MINISTER: BELGRADE WILLING TO RETURN STEPINAC'S DIARY, IF IT EXISTS

BELGRADE, June 4 (Hina) - If any diary of Alojzije Stepinac really exists in any of the Belgrade archives, it will be given back to Croatia, Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic told Hina on Wednesday. #L# "The first time I heard about the alleged diary was from the Croatian Justice Minister, and if it exists - it is most certainly not held in the Serbian justice ministry. If the alleged diary may be found somewhere, I have nothing against it being given back to Croatia, and I can even recommend its restoration, just as land registers and registers of births, marriages and deaths, taken from Croatia, will be given back," Minister Batic said. During a meeting with her Serbian counterpart in Zagreb on Monday, Croatia's Justice Minister Ingrid Anticevic-Marinovic asked for the restoration of Croatian documents from Serbia, including the diary of Zagreb Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac, the existence of which has not been known to the public until now and which was allegedly seized by the then Yugoslav secret service OZNA and transferred to Belgrade. Documents pertaining to the so-called Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) are most probably stored in the archives of the Belgrade-based institute for the military and historical issues, but competent persons from the institute declined to communicate with reporters until they got approval of Serbia-Montenegro's defence minister. Therefore it was not possible to receive any confirmation whether Stepinac's diary was in that institution. Records from the time of the Independent State of Croatia used to be stored in a building of the Yugoslav General Staff, which was seriously damaged during NATO's air strikes in 1999. According to some statements, which have not been officially confirmed, all the documentation had been transferred from that building before the start of NATO's air campaign against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. (hina) ms sb