WHEN DID FORMER SFRY BREAK UP?

LJUBLJANA, May 31 (Hina) - Countries-successors to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) have still not reached a consensus on the date when the former federation fell apart. Miran Mejak, Slovenia's negotiator for succession, dismisses Yugoslavia's insistence that April 1992, when the Serbian- Montenegrin federation was set up under the name of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, be taken as the day the former federation broke up. Thursday's issue of the Ljubljana-based daily "Delo" says Belgrade believes the date of the break up may be important for the issue of war reparations. "Belgrade has been insisting for a decade that some republics seceded illegally from the common state, but UN documents or the decision of the Badinter Commission offer no ground for such claims," reads the daily. "Dividing several houses and the rest of currency reserves is much less important than the issue of huge war reparations on the territory of former Yugoslavia and the key issue of who will pay them," says the paper. "Delo" claims the date of the disintegration of the former state is important for war reparations. "Slovenia has always maintained that that date should be June 25 1991, but the international community did not recognise this. Foreign mediators who participated in the establishment of the date of death of Yugoslavia could not decide between September 1991, when a three-month moratorium on the decision on Slovenia's independence expired, and January 15, 1992, when Slovenia and Croatia were recognised by EU member-countries. Mejak is therefore right when he says that Serbian negotiators are using April 1992 mostly for internal purposes," says the paper. (hina) sb rml