DEFENCE MINISTRY ISSUES STATEMENT ON PREVLAKA

ZAGREB, Aug 19 (Hina) - Croatia's Defence Ministry issued a statement on Saturday reacting to a statement the Croatian Democratic Union party released yesterday assessing as "unacceptable and irresponsible" Defence Minister Jozo Rados' claim that it was "possible the Prevlaka region will have special status." Prevlaka is Croatia's southern-most tip bordering with the Republic of Montenegro to which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has territorial aspirations. A United Nations mission of observers is deployed on the peninsula. The Ministry's Public Relations Department said today "the Defence Ministry, as a part of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, fully shares the Government's unchanged position that Prevlaka is an exclusively security, and in no way a territorial issue." "Defence Minister Jozo Rados' statement on special status concerns exclusively the mode of using (local) agricultural land, in view of unresolved property-rights relations in this border area of the Republic of Croatia, as well as in view of the presence of UN forces on Prevlaka and incomplete negotiations on the demilitarisation of the narrow border belt on both sides," says the statement. "Defence Minister Rados assesses as unnecessary the concern over the fate of Prevlaka on the part of officials of the former authorities, who seem to forget what state they left Prevlaka in," the statement adds. The Public Relations Department says the statement was issued to avoid another unnecessary political case from erupting. (hina) ha