POLICE INTERVIEW MAN WHO THREATENED PM, PRESIDENT

ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Split police on Wednesday evening interviewed Drazen Pavlovic, president of the Sinj branch of the HVIDR-a association of disabled war veterans, over a statement he made yesterday which the Zagreb county state prosecutor's office said constituted a possible threat against the prime minister and the president. #L# "I maintain the interpretation of my statement was wrong and ill- intentioned. Making a death threat against someone was the last thing on my mind, so I apologise to all who took my statement for a threat," Pavlovic said in Sinj, where he is heading a HVIDR-a protest against a recent guilty verdict in the war crimes trial of general Mirko Norac and others from the so-called Gospic Group. Pavlovic said the police interview had been brief and fair, as had been the way police treated him. Interior ministry spokeswoman Zinka Bardic told Hina Pavlovic had come to the police station of his own accord. She declined to say what the interview had been about, saying she would notify the competent state prosecutor's office about it. The Zagreb county state prosecutor's office yesterday requested that police question Pavlovic due to suspicion that he had threatened the prime minister and the president, i.e. committed the crime of threatening an official, which envisages a prison sentence ranging between three months and three years. Claiming that he was speaking on behalf of HVIDR-a's Sinj branch and local Homeland War associations, Pavlovic told a news conference in Zagreb yesterday he had "a message from the Cetina region for Messrs Mesic, Racan, Manolic and others - may they join comrade Djindjic for breakfast as soon as possible because this is the only way to save the Croatian state for which we fought". Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was recently assassinated in Belgrade. (hina) ha sb