ZAGREB, July 28 (Hina) - An eastern Croatian county delegation was returned to Croatia on Sunday evening after the Yugoslav army apprehended them on the Danube and took them into custody in Yugoslavia earlier today. Croatia's Prime
Minister-designate Ivica Racan vehemently protested against the incident.
ZAGREB, July 28 (Hina) - An eastern Croatian county delegation was
returned to Croatia on Sunday evening after the Yugoslav army
apprehended them on the Danube and took them into custody in
Yugoslavia earlier today. Croatia's Prime Minister-designate
Ivica Racan vehemently protested against the incident. #L#
Racan, who later in the afternoon flew by helicopter to Ilok,
eastern-most Croatia, with parliament president Zlatko Tomcic, had
demanded the immediate release of the delegation headed by Vukovar-
Srijem County prefect Nikola Safer.
Racan said he expected at least an apology from the Serbian side. He
announced he would meet representatives of Serbia and Yugoslavia,
probably on a bridge across the Danube towards Backa Palanka,
Yugoslavia. He said he expected to meet Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Goran Svilanovic there.
Racan said he spoke to Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and
Svilanovic in the afternoon. He said an apology was made but added
that it was not enough and that he wanted to hear it publicly.
"We shall have to get a very precise explanation as to what
happened," said Racan.
The incident occurred at 02.40 pm, when the Yugoslav army
intercepted a boat transporting the local Croatian delegation
which was to meet representatives of Backa Palanka at a river islet
on the Danube.
While intercepting the Croatian boat, which was transporting
members of the delegation's families as well, the Yugoslav border
police fired shots towards the boat which at the time was between
Sarengrad, Croatia, and the islet.
The Croatian border police, upon hearing the shots, arrived aboard
a patrol boat but withdrew after the Yugoslav police shot towards
them as well, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Zinka Bardic said.
She recalled that former Croatian and Yugoslav Presidents Franjo
Tudjman and Slobodan Milosevic had signed an agreement under which
the border between the two countries ran along the middle of the
Danube.
The islet near which the incident occurred is 800 m off the Yugoslav
bank of the river and is under Yugoslav supervision.
Bardic added the Yugoslav border was guarded by the army.
(hina) ha