CROATIAN PRESIDENT ADDRESSES CONFERENCE IN DAVOS

DAVOS, Jan 26 (Hina) - A panel discussion of leaders of South- eastern European countries in Davos ended Sunday with a consensus on the need for a reconstruction and stabilisation of the Balkans, but with disagreement on the rights on self-determination of all constitutive elements of the former Yugoslavia. In his speech Croatian President Stipe Mesic stressed the need for transitional reconstruction of the region, first democratic, then economic. He dismissed any possibility of a change in borders. "Any trade in territories or people is not a possibility. That would be the seed of new war," Mesic said. He said Croatia "is not avoiding regional cooperation", as the economies of countries in the region are complementary. Mesic was determined in stressing one should not have the illusion that it was logical to set up a model for some mini-community in the region. Mesic recalled Croatia's view adopted at last year's Zagreb Summit on the principle of individual approach to the EU. For a thorough reconstruction of the region each country must go through the process of internal democratisation, while the international community must "substitute the role of an armed guard with the role of an older partner both political and economical," Mesic asserted. Carl Bildt, an envoy for the UN Secretary-General, said further disintegration of the region through independence of peoples who did not do so at the beginning of the 1990's would lead to further destabilisation. Based on the Constitution of 1974, Mesic replied, constitutive elements of a federation have the right to independence should the federation disappear. Since the Yugoslav federation fell apart, all constitutive elements have the right to this, thus republics and provinces. (hina) lml