CROATIAN, YUGOSLAV COMMISSIONS FOR BORDERS DISCUSS PREVLAKA

BELGRADE, March 9 (Hina) - Croatian and Yugoslav Government commissions for borders held their fourth meeting on the Prevlaka peninsula in Belgrade on Tuesday. The Croatian delegation was led by Hrvoje Kacic, head of the Government Office for Borders, while the Yugoslav side was headed by Rodoljub Etinski, chief legal advisor to the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry. The Croatian delegation remained by their stand that Prevlaka is an integral part of Croatia and could be discussed only as a security issue, while Yugoslav officials insisted on the Prevlaka issue being a territorial dispute. Speaking at a news conference for Croatian reporters, Kacic expressed regret that the talks had not been attended by Montenegrin representatives. The Croatian delegation, which included eight experts for borders, backed their claims with documentation based on sources from the times of the Dubrovnik Republic, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the monarchist and communist Yugoslavia, and Venetian sources. The documentation was supported by maps made in Belgrade and Titograd (today Podgorica) in 1980, which also prove there should be no territorial dispute regarding Prevlaka, Kacic said. He recalled that problems started after the Montenegrin Assembly in 1991 adopted a decision according to which the existing administrative borders on Prevlaka should be changed to suit the strategic needs of Montenegro. The then President of Montenegro, Momir Bulatovic, was entrusted with presenting the problem at an international conference on the former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 1991, while the then Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic had to present the case to the Badinter commission. The Badinter commission decided that borders between the former Yugoslav republics are protected by international law, Kacic recounted recalling the Vance plan, which, along with the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army from Croatia, also envisaged the arrival of monitors on Prevlaka. The Yugoslav side was today also presented with a document signed in the summer of 1992 by the then Yugoslav Premier Milan Panic and the Yugoslav Army Chief-of-Staff Zivota Panic, as well as with a document signed by Generals Janko Bobetko and Pavle Strugar. Their signatures are a confirmation of Croatia's international border, which was recognised both by the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly, Kacic said recalling a declaration signed on September 30, 1992 by Croatian and Yugoslav Presidents Franjo Tudjman and Dobrica Cosic. According to the declaration, the two sides agreed to solve all open questions through negotiations, for the sake of security of Boka Kotorska Bay and Dubrovnik. The Croatian-Yugoslav land border was never contentious but the sea border was never determined completely, and it has to be discussed, Kacic said. He reiterated to the Yugoslav delegation that Croatia wanted to build a tourist complex on Prevlaka and had no intention of building military facilities or deploying forces there. Responding to an objection by the Yugoslav delegation that Croatia did not have direct authority over Prevlaka, which used to be an army range, the Croatian delegation said the same principle applied to other places in Croatia where military authorities were based (Divulje, Pula, Brijuni) and which were still part of Croatia's territory. The Croatian delegation expects the Yugoslav Government to consider the documentation presented at today's meeting, Kacic concluded. (hina) rml ,