U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY HOLDS PRESS CONFERENCE IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, Oct 8 (Hina) - UN human rights envoy Elizabeth Rehn, currently on a tour of the former Yugoslavia, held a press conference at UN headquarters in the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on Tuesday. Rehn said that the aim of her visit was to gather information for a report she would submit to the UN General Assembly by the end of the year. The return of Serbs to the areas liberated by Croatian army and police forces last year would depend on benefits they would be granted, she said. Rehn stressed that the basic problems were the return of people to their homes and the resolution of the issue of missing persons. But there is a great hatred in these areas, which is understandable, because people cannot forget what happened, despite the fact that peace agreements were signed, she said. Noting that only a small number of Serbs had been allowed to return, Rehn criticized local Croatian police saying that they were not concerned about cases of looting and the blowing up of houses. Responding to a question on the human rights situation in the UN-administered area, to which not a single Croatian refugee had returned, Rehn said that the situation was awful. Asked to comment on the human rights situation during the Serb occupation of the area since 1991, when the first case of ethnic cleansing occurred after the Second World War, Rehn gave a rather vague reply, adding that it was generally believed that the biggest tragedy had happened in the mainly Moslem enclave of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. (hina) vm jn 081758 MET oct 96