ASSISTANT INTERIOR MINISTER SAYS PEOPLE IN WESTERN SLAVONIA SAFE

PAKRAC, May 17 (Hina) - The security situation in Western Slavonia was good. There were minor incidents which disturbed the peace but human lives were not at risk, Assistant Interior Minister Josko Moric told reporters in Pakrac today. In reponse to a journalist's question if there were still Serb paramilitary forces on Mount Psunj offering resistance, Moric said "if there are any, they are few." "There's no threat against people, infrastructre and villages in the liberated area of Western Slavonia," he stressed. Moric added that Croatian police would complete a search of the entire region later today. He said that, according to still incomplete information, more than 200 tonnes of all sorts of weapons, mines and explosives had been seized in the region. "We have pulled out of the region all the weapons we have found," Moric said, adding that Serbs had handed over to the UN only a tenth of the amount of weapons Croatian police found later. Speaking of mine disposal operations, Moric said that they were conducted according to priorities, stressing that towns and villages were now completely safe. "We have no maps of mine fields so we have to work very carefully," Moric said. He added that it would be very difficult to demine the area since Serbs had laid mines without any order. (hina) mm vm 171514 MET may 95