LANG CALLS ON ETHNIC SERBS TO ACCEPT CROATIA AS THEIR COUNTRY

ZAGREB, Oct 29 (Hina) - Croatian President's advisor on humanitarian issues, Slobodan Lang, called on ethnic Serbs in the Croatian Danubian area to accept clearly Croatia as their homeland. Lang said this at a round table on "Eastern and Western Slavonia - Challenge to Normalization", organized in Zagreb on Tuesday by the coordination of peace associations for eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Sirmium and anti-war campaign of Croatia. The round table was held, the organizers said, in belief that "the return of displaced Croats to eastern Slavonia is inseparably tied with the return of Serb refugees to western Slavonia." Conveying stances of America and the international community, the U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, Peter W. Galbraith, said at table that everybody has the right to return to home and stay in home. Mayor of eastern Croatian town of Osijek Zlatko Kramaric informed the table that 30,000 Croatian displaced people were still living in Osijek. "Their destiny will certainly influence the return," Kramaric said adding that there were 10,000 Serb citizens in the town. He also said that a larger concentration of Serbs in the Croatian Danubian area than it had been before the war, should not be allowed. Milorad Pupovac, a member of the Association of Croatia's Socialists or ASH, held that those who favoured a several-year-long extension of the current U.N. mandate in eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) were playing with agreements between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro). Veljko Dzakula, the Serb Democratic Forum secretary, said "it was important that local authorities in eastern Slavonia have confirmed that the area is part of Croatia. Those who doubt that they can go away." Dzakula stressed the importance of return of Serbs in western Slavonia. An expelled citizen from Vukovar, and former detainee in a Serb camp, Dragutin Glasnovic, spoke about plight of displaced Croats during the war and in exile. On behalf of the Croatian Displaced People's Association he asked "how long need it be waited that someone allows Croats to visit their cemeteries," and how to talk with "those who can understand only the language of arms." The round table was attended by Croatia's state officials, local authorities, political parties and non-governmental organizations from Croatia and Serbia. It was part of discussions on the same topic held in Vukovar, Darda and Karlovac. Following round tables on this matter will be organized in Belgrade, Pula and Osijek. (hina) mš 292344 MET oct 96