SLOVENE MEDIA COMMENT ON FISHING INCIDENTS IN BORDER AREA WITH CROATIA

LJUBLJANA, Aug 9 (Hina) - The dialogue of Slovene and Croatian diplomats, and the protest notes exchanged in connection with the sea border in the northern Adriatic received extensive coverage in Slovene newspapers on Monday. Maribor's Vecer and Ljubljana's Delo said last week's meeting of the Croatian-Slovene commission for border area cooperation had been unsuccessful because Slovenia could not agree to the renewal of a fishing code in the border area on the condition that Slovene police boats should not cross a demarcation line cutting through the middle of Piran Bay. According to Slovene media, Croatia proposed splitting the bay in two and is trying to impose the line running across the middle. Although the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that such a line is valid if there is no bilateral agreement, Slovenia finds this unacceptable. Delo says that under international law, such a demarcation line does not apply if there exist special historic or other circumstances, which it adds do exist in the case of Piran Bay because Slovenia always managed the bay's tourism, economy and ecology. Delo says Slovene police had complete control of the bay on 25 June 1991, which it adds is a crucial date for all border-related issues. This, the daily goes on to say, has made Piran Bay "part of Slovenia's internal waters" where, unlike in "territorial waters", states have the same rights of action as on land. Vecer's Boris Jausovec wonders who is benefitting from this year's fishing incidents and why the fishing code, which went out of force when Slovenia joined the European Union in May, was not extended earlier, since both sides' diplomats claim they want good neighbourly relations and the European spirit in coming to agreement. Jausovec wonders if Slovenia's autumn elections are to blame or the fact that the tensions at sea serve the non-European mentality of both states' politicians.