MESIC DRINKS COFFEE WITH CITIZENS

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic received groups of citizens at his official residence in Zagreb on Saturday for unofficial talks and coffee. Students of international diplomacy from Trieste, Italy asked Mesic to assess Croatia's relations with the European Union and neighbouring states. According to the President, "Croatia's association with Europe is Croatia's fate and Croatia's goal." Added Mesic, "In united Europe all decisions pertaining to economics and finance will be made by European instruments, and the most important thing is that borders will open and no longer separate states and peoples... Every people will live in its cultural environment, but the rules will be equal for all... so for an Italian, a Croat or a Serb it will be the same on which side of the border they will live in united Europe." Asked about the position of the Italian minority in Croatia, Mesic said it enjoyed all rights according to European standards. "Under the legal order established in Croatia, borders have been set and cannot be altered, but we can use our influence to change relations among people to make national minorities more privileged... to achieve a so-called positive discrimination." Commenting on last weekend's arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Mesic said "Milosevic cheated the world and his people by claiming he was advocating the survival of Yugoslavia. He wasn't interested in any Yugoslavia, but wanted a great Serbia, an ethnically clean one, and worked out a war plan to that end." Mesic said Milosevic was responsible for three levels of crime, stopping democratic processes in Serbia and destroying the economy, plundering his people and rigging elections, and for crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and partly Slovenia. "It would have been good if Yugoslavia had broken up without war... but it did not because the international community showed no will to stop Milosevic," said Mesic. "Milosevic's initial successes impressed (former Croatian President) Franjo Tudjman who figured that if the international community allowed the creation of Greater Serbia at (Bosnia's) expense, Croatia could get part of (Bosnia) as well," he added. He reminded the Croatian parliament never passed a decision to send Croatian troops in Bosnia, and that "every crime in the former Yugoslavia must be individualised." Mesic estimated the region would stabilise quickly, that after elections in Kosovo Serbia would get partners for negotiations, while Montenegro would have to decide by itself which way to go. "Croatia enjoys good relations with its neighbours, with not one open issue with Hungary and Italy, several with Bosnia, all resolvable, several with Slovenia. Cooperation with Montenegro is good, while the speed of democracy and prosecution of war crimes in Serbia will affect the establishment of cooperation with Croatia," the President said. (hina) ha