SLOVENE OPPOSITION LEADER ON LJUBLJANSKA BANK'S DEBT

LJUBLJANA, Sept 12 (Hina) - The head of the Slovenian opposition and former defence minister Janez Jansa on Thursday expressed his opposition to the possibility that the problem of debts by the Ljubljana Bank to Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia be resolved on a bilateral level as was suggested by Slovenia's President Milan Kucan during his recent visit to Sarajevo and as mentioned in his letter to Slovene Premier Janez Drnovsek. #L# These theories are being pushed in an attempt to portray them as Slovenia's official position which would have horrific financial consequences and would affect the pocket of Slovenian taxpayers Jansa said at a press conference. He added that statements by Kucan were sometimes repeated by other politicians closely associated with the president. According to the president of the Slovenian Social Democrats (SDS), the strongest opposition in the Parliament, the motive behind such "unpatriotic" remarks should be looked for back to 1988 when Ljubljana Bank tied the administration of its Croatian and Sarajevo branches to Ljubljana although foreign currency was being filtered to Belgrade. Under the wing of (the then Communist) party politics that ruled at the time, decisions were made that were supposed to prevent the disintegration of Yugoslavia at a time when this was already happening and Slovenians were laden with a heavy burden. Luckily, international financial institutions realised that Yugoslavia did not have a chance and that Slovenia should not bear any fiscal consequences, Jansa said. If it proves necessary to pay back clients of the Ljubljana Bank in the former Yugoslav states, every Slovenian taxpayer would be obliged to pay about 900 euros, Jansa warned. (hina) sp ms