HVO DENIES ACCUSATIONS, PROTESTS OVER PUSIC STATEMENT

MOSTAR, Feb 28 (Hina) - The first Croat guard corps of the Army of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina on Monday issued a statement refuting claims in the Bosnian Muslim and Croat media on the participation of Croat Defence Council (HVO) officers in privatisation embezzlement. The statement denies the involvement of HVO officers in "the privatisation with a criminal background" of Eronet-Hercegovina- Holding and the alleged taking over of public company HPT Mostar, especially the involvement of first guard corps commander Zlatan Mijo Jelic. The corps public relations office claims Jelic has been attending the Ban Josip Jelacic High War School in Zagreb for several months now. Jelic, the statement points out, "is not a tycoon or participant in suspicious transactions in privatisation, as some media articles state," nor a shareholder in any company, and will not be HPT Mostar's director general. The statement also condemns Croatian People's Party MP Vesna Pusic's statement at a recent Croatian parliament session, in which she proclaimed the HVO a paramilitary unit. According to the statement, Pusic consciously disregarded the fact that "the Washington and Dayton agreements, therefore the entire international community, gave HVO full legality and legitimacy as a military force which defended Bosnia-Herzegovina." (hina) ha