UPPER HOUSE PRESIDENT AWARDS DOCTORS, MEDICAL WORKERS

ZAGREB, Jan 31 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian National Sabor's House of Counties, Katica Ivanisevic, presented decorations to doctors and medical workers on Monday. The decision on awarding the Order of Ban Jelacic to three persons for special military merits in the establishment, organisation and command of the Armed Forces and the Order of Croatian Clover to another 99 persons for their contribution in defending Croatia's sovereignty was made by Croatian Sabor President and Acting Head of State Vlatko Pavletic. Ivanisevic said the awards were a symbol of what doctors and medical workers had done in 1990 and 1991. You put your knowledge and profession at the service of man and defence of the homeland and we thank you for that, she said. A former Health Minister Zeljko Reiner thanked for the decorations on behalf of the awarded. Doctors and medical workers were among those who helped defend the Croatian state, he said. Reiner said he understood the awards as an acknowledgement also to those colleagues who were not awarded and who had joined in the defence of the country in the first days of the Serbian aggression. (hina) rml