CRO LOWER HOUSE: CONTROVERSY OVER FINANCING OF BOSNIAN CROATS

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament House of Representatives Friday's debate on a state audit report for 1998 resulted in a controversy between Vesna Pusic and Ljubo Cesic Rojs over the financing of the Croat Defence Council (HVO). According to Croatian People's Party's Pusic, the financing of the "para-army of the para-state of Herceg-Bosna from the Croatian state budget" should be investigated. Rojs, a representative of Bosnia's Croatian Democratic Union, told Pusic "not to spit on the Homeland War which claimed the lives of 7,341 HVO soldiers who incorporated their lives into the foundations of the Croatian state." Croatia did not finance Herceg-Bosna, the families of killed local soldiers did, Rojs asserted. "For a while, the HVO and the HV (Croatian Army) were Croat forces at a time when the Croatian state was attacked," he said. In view of "constant statements that millions of marks are being sent into Herceg-Bosna," Rojs endorsed Pusic's suggestion for an investigation into "what was being financed all this time." He said local veterans received one billion of a necessary three billion kuna. Pusic first suggested that in keeping with irregularities established by the state audit, an at least approximate percentage of illegally used budgetary funds should be made public, because, she added, it was indicative of corruption. It is especially imperative to establish the percentage of illegally used money to give Croatia's new authorities a basis for drafting an anti-corruption law, Pusic said. (hina) ha jn