SLOVENIA'S INTERIOR MINISTER COMMENTS ON PIRAN BAY

LJUBLJANA/KOPAR, Aug 23 (Hina) - Slovenia's Interior Minister Rado Bohinc, accompanied by police chief Marko Pogorevc, on Friday visited Kopar to check how Slovene police were implementing control measures in Piran Bay. He stressed that Slovene police were strictly following instructions issued by the Ministry with regard to their activities in the bay area. #L# "Just as it had done in the former state, Slovene police have been controlling the entire area of Piran Bay since the country gained independence," Bohinc said following a meeting at the Kopar police department, Slovenia's STA news agency reported. Bohinc said that any Croatian police patrol boat entering the bay to 0.15 nautical miles from the Savudrija coast represented an incident for Slovene police. He added that Croatian police considered the middle of the bay as the area of incident. Bohinc said that despite the undefined area of police control on the sea he believed that incidents should be avoided and the Croatian police should act accordingly. Commenting on his last meeting with Croatia's Interior Minister Sime Lucin in Rogaska Slatina, Bohinc said they had agreed that the police of both countries should avoid incidents, adding that Slovenia was adhering to this. Police chief Marko Pogorevc stated that the basis for police action on the land border was the constitutional charter which noted that police activities remained as they were prior to June 25, 1991. That means, he explained, that on that date Slovenia controlled Piran Bay, but was not in charge of the territory south of the Dragonja. An explanation by the Slovene news agency notes that the Slovene police are not in charge of Mlini either. Mlini, a municipality in Istria, is home to Jozko Joras, a Slovene citizen who was arrested recently by the Croatian police. Joras does not recognise Croatia's jurisdiction over the region and considers himself a "fighter for the southern Slovene border". (hina) sp rml sb