PRESIDENT TUDJMAN RECEIVES LETTER OF THANKS FROM PRESIDENT CLINTON

CLINTON $ ZAGREB, 20 April (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Saturday received a letter from the President of the United States, Bill Clinton with thanks for the condolences the Croatian president and the Croat people offered on the deaths of a high U.S. delegation led by Finance Minister Ronald Brown in a plane crash near Dubrovnik. This is the full text of the letter: 'Dear Mr President: Thank you for your gracious and heartfelt message of condolence regarding the plane crash that took the lives of Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown and the 34 people accompanying him on his mission in support of peace. This was both a great personal loss for me and a tragedy for our nation. The sympathy and support that you and the Croatian people have offered will help sustain all Americans in this time of mourning. Throughout his service as Secretary of Commerce, Secretary Brown pursued a vision of a dynamic American economy strong enough to ensure prosperity at home but also able to help lift those less fortunate in other countries of poverty and war. Ronald Brown has left a powerful legacy on which to build, and for this we are grateful even as we grieve for him and for those lost at his side. Let me also express my deepest sympathies to the families of Niksa Antonini and Dragica Lendic-Bebek, who died aboard Secretary Brown's aircraft. They shared in the noble quest of Secretary Brown and his American colleagues: to bring the benefits of economic renewal to Croatia and the rest of the Balkans and to strengthen the cause of peace. The American people join me in offering both condolences and gratitude for their hard work and sacrifice. On behalf of the family of Ronald brown, the families of all the victims of the crash, and on behalf of the people of the United States, thank you for your words of sympathies. We are also grateful for the extraordinary efforts of Croatian authorities in conducting search and rescue operations at the site of the accident. The operation of Americans and Croatians in this regard since the crash has been exemplary and reflective of the deepening friendship between our peoples'. Sincerely, William J. Clinton (hina) rm 201619 MET apr 96