RETURNEE NIJEMCI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL HOLDS FIRST SESSION

NIJEMCI, 29 Nov (Hina) - The first session of the Nijemci Municipal Council was held in Nijemci on Friday, after almost five years of work in exile. The U.N. Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) handed over five villages of the Nijemci municipality to Croatian authorities on November 1. The municipal head of Nijemci, Ivica Klem, said that the U.N. Transitional Administrator Jacques Klein had promised that Croatian authority would be established in some two weeks in the northern part of the Nijemci municipality (still under UNTAES administration) as well. The reconstruction of the Djeletovci oil fields, where the Croatian oil company INA has its oil pumps, should also start soon, Klem said. By the end of the year, five villages of the Nijemci municipality would have a phone cable. However, if the Croatian government did not provide help, final reconstruction works on 200 houses would hardly be completed by Christmas, Klem said. Displaced people wanted to return to their homes and basic conditions for their return had to be created, he added. (hina) rm jn 292128 MET nov 96