TRANSPORT BLOCKADE FOR UN UNITS POSSIBLE - CRO TRADE UNION ASSOCIATION

ASSOCIATION $ ZAGREB, Oct 14 (Hina) - The Croatian Trade Union Association on Tuesday announced the harbour workers union will block transport for UN units if a Ploce port agreement encroaches upon Croatia's sovereignty and if the UNTAES remains in Croatia after 15 January 1998. "We request that basic Croatian political issues be settled, since in the contrary social issues will not be settled either", the president of the Croatian Trade Union Association, Niko Gunjina, told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday. The harbour workers union believes the draft agreement regulating how the Bosnian Federation should use the southern Croatian port of Ploce encroaches upon Croatia's sovereignty in that area and is contrary to the Croatian Constitution. "We do not allow for even an inch of the state sovereignty to be brought into question", said Gunjina, adding that in line with the draft agreement, Bosnian and not Croatian laws would be valid in the Ploce port. "This also means that Bosnian labour would be employed there, while about a thousand harbour employees could lose their jobs", Gunjina added. The harbour workers union pointed out that the Ploce port has served Bosnian export and import to date and that the Bosniak (Muslim) side never complained about it, not even when the Croat- Bosniak conflict was at its most heated. (hina) ha jn 141833 MET oct 97