In a primetime interview on Croatian Television, Mesic said the top brass at JNA should have been accused of the 1991 massacre at Ovcara near Vukovar in eastern Croatia, as have the 18 who actually committed the crimes and are currently on trial in Belgrade and now the Vukovar Three -- Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin.
Commenting on the anchorman's claim that some of the top JNA officials at the time were now advisors to big world states, Mesic said the Croatian public and institutions should be more persevering in demanding that those most responsible be put on trial.
Regarding the end of the trial of former Bosnian state presidency member Ante Jelavic and the start of the trial of another ex-state presidency member, Dragan Covic, Mesic said he did not like to comment on sentences which were not final, but that it was understandable that one should answer for one's actions.
He declined to comment on the case of journalist Josip Jovic, who is in custody in Split following an order from the Hague tribunal, which charged him with contempt for revealing in his articles the identity of a protected witness, which in this case was the incumbent president.
Asked how the arrest of a journalist reflected on Croatia, even though the Split County Court's decision to arrest must be respected, and if as president he would take a concrete step, Mesic said he wanted Croatian laws to be honoured.
He said it was interesting that nobody had come to his defence when he was criticised for testifying before the UN court, although he had been bound to do so by Croatia's constitutional law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal. He added that he had been the victim of a campaign aimed at not only ousting him from politics, but also labelling him a traitor to his country only because he had acted in line with Croatian law.
Asked what he would do as the host of a summit of 17 presidents from Central Europe in Zagreb this weekend, Mesic said the summit was very important for Croatia. He announced he would speak about two topics, and proposed discussing how to step up the European association process and considering a model of economic and social development in the future united Europe.