"I agreed with the publication, as this was the only way to stop the well-orchestrated Greater Serbian propaganda," Letica told MPs in parliament who accused him of having been the initiator of the practice of "dealing of transcripts".
Publishing the transcript in question was necessary to disclose Raskovic's attempts to incite the rebellion of local Serbs against Croatia, Letica asserted.
"In 1992, informing both the international and the domestic public was the only way to protect the interests of Croatia, which had been disarmed by the Communists," Letica replied to Social Democrat (SDP) Nenad Stazic after the latter pointed the finger at Letica during Friday's heated debate on a motion by the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) proposing the establishment of a commission of enquiry to investigate the leaking of transcripts from the Office of the President of the Republic after 2000.
Letica added that contrary to the Tudjman-Raskovic transcript, transcripts published since 2000 could aggravate the position of Croatian generals and cost them many years in prison.
The parliamentary debate turned into an exchange of accusations between the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the strongest opposition party, the SDP, on which government and which President, the late Tudjman or incumbent President Stjepan Mesic, had done more damage to Croatia and its generals.
SDP deputies accused the HDZ of "handing over transcripts in the 1990s with the purpose of discrediting political opponents, and even some HDZ members".
"In 1990s some bigwigs from the HDZ sold and handed out the transcripts to the Hague-based Tribunal and reporters only to protect themselves, " SDP MP Zeljka Antunovic said.
HDZ deputies retorted that it was President Mesic and the previous coalition government who handed over transcripts to defame the late president Tudjman.
"Various agents, including foreign ones, and the Hague tribunal's investigators were nosing around the Office of President (Mesic)," Niko Rebic of the HDZ said, adding that Great Britain, for instance, decided to extend the deadline for keeping documents on events in Bleiburg, in the wake of WWII, classified for another 20 years in order to protect its national interests.
Later in the afternoon, the parliament decided to postpone voting on the HSP's commission of inquiry motion for the time being.
The postponement was supported by HSP leader Anto Djapic who said that it would not be good if such a commission included members of opposition parties who had been against the commission during an earlier debate.
Djapic called on those parties to harmonise their views on the matter until next week and propose, if possible, their representatives to the commission.
The discussion of the draft 2005 state budget was added to the agenda of the ongoing 11th session of the Sabor and this topic is likely to be discussed next Thursday, Speaker Vladimir Seks said at the end of this week's sitting.
Also today, the parliamentary majority turned down a motion by the HSP which insisted that the government should notify MPs of secret agreements on the privatisation of Croatian Telekom (HT) in 1998 and 2001 before the adoption of the budget for next year.
MPs ratified an agreement between Croatia and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on a EUR40 million loan for waste water management in the coastal area.
MPs also endorsed the 2003 annual report on the activities of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR), which approved loans worth 3.8 billion kuna in that year. After this, the 11th session was adjourned for next week.