VUKOVAR HDZ, SDP, DC PARTIES: THERE WERE NO CONCRETE AGREEMENTS ON DIVISION OF AUTHORITY

VUKOVAR, June 16 (Hina) - The Serb Democratic Independent Party (SDSS) on Friday issued a statement explaining the reason why its eight deputies in the Vukovar Town Council walked out of today's constituent session of the Town Council. Stating that "the exclusion of representatives of the Serb community from the town's executive authorities is irresponsible and legally unsustainable", the party recalls that in the May 20 local vote it was given the mandate to represent citizens of Serb nationality. The party claims that the current division of authority is contrary "to the agreement of June 14 which envisaged appropriate representation of almost all political parties" in the town council. The president of the SDSS branch in Vukovar, Branko Sekuljica, told Hina the June 14 agreement "envisaged division of authority between representatives of the SDSS, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the Democratic Centre (DC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP)." Under this agreement, the town's mayor was to be elected by the HDZ, the chairman of the Town Council by the DC, and deputy mayors by the SDP and the SDSS. Sekuljica claims the agreement went down the drain only several days an agreement on the division of authority was signed by the HDZ, HSP (Croatian Party of Rights) and the DC. The president of the Vukovar HDZ branch, Petar Mlinaric, denied the existence of any agreement between the parties. He told Hina the HDZ had contacted both the SDSS and the other two parties but no concrete agreements had been reached. The president of the Vukovar DC branch, Dragutin Guzovski, confirmed the talks had taken place but there had been no concrete agreements. The president of the SDP branch, Petar Bosnjakovic, gave a similar statement. (hina) rml