ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Interior Minister Sime Lucin on Wednesday said in the parliament that according to information available to police, what was considered as a possible assassination attempt on President Stjepan Mesic, when two
men crossed the Slovene-Austrian border with arms in their car, was actually arms smuggling.
ZAGREB, Sept 18 (Hina) - Interior Minister Sime Lucin on Wednesday
said in the parliament that according to information available to
police, what was considered as a possible assassination attempt on
President Stjepan Mesic, when two men crossed the Slovene-Austrian
border with arms in their car, was actually arms smuggling. #L#
The police are continuing with an investigation in the entire case,
Lucin said during question time in Sabor when a representative of
the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), Damir Kajin, asked him how
founded was information about planned assassination plots against
the Croatian President during his trips to Austria and Romania.
Premier Ivica Racan said the government had "no definite
information about plans for assassination attempts on Mesic."
The government knew about data on threats in Romania and some plans
for a "commotion" where ethnic Croats live and Mesic should have
travelled to, Racan said.
MP Kajin recalled the unsolved mining of a monument at the Zagreb
cemetery of Mirogoj and an explosion in front of the Zagreb City
Hall. He said the editor of "Nacional" weekly, Ivo Pukanic,
received death threats and was allegedly guarded by police.
Racan responded that, according to government estimates, there was
an increasing number of threats levelled at public figures and
state officials. The threats run parallel with intensified
disagreement and inflammatory speeches on the Croatian political
scene, he asserted.
Minister Lucin said that for some time, public figures and some MPs
had been exposed to threats, which urged the police to take some
security measures.
Following the responses given by the premier and the minister, MP
Kajin expressed his dissatisfaction with the authorities'
activities in this sense.
(hina) ms sb