PRESS BRIEFING ON EXPLOSION IN KARLOVAC

KARLOVAC, Dec 27 (Hina) - The Mayor of Karlovac Ivan Benic demanded that the Karlovac police undertake determined action to find out the culprits who had planted explosive in the building of the Serbian Orthodox Church parish building in Karlovac at 04:18 on Dec 25, the representatives of the Karlovac police told a press conference today. The investigation on the site of the accident will take several days, because the first thing to do is to clean up the basement where the explosive had been planted, they said. Mayor Benic condemned that act of terrorism pointing out that "those who had done that have destroyed the confidence among the residents of Karlovac, and inflicted great political and material damages." The intention of this act of terrorism is to spoil again the relations between Croats and Serbs; that is also an attack on President Tudjman's peace initiative, the police said. Explosion also blew up the southern part of the building and damaged the neighboring buildings. The Prefect of the Karlovac County Josip Jakovcic has appointed an expert committee that is now evaluating the state of the structure. 272149 MET dec 93