DJAPIC SAYS HSP TO END SILENCE ABOUT HAGUE TRIBUNAL

SPLIT, March 26 (Hina) - The leader of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), Anto Djapic, said in Split on Friday his party would organise panel discussions throughout Croatia to end silence about the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.#L# "The accusations that Croatia was founded in crime have pushed our nation to the wall and any criticism of the Hague tribunal is considered anti-European and detrimental to the state," Djapic said. "We understand very well that we must be pragmatic towards the Hague tribunal, but there is a point when we have to say stop," he added. Djapic went on to say that it was sad that all Croatian generals were either under investigation, in The Hague or at large. "It is also sad that Mirko Norac is in prison and (Independent Democratic Serb Party member Vojislav) Stanimirovic is sitting in parliament," the HSP leader said, adding that there were members of parliament who said that ethnic cleansing had happened in Croatia in 1990 and that Croatia was an aggressor in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Cooperation with the Hague tribunal is not only a legal issue, but primarily a political one, because "such cooperation means following the tribunal's dictates", Djapic said. He accused former close associates of Franjo Tudjman of ignoring criticisms of the late president. "The government keeps saying that Croatia can only be defended in The Hague, with which I cannot agree, because Croatia should be defended all over the world, primarily at the UN Security Council, which founded the tribunal," he said. (Hina) rml