BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN NO. 6495

MINISTRY REFUTES MEDIA ALLEGATIONS ABOUT FAULTY FIRE-FIGHTING AIRCRAFT

Of the four CL 415 Canadair aircraft used in the fire-fighting season, two are currently engaged in putting out fires, one is undergoing regular overhaul and will be in use again in the afternoon, while the fourth is being repaired due to a fault, but will be back in use on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement, adding that other Air Force aircraft were in working order and helping to put out bushfires along the coast.

Another 50 special police officers were sent from Zagreb to the Fire-fighting Operations Centre in Divulje today to be deployed along the coast and help resources on the ground in preventing and putting out fires, police chief Marijan Benko said, adding that the already strong presence of special police along the coast had resulted in the arrest of several fire-starters.

Benko assessed the current bushfire situation as serious, but under control.

He said that 750 fires had been recorded in the coastal area since June, of which 177 in Split-Dalmatia County. Police have arrested 12 people, including a 55-year-old man suspected of having started seven fires, of which one in Bosnia and Herzegovina that spread to Croatia.

BOSNIA REACTS TO CROATIAN WILDFIRES ACCUSATIONS

A secretary at the Bosnian Federation Civil Protection, Stanko Sliskovic, said on Tuesday it was not true that Bosnian fire-fighters had been passive in efforts to prevent fires in the Dubrovnik hinterland border area.

"Our people invested superhuman efforts in putting out every fire which could be put out, and nobody can say with certainty where a fire started," he said, adding that Bosnia's Civil Protection enjoyed excellent cooperation with its Croatian colleagues.

"I'm sorry this has happened because I understand the bitterness of Dubrovnik's residents, but this situation is not our fault," Sliskovic said, adding that Bosnia and Herzegovina had been unable to put out only a few fires on the Croatian border due to inaccessible and mined terrain.

He said the responsibility on those sites was also on the Croatian side because it had not used Canadairs, and recalled that a fortnight ago a fire from Croatia had spread to Livno without anyone in Croatia having been accused of it.

Fires in Bosnia in the Dubrovnik hinterland raged on sites which were battlefields during the early 1990s war, specifically on the current border between Bosnia's two entities, the Croat-Muslim Federation and Republika Srpska (RS), a fact causing confusion.

The commander of the Trebinje Fire-Fighting Unit, Mirko Milojevic, told Oslobodjenje daily that "the fire from Trebinje (RS) could in no way have spread to Croatian territory, the fire from Glavska (Federation) did. From there it spread to Republika Srpska and Croatian territory".

DC PARTY FOR PERMANENT BAN ON CONVERTING WOODLAND TO OTHER USES

Vesna Skare Ozbolt on Tuesday called on the government to take into consideration such threats to woodlands and adopt legislation to prevent such conversions.

She told a news conference that the DC would send to parliament amendments proposing a permanent ban on converting woodlands into cultivated fields or land where construction is allowable.

Amendments will include provisions about the obligation to replant forests after wild-fires and arson.

She informed the press that the existing legislation forbids the conversion of woodland five years after fires, however, when that period passes there is no explicit ban on conversion.

We must not allow ourselves to have a similar situation as other tourist-attracting countries such as Greece and Spain where forests have been burnt to get construction zones, said the chief of this opposition party.

HSS, HSLS: GOVT. DISREGARDING PARTIES, PUBLIC IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH SLOVENIA

Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) leader Josip Friscic told the press they had learned through Slovene media that the Croatian government had replied to Slovenia about four proposals and that the Croatian public was acquainted only with the border issue.

Citing an article in Slovenia's Delo newspaper dated August 3, he said the Croatian government had replied to the Slovene government regarding the border issue, the debt owed by the former Ljubljanska Bank to Croatian pre-war depositors, fisheries, and the jointly owned nuclear power plant Krsko.

Friscic added, however, that according to Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, the Croatian government had informed the public only about the border issue.

Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) leader Djurdja Adlesic said the two parties wanted the government to treat the parliament as the Slovene government did the Slovene parliament, informing it of what was going on. "We want the right to full information without secret agreements," she said.

Friscic said there was no bilateral solution between the neighbouring states and that an international court was the only institution to refer to for a solution which would be binding, so that the border issue would not be postponed again until some future election.

TRADE UNION FEDERATION CALLS ON GOVT. TO OFFSET FOOD PRICE HIKES

So far this year the average four-member family managed cover about 75 percent of minimum monthly costs, the NHS leader, Kresimir Sever told a news conference in Zagreb on Tuesday.

In case of a 15-percent rise of food prices this autumn, in March next year the average four-member family will be able to cover only 71 percent of minimum monthly costs, Sever said.

He added that one of globally accepted definitions of the poverty was that a household could be treated as poor if it had to spend over one third, that is 33 percent, of its income on food.

In this context, Sever said that the average Croatian household had to spend 39.35 percent of its earnings on food on a monthly basis so fat this year.

Sever said that food become more expensive in the world due to climate changes and globalisation processes. However, Croatia still has unused arable land and a surplus of stored wheat. "All the latest developments show that the government lacks not only a comprehensive economic development strategy but also a long-term strategy for food production, all of which affects citizens," the unionist said.

45 APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN SECOND TENDER FOR SAPARD

The 17 applications processed so far indicate that although the number of requests was approximately the same as in the first tender, the amounts of available and requested funds in the second tender, which ended on July 28, were higher than in the first.

Six applications were rejected due to incomplete documentation or late submission, while another five were rejected because they were inadmissible.

SAPARD stands for Special Accession Program for Agriculture and Rural Development, a pre-accession programme of the European Union.

The aim of SAPARD is to help beneficiary countries of Central and Eastern Europe deal with the problems of the structural adjustment in their agricultural sectors and rural areas, as well as in the implementation of the acquis communautaire concerning the Common Agricultural Policy and related legislation.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.3)

MAYOR DENIES MEDIA ARTICLE ON FORD PLANNING TO BUILD PLANT IN SINj

"It is not true that Ford is building plants. This name has never been mentioned during talks with potential investors," Tomasevic said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The Vecernji List daily on Tuesday quoted what it said unofficial sources as saying that the U.S. Ford Motor Company would build a factory at about 160 hectares in Sinj's business zone Kukozovac and that "the construction of the factory that is expected to employ 5,000 people, will start in 2009".

Denying the paper's report, Tomasevic said that the town of Sinj and the state-run Investment Agency had started talks with an international consulting company.

"We have been asked not to go public with any information for the purpose of keeping business secrets, but information has appeared in the public from a side channel," the mayor said.

He added that the consulting company had conducted a survey on the ground and established that Sinj had advantages such as the vicinity of a motorway, as well as of the airport and seaport in Split and a large space of the business zone.

Potential investors are looking for ten locations in several European countries. Apart from Sinj, other towns in Croatia interesting for them are Rijeka and Nova Gradiska. However, everything is now at the level of talks. Our only disadvantage is that we have no rail link with Split, the mayor of Sinj said.

REGIONAL COOPERATION COUNCIL TO BE OPENED IN SEPTEMBER

Biscevic was elected RCC secretary-general at a recent Zagreb summit of the South Eastern Europe Cooperation Council at which it was also decided that Bosnia should become the centre of regional cooperation.

Busek said in the interview the money had been secured for the RCC for the next three years and that applications had been invited for some positions in the Council expected to be filled by experts from the entire region.

He said the Stability Pact and the RCC would work like twins until the end of 2008, after which the Council would take over the coordination of regional cooperation.

UKRAINE, ICTY SIGN AGREEMENT ON SERVING PRISON SENTENCES

Ukraine is the 12th state in which ICTY convicts may serve prison sentences. Such agreements have already been signed by Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, France, Spain, Denmark, and Germany.

Recently, ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte has said that she backs an idea that war criminals, found guilty by the Hague-based court, can serve sentences in their countries of origin.

In 1993 the tribunal gave an instruction under which its convicts were not allowed to serve prison terms in the countries established after the break-up of the former Yugoslav federation.

Many things have changed since then, Del Ponte said in an interview with the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenje daily published last month.

Del Ponte said that a possibility for ICTY convicts to serve sentences in their countries of origin should now be considered in light of the fact that the tribunal would stop working in a few years' time.

The fact that some of them can serve terms in their countries can help local societies to face their past, the ICTY chief prosecutor said.

She believes that a climate in the former Yugoslavia will change and that the time will come when a majority of citizens will no longer treat war criminals as national heroes but as what they really are, and that is dangerous criminals, she said.

She added that before changing of the above-mentioned instruction it was necessary to locate the remaining fugitive war crimes indictees, that is Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Goran Hadzic and Stojan Zupljanin.

IN OTHER NEWS

Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber has announced his trip to Croatia next week.

After the last session of his cabinet before summer recess, Stoiber said in Munich on Tuesday that he would pay a three-day visit to Croatia next week and meet Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, the dpa agency reported.

Croatia's athlete Blanka Vlasic on Tuesday jumped 2.07 metres at the DN Galan event in Stockholm which is classified as Super Grand Prix meeting.

This is her personal best jump, Croatia's national record and the second best result in the world.

Vlasic, who won women's high jump in Stockholm, is currently the world's top-ranked high jumper.

The world record of 2.09 is held by Bulgaria's Stefka Kostadinova, who jumped it in Rome 20 years ago.

Croatia's athlete Marija Ivekovic on Tuesday won a gold medal and set a new world record in triple jump at the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) World Championships and Games in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Marija Ivekovic broke the world record with 12.11 metres.

Another Croatian field and tracks athlete, Marija Mikulic, won as bronze medal in an 800-metre race on 2 August at this competition, too.

The Sao Paulo Games that started on 28 July closed today.

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