But Croatia Balks at Revised
Timetable by U.S. Diplomat
ZAGREB, May 6 (Reuters) — The U.N. administrator in charge of transferring the last separatist Serb enclave in Croatia back to government rule was quoted on Monday as saying he would need until July 1997 to achieve his task. The Croatian government countered that it wanted Eastern Slavonia back in its hands by January 1997, the original one-year duration of the U.N. mandate although it can be extended by up to one year if difficulties arise.The U.N. Transitional Authority (UNTAES) under U.S. diplomat Jacques Klein took over Eastern Slavonia last January but steps to reintegrate it in Croatia will begin only after demilitarisation, expected to begin soon. "If we begin (reintegration) on July 1, I think we'll need approximately one more year to rebuild government institutions," Klein was quoted by the Croatian news agency HINA as saying in a speech to academics in Zagreb. Klein cited a myriad of problems, which would include resettlement of Croat and Serb refugees, on UNTAES's plate.
UNTAES, with 5,000 multinational enforcement troops, moved into the rich agricultural region in the Danube River basin to avert a Croatian army attack that could have undone the new peace in neighbouring Bosnia. Under UNTAES's mandate, the region is to be demilitarized after which Croats driven out by Serb militants in 1991 are to be resettled in former homes and Croatian government institutions to be gradually restored. Klein said the demilitarisation of the area would start no later than June 1 and be completed by July 1.
UNTAES was to reopen the main highway through the enclave linking Croatia with Serbia on Tuesday in a key step towards postwar normalisation in former Yugoslavia. Many of the estimated 150,000 Serbs in the region are prepared to flee for fear of retribution from Croat refugees who will reclaim homes under UNTAES.
Croatia recaptured two other minority Serb rebel enclaves in 1995 but, bowing to Western pressure, refrained from taking Eastern Slavonia militarily. HINA quoted a Croatian government statement on Monday as saying peaceful reintegration of the region remained its main strategic goal in 1996. It said reintegration should be completed by January 15, 1997 when the UNTAES mandate officially expires. It complained the process has so far been "much slower than the Croatian public had expected."
The government adopted a time-frame document stating the reintegration should begin in earnest on Tuesday when the highway was reopened after a five-year closure. It said Croatian police would retake control of the region by September 1 with local elections to be held on December 8. UNTAES spokesmen say Croatian security organs will not reassert control until the end of the U.N. mandate.
Following the highway opening, joint Serb-Croat police under UNTAES supervision are to start patrolling the area and a Croatian customs and immigration post is to open on the highway border with Serbia. Croatian authorities, in a conciliatory gesture prompted by U.S. pressure, on Monday unveiled legislation to give an amnesty to all Serbs living in Eastern Slavonia who joined the armed uprising against Croatian independence in 1991. Only Serbs suspected of atrocities and other grave offences against civilians would not be covered by the amnesty.
May 4 · Croatia-Serbia Motorway to Reopen Tuesday
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