ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on Thursday the call by the HVIDR-a association of disabled war veterans and the National Centre for the Protection of Homeland War Values to block roads today between noon and
4 p.m. was an attack on Croatia as a democratic and law-based state.
ZAGREB, March 27 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivica Racan said on
Thursday the call by the HVIDR-a association of disabled war
veterans and the National Centre for the Protection of Homeland War
Values to block roads today between noon and 4 p.m. was an attack on
Croatia as a democratic and law-based state. #L#
Addressing a government session, Racan said the organisers of such
disturbances were acting on somebody else's behalf, taking
advantage of current events. These actions, in this case in the name
of Mirko Norac, recently convicted for war crimes, are irrelevant
and show that political mentors are behind them, he said.
Such riots also convey a message to tourists, namely that if they
hesitate about coming to Croatia because of the Iraq situation, the
riots give them another reason not to come, said Racan.
He said such things must not be allowed and that it made sense that
competent bodies should take decisive action.
Interior Minister Sime Lucin said police would do everything to
ensure traffic safety and freedom of movement on all roads.
He said the call to block roads had already logged its first victim.
Two unknown persons sawed off two pines near Bibinje around 2 a.m.
and threw them on the Adriatic Highway, while a 25-year-old man,
trying to drive around them, hit a cliff and ended in hospital, said
Lucin.
He recalled that the HVIDR-a and the National Centre for the
Protection of Homeland War Values, dissatisfied with this week's
guilty verdict reached in the war crimes trial of the so-called
Gospic Group, yesterday announced they would block most roads and
several border crossings today.
Such actions cannot be peaceful and dignified, as the organisers
have said, as they breach a series of constitutional and legal
provisions, such as legislation on public assembly and road traffic
safety, or the penal code, said Lucin.
The interior ministry decided yesterday that it would not allow
road blocks and would try to ensure the flow of traffic throughout
the country, said Lucin.
He said he had instructed the police management to initiate
proceedings after today's road blockade, together with the state
prosecutor's office, for pressing charges against HVIDR-a and
National Centre for the Protection of Homeland War Values.
The road blocks are not merely endangering lives and property, but
one may also speak about the undermining of national interests,
said the minister.
(hina) ha