MORE AND MORE CROATS LEAVE ZENICA, CENTRAL BOSNIA

ZENICA, March 26 (Hina) - There are now merely 12,000 Croats in Zenica, central Bosnia, out of 22,700 who lived there before the Serb aggression on Bosnia. Some of the Croat citizens left the town in the first year of the Serb aggression, and some of the expelled Croats had to flee the town during of the Moslem-Croat conflict in 1993 and even later after the Washington Accords were signed in 1994. Presenting these figures, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party's Zenica branch says that prospects for the return of the displaced Croats to their hometown are poor. The HDZ Zenica leaders believe that main reasons why more and more Croats are leaving the town, are their feeling of insecurity while staying in a town with the Moslem majority and under the Bosnian Army control. They hold that three prerequisites for Croats' remaining in Zenica would be the right on life, the right on home and the right on identity. The HDZ Zenica leaders request that the Croatian municipality should be established and Croat boys conscripted to the Croatian defence unit "Jure Francetic". (hina mms 261559 MET mar 95