PRIME SUSPECT IN DJINDJIC'S KILLING HAD PASSPORT MISSING FROM CROAT CONSULATE

ZAGREB, April 25 (Hina) - The Croatian Interior Ministry (MUP) confirmed on Friday that the serial number of a passport possessed by Milorad Lukovic alias Legija, suspected for organising the assassination of Serbia's Premier Zoran Djindjic, responded to one of the numbers of some passports that disappeared in 1999 from the Croatian Consulate in Mostar. #L# "The serial numbers of the passports possessed by Lukovic and his wife respond the numbers on a contingent of passports that went missing from the consulate in Mostar" the ministry's spokeswoman Zinka Bardic told Hina on Friday. The Croatian Foreign Ministry reported that an internal audit disclosed that 930 passports were stolen from the Mostar Consulate in 1999 however, this information was not immediately released to the public due to an investigation into the matter. This ministry claimed that they had immediately informed the interior ministry of the theft and an investigation was immediately launched. Since the discovery of the theft, an international warrant was sent out via Interpol for the arrest of possible holders of the travel papers with the serial numbers on the missing passports, Bardic said. She added that she could not go into any detail regarding the case because the investigation was still under way. The foreign ministry claims that the validity of the stolen passports expire this year and that both the ministry and police were aware of the relevant serial numbers of the passports in question so it was unlikely that they could be used without being traced. Television of Federation Bosnia-Herzegovina (FTV) showed the serial numbers of the passports on Thursday night claiming that the travel papers were used by Milorad Lukovic alias Legija and his wife. (hina) sp ms sb