OSIJEK: DISABLED WAR VETERANS PREVENT DISTRIBUTION OF LOCAL PAPER

OSIJEK, Sept 7 (Hina) - Around 100 members of the Osijek-Baranja County War Veterans Association (HVIDR) on Friday night prevented the distribution of Saturday's issue of a local paper, dissatisfied with the publishing of a list with the names of 3,320 disabled war veterans from the county and data on their disability. #L# The disabled war veterans gathered in front of the paper's printing house to prevent what they described as manipulation with their names and disability data. There was no agreement after several hours of negotiating which involved the paper's owners Tihomir Jelavic and Andjelko Balikic, editor-in-chief Dario Topic, town and county disabled war veterans, Osijek Mayor Zlatko Kramaric, and the president of the county disabled war veterans association, Ivan Vekic. The president of the national HVIDR association, Damir Varazdinac, said that the publishing of war veterans' names and data on their disability was "extremely intolerant and unfair towards disabled war veterans", and added that the association did not oppose the publishing of the names of false disabled war veterans. The list is not authentic "because it includes the names of disabled war veterans who committed suicide or died", he said. Varazdinec believed the list was published to cushion the latest increase in prices. Publishing the names of disabled war veterans is aimed "at stirring opposition towards disabled war veterans so that the current authorities could implement their measures", he said. The paper's management and editorial board said at a press conference on Saturday that the behaviour of disabled war veterans was an obvious violation of media rights and an act of taking the law into one's own hands. They also claimed the police had known about the veterans' plans but had done nothing to prevent them. Editor Topic said that last night's incident was a "dangerous precedent in the Croatian journalism" and that the association of disabled war veterans should have asked the State Prosecution for opinion if it believed that the list, which had been announced in the previous issue, was contrary to legal provisions. "We wanted to enable the public to discuss the issue of disabled war veterans and gain insight into how budget funds are spent," Topic said, adding that a local paper from Zadar in April this year ran a list of disabled war veterans without problems. Manager Andjelko Balikic said the paper's attorneys would decide about a possible response next week. The disputable issue will be distributed to subscribers as soon as access to the printing house is possible, he said. The paper has also stated that it will inform Prime Minister Ivica Racan and Interior Minister Sime Lucin about the incident. The Croatian Helsinki Committee, the OSCE Mission, Osijek County authorities, and the Croatian Journalists' Association supported the paper. The president of the Osijek City disabled war veterans association, Miljenko Kolobaric, told Hina he hoped the dispute would be settled and announced a press conference for Monday. (hina) rml