estimated that Serbs would vote and that, as he put it,
they would probably try to establish a municipal community, but the
Croatian authority could only accept the establishment of a Council
of Serb Municipalities, exclusively as a advisory body.
Speaking about the return of Croatian displaced persons to
the Croatian Danubian area, Vrkic stressed that problems could be
expected. However, the Croatian government had drawn up a tangible
plan by which it would ask the international community for material
support for the reconstruction and the return of displaced persons
to the Danubian area, Vrkic stressed.
He described the lack of information about the large number of
missing persons as one of the biggest problems with which the
Croatian authority was faced in the peaceful reintegration process.
(hina) lm
210005 MET mar 97