DUBROVNIK DUBROVNIK, May 28 (Hina) - "Lasting peace in Southeast Europe is not possible without the progress of the individual countries and the region as a whole," said Croatian President Stipe Mesic in his welcoming address at an
international conference called "Promoting Peace and Stability in Southeast Europe" in Dubrovnik Monday.
DUBROVNIK, May 28 (Hina) - "Lasting peace in Southeast Europe is not
possible without the progress of the individual countries and the
region as a whole," said Croatian President Stipe Mesic in his
welcoming address at an international conference called "Promoting
Peace and Stability in Southeast Europe" in Dubrovnik Monday.#L#
According to Mesic, in resolving problems in the region three
conditions should be fulfilled -- foreign pressure, international
assistance and a change of political mentality.
Explaining the need for foreign pressure, the president said in
same cases "those who know and acknowledge only war, who still dream
about changing borders, are still on the scene."
"Democratic governments need the cooperation of the international
community also in the form of pressure, including pressure on
themselves, in order to proceed even more vigorously and
courageously as well as on the forces to which I have referred, in
order to avoid the danger of repetition of the wars in the past
decade," Mesic said.
He also stressed that pacification would not be possible without
foreign assistance for the recovery of economy, "because the
national economies are devastated everywhere, while national
wealth has more often than not been plundered by abortive models of
privatisation."
President Mesic pointed to the need for a change of political
mentality. "From confrontation with xenophobia and sheer
chauvinism in the background, we have to reach cooperation based on
the satisfaction of mutual legitimate interests. It is in this
regard, and I am not talking only about Croatia, that we find
assistance from outside to be both precious and needed," said the
President.
In order to avoid any misunderstanding, Mesic stressed he was not
pleading for a limitation of national sovereignty. "On the
contrary, I am calling for measures the effects of which will help
to reinforce the national sovereignty of states in the region -
while noting that there is no room in this, the twenty first
century, for sovereignty understood in nineteenth century terms,
and that Europe has both the right and the duty to influence those
countries which have made admission to European integration the
priority task of their policies," the Croatian President
stressed.
Assessing the situation in the region, the President expressed
satisfaction with the fact that Croatia opted firmly for democracy
at the parliamentary and presidential elections last year. Mesic
positively assessed the political changes in Serbia, expressing,
however, concern about the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, events
on the Macedonian-Kosovo border. He also said that relations
between Serbia and Montenegro were far from being idyllic.
Stressing the need to face the truth about past ten years, Mesic
said "peace is still precarious. We have not definitely banned war
from our yard. And united Europe can accept this region and the
states which make it up only on the understanding that their mutual
relations are normalised, mutual problems resolved, and that
democracy, attainable only in peace, is the irreversible
commitment of all concerned."
(hina) it sb