ZAGREB, April 21 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Wednesday voiced concern about and condemned speculation in a weekly about the possibility of "Croatia being directly threatened by the activities of Al Qaeda and other terrorist
networks".
ZAGREB, April 21 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Wednesday voiced
concern about and condemned speculation in a weekly about the
possibility of "Croatia being directly threatened by the activities of
Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks".#L#
"The Government is concerned about and strongly condemns irresponsible
dissemination of media speculation based on arbitrary interpretations
which unnecessarily cause public anxiety," the government said in a
statement.
Croatia is a stable and safe country and has all mechanisms for the
protection of all citizens. In the current international circumstances
the government is very seriously addressing the problem of terrorism.
All competent bodies are constantly in contact with partner
institutions from other countries and are responsibly and
professionally working and will continue to work on the protection of
all people in Croatia, reads the statement.
The latest issue of Nacional weekly included an article headlined
"CIA: Al Qaeda Wants to Attack Heathrow with Croatia Airlines Planes"
in which it is claimed that a CIA report from 2003 speaks about the
threat of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden hijacking
Croatian planes and attacking London's Heathrow airport. The weekly
also claims that the target of new terrorist attacks could be some
foreign embassies in Zagreb, such as Spanish, Polish or Italian
embassies. The weekly further states that Croatia could be put on a
list of countries indirectly financing international terrorism. To
support this claim, the weekly quotes an international expert as
claiming that one of the alleged co-owners of the "Koncar" company is
linked to the financing of terrorists.
(Hina) rml