CROATIA PROTESTS TO YUGOSLAV ENVOY OVER MURDER OF KOTOR BISHOP

ZAGREB, June 5 (Hina) - Croatian assistant foreign minister Hidajet Biscevic and secretary Zoran Piculjan on Wednesday received Yugoslav Bureau chief Veljko Knezevic for talks on current relations between Croatia and Yugoslavia, a Foreign Ministry statement said. At the beginning of the meeting, Biscevic lodged a protest over the Monday killing of the retired Bishop of Kotor, Montenegro, Msgr Ivo Gugic. Biscevic said that the event had caused deep concern of the Croatian public and the Croats in the Yugoslav Federation of Serbia and Montenegro, particularly those living in Boka Kotorska. Croatia expected that further steps by Yugoslav authorities would remove the causes of the concern and enable the continuation of dialogue on normalization of relations between the two countries. Biscevic demanded that Yugoslav authorities officially inform Croatia about results of the investigation and that church dignitaries and other officials who wish to attend the funeral of the 75-year-old bishop be allowed unobstructed passage across the border. The talks also focused on the opening of consular departmets at the Croatian Office to Belgrade and the Yugoslav Bureau to Zagreb. Piculjan said that the consular departments were expected to start work around 24 June. Croatia expected Yugoslavia to present its solutions to outstanding issues with the aim of reaching an agreement on full normalization of bilateral relations. Biscevic said that Croatia also expected that talks on opening northern and southern air corridors would continue in line with a Geneva agreement between President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia. (hina) vm jn 051409 MET jun 96