PARTY BENCH WANTS TOMAC TO RESIGN AS HEAD OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - The parliamentary bench of the Croatian People's Party (HNS)/Primorje-Gorski Kotar Party (PGS)/Croatian Party of Slavonija and Baranja(SBHS) on Tuesday urged parliament president Zlatko Tomcic to initiate proceedings to relieve of duty Zdravko Tomac, chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee, due to his recent statements about the policy of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman towards Bosnia-Herzegovina. #L# Speaking at a seminar held in Zagreb this weekend on the third anniversary of the death of the first Croatian president, Tomac said that considering the current situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the status of Bosnian Croats, he feared that Tudjman might have been right at the time, while he himself was not. "Tomac's statements, which restore and advocate Tudjman's policy towards Bosnia-Herzegovina, are diametrically opposed to our stands and, we believe, to the stands of this coalition," reads an open letter sent to the parliament president by the joint party bench. The letter, signed by whip Vesna Pusic, notes that statements like Tomac's cause "huge damage to Croatia's reputation and its prospects of meeting requirements on its road to the European Union". The bench believes that "Tudjman's policy towards Bosnia- Herzegovina was one of the most negative elements in the history of independent Croatia, which caused suffering to thousands of Croats and Bosniaks in Bosnia-Herzegovina". "Support for self-styled Herceg-Bosna has reduced the HDZ and Tudjman's policy to Bosnia-Herzegovina to the level of the forces in Serbia which formed Republika Srpska," reads the letter. Stating that a person advocating such stands cannot chair the Foreign Affairs Committee, the bench requested the parliament president to nominate another candidate whose stands, the letter notes, "would reflect the ruling coalition's foreign policy at least in a general sense". (hina) rml sb