HDZ MEMBERS PRESENT ALLEGED EVIDENCE OF WIRETAPPING

ZAGREB, Sept 25 (Hina) - The head of the club of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) members of parliament, Vladimir Seks, and the spokesman for this strongest opposition party, Ratko Macek, on Thursday presented to reporters a video-tape of the dismantling of bugging devices from two sockets. The HDZ officials asserted that the videotape was made in the party's offices in the parliament building a few day ago. #L# Seks also showed a bug, namely a device for monitoring conversations that were held in the HDZ offices, saying that the same kind of bugging device had been uncovered in the HDZ offices and destroyed while it was being dismantled. Asked why the HDZ had not disclosed its evidence on the wiretapping earlier, Seks replied that Ivo Sanader made public statements about the case only when "this activity went into full swing" and when bugging devices had been found in other rooms, too. According to Seks, the bugging devices in the HDZ offices were found by party members after they had been warned by the parliament security department that they were being wire-tapped. He said that first pieces of evidence on wiretapping had appeared after a meeting of leaders of four opposition parties and when they noticed that the authorities had some information from that session. After that, the HDZ set a trap and organised yet another meeting. Following that event the party members realised who ordered wiretapping as they saw who possessed information from that meeting. Spokesman Macek presented the serial number of a socket from the HDZ offices which was also used for the purpose of wiretapping. Later in the day, the parliament's secretary Danica Orcic, said that in-house electricians asserted that this serial number did not match any serial number of sockets in the building. However, after being persuaded by some reporters that there was one socket with that number in the HDZ offices, she said she would investigate the matter in detail tomorrow. The 'socket' which was seen by some reporters in the HDZ offices was later also found in the parliament press room. Asked by reporters to explain how that could happen, an MP from the Croatian Party of Rights, the nuclear physician Tonci Tadic, said this was the old sort of thermostat for air conditioners, which were no longer in use. He added that those thermostats could be used for wire-tapping only if they had enough voltage. As nobody had appropriate tools to inspect whether they had enough voltage, the continuation of the 'Sabor-gate' story could be expected tomorrow. (hina) ms