HDZ CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL POLICY, SECURITY

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - "We have passed a social policy exam, as no state has achieved in war-time what Croatia has," said Ivica Kostovic, deputy prime minister, at the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Central Committee session Sunday. He recalled that over 300,000 displaced persons had been taken care of, out of the national budget. In a moment the country had also taken care of 700,000 refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Today, Croatia takes care of the families of 10,000 killed soldiers and civilians, particularly of 31,000 severely wounded ones and 2,700 invalids. Jadranka Kosor said that at the moment 179,778 displaced was registered along with 165,262 returnees. Ivan Jarnjak, the interior minister, said that the number of criminal offenses by a third lesser than in 1992, "but now the structure of criminal changed". "Generally speaking the criminal is in decline, but what have been rising are the offenses in economy and organized criminal, he said, adding that the police had investigated 6,281 criminal offenses in economy in 1995. Jarnjak backed his view that the security situation in the state have become better, saying that in Italy there were around 4,000 criminal offenses to each 100,000 inhabitants. The rate was about 3,500 in Hungary and Czechia, and only about 1,300 in Croatia. "The figures speak for themselves ahead of the coming tourist season," he said. Speaking of the situation in the judiciary Miroslav Separovic, justice minister, said the key problem was the lack of experts. (Hina) jn bk 251730 MET feb 96