"I AM INNOCENT" SAYS ROJNICA IN 'VECERNJI LIST' INTERVIEW

( Editorial: --> 3707 ) ZAGREB, May 13 (Hina) - Commenting on the information that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre has requested that legal proceedings be initiated against him, Ivo Rojnica said he was accused wrongly and added that he was innocent. "Minister Granic told the truth when he said that I was an Ustashe commander in Dubrovnik, but that there was no evidence that I had committed any war crimes. I have been accused wrongly because I am innocent," Rojnica said in a phone interview published in Thursday's issue of the Zagreb-based daily "Vecernji list". During this week's visit to Jerusalem, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic received a request from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for initiating proceedings against Rojnica, who is accused of his activities in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Rojnica said he had never preached terror or evil. "I am a practising Catholic and live by the saying 'Don't do anything you would not like to be done to you'," Rojnica said from his home in Buenos Aires. Speaking about the accusations from Jerusalem saying he signed racial laws against Jews, Rojnica said he was the head of the command in Dubrovnik for only 63 days and did not sign any racial laws. "There is only one order in which my name is mentioned but I did not sign that either. The order limited the movement of Serbs and Jews between 7pm to 7am and it was adopted when the war against Russia began," Rojnica said adding he was a politician at the time and not "an executioner or policeman". He also said he had never been a fascist or a Nazi. "I was the first fascists' prisoner in Dubrovnik after the Italian army imprisoned me in 1941 but I was released later following an intervention from Zagreb," he added. Asked how he would deny the accusations, Rojnica said he would ask that the case be clarified. (hina) rm 132302 MET may 98