ZAGREB, Oct 20 (Hina) - The "Time's Up" protest rally, held on the main Zagreb square, ended some time before 3PM on Saturday with the reading of demands to the Croatian government and a declaration on the goals of the national
headquarters for the protection of Homeland War values. The demands were read by the president of the headquarters' Zagreb branch, Ante Carapovic, urging the government to immediately move that the Croatian parliament call a referendum based on more than 400,000 signatures at which citizens would say whether Croatian Homeland War veterans should be given the same rights and dignity as the victorious WWII armies and other world liberation armies. The headquarters demands that the referendum be called by October 27 and held by December 20. The government is urged to recall at once an Interior Ministry arrest warrant for Gen. Ante Gotovina and to reject to carry out t
ZAGREB, Oct 20 (Hina) - The "Time's Up" protest rally, held on the
main Zagreb square, ended some time before 3PM on Saturday with the
reading of demands to the Croatian government and a declaration on
the goals of the national headquarters for the protection of
Homeland War values.
The demands were read by the president of the headquarters' Zagreb
branch, Ante Carapovic, urging the government to immediately move
that the Croatian parliament call a referendum based on more than
400,000 signatures at which citizens would say whether Croatian
Homeland War veterans should be given the same rights and dignity as
the victorious WWII armies and other world liberation armies.
The headquarters demands that the referendum be called by October
27 and held by December 20. The government is urged to recall at once
an Interior Ministry arrest warrant for Gen. Ante Gotovina and to
reject to carry out the international arrest warrant in Croatia.
The headquarters expects an immediate answer, and also demands the
immediate withdrawal of a law on war veterans' rights, adopted
yesterday.
The headquarters demands that the authorities stop cutting social
rights at the request of the International Monetary Fond, and stop
with layoffs at the interior and defence ministries.
If the government does not respond to or rejects the requests by
October 27, the headquarters will, as announced, hold on to the
right to use all methods of civil disobedience.
The declaration adopted at the rally was read by the president of
the association of Homeland War volunteers, Ante Roso.
The declaration states that Croatia must be irreversibly separated
from the Balkans and any Balkan associations, and that it must be
proud of its belonging to Western civilisation and not flirt with
the "Yugoslav ghosts from the past".
We want a state in which war veterans will not be nailed to the pole
of shame because of others' interests and the ultimate goal to
equate the victim and the aggressor, under the mask of false care
for the spiritual well-being of the nation, it was said in the
declaration.
The authorities must carry out the program introduced to the voters
or resign and call early elections. "The Croatian veterans led a
defence and liberation war against aggressors and terrorists on
their own land and will not accept defeat after the war. The
incumbent policy is leading us in that direction and when we say
that this policy is traitorous, we speak the truth and say - time's
up," read the declaration.
(hina) np/ha sb