HIP PARTY SLAMS PRESIDENT MESIC FOR BERLIN STATEMENTS

ZAGREB, July 28 (Hina) - The Croatian True Revival party (HIP) on Sunday most resolutely protested against statements uttered by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic at a recent Konrad Adenauer Foundation conference in Berlin which the HIP said did not correspond to historical truth. #L# The HIP reminds in a statement that Mesic, speaking about democracy and rule-of-law, among else said that in the first ten years of its independence Croatia had not been a genuinely pluralistic or law- based state, and that the will of one party and its leader made decisions about everything. By making such statements, President Mesic has once again shown that he is not up to the office he holds, says the HIP. The party maintains that despite all the difficulties and oversights, Croatia in its first decade of independence paved the way for a true pluralistic and law-based state "by switching from communist totalitarianism to a democratic and capitalist system, creating an independent and democratic state in conditions of an imposed and brutal war." The statement, signed by HIP president Miroslav Tudjman, also says that Mesic's statements were insulting to the Croatian people and tarnished the country's reputation abroad by reducing it to a political colony of certain international interest circles. (hina) ha