TUDJMAN:CROATIA HAS ALWAYS DONE ITS BEST TO HELP BOSNIA SURVIVE

SARAJEVO, July 30 (Hina) - Croatia's President Franjo Tudjman on Friday refused a statement of a prosecutor in the trial against Bosnian Croat General Tihomir Blaskic in The Hague that Tudjman was personally liable for crimes committed by Bosnian Croat Defence Council (HVO), describing such a statement as completely unfounded in legal and political sense and that it had only political overtones.#L# Croatia and he personally have always done their best with the aim of contributing to Bosnia-Herzegovina's survival, but when those dilettantes from The Hague said that it was not important what Tudjman was speaking about but what he was doing, let me remind you of everything Croatia has done for Bosnia," he told reporters at a news conference in Sarajevo. At the moment when Bosnian Serbs announced secession, Croatia called on Bosnian Croats to participate in the referendum on the united Bosnia: afterwards, Croatia, although having limited resources, supplied Bosnia with arms at the beginning, and subsequently weaponry for Bosnia was transported via Croatia, Tudjman said. The purpose of all those acts was to help preserve Bosnia on condition that ethnic Croats could also remain, who are one of the oldest nations in Bosnia, he said adding that this was Croatia's constant attitude toward Bosnia. Asked whether he still believes the same as he believed in the past that the task of Croatia is to "Europeanise" Bosnians, Croatia President replied that he had never said that. He explained that he had wanted at one time to say that Croatia and Bosnia were naturally geo-politically linked and that's why it was absolutely normal that Bosnia approach Europe via Croatia in order that transformation of Bosnia into an Islamic fundamentalist country be prevented, what had appeared as a possibility at one moment due to presence of Mujahedeen on its territory. Asked by a reporter to give his opinion on relations with Montenegro Tudjman said the ties had been traditionally good, but they were jeopardised during the aggression against Croatia. Since then, however, they have been improving and have all conditions to become better, he explained. At the end of the press conference Tudjman responded to a question whether he regarded his separate meetings with the Bosnian Croat leadership as good or bad for the entire relationship with Bosnia. According to Tudjman, each contact of Croatia's authorities with Bosnian Croats "contributes to promoting relations between Croatia and the (Croat-Moslem) Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina as well as between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and between Croats and Bosniaks (Moslems) within Bosnia." (hina) ms