VUKOVAR: SERB DEPUTIES WALK OUT OF CITY COUNCIL SESSION

VUKOVAR, Nov 28 (Hina) - Members of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) in the Vukovar City Council on Thursday walked out of a council session protesting against City Council chairman Filip Karaula's (Croatian Democratic Union) refusal to call on the councillors to pay their last respects to the recently deceased City Council vice chairman and SDSS vice-president, Milos Vojnovic. #L# Karaula told reporters after the session that Vojnovic "planned, organised and participated in the destruction of Vukovar" and therefore did not deserve to be paid tribute to. It is a fact that Vojnovic sat in the council, he said. "However, if the rule of law existed, he would have been imprisoned," he added. SDSS councillors issued a statement reminding that Vojnovic had been elected Council deputy chairman unanimously, "also with the votes of the HDZ councillors who today banned paying him last respects". "We believe that by refusing to pay their last respects, chairman Karaula and the councillors of other parties had degraded their moral, Christian and civilisation values", reads the statement. The deputies also added that in the five and a half years of his term of office as councillor, "with the authority of an experienced lawyer, Vojnovi} on dozens of occasions prevented the Council from adopting decisions which were shameful and scandalous in the formal and legal sense". The Vukovar City Council consists of 11 HDZ councillors, three Croatian Party of Rights deputies, two Social Democrats, one Croatian Peasant Party and seven SDSS councillors. The eighth SDSS councillor, who should stand in for Vojnovic, was to be confirmed at today's session. (hina) rml sb