BELGRADE MEDIA RESPONSES TO MESIC'S STATEMENT ON DRASKOVIC

BELGRADE, May 11 (Hina) - Belgrade newspapers on Tuesday carried articles commenting on the response by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic to the announcement by Serbia-Montenegro's Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic that he might accompany President Svetozar Marovic on an official visit to Zagreb.#L# Draskovic's aide Ognjen Pribicevic was quoted as saying that the Foreign Minister would not travel to Zagreb, but would play host to his Croatian counterpart Miomir Zuzul on his visit to Belgrade on May 28. Vecernje Novosti, which devoted the entire second page to this subject, carried responses to Mesic's statement that "President Marovic is welcome" in Zagreb. Radical Party Secretary-General Aleksandar Vucic was most critical: "Who are they to decide who will represent Serbia-Montenegro on a visit?" Vucic went on to say that Mesic "participated in the destruction of the former Yugoslavia and in numerous crimes against Serbs, and he can come here whenever he pleases without anyone raising this issue." Vucic's statement was also carried by Glas Javnosti in an article headlined "Serbia Silent as Croatia Hurls Insults". The daily quoted Tomislav Nikolic, a Radical Party candidate for the president of Serbia, as saying on the first day of the presidential campaign on Monday that he hoped "one day the UN will make it possible for all citizens, including Serbs, to live peacefully and safely on their property." This will "again raise the issue of the status of the Republic of Serb Krajina, which was in a way already recognised by the UN and under its protection." Vecernje Novosti ran a biography of the Croatian President, recalling some of his statements dating from the early 1990s and noting that Mesic had been "one of the founders and chief operatives of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union)". Unlike Vecernje Novosti, the daily Danas wrote about the Serbian Guard, the army of Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement, established at the start of the war in Croatia. The author of the article said that none of the members of that paramilitary unit had ever been brought to justice. The article mentioned Djordje Bozovic Giska, one of the unit's founders with "a criminal background and links to the State Security Service" who was killed at Gospic in 1991, and Branislav Matic Beli, the chief financier of Draskovic's party and his "inseparable" friend, "a former criminal who owned several car dumps", who was killed in Belgrade in late 1991. Dealing with Draskovic's past in its editorial, Danas wrote that it was "a part of the story about the Serbo-Croatian tragedy from the 1990s that cannot be erased". "After Tudjman and Milosevic, a new political page was turned in both countries" and "Serbo-Croatian relations have witnessed a significant easing of tension". "Mesic has a reputation of being a wise and pragmatic politician, so it is hard to believe that he would contribute to spoiling this positive trend in relations between Belgrade and Zagreb," Danas concluded. (Hina) vm