SIROKI BRIJEG HOSTS PANEL DISCUSSION ON FRANJO TUDJMAN

SIROKI BRIJEG, Dec 5 (Hina) - A panel discussion on the first Croatian president, the late Franjo Tudjman, was held in Siroki Brijeg, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on Friday evening, ahead of Saturday's ceremony of unveiling the monument erected to Tudjman in that southern town. #L# A member of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dubravko Jelcic, said it was an absurd thesis that Tudjman had been making deals with the then Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic, about the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina. On the other hand, Jelcic wondered "why the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina should be a priori a forbidden topic". A lawyer from Zagreb, Bosiljko Misetic, said Franjo Tudjman had never used the term a constituent people for Croats in Bosnia- Herzegovina, but he had advocated the sovereignty of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina which implied, according to Misetic's interpretation, the territory, population and the government. Miroslav Tudjman said his father did not need eulogies as the historical facts would bespeak his greatness. (hina) ms