TUDJMAN DELIVERS CLOSING SPEECH AT HDZ MAIN COMMITTEE SESSION

ZAGREB, June 27 (Hina) - "The Croatian Democratic Union has to prepare for tasks ahead of us. Let us be aware of what we have achieved on our own. The HDZ is an expression of national awareness, of the willingness and desire of the Croatian people to be on one's own", the President of Croatia and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, Franjo Tudjman, said in a closing speech at a session of the HDZ Main Committee in Zagreb on Saturday night. We need to be the masters of our own destiny on all levels, to not allow wandering and delusions and to create conditions for Croatia which will enable it to provide support for the international order, Tudjman said. Stressing that the establishment of independent Croatia has helped create conditions for overall development, Tudjman said there were no longer any obstacles for Croatians to be recognised in the world on all levels. All that is the achievement of the Croatian people. I am convinced that the Croatian Democratic Union will in this year's and in future elections have the role the Croatian people wants it to have, he stressed. Tudjman described the session of the party's Main Committee as very successful. The session has, most of all, proven the party's unity, as well as the maturity with which it is dealing with problems Croatia is facing, he said. However, he added, the meeting offered few political assessments as to why results had been achieved in some areas and why they were lacking in some others. Another thing noticed at the session was the increased attention the world is paying to the HDZ, of which numerous telegrams and guests from European parties of similar orientation bear witness, he added. Commenting on a speech by his party colleague from Vukovar, Tudjman said reconstruction was a long process. In the past four post-war years, Croatia has achieved enviable results which have impressed the world. Objectively, we could not have done more, he assessed. The Croatian bureaucracy is guilty of preventing a speedier return of Croatian emigrants, Tudjman said, adding that measures should be taken against those who had opposed the return of Croatian emigrants. Tudjman sees another reason for the prevention of emigrants' return in administrative services, which, he said, still have a considerable number of employees taken over from the previous system. This we must remove, he said. The HDZ must be even more resolute in preventing abuse and all forms of crime, and in convincing the people that it is not HDZ's fault but the side-effects of the transitional period. No one in Croatia can be more patriotic or state- and socially-oriented than the HDZ, Tudjman said. The results achieved in the transformation of ownership are better than in almost any other former socialist country, he said, adding the national currency and the economy had been stabilised. Speaking about the youth in the HDZ, Tudjman said the party had its successors and its future was in good hands. He suggested that one fourth to one third of all members of the party bodies be young people and proposed that the same principle be introduced for women. We cannot and must not give up the leading role the HDZ has played in the establishment, reconstruction and recognition of Croatia as an independent state. The people has entrusted us with that task and we have carried it out. We have to work towards defending the authority the people has entrusted us with, Tudjman said, adding, "Yes to democracy but no to anarchy. One should develop democracy because we wanted and we still want a democratic order, but it is necessary to assume full responsibility for one's words and deeds, but misdeeds as well". (hina) jn/rml.