DISCUSSION ON VOTE OF CONFIDENCE FOR PENIC POSTPONED AGAIN

ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Croatian National Parliament House of Representatives' Internal Affairs and National Security Committee on Thursday postponed a discussion on Interior Minister Ivan Penic's vote of confidence, due to the lack of quorum. The Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) requested a vote of confidence because of the Ministry's alleged illegal wire tapping of citizens' telephones. The request was signed by 21 MPs of the "Opposition Six". The discussion was postponed once before, last week, for the same reason. Not all members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) showed up for the session on Thursday (of whom there are enough to reach a quorum), and from the six main opposition parties, only two MPs showed up, in the capacity as sponsors of the item. MPs of the Opposition Six have not been attending committee sessions for two months, since they tendered their resignations to parliamentary posts, except their seats in Parliament, due to the dismissal of their request that a commission of inquiry be established to probe into the legality of the work of security services. Djurdja Adlesic of the HSLS told reporters the HDZ kept postponing the discussion on purpose, in order to buy time to destroy documents proving the veracity of the opposition's claims about the abuse of intelligence services. Ivan Milas (HDZ), chairman of the committee, said it was absurd that the opposition did not wish to discuss their own initiatives. He accused the opposition for the current situation. Penic, who arrived for the committee session on Thursday, was shown by Adlesic a document by the Interior Ministry's Service for the Protection of Constitutional Order, which contains a list of offices of several weeklies that had been tapped. In an informal conversation, Penic did not deny the authenticity of the document. He only stated the document showed to him could be a "copy of a copy". (hina) lml jn