MESIC: CROATIA CAN DEFEND ITSELF, BUT IT IS EASIER TO DO SO IN NATO

ZAGREB, March 26 (Hina) - Croatian President and Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Stjepan Mesic said in Zerjavinec near Zagreb on Tuesday that Croatia is able to defend itself, but it is easier for it to do so within NATO. #L# Defence Minister Jozo Rados's statement that Croatia could not defend itself under attack from a modern army is taken too much out of context, said Mesic. The issue is that Croatia can more easily defend itself if it is in NATO, Mesic said in reply to reporters' questions in Zerjavinec, where he opened works on the construction of a transformer station. We must do everything to reach NATO standards, he added. Commenting on Rados's statement and reactions to it, Mesic said that Croatia, which was capable of defending itself at the start of the Homeland War when it had no army, and which ended the war with a well-formed and equipped forces, could today defend itself even more easily if attacked by anybody. "That Croatia cannot defend itself is out of the question, but it is easier to defend oneself inside of NATO," Mesic said. Mesic placed the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) request for Rados's resignation in the context of an electoral campaign within the party. Various opportunities are being exploited for greater promotion in the media, Mesic said. He asserted Croatia could use tolerance among people and parties, as well as that nobody can proclaim anybody an enemy just because they are not in the same party. The good circumstance is that Yugoslavia no longer exists, so those who were warning about the danger of the creation of a new Yugoslavia are losing every argument, Mesic said. "I hope this bickering about Croatia's enemies, about how Croatia is unacceptable for somebody, will stop. "We must realise that Croatia is a reality, it is not in danger. All we have to do is build on it -- in a democratic and economic sense," Mesic said. (hina) lml