CONTROVERSY AMONG PROMINENT SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY MEMBERS

ZAGREB, Aug 23 (Hina) - A vice-president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Zdravko Tomac, on Friday forwarded an open letter to his party colleague Ivan Ninic responding to Ninic's "unargumented accusations" relating to an invitation sent to him by the "Croatian Homeguard" association to attend a gathering in Slunj to commemorate the death of Ustasha officer Jure Francetic. #L# Ninic said in the Slobodna Dalmacija daily of August 19 that Tomac had made a "huge political gaffe", because he had even bothered to reply to the invitation, and that if Tomac believed that he needed to pay respect to an Ustasha war criminal, the two of them could not be in the same party. Tomac said that by making comments on his activities as a politician and private individual, "Ninic misinformed the Croatian public" because he did not bother to ask if there was any truth in what he was accusing him of. Tomac claimed that he had been invited to the gathering in Slunj, which was referred to by its organisers as a "gathering to reconcile all Croats", by the local branch of the "Croatian Homeguard" war veterans association. He was invited to the gathering as "a university professor of communist ideology" to give a speech together with a senior Ustasha officer in World War II, a 100-year- old Josip Aleksic. "From the title of the gathering, it is evident that the organisers did not invite me as someone who would support Ustasha criminals but as a professor of communist ideology, i.e. a representative of the opposing side," Tomac's letter noted. Tomac said that he considered it his obligation as an MP to respond to the invitation and inform the organisers that he would not be able to attend. Emphasising that one of his political objectives was to "contribute to endeavours to finally end old ideological wars", Tomac noted that with such policies the SDP "has managed to win the trust of a large number of citizens". (hina) sp rml sb