CROATIAN PRESIDENT PROPOSES AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION ( Editorial: --> 7880 )

( Editorial: --> 7880 ) ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Monday proposed amendments to the Constitution, including a provision prohibiting Croatia from joining any Yugoslav or Balkan state community. The draft amendments, proposed in accordance with the President's constitutional powers, were sent to parliament for consideration. "The 1990 Constitution had to include some provisions which have lost all meaning and which actually ceased to be valid after the Republic of Croatia gained its state sovereignty and international recognition, or are legally and even linguistically remnants of the former system," Tudjman said in an explanation of his proposal. Tudjman recalled that in legal terms Croatia had still been part of the former Yugoslavia when it promulgated its constitution on December 22, 1990. He proposed that article 140 of the Constitution, which says that "the Republic of Croatia shall remain part of the SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) until a new agreement is reached by the Yugoslav republics, or until the Croatian Sabor (parliament) decides otherwise," be erased. Under that article and in line with the results of a referendum on the self-determination of the Croatian people, on June 25, 1991 the Croatian parliament passed a constitutional decision declaring Croatia a sovereign and independent state, while on October 8 of the same year it passed a constitutional decision severing all legal ties with the SFRY. From that moment on, article 140, being fully consummated, ceased to be valid, Tudjman said. Tudjman proposed that article 135 of the Constitution be amended with paragraph 2, which reads: "The institution of procedure for the association of the Republic of Croatia in alliances with other states in which association would lead or may lead to the restoration of a Yugoslav state community or any form of Balkan state association, shall be prohibited." "I propose this constitutional change because I am confident that it is necessary not only to express politically but also to define constitutionally and legally the firm and unanimous conclusion of the Croatian people's struggle for national freedom and state independence that the Croatian people should never again be part of any South Slavic state community," he said. Tudjman said that a new article should stipulate that procedure for the association of Croatia in alliances with other states could be instituted by at least one third of the representatives in the House of Representatives of the Sabor, the President of the Republic and the Government. The article would stipulate that Croatia's association should be decided on beforehand by a two-thirds majority vote of all representatives in the House of Representatives. The decision should be made at a referendum by a majority vote of the total number of electors in the country, and the referendum should be held within 30 days from the date the decision was passed by the House of Representatives. The provisions on association would also relate to conditions and procedure for disassociation. Tudjman also proposed changes to the introductory part of the Constitution, where it should be stipulated that "the Republic of Croatia is established as the national state of the Croatian nation and a state of members of national minorities and others who are its citizens." He proposed erasing the present formulation "and a state of members of other nations and minorities who are its citizens", saying that it had been adopted at the time of the promulgation of the Croatian Constitution when Croatia was formally and legally a part of the former Yugoslav federation, and that it related to the nations of that entity. Tudjman argued that minorities need no longer be specified as the term national minority was universally accepted in the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which Croatia had ratified. The Convention guarantees all national minorities equal legal protection. Tudjman pointed out that it was useful and necessary that all legal terms should be clearly defined and that original Croatian legal terminology should be consistently used in the entire text of the Constitution. For example, the term "the Sabor of the Republic of Croatia" would be replaced with "the Croatian State Sabor" because the latter, Tudjman said, reflects the present constitutional position and meaning of the Croatian parliament. Tudjman proposed that in article 14, paragraph 1 the word "citizens" be replaced with the words "every person" as there was no doubt that the Croatian Constitution guaranteed all rights and freedoms, regardless of race, colour, sex, language, religion, etc., not only to Croatian citizens but also to all others staying in Croatia. Tudjman recalled that he had announced constitutional changes in a state of the nation report he had submitted to parliament on January 22 this year. Tudjman proposed that the procedure for deciding on the draft amendments be completed before the seventh anniversary of promulgation of the Constitution of the sovereign, independent and democratic state of Croatia on December 22. (hina) vm jn 032236 MET nov 97