PETRINJA DEPUTY MAYOR TO BE CHARGED WITH DISCRIMINATION

ZAGREB, Sept 5 (Hina) - Police will press charges against the deputy mayor of Petrinja tomorrow for spreading racial and other forms of discrimination, the spokesman for the Sisak-Moslavina County police, Petar Masic, said on Wednesday. Deputy mayor Gordana Dumbovic's name started being mentioned in public after Public Works, Reconstruction and Construction Minister Radimir Cacic, during a visit to the Petrinja town authorities, asked her to leave a room. He said Dumbovic had been spreading ethnic and national hatred on a local radio station during a pre-electoral campaign. Cacic later played an audio recording to reporters on which Dumbovic, a member of the opposition's Party of Rights (HSP), says "that member of the Serb minority who returned is neither man nor animal as animals don't deserve such comparisons," and that "not one Serbian Gypsy will have peace in Petrinja." The HSP countered by saying the recording had been tampered with. Unofficial sources close to the police, however, have said the recording is a crucial piece of evidence based on which the charges have been pressed. (hina) ha sb