ZAGREB, Jan 15 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Vesna Pusic, on Wednesday responded to an open letter by the chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Zdravko Tomac, in which he claimed that Pusic
had tried to contest without arguments his public statements about Croatia's policy towards Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH).
ZAGREB, Jan 15 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian People's Party
(HNS), Vesna Pusic, on Wednesday responded to an open letter by the
chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Zdravko Tomac,
in which he claimed that Pusic had tried to contest without
arguments his public statements about Croatia's policy towards
Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH). #L#
In her open letter to Tomac, Pusic said that his attempt to
rehabilitate the policy of former Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party towards
Bosnia was politically unacceptable.
"I did and still consider that policy destructive for BH, for Croats
in BH and for Croatia. In that regard, the main objective of
Croatia's current foreign policy is to completely discontinue that
policy and the basic interest is to take a resolute distance from
it. If this is your stance, too, but you are constantly being
misquoted in public, there is nothing easier than to publicly,
clearly and loudly say so and any misunderstanding in that regard
will be removed. If you say that the HDZ and Tudjman led a harmful
policy in BH, I will be the first to accept that and welcome it with
pleasure," Pusic wrote to Tomac.
She also refuted his claims that her request for his replacement was
in opposition to the fundamental principles of liberalism and
democracy.
Pusic reiterated her stance that the HDZ led "an aggressive policy
towards BH for which it did not even have the consent of the Croatian
parliament".
The Tomac-Pusic polemic began after Tomac last November, speaking
at a conference organised by the Croatian True Revival party --
"Tudjmanism and De-Tudjmanisation" -- said among other things that
because of the current circumstances in Bosnia and the status of
Croats there, history would show if Tudjman had perhaps been right
in his policy towards BH.
Following claims in some media that Tomac with his statement had
apologised for wrong stances regarding Bosnia, he denied them
stating that the media had misquoted him.
Pusic then claimed that Tomac, as the chairman of parliament's
foreign affairs committee, was not implementing Croatia's set
policy, and asked parliament president Zlatko Tomcic to replace
him.
(hina) sp/ha sb