CROATIA'S DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER WRITES TO GENERAL KLEIN

ZAGREB, Nov 17 (Hina) - Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Kostovic, Sunday sent a letter to the U.N. Transitional Administrator Jacques Klein conveying to him "the Croatian public's and his personal concern at announced events in Vukovar on the day that was tragic for the citizens of the town (five years ago)." "We appreciate your efforts to restore the constitutional and legal order of the Republic of Croatia in the Croatian Danubian area, and we are aware of all complexity of your endeavours. We have learnt that local structures in Vukovar are trying to organize events aimed at marking the day when in 1991 the aggressor, following several-month-long attacks on the civilian population, occupied the rubble that only remained of once the most beautiful Baroque town in our country. I take the liberty of reminding you that in the few past months we have requested repeatedly from the UNTAES to prevent a radical minority in Vukovar in its intention to organize the celebration of those days which thousands of our citizens remember with sadness because of the plight of their dear families' members. The day when the above-mentioned event is to take place is the day when five years ago thousands of people were expelled from their homes by force of arms and most of them taken into detention camps from where some of them have never returned. I am afraid that the intention of extremists to organize the celebration of the day when their victims are in mourning can affect negatively the future of the peaceful reintegration's process. Who can explain to people who saw ruins of their homes for the last time on that day five years ago, that they can return and live reconciliated with those who celebrate that day? Let me, dear General, request you again, on behalf of all Croatia's citizens, that no songs and trumpets could be heard in Vukovar on November 18, as it is the same day when cries of grief and weeping echo in all other parts of our country," Kostovic wrote to Gen. Klein. (hina) mš 171250 MET nov 96