UNCRO MANDATE IN W. SLAVONIA NOT ENTIRELY CLEAR, UN SAYS

PAKRAC, May 23 (Hina) - "The mandate of UNCRO in western Slavonia is at the moment entirely clear," a spokeswoman for UNCRO, Susan Manuel, told a press conference in Pakrac on Tuesday. UN Security Council Resolution 994 demanded from us to control human rights in the area and entitled UN Secretary-General to propose to the Security Council in next few days a new mandate of UNCRO in western Slavonia, Manuel said. The UN headquarters in Zagreb Tuesday ordered to the Jordanian battalion to return to Jordan, the Argentinean battalion to relocate in the former sector south, whereas the Nepalese battalion and some from the Slovakian should remain in western Slavonia as UNCRO forces in reserve, she added. The exact number of UN troops who should remain in western Slavonia has not been still defined, and all changes should be done by June 16, according to Manuel. At the moment 240 UN civilian observers are supervising the human rights of the minorities in western Slavonia, and a total of 300 observers might be expected to be there later. In Okucani a station of UN Civilian Police has been reestablished, according to Manuel. Manuel described the conduct of Croatian police in western Slavonia as correct and disciplined, and added that the Pakrac police superintendent, Nikola Ivkanec, could serve as an example for such behaviour. She added that UN were now creating a database about respect for the human rights in western Slavonia. Asked whether UN had taken same steps in other sectors, and why they had not made a database in western Slavonia before, Manuel replied that she could not know about the other sectors, and that in western Slavonia UN had monitored human rights before but not 'in a formalized manner'. "Since May 1 the eyes of the world have been directed to western Slavonia," Manuel said. According to UN figures, so far 1999 Serbs have left the liberated parts of Lipik and Pakrac for Bosnia-Herzegovina, whereas one or two thousand of them remain in the area. Some of those who left the area, would like to return, but this has not been organized, according to Manuel. Asked why UN official declare themselves in favour of the right to return, while they are in fact speeding up the organized departure in convoys, Manuel said she did not know why convoys for the departure from western Slavonia were so quickly organized. Knin threatened that they would bombard Zagreb with rockets if we had not driven Serbs to Bosnia, she said adding that she believed that it might be reason for speedy organization of departure. Asked why UN officials have not organized convoys for Croats from Banja Luka to leave the area in the same manner they provided Serbs for leaving western Slavonia, she said that Serbs did not let UN to enter the Banja Luka area. Manuel said the UN could not get information from Croatian authorities about 140 people who had been taken to processing centres for identification. Asked what concretely UN had done in western Slavonia in the past few years Manuel said the mission of UN had failed. (hina) mms 231939 MET may 95