PUSIC CALLS ON OFFICIAL POLICY TO VOICE ITS VIEW ON SUNDAY'S INCIDENT

ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - Croatia's official policy should express its opinion on Sunday's violence in the Croatian Great Men Square, for which the police are accountable in a great part, the chairman of the Committee for Victims of Fascism Square, Zoran Pusic, told a news conference on Tuesday. "There is no doubt who started to behave violently at the rally," Pusic said commenting on Monday's statement by a Zagreb police official, Dubravko Novak, that there was a group within participants, which behaved extremely radically. Condemning attempts to diminish the importance of the event, Pusic denied claims that both groups were equally violent. At Sunday's rally in Zagreb's Croatian Great Men Square, organised by the Committee for giving back the square's former name - Victims of Fascism Square - a fight brought out between supporters to the former name and the New Croatian Right Wing who oppose the such request when they disrupted the Committee's rally. In respect to the presence of Father Vjekoslav Lasic (who is believed to have rightist views) at the rally, the Catholic Church should also give an official opinion on activities of some of its members, Pusic told reporters. Vice President of the Croatian People's Party (HNS), Stipe Mesic, attended as a guest today's news conference. Mesic said it was true that different political stands could be heard at the rally but that it could not be reason for violence. He blamed the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) for the gathering of the rightists at the square . He claimed he had also seen "members of the Croatian Army" at the rally of the New Croatian Wing, which he interpreted as the proof that it had been organised by authorities and paid by means from tax payers. Mesic also believed that Sunday's violence and the conduct of the police during it was the sufficient reason for Interior Minister to resign. (hina) ms