HDZ ISSUES PROCLAMATION TO CROATIAN PEOPLE

ZAGREB, Sept 30 (Hina) - The Head Committee of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Croatia's strongest opposition party, on Saturday released a proclamation calling on the Croatian people at home and abroad and the public to use democratic means to express disagreement with the dangerous conduct of the Croatian regime. The HDZ calls on the Croatian people not to fall for provocation and to resolutely oppose the fomenting of internal conflicts. The proclamation comes in the wake of yesterday's decision under which Croatian President Stipe Mesic retired seven active armed forces generals who were among the 12 signatories of a Thursday open letter in which they called on state institutions and the media to oppose the negative and false presentation of the Homeland Defence War, Croatia's early 1990s war of independence from the former Yugoslav federation. According to the proclamation, "it transpires from the events which have occurred in... Croatia recently that what is being enacted is the deliberate erosion of the power and sovereignty of the Croatian state, with the ultimate goal to introduce... Croatia into a Balkan association in which it would soon lose its independence." The HDZ is of the opinion "the Croatian political scene is deliberately being radicalised and the Croatian national being divided, while the measures of settling accounts with all who opposed repression and the inciting of fear have reached the scale of regime terrorism." Without contesting the results of January 3 parliamentary elections at which the until then ruling party lost to a six-party coalition, the HDZ calls on Croatia's democratic parliamentary parties to consider the historical meaning and consequences of their participation in a government which "decroatianises Croatia and pushes it into a chasm of economic, social, political, and economic crisis." The proclamation says the "anti-Croatian communist regime is a historical anachronism which will be subverted with the only civilised weapon - the people's will expressed at elections, this time early ones for (parliament's) House of Representatives, which have to be called as soon as possible." "May all be aware, from generals to every Croat, that this regime is trying to spill the glass of your bitterness over the brim of a civil war, lead to further rifts and a possible armed conflict within the Croatian people, and if this happens - Croatia will be no more!" the strongest opposition party said in its proclamation. (hina) ha