A BRIEF LOOK AT CROATIAN PRESS ON MONDAY

ZAGREB, April 15 (Hina) - The Zagreb-based daily VJESNIK runs an interview in its Monday edition with Fikret Abdic, a breakaway Moslem leader and political emigrant from northwestern Bosnia. Abdic said he would stand as a candidate in Bosnian elections due to take place this autumn, adding that he expected support from international peace coordinator Carl Bildt and the United States as a sponsor of the Dayton peace agreement. "HVO and Occupation" is the headline of a Vjesnik commentary on a dispute over a Bosnian Federation defence law in which the Bosnian Moslem leadership tried to play down Croatian Defence Council (HVO) merits in the defence of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vjesnik comments on the situation on the Croatian political scene in an article headlined "Is There Going To Be a Coalition Government." It says that the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is looking at the possibility of resolving the political crisis in the capital Zagreb by forming a coalition government at both state and municipal levels with the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), Croatian Independent Democrats (HND) and some smaller parties. Vjesnik includes an interview with Otto von Habsburg, a member of the European Parliament, under the headline "Opposer of Artificial Geography." Another Zagreb-based daily VECERNJI LIST runs an article on peacemaking as one of the tenets of Croatian policy, under the headline "Since the Seventh Century." Vecernji List carries an interview with the outgoing chief of the European Community Task Force mission in Croatia, Francisco Martinez-Esparza. Esparza said that humanitarian missions would no longer be headed by military officials since there was peace in Croatia. (hina) vm mm 151147 MET apr 96