SDSS LEADERS COMMENT ON EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S LETTER TO TUDJMAN

( Editorial: --> 6824 ) ZAGREB, Mar 3 (Hina) - Following Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa's Tuesday meeting with representatives of the National Trust Establishment Committee, reporters asked leaders of the Serb Democratic Independent Party (SDSS) Vojislav Stanimirovic and Milorad Pupovac to comment on a letter the SDSS executive committee yesterday forwarded to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. In the letter, the SDSS executive committee said the Croatian Government was not complying with its commitments from the Erdut agreement on the peaceful reintegration of the Danube river region of eastern Croatia and the Dayton peace agreement, and assessed the situation in eastern Croatia as "alarming". SDSS president Stanimirovic said he had not forwarded the letter. Asked if he distanced himself from its contents and whether the party was splitting, Stanimirovic answered in the negative to both questions. Stanimirovic said he had personally suggested that the party's executive committee meet after today's meeting with the premier but, he added, the committee's members declined. As the party's executive body, the committee has the right to hold a meeting and issue a statement, Stanimirovic said, adding that party leaders were irritated by the situation in the village of Ceminac, eastern Croatia, where, he said, "a corpse which was being searched for since January 13 was found." Asked to comment on the part of the letter in which the chairwoman of the National Trust Establishment Committee, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, was accused of being biased in the implementation of the trust establishment programme, Stanimirovic recalled the Serb People's Council and the SDSS had stated that the trust establishment committee should not operate only in eastern Croatia, but in western Slavonia, Lika, northern Dalmatia and elsewhere as well. To date the committee's trust establishment programme did not comply with that request, which was the reason why we complained about Skare-Ozbolt, Stanimirovic said, adding she had accepted the remarks. As regarded his announcements that he would leave the trust establishment committee, Stanimirovic said a decision had been reached within the SDSS to stay part of the committee until March 15. "Just like I wouldn't wish anyone to be in my or Stanimirovic's shoes, I wouldn't wish anyone to be in Vesna Skare-Ozbolt's shoes either, considering all the difficulties and pressures", said Milorad Pupovac. The fact that problems were minimised was the main cause of dissatisfaction, he said. Asked to comment on the problem surrounding the hoisting of Serb flags with eagles, Stanimirovic said that two such flags had been taken down. He recalled that the Joint Council of (Serb majority) Municipalities had passed a document on the flag of the Serb ethnic minority which does not bear any coats-of-arms, is red-white-blue, and may be hoisted along the Croatian state flag. The flags with eagles were used by illegal authorities of a paramilitary state created at the time Croatia was under Serb aggression. The office of the assistant interior minister in Vukovar last week issued a warning that illegal flags, which are not the flags of the Serb ethnic minority in Croatia, cannot be hoisted in public places. On Sunday, police removed illegal flags from public buildings, to which the Joint Council of (Serb majority) Municipalities answered with a statement which condemned the act of the police. (hina) ha jn 031637 MET mar 98