Croatia regains Eastern Slavonia: Croatian media reports

Minister stresses importance of handover

Text of report by the Croatian news agency HINA

Slavonski Brod, 15th January: Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic, one of the passengers aboard a special train which left Zagreb for Vukovar [eastern Slavonia] Thursday morning [15th January], said that the UN withdrawal and everything that would follow in the Croatian Danube River region was important for Croatia's overall credibility.

Granic said that some foreign ambassadors to Croatia told him that several years ago few had believed that Croatian authorities would be able to peacefully reclaim that part of Croatia's territory.

Without the completion of peaceful reintegration, which is one of preconditions for its joining Euro-Atlantic and Central European integration processes, Croatia could not have counted on joining those processes, Granic said.

Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 1116 gmt 15 Jan 98

Croatia: special train takes guests to eastern Slavonia for handover ceremony

Text of report by the Croatian news agency HINA

Zagreb, 15th January: At 8.17 a.m. Thursday [15th January], a special train carrying Croatian high state officials, displaced people, domestic and foreign journalists and numerous other guests left the main railway station in Zagreb for Vukovar [in eastern Slavonia].

The 180 passengers aboard the train will attend a ceremony marking the completion of the mandate of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), which ends today, 15th January.

High state officials aboard the train are headed by Hrvoje Sarinic, the presidential chief of staff and signatory to the basic agreement on the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube River region, which enabled the implementation of peaceful reintegration of that part of Croatia.

Aboard the train are also members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Croatia, representatives of international organizations and special UN guests.

Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 0946 gmt 15 Jan 98

Croatian president says reintegration of Danube region greatest 1997 success

Excerpts from report by the Croatian news agency HINA

Zagreb, 14th January: Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and his wife Ankica on Wednesday hosted a New Year reception for members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Croatia, representatives of international organizations and foreign military attaches...

Tudjman stressed that the past year had been successful for Croatia on the domestic and international scene.

"We consider our greatest success the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area into the constitutional and legal system of the Republic of Croatia which was completed thanks to the cooperation of the Croatian authority with the UNTAES [UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia], headed by General Klein in the beginning, and now by Ambassador Walker, as well as with the local Serb population," Tudjman stressed.

However, by officially completing the UNTAES mandate on Thursday, 15th January, and taking over control of the area, not all problems are solved, Tudjman said.

Over 70,000 Croatian displaced persons were waiting to return to the Danube river region, where destroyed homes or homes occupied by Serbs from other areas awaited them.

It would, thus, be necessary materially, and especially morally and psychologically to overcome everything the past several years had left behind, so Croatia would need the help of the international community to reconstruct ravaged areas and family homes, Tudjman said.

President Tudjman told the diplomatic corps they could rest assured that Croatian authorities would continue the policy which helped the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the Danube river region, so that all conditions for coexistence, mutual trust and normalization of all life in the region could be realized as soon as possible.

"With the New Year begins a new period in the establishment of an independent and democratic Croatia. With the establishment of complete sovereignty on its whole internationally recognized territory, Croatia can now focus on its domestic democratic, economic and cultural development ...

Source: HINA news agency, Zagreb, in English 1624 gmt 14 Jan 98

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.