BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Yugoslav federal Agriculture Minister Stevan Mirjanic charged Monday that he was beaten and injured by gun- wielding Croatian police.
The federal government sent a strong letter of protest to Croatian Prime Minister Josip Manolic, calling for formation of a joint commission to investigate and determine 'responsible measures.'
There was no official statement from the nationalist Croatian government.
Mirjanic, who is a Serb, told Tanjug, the national news agency, the incident occurred at 1 p.m. Sunday while he was being driven in his official car through Croatia to Belgrade.
He said his car was stopped by Croatian police at a checkpoint on the Fraternity and Unity Highway, the Yugoslav portion of the main road linking Europe and Asia, near Slavonski Brod, in the eastern Croatian region of Slavonija.
Slavonija has been convulsed for weeks by daily clashes between Croats and Serbs.
The officers first searched the luggage in the trunk of the vehicle, the minister said.
Mirjanic said that when he showed his ministerial identity card, the officers became enraged and began beating him with their hands, cutting one of his eyebrows.
When Mirjanic tried to climb back into his car, one of the officers placed a pistol to his head, while the other pointed an automatic rifle at him, he said.
'This is how the Ustashi gives a beating,' Mirjanic quoted one officer as saying. The Ustashi were ultra-nationalist, pro-Nazi Croats who waged a campaign of mass slaughter against the Serbs during World War II.
After he got into the vehicle, the officers began kicking it, damaging a door, Mirjanic said.
'This is how Croatia's young democracy looks,' he said to Tanjug.
In its letterto Manolic, excerpts of which were released by Tanjug, the federal government said that one of the officers kicked Mirjanic in the side and in the head.
The letter noted that it was not the first time that an official automobile belonging to a federal minister had been stopped by Croatian police.
