ZADAR'S SDP MARKS DAY OF LIBERATION FROM ITALIAN OCCUPATION

ZADAR, Oct 31 (Hina) - Municipal and county leaders of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from Zadar on Wednesday held a news conference on the occasion of Zadar's Liberation Day, October 31. On October 31, 1944, a partisan brigade from Zadar liberated the central Adriatic city thus ending a 25-year-long Italian occupation and returning the town to the homeland. The president of the county SDP branch, MP Romano Mestrovic, and the president of the city party branch, Zeljko Mikin, extended their best wishes to Zadar residents on the occasion of Liberation Day and thanked surviving anti-fascist fighters for liberating Zadar. Commenting on a decision by Italian President Ciampi to bestow a decoration on the so-called Italian government of Zadar, Mestrovic said one should not attach too much importance to the decision, but one should not underestimate it either. Italian refugees from Croatia (so-called esuli) are just a folklore group in Italy, he said. Answering a reporter's question, Mestrovic said there was no reason not to face individual crimes committed by partisans as they did not bring into question the entire anti-fascist movement in Croatia, the same way individual crimes committed by Croats in the 1990s Homeland War could not bring into question the historical value of that war. (hina) sb rml