CROATIAN INTERIOR MINISTER REFUTES CLAIMS ON PHONE TAPPING

ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Interior Ministry on Friday again refuted claims about illegal wire-tapping of citizens' telephones. "The Service for the Protection of Constitutional Order (SZUP) bases its work on the Constitution and Law on internal affairs, and I reiterate that there were no deviations from these principles," Interior Minister Ivan Penic said in reaction to an open letter forwarded to him by Member of Parliament Bozo Kovacevic. Citing a weekly which wrote about the wire-tapping of telephones of 78 citizens, including his, Kovacevic requested the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate the work of SZUP, and called on Penic to tender his resignation. The "Nacional" weekly ran a copy of a document on wire-tapping, claiming it was a document of the SZUP. "The document you refer to and which was published in the Nacional weekly is not a document of the SZUP, thus all assumptions based on the document are unfounded," Penic said. "Unfounded is also your claim that you were a subject of interest for the SZUP, there is no decision to wire-tap your telephone which you are requesting to be submitted to you," Penic said in his reply forwarded to Hina by the Interior Ministry's Communications Office. (hina) lml jn