PASALIC DENIES THAT HDZ OWNS 'VECERNJI LIST' DAILY

ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - A Croatian Parliament vice-president, Ivic Pasalic, on Tuesday dismissed claims published by "Nacional" weekly that the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is the actual owner of "Vecernji list" daily and that Pasalic and the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman had discussed the sale of "Vecernji List." "Nacional" claims that the archive of the President's Office contains the transcript of a conversation between Pasalic and the late President Tudjman which took place on December 27, 1997, and which proves that the HDZ is the daily's owner. The weekly claims the transcript was recapitulated to a Nacional reporter by a person very close to the President's Office. "I deny with full responsibility that there was a conversation on the sale of Vecernji List between me and President Franjo Tudjman. The conversation Nacional has published is a fabrication and does not exist," Pasalic said in a statement today. Pasalic further says that "it is obvious that the new authority, exactly now that the owners of Vecernji List have revealed their identity, is not satisfied because the owners are distinguished businessmen." "That is why a secret conversation between the President and me has been made up." "The new authorities, in order to conceal their inability to solve the vital problems of Croatian citizens and the state, are diverting the attention of the public by generating scandals, in an attempt to vilify numerous officials of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the entire party," Pasalic says. Pasalic believes it is particularly interesting that the "findings" have been published after a parliamentary debate and adoption of a declaration on Croatia's cooperation with the Hague- based war crimes tribunal. "Due to the resentment of soldiers and the majority of Croatian citizens, the new authority wants to punish those who have strongly opposed the declaration," Pasalic believes. Stating that Nacional has published that President Stipe Mesic had requested that he be immediately stripped of his parliamentary immunity, Pasalic wonders "what gives Stipe Mesic the right to request that I be stripped of parliamentary immunity," as well as about the nature of criminal acts due to which he should be stripped of his immunity. President Mesic today did not want to comment on the claims published in Nacional. (hina) jn rml