PROFILE OF CROATIA'S NEW PRESIDENT MESIC

ZAGREB, Feb 8 - Stipe Mesic was born in the eastern Croatian town of Orahovica on 24 December 1934. He graduated at Law School of Zagreb University. Married with two children. He is a member of the Croatian People's Party (HNS). Mesic was a prominent student leader. After taking part in the 1971 Croatian Spring movement he was jailed for one year by the then Communist authorities in the notorious Stara Gradiska prison. In 1990 he was the secretary of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister of the first Government of the Republic of Croatia. Under a decision of the Sabor of Croatia, Mesic became a member of the then collective Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), and was the President of the SFRY Presidency until 5 December 1991 when he resigned from that duty. Until the second elections in Croatia since the country won independence he was the HDZ Executive Committee's chairman. He was elected to be the President of the Croatian national parliament (Sabor) in 1992. Being unsatisfied with the policy of the HDZ party, he left it in 1994 and set up the political party called Croatian Independent Democrats (HND). He was dismissed from the office of the Sabor President. In 1997 Mesic and a part of the HND membership joined the Croatian People's Party (HNS) and he became the HNS executive vice president. (hina) ms