DANUBE REGION DISPLACED PERSONS WRITE TO CRO OMBUDSMAN

OSIJEK, Oct 17 (Hina) - Displaced persons from the UN- administered part of the Danube river region of eastern Croatia on Friday forwarded a letter to the Croatian ombudsman, Ante Klaric, asking for the protection of houses from which they were expelled, and protection from further looting of these houses. The displaced recalled in the letter that the Croatian Constitutional Court at Klaric's initiative rescinded regulations from a law on the temporary takeover and management of specific property which prevented owners who had left their houses from using them. The said law was passed in September 1995, soon after the liberation of large areas of Croatia under Serb occupation, when most of the population fled those areas leaving behind most of their property, which remained exposed to damage and looting. After the Constitutional Court's decision, the letter said, the displaced were being expelled from their flats and forced to "pay high rents and drastic court proceeding costs". "Through your initiative (…) you have directly damaged the already infringed rights (of the displaced), in particularly of displaced persons from the Croatian Danube region", the letter to ombudsman Klaric said. People who lost their homes, property, jobs and closest relatives were putt "in another uncertainty", and were subjected to further harassment "through administrative and court proceedings", the displaced persons' letter said. They advocate the enforcement of the Croatian constitution and laws, but demand it not to be only "to the benefit of Serbs, and to the damage of displaced Croats". The displaced demand of ombudsman Klaric to effect the protection of the constitutional rights of displaced Croats "as efficiently and as quickly" as he has done for the Serbs. They demand the protection of the "right to ownership and possession of private property, the right to protection from further looting and devastation of private property, and an efficient application of the law on displaced person and refugee status, according to which the state made a commitment to ensure accommodation to the displaced." "In case you are unable to efficiently and quickly assist in the exercise of our constitutional rights after all that has happened, we suggest that you resign", said the letter of the displaced from the UN-administered part of the Croatian Danube region, signed by the chairman of the Osijek-Baranja County displaced persons association, Tomo Povreslo. (hina) ha jn 171951 MET oct 97