PROPOSALS FOR REPLACING RETIRED GENERALS THIS WEEK - DEFENCE MIN.

ZAGREB, Oct 10 (Hina) - The defence ministry will this week try to formulate proposals for the appointments of armed forces generals to the positions held by seven recently retired ones, and forward them to the office of the president of the republic, Minister Jozo Rados said on Monday. "I ordered consultations on the matter last week. We didn't hurry too much and this week we shall try to formulate the proposals and forward them to the (president's office)," he told reporters at Zagreb's airport upon returning from a trip to Greece and Macedonia when asked who would replace the retired generals, and when. "Croatia's armed forces have more generals than will be envisaged in the new organisation, and this will certainly be a reason to retire some, but of course, this will not be part of the context in which those retirements were carried out," said Rados. Croatian President Stipe Mesic retired the seven generals on Sept. 29. They were among the 12 signatories of an open letter which called for putting an end to the alleged criminalisation of the Homeland Defence War, Croatia's early 1990s war of independence from the former Yugoslav federation. (hina) ha