VOJVODINA ASSEMBLY SPEAKER HORRIFIED BY SLJIVANCANIN'S APPEARANCE

BELGRADE, Aug 30 (Hina) - Speaker of the Vojvodina parliament and one of the leaders of the Yugoslav ruling coalition DOS, Nenad Canak, today voiced his "feeling horrified" at last night's appearance of the Yugoslav army's active lieutenant colonel, Veselin Sljivancanin, in Vojvodina. Sljivancanin is indicted by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal for the killing of 262 Croatian civilians taken from Vukovar's hospital in November of 1991. At a news conference in Novi Sad, Canak accused Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica for being the culprit for the unchanged situation in the Yugoslav Army, and thus responsible for the fact that Sljivancanin continues to be an active officer in the army. Sljivancanin attended a promotion of a book entitled ""This is My Land" in the SUBNOR (partisan movement veterans) building in Vojvodina. The book is his own war diary from his days in Vukovar. In front of about 300 people, Sljivancanin again, ten years after, received resounding applause for his "work" which he proclaims was done in the name of the Serb cause. The book was published by the Military Publishing and Belgrade's daily "Glas javnosti". It was written by Rada Milcanovic. "If the situation in the Yugoslav Army is not cleared from the top down, that is, from the army chief-of-staff, General Pavkovic, we cannot expect Sljivancanin not to remain intact," Canak said. Sljivancanin told reporters at the promotion of the book he "did not feel guilty", and "had no intention of turning himself in to the Hague tribunal", nor did he believe the new government in Yugoslavia and Serbia could extradite him as they did former president Slobodan Milosevic. He was wearing plain clothes and the conference was secured by several police officers. (hina) lml sb