JOINT COUNCIL OF MUNICIPALITIES COMMENTS ON SERB ARREST IN VUKOVAR

( Editorial: --> 2055 ) VUKOVAR, March 24 (Hina) - Serb Dragan Lapcevic from Vukovar was arrested on Monday night at the Ilok border crossing between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Lapcevic's name had been on a list of 150 people who could not be pardoned in accordance with the amnesty law. Dragan Lapcevic's arrest was commented on today by the Joint Council of (Serb-majority) Municipalities (ZVO), which informed the Croatian public, the President's office, the Justice and Interior Ministries, the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) about the incident. "The arrest of Dragan Lapcevic proves once again that there is little co-ordination between Croatian authorities at the top and executive bodies on the ground," a ZVO statement said. "The name of Dragan Lapcevic was on the list of 150 persons who could not be pardoned in accordance with the amnesty law. Yet, his name was not on the amended list of 25 un-pardonable Serbs from the Danube region." The statement adds that "it has even been announced that there were no more lists of that kind in Croatia any more". "Such announcements have been made by Justice Minister Miroslav Separovic and even by President Franjo Tudjman. Similar views have been upheld, at least declaratively, by National Trust Establishment Committee president Vesna Skare-Ozbolt," the statement continued. "The stand of the international community about that issue is clear from a joint statement by ambassadors of the Article 11 countries. They made it perfectly clear what they thought about the amnesty: 'The Croatian Government should publicly confirm its promise: there would be no indictments for war crimes without a prior consent by the ICTY, except in the 25 known cases'." ZVO president Milos Vojnovic told Hina he personally and the Council as a whole were disappointed by the arrest which coincided with the Government's announcement on the closing of cases against 13,575 Croatian Serbs. "After this case all those who are pardoned will strongly doubt that the pardon will be put into effect," Vojnovic said, adding that somebody was obviously obstructing everything that had been done towards the improvement of Croatian-Serb relations in Croatia. A similar view has been expressed by Serb Independent Democratic Party president Vojislav Stanimirovic, who said that the party had already asked National Trust Establishment Committee president Vesna Skare-Ozbolt to clarify the case and that he expected her answer. The statement also says that such moves "have been recently undermining co-ordination between Government bodies and the executive organs on the ground, as well as the belief in law and order amongst most Serbs in the Danube region". On Tuesday afternoon Hina asked the Justice Ministry to comment on the incident. (Hina) mm mr /mb 241915 MET mar 98