"FERAL TRIBUNE" WEEKLY TO SUE INTERIOR MINISTRY AND MINISTER PENIC

SPLIT, May 28 (Hina) - The Croatian weekly "Feral Tribune" on Friday announced that it would sue the Interior Ministry for withholding information, and Interior Minister Ivan Penic for slander and abuse of his office. According to the weekly, during a regular meeting of the Government on May 26, Penic announced that charges would be pressed against "Feral Tribune" because it committed "the punishable act of compiling a list of persons most of whom do not exist". The weekly recalls that on January 4 its reporter officially requested the Interior Ministry to state whether it had any information on disappearances and possible murders of 50 persons, who in 1991 lived in the area of Sisak. Along with the request, the reported sent a list with the names of the persons in question. The weekly received no reply although the Interior Ministry is bound by the law to provide information on condition that it does not constitute a state secret. Since it did not receive any official confirmation of whether the persons from the list had been killed or gone missing, the weekly did not publish anything about the case, neither did it make public that the Interior Ministry had denied it the requested information. "Feral" therefore announced that it would sue the Interior Ministry for "the illegal and unconstitutional withholding of requested information" and Minister Penic for "slander and abuse of his office". During the May 26 Government meeting, Penic said among other things the weekly had sent him a list of 50 persons, who had allegedly been killed or gone missing. An investigation into the case confirmed that 40 persons from the list never existed and that one person had been murdered, Penic said at the meeting. (hina) rml