STIPETIC -- INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE DID NOT REQUEST MY RESIGNATION

ZAGREB, Nov 17 (Hina) - Croatian Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Petar Stipetic said Friday after a session of the Parliament's Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security he had not been asked to resign. The Committee convened in the wake of Thursday's incident in military barracks in Ogulin where five soldiers were heavily wounded and seventeen others suffered light injuries in an explosion of a live grenade in a training area. "The main goal of the investigation has not been reached yet, and that is how regular soldiers came into contact with combat ammunition," Stipetic said. Asked whether he suspected a diversion, Stipetic said "at this time ... I would not exclude any possibility". He added he expected "all questions to be resolved very soon", and "competent state institutions will very quickly be able to submit a complete report". According to Stipetic, commissions of inquiry had completed their part of the investigation in the sphere of command line responsibility. Five officers and non-commissioner officers, in direct line of command, have been suspended. "I told the Committee all structures from the top downwards were responsible, and the degree of responsibility will be established when the investigation in completed," Stipetic stressed. He also said the Committee had not requested his resignation. "In the command system in the Croatian Armed Forces such an institute does not exist. The Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff is appointed and dismissed from office. Should the Commander-in-Chief and competent bodies of authority assess I have been incompetent, they have the right to dismiss me from office," Stipetic asserted. He said he had submitted to the President and Commander-in-Chief, Stipe Mesic, the first preliminary report on the incident, but had not yet had the opportunity to discuss the issue with him. President Mesic will get a complete report when the investigation ends, General Stipetic said. He stressed drafted soldiers should not fear about their safety because of the event in the barracks in Ogulin. "I cannot say there are no problems, we are faced with a complicated situation, but the lives and health of soldiers are not in danger, nor is the state's security which the army is prepared to protect at any time," he added. Stories in some media that he had accused officers of the Homeland Defence War for the incident in Ogulin are not true, Stipetic said. "I said what was questionable is the expertise of the personnel training the army," he stressed. (hina) lml