MESIC BLAMES JNA, NOT MONTENEGRO, FOR SHELLING OF DUBROVNIK

PODGORICA, Nov 16 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has said that responsibility for the shelling of Dubrovnik during the war in the early 1990s lay with the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic rather than with the Montenegrin government of the time. #L# "The shelling of Dubrovnik is to be blamed on the JNA military leadership and Slobodan Milosevic," Mesic said in an interview with the Podgorica-based newspaper Dan published on Sunday. Mesic said that the problem of the Prevlaka peninsula had been finally solved and that there were no more disputes about it. "Prevlaka remains within the borders of Croatia and that problem is settled," the president said. Mesic dismissed as "utter nonsense" the allegations by former Yugoslav army chief of staff Momcilo Perisic that Mesic had shelled Dubrovnik and provoked clashes in Mostar and the Neretva river valley only to blame the Serbian and Montenegrin forces later for the crimes committed there. "Perisic is responsible for the crimes committed in the Neretva valley and other areas in which he operated," Mesic said, adding that "serious crimes were also committed in Herzegovina during the war." "The destruction of the Old Bridge in Mostar is also an unprecedented crime, and I hope that the criminals will be punished," the Croatian president said. (hina) vm