HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEES REJECT LUSTRATION BILL

( Editorial: --> 0303 ) ZAGREB, 17 March (Hina) - On Tuesday the Croatian House of Representatives' Judicial Committee turned down a lustration bill calling for elimination of the remnants of the totalitarian Communist regime and opposed a draft of a declaration denouncing that regime. The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) drafted bill states that high public functions should not be held by former secret service officials, senior judges, prosecutors, people who attended Communist party courses, etc. Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) whip Vladimir Seks opposed the inclusion of the bill into parliament's agenda for Tuesday. Describing the bill as constitutionally dubious, Seks said that the decision on whether a former Communist official should hold a state office should be made by political parties, the public and the officials themselves. Regulating that matter by a law would amount to a blow to the concept of national reconciliation, Seks believes. Seks noted that already in the preamble to the Constitution of 1990 the Croatian Parliament clearly defined its stand regarding the Communist regime. In 1991 the Parliament adopted two declarations explicitly denouncing rigged trials of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac and Andrija Hebrang. The proposed lustration law and the declaration have been unanimously turned down by the Committee for the Constitution, Procedural Rules and the Political System as well. (Hina) jn mr /mb 172213 MET mar 98