YU EMBASSY REACTS TO CRO JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION STATEMENT

ZAGREB, March 29 (Hina) - The Yugoslav Embassy in Zagreb on Wednesday issued a statement in connection with the non-issuing of a visa to the vice president of the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND), refuting some allegations from a HND statement on the matter. The HND on Tuesday voiced dissatisfaction with the Yugoslav Embassy's attitude towards HND vice president Drago Pilsel, who was to attend in Belgrade an April 3 discussion on the role of the media in last decade's war. The embassy in today's statement said an embassy worker notified Pilsel that it takes a month to be granted a visa in regular procedure, and that Pilsel, unhappy with the explanation, left without filling out the visa request form. "In view of objectively informing the public, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Zagreb points out that no dialogue was conducted with Mr D. Pilsel as Hina reported. The allegations in the mentioned HND statement are on Mister Pilsel's conscience, especially the mentioning of the president of the Republic of Croatia and journalist Petar Lukovic," the embassy said in the statement. According to HND's statement, the embassy staff told Pilsel that, since he was a journalist, his visa application had to be checked at a "certain place", and that "there is no possibility that he be granted a visa in less than 30 days," even if the Croatian president were to mediate. The statement further says Pilsel was told he subjected to a "reciprocity policy" in the wake of the Croatian Embassy's recent failure to grant Lukovic, Croatian satirical weekly "Feral Tribune's" Belgrade correspondent, a visa to make a guest appearance in Split, home of the weekly. The Yugoslav Embassy points out it helped a significant number of Croatian journalists who applied for visas to visit Yugoslavia, and that the procedure did not last more than one week. "The same procedure would have been taken with Mister Pilsel," the embassy concluded. (hina) ha jn