JOINT COUNCIL OF MUNICIPALITIES SUGGESTS CANDIDATE FOR CRO DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER

VUKOVAR, Jan 19 (Hina) - An economist from Vukovar, Mirko Pupovac, is a candidate of the Serb ethnic community in the Croatian Danube River Region for the Croatian Deputy Interior Minister. The majority of the Joint Council of (Serb-dominated) Municipalities (ZVO) members voted for Pupovac at a meeting held in Vukovar on Tuesday. ZVO president Milos Vojnovic told reporters that while selecting candidates for the Croatian Deputy Interior Minister, the ZVO was considering the high criteria the position demanded. Vojnovic said that according to Article 7 of the Letter of Intent, which the Croatian Government forwarded to the United Nations Security Council in early 1997 (on the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region), "in the process of peaceful reintegration, Serbs from the area of the former United Nations Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) are guaranteed to a position of Croatian deputy interior minister." Vojnovic gave as an example Article 7 of the Government's confirmation of the ZVO's establishment, according to which "the ZVO is authorised to suggest candidates for deputy minister, even the minister of interior affairs." Former Croatian Deputy Interior Minister from the Serb community in the Croatian Danube River Region was Dragan Djukic, who committed suicide at the end of 1998. The new Serb candidate Mirko Pupovac is currently a councillor at the Vukovar City Council. (hina) it/lml