CROATIAN OFFICIALS SEE SERB SCHOOL BOYCOTT AS MANIPULATION ( Editorial: --> 9689 )

( Editorial: --> 9689 ) OSIJEK, Nov 10 (Hina) - Pupils in nine out of 22 primary and secondary schools in the UN-administered area of Vukovar County boycotted classes on Monday. Of 15 primary schools and four secondary schools in the UN- controlled part of Osijek County, classes were suspended in Darda and Ernestinovo. The head of the Vukovar County Education Office, Zdenka Buljan, said that the boycott was "problematic and inadequate", while her counterpart in Osijek County, Ksenija Zbozil, described the street protest of Serb pupils in Darda as "the manipulation of pupils by a handful of people for political purposes." "Not a single minority pupil, including Serbs, is denied any of his rights," Zbozil said, adding that classes were taught in the Serbian language, bilingual documentation had been delivered to all schools and textbooks in the Serbian language and Cyrillic script had begun arriving. The Croatian Association of Primary School Headmasters said that the boycott of classes in some schools in the UN-administered Danube region was "a well-thought-out scenario for destabilising the situation and obstructing the peaceful reintegration" of the region into Croatia. (hina) vm jn 102028 MET nov 97