HIP PARTY CALLS ON GOVT. TO HOLD REFERENDUM ON ICTY INDICTMENTS

ZAGREB, April 6 (Hina) - Leaders of the Croatian True Revival (HIP) party on Tuesday urged the government to hold a referendum at which citizens would state if they accept allegations from UN war crimes tribunal indictments that Croatia's former military and political leadership joined in a criminal enterprise to cleanse Croatia of Serbs and carry out ethnic cleansing in parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina to annex them to Croatia.#L# Party leader Miroslav Tudjman said at a news conference that the allegations from the indictments would inevitably lead to changes in the preamble of the Croatian constitution, which states that Croatia was founded on the Homeland War, and "to erasing a ban on Balkan associations at the request of international factors, who advocate the cantonisation and integration of the entire region". He warned that by 2002 Croatian courts had sentenced 1,492 Croatian Army members for war crimes, while 749 people were sentenced for aggression on Croatia, Tudjman said adding that "while Croatia is being forced to prosecute war crimes, aggression is no longer mentioned, so it becomes obvious that the aggressor is amnestied and the victim punished". In such a situation, the government should call a referendum on the future of the state, Tudjman said. Tudjman, the son of the first Croatian president, the late Franjo Tudjman, expects the government to "confirm claims from internal party meetings by naming Zagreb airport after the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman". He also said that HIP would request the Zagreb city government to erect a monument to President Tudjman in Zagreb. (Hina) rml sb