Answering questions by reporters about criticism of the Human Rights Watch and the European Commission regarding the return of ethnic Serb refugees, Mesic said on Wednesday during his visit to the town of Bjelovar that "we want those citizens to return and be enabled to integrate into society. This will prove that we are a democracy in which all citizens have equal rights regardless of their religious or ethnic background. It is in our national and state interest to ensure that our citizens come back. Unfortunately, there are individuals and groups who do not understand Croatian interests and discourage those people from returning," the president said.
He added that he believes that the international organisations will realise that this is done by individuals and this is not an official Croatian policy.
Mesic recalled that it was the plan of the late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic to pull a portion of Serbs out of Croatia to settle them in Kosovo and expel local Albanians from there.
Asked to comment on the deteriorating health of controversial reporter Domagoj Margetic, who is now in a prison hospital after going on hunger strike in protest at a court order from the ICTY, Mesic said he is not interested in "that person no matter if he is on hunger strike or if he eats excessively, because everything he has done so far has caused damage to this country".
Margetic was taken into custody on 4 August after he refused to accept an injunction by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to stop the publication of a list of protected witnesses from the ICTY trial of Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic.
Some public figures supporting Margetic have said there have been no grounds for keeping Margetic in custody since "it is well-known that Margetic will accept that injunction".
They also accuse the public and other journalists of being indifferent to this case.
According to the Vecernji List daily Margetic's 32-day long hunger strike has put his vital organs at risk.