HDZ SLAMS MESIC'S STATEMENTS IN YUGOSLAV DAILY PAPER

ZAGREB, Sept 22 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party issued a statement on Friday refuting with indignation claims made by Croatian President Stipe Mesic in a Yugoslav daily paper to the effect that all sides were guilty for last decade's conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslav federation. "We reject with indignation the assessments made by (Croatian President) Stjepan Mesic that... all sides were equally guilty in the wars in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina," said the statement signed by Ivo Sanader, the president of the party which ruled Croatia between 1991 and 2000 and is currently the strongest opposition party. "We reject the grave and insane accusation levelled at the Croatian policy of the past ten years which, according to Mesic, equalled the Greater Serbia aggression." Asked by the Novi Sad-based daily paper Vojvodina "who should extend apologies to whom and why for everything that occurred in the past ten years," President Mesic said in Thursday's interview that "everybody should apologise to everybody". "Croats blamed all Serbs and Muslims. Serbs blamed all Croats and Muslims. Everybody blamed everybody, but in fact, nobody was to blame because what was happening was a wrong policy which relied on the idea that a Greater Croatia and a Greater Serbia should be created on the ruins of the former Yugoslavia," he told the daily. In today's statement, the HDZ says that it is "simply unacceptable and incomprehensible that the President of the Republic of Croatia, which was the victim of the Greater Serbia aggression and whose state territory was occupied for eight years, should make such statements. "It is a most dangerous accusation which draws on the well-known principle propagated by certain international centres of power that all were equally guilty," the statement says, adding such "historical lies ultimately lead to a redefinition of the last decade's historical events and the creation of preconditions for a new Yugoslav and Balkan association." The statement further says "President Mesic's statements in the Novi Sad media are frightening and dangerous because they equate the Greater Serbia aggression and the Homeland War, which was a defence war." The HDZ demands that because he equated them with the aggressor, President Mesic "apologise to all Croatian veterans, all victims of the Greater Serbia aggression and their families, the Croatian people and all Croatian citizens." (hina) ha