TWO FORMER HHO OFFICIALS ACCUSE CICAK OF INTOLERANCE

( Editorial: --> 3363 ) ZAGREB, Nov 24 (Hina) - Drago Pilsel, one of the founders of the Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO), its first secretary and former vice president, on Monday said the 22 November decision on his dismissal from the HHO was non-statutory. I do not consider myself dismissed from the HHO, Pilsel told reporters in Zagreb. The decision was non-statutory and had not even been on the agenda of the 22 November HHO session, he said. Dafinka Vecerina, former HHO secretary, confirmed the assessment that the decision was non-statutory. In solidarity with Pilsel, as well as due to breach of the statute, she had left the Saturday session. For a long time he had tried to settle a conflict with HHO president Ivan Zvonimir Cicak peacefully, Pilsel said. It did not work out, Pilsel said, because Cicak could not stand that a member of the Committee might disagree with him. According to Pilsel, the reasons for his dismissal were said to be his giving up on being active within the HHO, the fact that he had attempted to justify state repression in an article which appeared in the Rijeka daily Novi List under the title "The Gospel According to General Cicak", and that he had spoken about problems which should have been solved within the HHO. Vecerina said that, according to the statute, a member of the HHO may be dismissed if he is in breach of the statute or if he endangers the safety of members and associates of the HHO. Pilsel had not given up on cooperating with the HHO, but had been prevented from doing so, Vecerina said. Even though it had done much for the protection of human rights, the HHO was becoming an institution which could not tolerate different opinions, Vecerina assessed. More than 40 members and associates had left the HHO by now, she stressed. Pilsel and Vecerina told reporters they would notify the International Helsinki Federation. In answer to a journalist's question, Pilsel said he was unable to have full access into the HHO's financial transaction and the employees' wage records, since this, like the Committee's budget, was supervised by Cicak's relatives. Cicak's "starting wage amounts to USD 3,000", Pilsel said. (hina) ha jn 241851 MET nov 97