MESIC: RADOS DOESN'T ASK FOR STIPETIC'S REPLACEMENT IN HIS LETTER

ZAGREB, Oct 8 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic has said that Defence Minister Jozo Rados did not ask for the replacement of the army's headquarters chief-of-staff, General Petar Stipetic, in his letter he forwarded to the head of state and the supreme commander. "Upon my return from Bulgaria I found Minister Rados's letter in which he did not request General Stipetic's replacement. He (Rados) expressed some of his remarks which I am going to carefully explore and I shall make a decision when I establish facts," Mesic was quoted by the Monday press as saying. Commenting on the stand of the First Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic who maintains that Mesic should relieve Stipetic of duty owing to his political speeches just like he replaced a group of generals after they made political remarks in the public last year, Mesic said he believed that Granic probably suggested something like that from a good motive. "I, however, work in line with the Croatian law and Constitution and I shall make the decision only within my authorities. I do not suggest to the government what it should do, either," Mesic said on Sunday during a break of a meeting of Croatian and Serbian historians in Zagreb, when he was asked by reporters to comment the conflict between Gen. Stipetic and Minister Rados. (hina) ms