OPPOSITION'S DC ADVOCATES INT. ARBITRATION FOR SLOVENE BORDER BAY

ZAGREB, Aug 17 (Hina) - The president of the opposition's Democratic Centre (DC), Mate Granic, said on Saturday he agreed with Prime Minister Ivica Racan's stand regarding the need of international arbitration to resolve the sea border issue with Slovenia in Piran Bay, but stressed that Croatia now had to start a strong lobbying campaign in that direction. #L# The DC urges the government to take resolute diplomatic action to settle the sea border issue with Slovenia through international arbitration, and to submit its position on the matter to parliament for support at once. According to Granic, by demanding arbitration Croatia will present itself as a democratic, civilised state. He is confident the Croatian diplomatic initiative will succeed and that the world will help Croatia have Slovenia agree to international arbitration. On the other hand, the DC maintains that Racan's stands on models of resolving fishing incidents in Piran Bay and the sea border issue are not sufficiently precise, concrete or resolute. The DC urges the government to abandon the initialled border deal with Slovenia, which Granic labelled as one of the government's biggest mistakes, and propose international arbitration. The DC in particular disagrees with Racan's position that demarcation in the middle of the bay should be adhered to, in line with the UN convention on maritime law, until a final solution is found. Furthermore, the DC believes that the Piran Bay incidents of the past fortnight, when Slovene fishing boats entered Croatian territorial waters, are a deliberate provocation on Slovenia's part to show that it monitors the entire bay, to avert arbitration and obstruct the settlement of other open issues with Croatia, like that of Ljubljanska Bank's debt to Croatian depositors. (hina) ha