MESIC RECEIVES SURVIVORS OF WWII CONCENTRATION CAMPS

ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic on Monday evening received a delegation of former prisoners of Ustasha-run WWII concentration camps, including Branko Petrina, who survived the Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska and Lepoglava camps, and Jurica Peruzovic, a former inmate of Jasenovac and the Wegscheid camp in Austria, the President's Office said in a statement on Tuesday.#L# Petrina and Peruzovic told the president that political prisoners from the time of the Nazi puppet regime in Croatia did not have the status of political prisoners and that they had approached the government commission dealing with this matter to resolve their status. They said that the fact that their status had not been recognised was a form of discrimination against "those who fought for the anti-fascist Croatia". They noted that people who had been put in prison for political reasons in the post-1945 period had been granted political prisoner status. The meeting was also attended by Presidential Assistant Home Policy Adviser Sandra Krvavica, the statement said. (Hina) vm