CROATIAN PRESIDENT HOLDS TALKS IN STRASBOURG WITH COE OFFICIALS

STRASBOURG, Sept 28 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic on Thursday in Strasbourg held talks with heads of the Council of Europe (CoE) on the situation in Croatia, its cooperation with immediate neighbours and the current situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "The discontinuation of the monitoring was received in Croatia as a great fact", Mesic told Croatian reporters and added, however, that events in Croatia were not changing because of the monitoring but because of the improvement of the overall situation. "Things we did, we didn't do them for the monitoring, but for ourselves", said Mesic after talks with CoE secretary general Walter Schwimmer and President of the CoE Parliamentary Assembly Russel Johnston. The Croatian President elaborated he primarily had in mind the improvement of the autonomous work of institutions, the protection of human rights, the protection of minorities, good- neighbourly relations and the establishment of compatibility with legislation of European Union member countries. Regarding the situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, CoE officials "expressed interest in my opinion, because I personally know the protagonists of the events", Mesic said. In Mesic's opinion, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will try to concentrate all power in Serbia, "where everyone is his string puppet", namely that Milosevic, in a way, gave Kosovo up, and maybe he will even encourage those who seek the independence of Montenegro. Mesic assessed that sanctions represented a great step in turning world's back to Milosevic's policy. "Sanctions had effect", Mesic said and added it was the first step Serbia made in its attempt to get rid of Milosevic's policy. The Croatian President said it was Croatia's wish to have a neighbour with whom it would be able to communicate and cooperate. (hina) it