PILOT PROJECT OF RETURN OF SERBS TO W.SLAVONIA TO START

OKUCANI, Dec 10 (Hina) - Representatives of the Croatian Association of Displaced Persons, the Association of Dislocated Serbs and UNTAES, agreed on implementation of a project of the return of displaced people, at a session at Okucani (western Slavonia), on Tuesday. A pilot project of return of Serbs, who had fled Croatia during liberation of occupied areas, will begin in a few days. At the Okucani meeting it was agreed that 100 Serbs should soon visit villages and towns that they had fled, and make decisions whether they would come back, Croatian President's advisor on humanitarian issues, Dr. Slobodan Lang, told a news conference after the meeting. Serb representatives, satisfied with the talks, said it was agreed that as of today they could submit requests for the return to municipalities of Lipik, Pakrac, Okucani, Gornji Bogicevci and Stara Gradiska (western Slavonia), and that following usual procedures all persons who filed requests and who did not breach laws of the Republic of Croatia could return. The Croatian Association's leader, Mato Simic, said the Association of the Croatian Displaced Persons had joined the action wishing to help create a favourable climate for the return of displaced people expelled (by Serb extremists) from the Croatian Danubian area, currently under the U.N. Transitional Administration. Simic added that Serbs had never been denied the right to come back. (hina) jn mš 102140 MET dec 96