CROATIA MARKS STATEHOOD DAY

ZAGREB, May 29 (Hina) - Croatians celebrate the Statehood Day on 30 May, the day on which nine (9) years ago the constituent session was held of the Croatian National Parliament (Sabor) consisting of members elected at the first multiparty democratic election. At the end of 1990 the Sabor promulgated the new so-called Christmas Constitution in which the wish of the Croatian people to have its own independent state was expressed clearly. Croatians confirmed their wish at the 1991 May referendum. From the first day the new democratic government was endangered by opponents of Croatia's independence - dogmatic-communist, Yugoslav-centralist and Greater Serbian hegemonistic forces that helped organise the so called 'balvan revolution' of local Serbs in Knin (central Croatia). When Serbs took up arms in August in 1990, the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) aligned itself openly with them. The first victim of the Greater Serbian aggression against the country is a Croatian policeman, Josip Jovic, who was killed at Easter 1991 when a group of Croatian policemen was ambushed by Serb insurgents in the Plitvice Lakes area (central Croatia). In June 1991 Croatia adopted a Defence Act as the basis for the establishment of the armed forces of the country. Although Croatian defenders had not enough arms, they offered the strong resistance and surprised not only the aggressor but also the international community by their courage and persistence in the struggle for an independent, sovereign Croatia. On 8 October 1991, the Sabor confirmed its decision from June of the same year on severing all state and legal connections with the then SFRJ (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). On 25 June 1991, the Sabor adopted first legal acts on the independent and sovereign Republic of Croatia - the Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia and the Declaration on the matter - in line with results of the referendum. The international community, that used not to favour the independence of the country, proposed then a three-month moratorium on those acts. That's why in October the Sabor could confirm them. Croatia was internationally recognised on 15 January 1992, and received the status of a United Nations member-state on 22 May that year. The heroic conduct of Croatia's defenders forced Greater Serbia's advocates to retreat and the international community to step up efforts aimed at achieving a truce. After the Sarajevo agreement on an unconditional cease-fire, reached in January 1991, in the following month the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of peace-keeping forces in Croatia. UN troops remained in Croatia with different mandates until the completion of the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia in January 1998. As UN peace-keepers were totally inefficient in their task to reintegrate Croatia's occupied areas, in May and August 1995 Croatia launched two military and police operations "Flash" and "Storm" in which most of the areas under Serb rebels' control was finally liberated. At the end of 1995 the Erdut agreement was concluded on the process of the peaceful reintegration of the remaining occupied swathe of Croatian territory, i.e the Croatian Danube River area. The country's leadership also took efforts to establish a stable economic system. In October 1993, the Government adopted a stabilisation programme to address inflation, which was the precondition for the introduction of the national currency, kuna, on 30 May 1994. Upon gaining its independence, Croatia was given the status of a associate member of the Council of Europe, and became a Council of Europe full member in November 1996 after fulfilling necessary conditions for such step. Croatia's bids to be included into Euro-Atlantic institutions can bring results this year if the country be admitted into the Partnership for Peace programme and into the World Trade Organisation by the end of 1999. (hina) ms