LEUTAR'S DEATH HARDEST BLOW TO BOSNIAN FEDERAL INTERIOR MINISTRY

SARAJEVO, March 28 (Hina) - Jozo Leutar, a Bosnian Federal Deputy Interior Minister, died at 03.40 am Sunday due to cardiac failure as a direct consequence of injuries he sustained on March 16, said Dr. Osman Duric the head of doctors' team at the Kosevo clinic. Duric recalled that Leutar had gravely been wounded to his head and brain during a bomb attack launched against him in Sarajevo two weeks ago. Despite the medical treatment, the injury was fatal, Duric told reporters in Sarajevo today. The Bosnian Federal Interior Minister Mehmed Zilic described the death of his deputy Leutar as the hardest blow to the Moslem-Croat federal interior ministry since its establishment. It is an immeasurable loss for all of us and particularly for his family, Zilic said after the demise of Leutar. This is the most difficult moment for the Federal Interior Ministry since its set-up to which Leutar gave outstanding contribution, Minister Zilic added. Sending his condolences to the family of Jozo Leutar and to all institutions where he used to work, Zilic announced that the federal interior ministry had set up the committee for Leutar's funeral. The Federal Health Minister Bozo Ljubic said the news of Leutar's death had shaken him deeply. Leutar and I have been members of the federal government since its very beginning in 1994, and from that point of view I can say that this is an enormous loss, Ljubic added. The Health Minister said doctors had done everything they could in order to save Leutar's life, but wounds were such that doctors could not help him. (hina) ms.