MESIC:THERE IS NO CONFLICT BETWEEN ME AND OTHER CRO LEADERS

ZAGREB, March 31 (Hina) - There is no conflict between me, Premier and Sabor President, said Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic at a news conference on Friday. "The wires crossed, as some did not realise that the pre-election campaigning was over," Mesic said and assessed Thursday's talks with Premier Ivica Racan and Sabor President Zlatko Tomcic as positive. According to him, on Thursday they discussed all questions in principle. He added that both he and Racan were willing to settle all problems. A dust was raised about some problems regarding the protocol, while the protocol is not important for the functioning of institutions, Mesic explained. "For me the protocol is no problem, neither the army nor the red carpet. The most important for me is to carry out the job for which I was elected by the people," the President said. We must stick to promises we gave in the run-up to the elections, as those promises are a kind of the covenant with the Croatian people, he added. He recalled pre-election pledges to de-politicise the army and police and those regarding secret services. During the electioneering nobody said that the armed forces could be commanded by anyone else but the President of the Republic. It was also said that secret services should be controlled by the National Parliament whereas their heads should be appointed by the President of the Republic so that he can have an influence on them, Mesic said. "If those were messages then those are obligations which should be kept," he said adding that now one can hear completely different messages that mean other things. "If all ministries in the Government have been distributed so strictly according to election results, then there is no depolitisation of the army and police," Mesic maintained. Reporters asked Mesic several times to say who was against the President of the Republic being the supreme commander of the armed forces and appointing heads of intelligence services. He said the opponents were some professional services. They are working on acts that can become working material for the discussion in the Government and the Sabor. No institution, however, stands behind such working paper, Mesic said and recommended to some of those professional services to go one step back. Commenting on a statement of his advisor on internal affairs, Igor Dekanic that "the Government wants to annul the institution of the President of the Republic," Mesic said Dekanic had exaggerated. Mesic, however, added that there were some (outside the Government) who would like to cancel the President of the Republic not as an institution but to annul his powers so that the head of the state become just decoration and a person for the protocol. He added all should be changed what is in conflict with the essence of a parliamentary system. He announced that a commission, he set up for elaboration of a proposal for the Constitution's amendments, would soon finish its work and hold a meeting with a government commission to discuss both proposals. The incumbent Croatian President assessed first six weeks since he took office as positive and accentuated that to settle economic problems was at the moment of great importance for Croatia. (hina) jn ms