'NACIONAL' DIRECTOR DENIES SERBIAN PREMIER'S ACCUSATIONS

BELGRADE, June 12 (Hina) - Ivo Pukanic, the director of a Croatian weekly 'Nacional', was quoted by a Belgrade news agency 'Beta' as saying that he firmly stands behind everything which his paper has published about the tobacco mafia, and he refuted accusations that this was an orchastreted campaign. "Activities of Serbian and Montenegrin tobacco mafia are very firmly tied with similar organisations in Croatia," Pukanic said ON Tuesday asserting that Croatia's police "are taking steps to clamp down on the tobacco mafia." He claimed that most data published by Nacional proved to be true and credible. The Croatian journalist refuted Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic's accusations that this was an orchestrated campaign launched by the Zagreb gutter press. "Only facts are behind Nacional," Pukanic stressed. The weekly has published a series of articles on 'the Balkan Tobacco Mafia' claiming that at the helm of this organisation is Stanko Subotic alias Cane, directly linked with the incumbent Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic and Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic. On Monday during a parliamentary debate on a quite another topic, Djindjic felt the need to deny Nacional's articles. He described the paper as the gutter press and asked MPs to pose the question why Zagreb was now so concerned about Serbia's economy and entire situation. Commenting on the recent announcement that a parliamentary commission would be set up in Montenegro to check Nacional's allegations, Pukanic predicted that "it will be fatal for President Djukanovic, provided that the commission does it job fairly." (hina) sb ms