MORE THAN 5,000 ZADAR RESIDENTS SIGN PETITION SUPPORTING GOTOVINA

ZADAR, May 17 (Hina) - By 1 p.m. on Saturday, more than 5,000 residents of the southern city of Zadar signed a petition called "We Help General Gotovina For Free", launched by the Croatian Bloc - Movement for a Modern Croatia of Zadar County. #L# The party launched the campaign in response to the Interior Ministry's offering a reward for information on the whereabouts of General Ante Gotovina, a runaway indictee of the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The head of the party's branch in Zadar County, Ante Martinac, said the signing of the petition would continue next week as well. Five thousand signatures were collected in Zadar alone and several thousand more were collected in many towns of Zadar County, he said. Homeland War associations in the county have called on their members to sign the petition saying they would support similar campaigns regardless of which party organised them. The signing of the petition started today in other Croatian towns, Martinac said. (hina) rml