34,000 EASTERN SLAVONIA RESIDENTS SEEK CROATIAN CITIZENSHIP

OSIJEK, Dec 13 (Hina) - There are currently seven offices for issuing Croatian documents in the UN-administered Danube river region of eastern Croatia, Franjo Zdravcevic of the Croatian government office for the region said on Friday. Until December 9, the offices had received 33,910 applications for citizenship and birth certificates submitted by local Serb residents, of which 27,989 or 82.5 percent had been processed, he said. Zdravcevic said that local residents had filed 8,926 applications for personal identity cards, of which 8,205 or 91.5 percent had been processed, and 7,922 applications for passports, of which 7,141 had been processed. He said that negotiations were under way with UN officials and local Serb authorities to open new offices in Tenja and Dalj, adding that the problem of office space was expected to be resolved by the end of this month. (hina) vm mm 131334 MET dec 96