UNTAES HANDS OVER FIVE VILLAGES TO CROATIA

ZAGREB, Oct 31 (Hina) - The UN Transitional Administration in the Danube river area of eastern Croatia has handed over five villages to Croatian public services and administration, Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic said on Thursday. Croatian displaced people would be able to return to Nijemci, Podgrade, Apsevci, Lipovac and Donje Novo Selo before Christmas, Kostovic told a news conference in Zagreb. The transitional police force and UN symbols would remain in the villages and the area would remain demilitarized, he added. Kostovic said that he had been informed about the handover in a letter from UN Transitional Administrator U.S. General Jacques Klein. The five villages are situated near the Zagreb-Belgrade highway in the Western Srijem region. Commenting on the latest report by UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on the reintegration of the UN-administered area into Croatia, Kostovic said that Boutros-Ghali realized that the UNTAES mandate had to be clearly defined because unclear views on the mandate would damage the peaceful reintegration process. Kostovic expressed a surprise at Boutros-Ghali's evaluation that the Croatian government was uncooperative. "The Croatian government, being most interested in the peaceful reintegration, guarantees full cooperation with UNTAES. But the Croatian government will demand that UNTAES fulfil the main goals - peaceful reintegration, establishment of the Croatian legal system and return of displaced persons - as soon as possible, preferably in early spring," Kostovic said. Asked to comment on a report that Serb authorities in the Baranja region, a northern part of the Danube river valley bordering Hungary, had proposed that Croatian refugees return to eight villages, Kostovic said that the local Serb authorities said that they would agree to the return of Hungarians and Croats to those villages. Kostovic said that it was possible for displaced people to return to nine villages. It had been agreed with Klein that displaced people should first start returning to three villages - Torjanci, Novi Bezdan and Baranjsko Petrovo Selo - where there were also Serb residents. Kostovic said that displaced people could start returning to the three villages by Christmas. Plans were also being made for the return of displaced people to the Eastern Slavonia villages of Antunovac, Ernestinovo and Bilje. Asked what the Croatian government would recommend the Serbs living in other people's houses, Kostovic said that they would be able to choose whether they wanted compensation, return to their homes if unoccupied, or propose a third solution. Kostovic described plans by Serbs to organize a celebration of the "liberation" of Vukovar on November 18 as "a provocation and a blow to the peaceful reintegration." He added that Klein had promised him that any such provocative celebrations would be prevented. (hina) vm jn 312103 MET oct 96