ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - The president of the strongest opposition party (HDZ) has described as very inappropriate a speech the military chief-of-staff, Gen. Petar Stipetic, made in Bjelovar on Saturday speaking about former head of
state Franjo Tudjman's role in the 1990s Homeland War. During a ceremony marking the northern town's day, Gen. Stipetic said that "after seizing the former JNA (ex-Yugoslavia's federal army) barracks in Bjelovar, (Croatian soldiers) refused the command of the Supreme Commander, President Franjo Tudjman, to leave it, and we who followed the situation were happy about the outcome." Talking to reporters on Monday, Ivo Sanader of the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) said the state television implied in a Sunday broadcast about the defence of Dubrovnik that Tudjman had virtually renounced the southern seaport in negotiations with Slobodan Milosevic, then president of Yugoslavia. Sanad
ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - The president of the strongest opposition
party (HDZ) has described as very inappropriate a speech the
military chief-of-staff, Gen. Petar Stipetic, made in Bjelovar on
Saturday speaking about former head of state Franjo Tudjman's role
in the 1990s Homeland War.
During a ceremony marking the northern town's day, Gen. Stipetic
said that "after seizing the former JNA (ex-Yugoslavia's federal
army) barracks in Bjelovar, (Croatian soldiers) refused the
command of the Supreme Commander, President Franjo Tudjman, to
leave it, and we who followed the situation were happy about the
outcome."
Talking to reporters on Monday, Ivo Sanader of the HDZ (Croatian
Democratic Union) said the state television implied in a Sunday
broadcast about the defence of Dubrovnik that Tudjman had virtually
renounced the southern seaport in negotiations with Slobodan
Milosevic, then president of Yugoslavia.
Sanader said similar untruths were being spread about the eastern
town of Vukovar as well. He asserted the official policy had been
making such implications for some time now, including military
structures which he said "systematically state lies and untruths
about President Tudjman."
In this context, Sanader commented on a statement recently made by
incumbent President Stipe Mesic who allegedly said that there would
not have been any war if "we had listened to Generals Tus and
Spegelj." There would not have been an independent Croatia in that
case either, according to Sanader, who said such statements implied
that Tudjman had led a wrong policy.
The HDZ leader maintains this is all part of a scenario aimed at
"falsifying recent Croatian history and completely diminishing the
role of the first Croatian President... Tudjman, to portray him as a
merchant of Croatian national interests."
"President Tudjman led a policy which ensured Croatia the
realisation of the highest and most important Croatian interests,"
Sanader said.
He asserted the authorities elected at last year's parliamentary
ballot were given a mandate to provide better living for the
citizens and not change history.
Sanader's assessment is that in the past 19 months, the ruling
coalition has proven incompetent in dealing with the political,
economic, and social crisis that Croatia is sinking deeper in. The
coalition has bombed completely and can survive only by creating
political scandals, he said.
Commenting on an incident in the central Adriatic town of Zadar when
the car of Renata Peros, an independent councillor who supported
the HDZ at local elections, was set on fire last weekend, Sanader
described it as political terrorism.
He also condemned threats made to Branimir Glavas, an HDZ MP, that
he would be called for a police interview. Under parliament's Rule
Book, Glavas is not obliged to appear.
(hina) ha sb