UNION OPPOSES MMF AND WORLD BANK POLICY

ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - I have warned Prime Minister Ivica Racan that the Croatian government ought not to implement the policy of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which are globally infamous, particularly in Southeast Europe, Secretary- General of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Bill Jordan, said in Zagreb Thursday. At the end of his two-day visit to Croatia at the invitation of the Alliance of Independent Croatian Unions (SSSH), Jordan said inter- union cooperation strengthened peace and security in the country. He commended the SSSH for advocating workers' rights, and an expression of the commendation, he said, is the election of SSSH president Davor Juric as vice-president of the ICFTU for Central and Southeast Europe. Accompanying the ICFTU delegation on their visit to Croatia are also the president of united branch unions "Nezavisnost" from Serbia, Branislav Canak, and president of the Montenegrin Alliance of Independent Unions, Danilo Popovic, with whom Juric signed a Statement on the cooperation of the union centres and branch unions of the three countries. The signatories of the statement agreed that union cooperation was a necessity if the countries which were once at war wished to become integrated into the EU, and their unions participate in the global unionist movement. Popovic recalled that he apologised "for what a part of Montenegrin citizens did to Croatia in the war" in Dubrovnik in 1999. Canak said union cooperation must show the importance of unions which have been disregarded in the past in the region, Canak said. (hina) lml