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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Final Piece Of Territory Restored To Croatia Ceremony Marks End Of U.N. Mission As Government Takes Back E. Slavonia

Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times

The Croatian government took control of its entire territory Thursday for the first time since declaring independence 6-1/2 years ago and was admonished by U.S. officials to protect the rights of its minority Serbs.

In a ceremony in a suburb of the devastated city of Vukovar, where the 1991 Serb-Croat war began, the last piece of Croatia seized by rebel Serbs, the Eastern Slavonia region hugging the Danube River, was formally restored to Zagreb’s rule, and a two-year U.N. peacekeeping mission came to an end.

“The responsibility for erecting a sound, enduring structure on this foundation (laid by the U.S.-led U.N. mission) now passes to the hands of the government, the people of Croatia,” said William Walker, the U.S. diplomat who headed the operation. “They cannot live in the past. They must move forward.”

An estimated 80,000 Croats fled the region after an especially vicious war was launched by Serbs challenging Croatia’s move for independence in 1991. Many spent the last 6-1/2 years as refugees but now want to return to homes that have since been occupied by Serbs - who in turn fled fighting and Croatian army offensives in other parts of Croatia.

The test now is whether Croatia’s nationalist government, which has often worked to rid the country of its ethnic Serb citizens, will live up to its promises to protect Serbs from vengeful Croats and include Serbs in Eastern Slavonia’s police force, judiciary and public administration.

“The government’s ultimate intentions,” Walker told an auditorium packed with dignitaries from Zagreb, the United States and the United Nations, “are as yet based only on words, not actions.”

The Clinton administration, while lauding Croatia for its promise to be “tolerant and diverse,” called on President Franjo Tudjman to let all refugees return home and to respect the human rights of all the nation’s citizens. “The government of Croatia will be held to its obligations,” said Robert Gelbard, Clinton’s special envoy for the Balkans.

Gelbard attended Thursday’s ceremony in the Borovo Naselje suburb of Vukovar as part of a trouble-shooting tour through the region.

Croatia’s aspirations to join Western institutions such as NATO and the European Union depend in part on its treatment of its minorities, Gelbard said.