ZAGREB, Jan 26(Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday he had proposed to the government to establish the terms and the procedure for obtaining presidential pensions.
ZAGREB, Jan 26(Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Monday he had
proposed to the government to establish the terms and the procedure
for obtaining presidential pensions.#L#
Retirements granted by the president of the republic were not
sufficiently transparent because the criteria and the procedure were
not complete, Mesic said on Croatian Radio explaining his proposal.
Commenting on the controversy surrounding Assistant Interior Minister
for Security Stipe Cacija, Mesic said the decision on his retirement
might be withdrawn if it was established during disciplinary
proceedings that he had not been coming to work at the Defence
Ministry while heading Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's security during
last year's parliamentary election campaign.
Commenting on the new government's first steps, Mesic said Sanader's
cabinet had passed the test of presenting Croatia's foreign policy to
foreign partners, adding that more time had to pass before an
evaluation of steps at home was made.
Asked to comment on some ministers' claims that the previous
government had left behind debts that were too high and had spent part
of the funds envisaged for this year, the President said such claims
should not be made before the exact figures were determined. "Only
then can we discuss today's debt and the debt encountered in 2000
(when the previous government took office)."
Speaking of cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, Mesic said
Croatia could expect new indictments.
Asked if he thought the new government would extradite fugitive
indictee Ante Gotovina, the President said everything depended on the
retired general. "If Gotovina has more faith in the incumbent
government, he might consent to going to The Hague and there present
his defence."
(Hina) ha sb