MESIC SAYS HE CAN'T COMMENT ON KORDIC-CERKEZ SITUATION

VIROVITICA, Dec 15 (Hina) - "I never comment on non-final verdicts," President Stipe Mesic said on Friday when asked to comment on today's request by the Hague war crimes tribunal's prosecution for life sentences for Bosnian Croats Dario Kordic and Mario Cerkez. He reminded another Bosnian Croat, Tihomir Blaskic, had been sentenced to 45 years in prison by the Hague tribunal, and that documents were subsequently found which he was confident would lead to an entirely different verdict. Mesic was visiting the north-eastern town of Virovitica, where he stopped at the plants of the Tvin wood-processing industry and the Virovitica sugar factory. He also met numerous residents at the Dora coffee and pastry shop. Reporters were also interested in a comment of a statement a senior official of the strongest opposition party made in Glas Slavonije daily. HDZ's Vladimir Seks was quoted as saying that "President Mesic is obsessed with the idea to give The Hague everything it does and doesn't want," that he was "doing it regardless of all laws, even the law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal," and that this was a way "to cure his frustrations." Mesic said he had said many times that he advocated the individualisation of guilt. "I'm not sure Seks could understand what this means. I can't comment on the statement because I haven't read it and I don't know what state Seks was in when he made it." (hina) ha