CROATIAN HELSINKI WATCH COMMITTEE ON SESVETE EXPLOSION

ZAGREB, Apr 14 (Hina) - The Croatian Helsinki Watch Committee (HHO) has issued today a statement on last Thursday's explosion in the ammunition depot of Duboki Jarak near Sesvete (some 12 kilometres east of Zagreb). The statement stresses that the investigation into the accident should be undertaken by the judiciary, not by the executive authorities. It also adds that only the judiciary is entitled to decide whether foreign experts should be asked for assistance in the investigation into an accident. Remarking that in the case of the Sesvete explosion "the judiciary has failed to carry out its tasks, while some bodies of the executive power have overstepped their authorities" the statement of the HHO finds it necessary to propose that "superintendents of the Zagreb police and the military police, the military state attorney, the state attorney, the head of the court- marshal and the head of the Zagreb county court should resign as directly responsible for this." At the same time the statement proposes that the investigation into the Sesvete explosion should be undertaken by both the Zagreb county investigating and military investigating judge. 142040 MET apr 94