BELGRADE, March 9 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in an interview to Novi Sad Television on Friday called on all Serbs who fled from Croatia to "return to their homeland." "Our citizens who fled from Croatia prior to the
'Storm' military operation need to come back to their homes, their homeland, and Croatia has to secure to these people not only the reconstruction of their demolished houses, but jobs, education of their children, and safety," said Mesic. He said the people are not to be blamed for the war, but the policy which aimed to change borders. "The coexistence of Serbs and Croats in Croatia is possible because the war did not happen for political or religious reasons," said Mesic and added the test of Croatia's democratic maturity is in solving the issue of return of refugees. Mesic saidthat, if asked, he would go to The Hague and testify against Slobodan Milosevic. "Milosevic wanted war
BELGRADE, March 9 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in an
interview to Novi Sad Television on Friday called on all Serbs who
fled from Croatia to "return to their homeland."
"Our citizens who fled from Croatia prior to the 'Storm' military
operation need to come back to their homes, their homeland, and
Croatia has to secure to these people not only the reconstruction of
their demolished houses, but jobs, education of their children, and
safety," said Mesic. He said the people are not to be blamed for the
war, but the policy which aimed to change borders.
"The coexistence of Serbs and Croats in Croatia is possible because
the war did not happen for political or religious reasons," said
Mesic and added the test of Croatia's democratic maturity is in
solving the issue of return of refugees.
Mesic saidthat, if asked, he would go to The Hague and testify
against Slobodan Milosevic.
"Milosevic wanted war, he planned it. He did not want a
confederation or federation, but a Greater Serbia, for which he was
preparing and which was in the end carried out," Mesic said.
According to Mesic, Milosevic's final goal was Bosnia-Herzegovina,
while Serbs in Croatia served as "initial ignition of the war in
Bosnia." He said "Milosevic did nothing for them during the Storm
operation. Borislav Jovic told me in 1991 they were not interested
in Serbs in Croatia."
"Tudjman thought that he had to create a Greater Croatia since
Milosevic was creating the Greater Serbia. As we saw, such ideas
resulted in disaster," said Mesic.
Mesic said a guilt for crimes needs to be individualised, and
concrete perpetrators, regardless of their nationality, need to
answer for crimes.
"The one who killed 300 people dragged from a hospital in Vukovar,
or the one who is responsible for the deaths of 8,000 people in
Srebrenica, must face justice, as well as those who established
camps and caused suffering for people, whether they were Croats,
Serbs or Bosniaks," said Mesic.
Mesic said Croatia today has to acquire existence by learning from
anti-fascism, and not the independent state of Croatia (NDH) with
the Ustashi regime. "Even though I know there are people who look
nostalgically on NDH and will never understand what I am saying, I
also know the majority of Croatia is anti-fascist," said Mesic.
"We have to open borders and communications, and have borders
connect, not separate us, to have Croats in Yugoslavia and Serbs in
Croatia be a bridge for cooperation and not an alibi for expanding
territory," Mesic said.
"Even after this heinous war which was waged for the change of
borders, the borders did not change. Therefore, it is not worth
fighting over borders which both the French and the Germans figured
out. They fought three times in the past 130 years and are now
advocating a united Europe and opened borders to one another," said
Mesic. He said Croats and Serbs "who never fought besides in the
1990's of the last century" must do the same.
(hina) np sb