CRO PEASANTS AND FISHERMEN BLOCK BORDER CROSSINGS

ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Croatian farmers and fishermen on Wednesday partially blocked seven frontier crossings with their tractors and machines in protest against the government's politics concerning the import of food. The peaceful protest was staged from 1.00 to 3.00 pm by about 7,000 farmers and fishermen along with 21 members of parliament from the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS), the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), the Croatian Peoples' Party (HNS) and the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS party), said a statement from the Croatian peasants' and farmers' Protest committee. Dozens of peasants used eleven tractors to block a half of the Zagreb-Ljubljana road about 100 metres before the Croatian customs at the Bregana frontier crossing. The protest lasted more than an hour and passed without incident. The protesters held banners which warned about the difficult status of peasants due to the uncontrolled import of agricultural goods. "Our goal is not to bring down the Croatian government, but to make Croatia richer," said the vice president of the HSS, Josip Pankretic. He asked the government to protect domestic products and warned that food of low quality was being imported into the country. Pankretic thanked police officers who enabled the peasants to stage a dignified protest. At the Split County border crossings toward Bosnia- Herzegovina, the traffic police prevented the blocking of Kamensko and Vinjani Donji crossings. The County police forbade the protest because the Protest Committee had not fulfilled all conditions for staging a public rally. HSS representatives told a news conference in Kamensko that the Croatian government's politics was systematically nullifying the production of domestic food. The government perceived the market too literally and thus opened wide the country's borders for import, the representatives said, adding that certain individuals in high places profited by this. (hina) lm jn 271809 MET mar 96