SLOVENE SOLDIERS STILL INSIDE BARRACKS ON CRO SIDE OF BORDER

LJUBLJANA/ZAGREB, Apr 30 (Hina) - No official or journalistic comment has appeared in Slovenia after a Croatian government decision of Thursday regarding Sveta Gera, a hill on the Croatian- Slovene border, despite prominent mention in Slovene media. The Croatian government decided to transfer a barracks on Sveta Gera into the ownership of the Croatian Mountain-Climbers Association, thereby concretely confirming that the premises in question are Croatian territory. Slovenia has been keeping several soldiers inside the barracks for years. The object was used by the former Yugoslav People's Army to control radio-operators until its withdrawal from Slovenia in the autumn of 1991, when the barracks was turned over to Slovenia's territorial defence. The Slovene Defence Ministry on Friday stated the situation in the barracks remained unchanged. "There is nothing new in that respect, the soldiers stationed there are protecting the object," a Slovene defence minister spokeswoman, Mirjam Mozgan, told Hina over the phone on Friday. She pointed out any questions regarding Sveta Gera should be made at the Slovene Foreign Ministry, and added the army would comply with any agreement reached on the matter on inter-state level. A Slovene Foreign Ministry spokesman was on Friday unavailable for comment. "Sveta Gera has not been an open issue for any side since the foreign ministers' meeting at Strmol Castle," a source close to the Croatian government told Hina on Friday. Croatia's and Slovenia's Foreign Ministers Mate Granic and Boris Frlec asserted at Strmol late last year that the two countries had agreed on 99.1 percent of the land border, including Sveta Gera. Slovene opposition leader and former defence minister Janez Jansa assessed Slovene President Milan Kucan's recent statements that the army should withdraw from Sveta Gera as a weakening of Slovenia's negotiating position in the resolution of the entire border issue with Croatia. (hina) ha jn