TRIPOLI: MESIC AWARDED HONORARY DOCTORATE OF ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

TRIPOLI, Aug 14 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic received an honorary doctorate in law and international politics of the Academy of High Sciences in Tripoli on Thursday evening. #L# Mesic was awarded the doctorate for his constant efforts to promote peace, minority rights and the normalisation of relations among the Balkan countries, it is said in the explanation accompanying the doctorate. It is also said that the Croatian president maintained relations with Libya when many turned their backs on it due to international sanctions. The Academy of High Sciences in Tripoli was established in 1988 and this is the third honorary doctorate awarded by it. The first was bestowed on Libyan leader Muammer al-Qaddafi and the second to Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella. Thanking for the doctorate, Mesic said he accepted it as a sign of recognition of Croatia's principled policy. He added that he expected the cooperation and friendship between the two countries to strengthen in the future. Addressing the gathered at the ceremony, Mesic recalled the causes of the break-up of Yugoslavia, a country to which Libya, like other non-aligned countries, was sentimentally attached to. "Yugoslavia broke up because three integrating factors - Tito, the Communist Party and the Yugoslav People's Army - were no longer there and because Slobodan Milosevic came to power with the wish to establish an ethnically clean Great Serbia," he said. President Mesic returns to Zagreb on Friday morning. Before his departure, the two sides will sign joint conclusions on the results of the visit of the Croatian delegation. (hina) rml