FORMER POLITICAL PRISONERS RECEIVE MEDALS ( Editorial: --> 8624 )

( Editorial: --> 8624 ) ZAGREB, Nov 6 (Hina) - Croatian Parliament Speaker Vlatko Pavletic and an envoy of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Thursday presented 60 former political prisoners with medals of the Stjepan Radic order for their merits and suffering in the fight for national rights of the Croatian people, bestowed on them by President Tudjman. Thanking the recipients of the medals for everything they had done, and expressing respect for their suffering, Pavletic expressed regret that many problems of former political prisoners had not been solved. "We found ourselves in a whirlpool of war, aggression, we had to organise an army, defend ourselves. Numerous refugees and displaced persons remained on the care of the state. These are reasons which can in part excuse the unsolved issues, in the material and legal sense, of people who lost years of their lives in prison and who put us under obligation," Pavletic said. On behalf of the recipients, Msgr. Ciril Kos said he received the medals on behalf of all those who had been the victims of violence, who had loved Croatia and the Church, who had been locked up, who had suffered long interrogations and inhuman actions, who had been tortured in solitary. (hina) lm jn 061338 MET nov 97