This is a tragic statement, but also very dangerous for the perception of what was going on in the early 1990s, Djapic told a news conference at which the HSP demanded that a parliamentary commission be set up so as to establish facts concerning the handling of transcripts from the Office of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
Asked whether Mesic's statement was said on the spur of the moment or if it reflected his position, Djapic said he assumed that the statement reflected Mesic's standpoint.
I assume this was Mesic's standpoint, as was the statement he made 14 years ago when he spoke against Serbs who were leaving Croatia, the HSP leader said.
Djapic said one had the right to change their mind and said Mesic had clearly changed his from the time when he was at the helm of the convoy Libertas which broke through the Chetnik blockade of Dubrovnik.
The commission of inquiry, whose setting up the HSP advocates, should establish why documents from the President's Office were not stored in the State Archive, as regulated by the government in January 2001, who made the transcripts available to the media and whether the transcripts were forwarded to the Hague tribunal legally.
The HSP has forwarded its request to parliament. MPs should discuss it at the 11th session scheduled for Wednesday.