DORIS PACK SPEAKS AT HDZ GENERAL ASSEMBLY

ZAGREB, June 21 (Hina) - The chairwoman of the European Parliament's committee on South-eastern Europe, Doris Pack, on Saturday voiced hope Croatian runaway General Ante Gotovina would surrender and face the Hague's war crimes tribunal. #L# Pack said at the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) Eighth General Assembly she hoped Gotovina would go to The Hague and so serve Croatia in peace-time as well, for which she was booed. Pack voiced satisfaction that all those who had devastated Croatia's eastern city of Vukovar were now in The Hague. Crimes committed in the Homeland War must be processed so as to remove any doubts about the cause of the war, she added. Assessing that the HDZ's time in opposition had been well-spent and the party today had people who could take Croatia to Europe, Pack warned that returning to nationalism would be fatal, since the international community connected the HDZ with mistakes from the final period of its rule. She told HDZ members that they should prove those who think so wrong. Envoys at the assembly were also addressed by other international guests -- representatives of the German CSU and CDU parties, CDU president Angela Merkl's personal envoy, retired US Ambassador Thomas Patrick Melady and the president of the Slovene Social Democratic Party, Janez Jansa. The envoys commented that the HDZ had not had such high positioned guests from abroad for a long time and added that Croatian political parties had mostly not been represented by their leaders at the assembly. According to information from the HDZ, the assembly is attended by representatives of the Croatian Party of Rights, the Croatian Social Liberal Party and the Democratic Centre, but not the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), which had announced it would not send representatives to the meeting. Commenting on the absence of HSS representatives, HDZ president Ivo Sanader told reporters this meant nothing, since "cards are stacked" after elections. The envoys were also addressed by a US congressman, Republican Guy Wander Jagt, who enumerated five mistakes by the current authorities because of which, he said, basketball players would be cast out of the game. Among them are the growth of unemployment, all-present corruption, and the forgetting of brave heroes of war, he said. (hina) lml sb