Some newspapers have said recently that the eastern Croatian company's tool room sold the rockets it had borrowed from the Defence Ministry and that Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic reported the case to the State Prosecutor's Office.
"The story that 5,000 rockets are missing is incorrect. Five-thousand-one-hundred rockets, either whole or in parts, are in Croatia awaiting new rocket fuel so that they can be handed over to the Croatian army and stored. What will happen to the rockets I don't know because the people we agreed the deal with are no longer at the ministry," said Veocic, adding that the refuelling was to have covered 20,000 rockets.
He took over the rockets so that their fuel could be put into rockets which the Croatian company RH Alan sold to the Macedonian Defence Ministry. The rockets were not returned to the Croatian ministry.
"They weren't returned because during the handover it was agreed that the rockets would be filled with new fuel for Croatian army requirements," Veocic said, adding the rockets were in the storeroom in Licki Osik awaiting for an agreement to be reached to fill them with quality fuel.
Veocic went on to say that Djuro Djakovic's tool room had not negotiated directly with the Macedonians but with RH Alan, which was authorised to trade in arms.