HIP BRANCH FILES CONSTITUTIONAL COMPLAINT AGAINST PRIME MINISTER

PULA, Aug 29 (Hina) - The Croatian True Revival (HIP) party's Istria County branch has lodged a constitutional complaint against Prime Minister Ivica Racan over the "glaring and, in the history of modern states, inappropriate cession of state territory to another state," branch president Ninoslav Mogorovic said on Thursday. #L# Talking to reporters in Pula, he maintained the border deal Croatia had initialled with Slovenia was not legally binding, but that now Racan could not simply withdraw it without damaging consequences for Croatia. Only the Constitutional Court can do it, Mogorovic stated, demanding that Racan and the Istria County prefect both resign, the latter because the county's authorities had supported the border deal. The Istrian HIP branch also demands that the government propose to parliament the passing of a constitutional law on the confiscation of Slovene property in Croatia in lieu of compensation for the "robbed Ljubljanska Bank depositors," said Mogorovic. The first stage of the confiscation would include the former holiday establishments of Slovene companies and unions, which have some 35,000 beds along the entire Croatian coast, said Mogorovic. The HIP's Istrian branch further demands that the government sue Slovenia at international courts over violations of international conventions, particularly in the case of the robbed Ljubljanska Bank depositors at the European Court of Human Rights, Mogorovic said. (hina) ha sb