GOVERNMENT DISMISSES DEPUTY MANAGER OF PENSION FUND

( Editorial: --> 0532 ) ZAGREB, June 11 (Hina) - The sacked Croatian Pension Fund deputy manager has stuck by his view that a recent Constitutional Court decision overturning certain provisions of the pensions law should be considered binding and final. "I will not revise that view come hail or high water, because it is in the interest of justice and the legal profession," Ante Skember told Hina in a short telephone interview. Skember, who was dismissed from his post on Thursday by the Croatian Government, denied that he had personal differences with Fund manager Damir Zoric. Yet he reiterated that he and Zoric "greatly differed" in their interpretations of the Court's ruling, which called for the restitution of several years' worth of pensions to the pensioners. Croatia has about 925,000 pensioners. The state's debt to the pensioners has been estimated at 30 billion kuna (about US$5 billion). Before today's sessions of the Government, the pensioners' associations protested against Skember's dismissal and called for Zoric's dismissal. (Hina) mro /mbr 112047 MET jun 98