FORMER ASSISTANT LABOUR, SOCIAL WELFARE MINISTER TAKES STAND

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - At Friday's session of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the purchase of Zagreb's daily "Vecernji list", most attention had been paid to the testimony of Luka Krznaric, former assistant to labour and social welfare minister. Krznaric said the decision on selling Vecernji list had been made before it had been announced at a session of the Croatian Pension Insurance Supervisory Board held on January 9, 1998. The decision was made that morning in the presence of Supervisory Board members and the afternoon Board session had been playacted for reporters, Krznaric said, stressing he had never been a member of the Supervisory Committee of the Croatian Pension Fund. He said that on the day of selling the paper, he had been "lifted off the street" to go to the Pension Fund where the director, Mladen Strukan, had told him "we will today take photographs formally by orders from (Ivic) Pasalic, but Vecernji list was sold this morning". Krznaric said Strukan had also said "we know to whom we sold it to". Asked by a reporter after the session of the Commission of Inquiry why he had consented to such a role and why he had not spoken about the issue earlier, Krznaric said he had been subjected to pressures. (hina) lml