REAL IRA IS SUPPLIED WITH WEAPONS FROM CROATIA - BRITISH OFFICIAL

STRASBOURG, Sept 26 (Hina) - Britain's representative at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly said in Strasbourg on Tuesday the organisation known as the Real IRA was being supplied with weapons coming from Croatia, an operation in which Croatian general Ivan Andabak had been involved. #L# The weapons were used three weeks ago in Northern Ireland as well as in last week's attack on the MI6 headquarters in London, John Taylor told Croatian reporters after he presented the same accusation before the Parliamentary Assembly within a debate on the discontinuation of the Council of Europe's monitoring in Croatia. Taylor said the British, Irish and Croatian authorities had known about the delivery of weapons from Croatia to the IRA for months and commended this summer's operation by the Croatian authorities which stopped a shipment of weapons for the IRA. It was, regretfully, already too late because part of the weapons had already arrived in Ireland from Croatia, said Taylor. Croatian general Ivan Andabak is one of several people from Croatia, who are involved in this, Taylor said, adding he was not familiar with the names of other persons. Taylor also accused several Irish members of a Catholic non- governmental organisation in Croatia of participating in the arms smuggling chain, but he did not identify those people or their organisation. He did, however, urge the Croatian authorities and police to investigate the case urgently. We need the Croatian authorities and police to investigate the question of the suspected non-governmental organisation, the British official said. Following the signing of a cease-fire agreement by IRA's political wing Sinn Fein in 1998, some IRA members walked out and established an organisation known as the Real IRA, which, Taylor said, enjoys support in Croatia. (hina) rml