BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 5029 HINA Zagreb, 29 July 2003

HR-POLITICS-Politika BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 5029 HINA Zagreb, 29 July 2003 MESIC DECORATES NINE WW2 COUNCILLORSZAGREB, July 29 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic on Tuesday awarded decorations to nine people who had attended the first session of the ZAVNOH (Antifascist Council of the National Liberation of Croatia) sixty years ago. Mesic said that Croatia had made a great contribution to the struggle against fascism and that the ZAVNOH and its councillors had played an important historical role. The decisions of the ZAVNOH were in many ways crucial for the development of Croatia because they enabled the continuity of Croatian statehood and laid a foundation for the 1974 constitution, which in turn was a basis for the international recognition of Croatia, the president said. Mesic stressed that the international order after World War Two was built on the principles of antifascism. One of the decorated councillors, Mauricije Moro Magasic, said: "We are proud that we were ZAVNOH