ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic told the "Jutarnji list" daily that he believed parliamentary elections would not take place before spring next year.
ZAGREB, April 18 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic told the
"Jutarnji list" daily that he believed parliamentary elections
would not take place before spring next year. #L#
"Although some will again disagree with me, I think that elections
will not take place before next spring. Only then will the
government's measures, which were often painful, yield results. My
belief is that it is logical for elections to take place then,"
Mesic said in an interview in the daily's Easter issue.
Commenting on the recent arrest of Ivica Rajic, an indictee of the
U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the president said that
intelligence services had provided him, at his request, with a
report with the names of military persons who had harboured Rajic,
but he would not reveal their identity due to an ongoing
investigation.
Asked how it was possible for Rajic to hide for such a long time,
Mesic said: "How could it not have been possible if he had
accomplices in state institutions, and he obviously did. I still do
not know who took part in this".
Speaking about his proposal for the adoption of a joint declaration
by Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro on
facilitating the return of refugees, Mesic said that refugee return
was Croatia's state and national interest.
Refugees can be helped to return to their homes only if the Bosnian
and Serbian and Montenegrin governments cooperate in the process as
well, he said.
Asked how Croatia's opposing the military action in Iraq would
affect its relations with the United States, Mesic said the two
countries' relations were good. He strongly dismissed claims that
Croatia's opposition to the war in Iraq could result in America
withholding its support to Croatia's admission to international
organisations, especially NATO.
"However, we believe that as friends we can also say to each other
that we disagree about something. We cannot accept somebody
imposing their stands just because they are a power," said the
president.
(hina) lml