ZAGREB, May 16 (Hina)- The national headquarters of Croatian Homeland War veterans on Thursday sent Prime Minister Ivica Racan an open letter in which they welcome the fact that he paid honour to the victims of Tito's communism at the
Bleiburg field in Austria. They stated, however, that this was not enough and that communist crimes need to be condemned.
ZAGREB, May 16 (Hina)- The national headquarters of Croatian
Homeland War veterans on Thursday sent Prime Minister Ivica Racan
an open letter in which they welcome the fact that he paid honour to
the victims of Tito's communism at the Bleiburg field in Austria.
They stated, however, that this was not enough and that communist
crimes need to be condemned. #L#
"Communist crimes must be condemned, you must say that clearly, and
the perpetrators of the monstrous crimes must answer before the
courts, because, as you yourself said, 'war crimes have no
statutory limits and all criminals must be held to account'," reads
the letter to Racan signed by the headquarters' president, Mirko
Condic.
Reminding the PM of his quote "we need to try criminals so that our
Homeland War can be clean, without any stains", the letter notes
that the claim is completely inadequate for the Homeland War. It is
known that the Croatian army did not commit any war crimes and that
certain crimes have been prosecuted, the letter says. Racan's
quote, therefore, "should be applied to the partisans and the
Communist Party and this will in no way cast any shadows on Croatian
anti-fascism", the letter stresses.
Noting that unity characterised the Homeland War because Croats of
various ideologies fought side by side, the letter adds that
"unfortunately, many moves in the past two and a half years have
diminished this unity." The headquarters sincerely hopes that
Racan's act "was a step towards stopping the division rather than
just a cheap and empty trick".
(hina) sp sb