The president of HVIDRA and parliamentary deputy of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Josip Djakic, was speaking at a news conference at which he showed the disputed poster. He said that Plestina's act was reason enough to relieve her of duty.
"The disputed poster hurts the feelings of all Croatian citizens, particularly of disabled war veterans and the families of soldiers who died for the country's freedom, whose budgetary funds are being used for the promotion of those which made them suffer and caused them harm," Djakic said.
He went on to say that Croatian veterans would not mind if the poster had featured Serb children, instead of Chetniks. "I consider them aggressors on Croatia and I cannot sympathise with them," Djakic said.
He expressed indignation at the fact that the posters were made by a company owned by Social Democrat leader Ivica Racan's son and that the decision to make them had been made by Racan's wife Dijana Plestina.
"Racan is now justifying his wife's conduct and calling his opponents the HDZ's storm troopers, which shows how much he cares for national interests and the feelings of Croatian veterans," he said.
Djakic, who yesterday requested Plestina's dismissal in his capacity as a member of the HDZ club of deputies, said today that HVIDRA sought Plestina's dismissal.
Reporters asked him if he considered his party colleague and Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic responsible for a recent visit to Croatia by Macedonian Army Chief-of-Staff Miroslav Stojanovski, who is suspected of participation in war crimes and who was received with full honour on 18 November, the day when Vukovar fell into the hands of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) 14 years ago.
Djakic said that decisions on which officials would be received with full honour were made by the President of the Republic and the Army Chief-of-Staff and that he expected Roncevic to apologise if it proved true that he had said that he too would have met Stojanovski if he had been in Croatia at the time of his visit.
Djakic also commented on criticisms of Croatia's agreement with Austria on compensation for Germans expelled from Croatia in the wake of World War II, accusing of hypocrisy "the former communists who expelled their opponents and seized their property and are now advocating the return of Serb refugees".