NDH GOLD DIDN'T END UP IN VATICAN VAULTS - KOLANOVIC

( Editorial: --> 7234 ) ZAGREB, Dec 9 (Hina) - The government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) transferred 2,400 kg of gold from the country towards the end of World War Two, depositing 1,338 kg in the Swiss state bank, Croatian State Archives director Josip Kolanovic said on Wednesday. Kolanovic challenged media reports on an international conference on Nazi gold, held in London on December 2-4, that the NDH government had transferred abroad 300 tonnes of gold, about one third of which allegedly ended up in Vatican vaults. In an interview with Hina, Kolanovic indicated his figures were based on more than a hundred original documents kept in the Croatian State Archives. The gold from the Swiss bank and most of the remaining 2,400 kg of gold, which was taken abroad in various ways, was transferred to the account of the national bank of the former Yugoslavia, he said. According to Kolanovic, 10 chests of gold were buried in a Franciscan monastery in Wolfsberg, Austria, in 1945. That gold was later moved to several places, ending up in the hands of Croatian exiles. In early July 1945, Franciscan priest Krunoslav Draganovic transferred two of the ten trunks to the Vatican. But none of the gold was actually delivered to the Holy See treasury, but was spent for the purposes of emigration of Croats to other countries, mainly Spain and Argentina, Kolanovic said. (hina) vm mm 101239 MET dec 97