CROATIAN PARLIAMENT DELEGATION PAYS LAST RESPECTS TO MACEK

ZAGREB, May 15 (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives adjourned on Wednesday afternoon because most deputies were attending the burial of a Croatian political figure whose remains had been transferred from the United States. A Parliament delegation headed by speaker Vlatko Pavletic paid their last respects to Vladko Macek whose coffin was displayed in a mortuary in Zagreb's main Mirogoj Cemetery. Macek was the last president of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which collapsed during the Second World War. A perservering fighter for Croatian rights within the Kingdom dominated by Serbs, Macek was sentenced to prison terms several times. He was also imprisoned by authorities of the Indpendent State of Croatia (NDH). Determined in his anti-Communism and anti-Fascism alike, in 1945 Macek emigrated to Paris and in 1946 he travelled to the United States. He died in Washington in 1964. (hina) vm jn 151706 MET may 96