ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Croatian Interior Minister Sime Lucin on Thursday urged laid-off police officers who last night went on a hunger strike in front of the government to discontinue the strike and accept "compromise-based talks"
about their status.
ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Croatian Interior Minister Sime Lucin on
Thursday urged laid-off police officers who last night went on a
hunger strike in front of the government to discontinue the strike
and accept "compromise-based talks" about their status. #L#
Lucin said that dialogue with the protesters was impossible because
they made it conditional on their returning to police work. The
Interior Ministry has been reviewing its programme of care for
surplus force at the Prime Minister's request again, he said.
The revision will include all complaints and objections by former
police officers to the Ministry's programme of last August and
remove possible irregularities, Lucin said, adding that the number
of irregularities discovered in the first several days of revision
was not significant.
The interior minister said that his ministry and the government
were faced with misinformation and lies about the protest, which
was why the protest had taken on a political and lost its social
dimension.
This, he said, particularly referred to "the pilgrimage of former
and current politicians and state officials to St. Mark's square
(where the protest is taking place), who do not wish to solve the
problem of former police but win political points".
The protesters make up only a small part of former police, with whom
the Interior Ministry has been in contact and has been trying to
find employment, he said.
So far, 1,200 police officers have been provided for, Lucin said,
adding that laid-off officers were not interested in finding
employment outside of the state sector. Only 17% of laid-off police
have applied for jobs outside the state sector, while the majority
requested severance pays for which the ministry has paid more than
58 million kuna so far, the minister said.
Lucin declined to comment on media statements about the protest,
saying he did not want the ministry to be considered as trying to
impute anything to the protesters. He also declined to comment on a
reported dispute between the police and the State Prosecutor's
Office.
(hina) rml