CROATIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS REPORT ON FIRES

ZAGREB, Oct 26 (Hina) - Croatian National Parliament's House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously adopted a report on the situation of fire protection in the first eight months of this year, and committed the government to draw up a fire protection programme for 2001 - 2004, as well as measures for fire protection for the next summer season. During the afternoon discussion, many MPs advocated a more efficient model of fire protection. The biggest problem, they estimated, was the fact that the fire protection organisation had last year been transferred to units of local self-government, without having secured resources. Fire-fighting equipment is thus outdated, and small municipalities are not even capable of organising a fire-fighting unit, Vedran Lendic said on behalf of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) party bench. Former interior minister Ivan Penic (Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ) said the issue should not be one of politics and searching for culprits, but rather one of searching for ways to improve protection against fire. He pointed out the fact that the causes for more than a thousand fires could not be found, and asked what was behind this, especially because white phosphorus had been found along roads. As this chemical is not produced in any domestic factory, suspicions of terrorist actions are possible, he said. (hina) lml jn