ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party commemorated the first Croatian president and party founder Franjo Tudjman at a ceremony held at Zagreb's city hall on Sunday.
ZAGREB, Dec 10 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party
commemorated the first Croatian president and party founder Franjo
Tudjman at a ceremony held at Zagreb's city hall on Sunday. #L#
HDZ president Ivo Sanader recalled Tudjman's political work, from
the first democratic changes in Croatia to the establishment of
state sovereignty and the peaceful reintegration of the Danube
River region.
"Today, when ill-intentioned people and critics attempt to play
down or even smear his work, the truth is on his and our side,"
Sanader said. "In continuing his work we shall not be deterred or
prevented by any repressive instruments known from the time of the
communist regime," said Sanader, quoting as an example footage by
the British Channel 4 TV station portraying the first Croatian
president in a negative light.
According to Sanader, Tudjman was a humanist and advocate of human
and minority rights, of which his decision on granting amnesty for
persons which participated in armed rebellion against Croatia but
did not commit crimes was the best proof.
"Do not tarnish Franjo Tudjman because you are tarnishing the very
foundations of independent and sovereign Croatia. False
accusations and slanders about President Tudjman and his role in
the more recent history of Croatia suggest that Croatia was
established on crime and that it was an aggressor in Bosnia-
Herzegovina," Sanader said among else.
Attending commemoration, along with the Tudjman family, were
members of the HDZ presidency, HDZ parliamentary vice-presidents
Vlatko Pavletic and Ivica Kostovic, House of Counties speaker
Katica Ivanisevic, a Bosnian HDZ delegation, Zagreb mayor Milan
Bandic, and City Assembly president Goran Hill.
The Tudjman family, HDZ delegations from Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina, members of some 20 HDZ county committees and the City
of Zagreb and a delegation of a Diaspora HDZ Co-ordination laid
wreaths at Tudjman's grave at the Mirogoj cemetery.
Party delegations and representatives of the Main Headquarters for
the Protection of the Dignity of the Homeland Defence War laid
wreaths at the Homeland Altar on Mt. Medvednica overlooking Zagreb
(hina) rml