SENIOR OFFICIALS OF CROATIA'S WAR-TIME GOVT HOLD MEETING

ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Hina) - Members of Croatia's former war-time government, which existed between August 1991 and August 1992, will hold a meeting late this week or at the beginning of next week, senior members of the former government - the then premier Franjo Greguric and vice premiers Mate Granic and Zdravko Tomac agreed at a meeting on Monday. Greguric, Tomac and Granic met at the offices of the Democratic Centre party in Zagreb. The meeting, Granic told Hina, was part of preparations for a meeting of all members of the Government of Democratic Unity, which would establish stands regarding the current situation in the country and Croatia's international position. As regards Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal, which, according to some media, has prompted these meetings, the former senior government officials said they supported the stands of the incumbent government regarding the cooperation with the Hague tribunal. They believe that perpetrators of possible war crimes should be punished but that the criminalisation of the entire Homeland Defence War and its legal military and police operations Flash and Storm must not be allowed. The three officials said they would say more about their stand concerning Croatia's cooperation with The Hague once the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, had visited Zagreb and once more was known about a letter the ICTY had allegedly sent the Croatian government. The letter reportedly mentions, among else, the names of as many as some 100 former state officials and requests the hand-over of transcripts of specific conversations with specific officials for specific dates. Members of the war-time government have been holding occasional meetings for three months now. (hina) rml