The committee's chairman, Josip Perisa, who held a news conference after a committee session in Zagreb on Monday, also refuted an article run in Jutarnji List according to which HVIDRA chief Josip Djakic had told the newspaper that general Gotovina should prove his innocence before the tribunal in The Hague. According to Perisa, Djakic sent a denial of that article to Monday's issue of Slobodna Dalmacija and he will hold a news conference tomorrow to present his position on the entire matter.
The HVIDRA main committee also refuted allegations that there was a rift between HVIDRA branches in Dalmatian counties and the main offices over the Gotovina case, saying in today's press release that "HVIDRA is more united than ever before and reports on the rifts are the expression of somebody's futile wish."
Asked by reporters to present HVIDRA's views on the Gotovina case, Perisa said that it should be made possible for Gotovina to give an interview to ICTY prosecutors in Zagreb after the tribunal withdraws the second amended indictment it issued against him.
The duty of HVIDRA is to protect all of its members, including General Gotovina. HVIDRA does not support the Croatian government in the bid to locate and arrest the general and transfer him to The Hague, Perisa said.
Commenting on last Friday's rally which Zadar and Split HVIDRA branches held in the city of Zadar, Perisa said that Vice President Ante Puljiz attended the event on behalf of the HVIDRA leadership and that HVIDRA, as an umbrella organisation of veterans' societies, supported the conclusions from that convention.
HVIDRA, however, distances itself from some individuals who appeared in Zadar, Perisa said. He explained that certain people who had introduced themselves as representatives of some HVIDRA branches had been thrown out of HVIDRA a long time ago.
According to the conclusions of the rally, organised under the slogan "The Truth About the Homeland Defence War", Croatian authorities have prevented Gotovina from giving interviews to the tribunal's investigators. The conclusions read that veterans are in favour of Croatia's entry into the European Union, but that they are against the transfer of the fugitive general Gotovina to the tribunal in The Hague.
They also insist that the Croatian authorities find out by 10 March who forged the transcript of the 1995 Brijuni meeting and who sent it to the tribunal's prosecutors, who then used it as a basis for compiling the indictment against Gotovina and other Croatian generals.