PRESIDENT TUDJMAN'S CONVENTION SPEECH: EXCERPTS ON BOSNIA

( Editorial: --> 4340 ) ZAGREB, Feb 24 (Hina) - The following are excerpts from an unofficial transcript of President Franjo Tudjman's speech at the recent Fourth General Convention of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), pertaining to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Certain parts from these sections of the speech have been quoted and interpreted in different ways during in the past few days, and have also been the subject of a protest note by the Bosnia-Herzegovina Embassy in Zagreb. (...) "Furthermore, we do not doubt that, as I said, it is the Croatian left wing, communists, socialists, anti-fascists, common democrats, that should be credited with placing the Croatian anti- fascist movement on the side of the anti-fascist democratic coalition, and that we can rightfully stress, therefore, that in the period, in the tragic period of World War II from 1941 to 1945, we not only had the NDH government on the side of Hitler and Mussolini, European Nazi-fascism, but we also had the anti-fascist movement in the state of Croatia, made up of Croatian people, one of the most powerful anti-fascist movements in Europe. This anti- fascist partisan movement is also credited with returning Istria, Rijeka, Zadar and the (Adriatic) islands into the arms of the Croatian homeland, including even those parts which had never in history belonged to Croatia. The Croatian communist movement, anti-fascist movement, yielded both prominent politicians and statesmen on an international scale, it yielded prominent intellectuals on a European scale: Krleza, Cesarac, Kersovani, Adzija, it also yielded adamant, consistently Croatian politicians from Andrija Hebrang, Ivo Rukavina, and all those who have joined us and who are with us in the HDZ. We knew how to appreciate, and we will know how to appreciate that ZAVNOH, the establishment of ZAVNOH and a ZAVNOH-style Croatia was the foundation for the constitutional and legal formation, for the constitutional and legal justification of the establishment of our independent, sovereign and democratic Croatia, because without this, without the basis for it in the constitutions, this Europe, such as it is, this world, such as it is, would have treated us with much, much more cruelty. "In the end, it has to be recognised that the reformist communist leadership in Croatia had in 1989, in the European and Croatian watershed period, chosen multi-party elections. However, as I said, they wanted to prevent us, they threatened, etc., but all these are positive elements, all this does not only justify, but also demands of us to give the necessary importance and necessary recognition to those people who, within that framework, also contributed to establishing Croatia. Unfortunately, the negative elements of that leftist Croatian communist movement bear significantly more weight than the positive ones. "In that leftist movement, socialist, communist - and not only leftist from socialists and communists but the liberal, liberals and anarchists, from the past century until today - we are faced with a negative attitude towards every appearance of the Croatian national movement, whether it be the peasants', bourgeois or all- Croatian movement such as ours today is. From accusations of Jelacic to Radic,... in the name of Macek, Pavelic,... in the name of some former European, international, cosmopolitan and socialist ideas, etc. This communist movement was an integral part of the communist movement of Yugoslavia and the Stalinist Soviet Union committed to global communist dictatorship and the Soviet internationalist world. This very movement advocated the Yugoslav federation, maybe mostly a confederation, but never an independent Croatia. "The communist leadership consented to a redrawing of borders in the Yugoslav federation, they consented to unfavourable borders for Croatia, not only had they abandoned the idea of Bosnia- Herzegovina being a part of Croatia, as Vojvodina had been given to Serbia, notwithstanding the fact that historically it had never been a part of Serbia, but they had also consented to unfavourable borders in Srijem, Boka, and as regards Bosnia-Herzegovina, they even consented to dividing Croatian territory and the Croatian people at Neum, and they agreed that Bosnia did not need the exit Što the seaĆ at Sutorina in Boka Kotorska, because this was in the interest of Serbia and Montenegro." (...) "Internal adversaries of the Croatian Democratic Union are especially vocal in their criticism of the Croatian state policy towards Bosnia-Herzegovina. The objective observer, not only in Croatia, but increasingly in Europe and America, is increasingly recognising that the Croatian policy had been realistic and constructive, that we had warned the Moslem leadership about the ŠSerbĆ aggression, that we had been the first to recognise Bosnia- Herzegovina, that as a counter-measure to the separation of the Serb republic from Bosnia-Herzegovina, we had supported the establishment of the Croat Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia with the aim of protecting Croats in the Bosnia-Herzegovina from which the Serbs had separated, and in which the Moslems had wanted to establish their Moslem state in accordance with the Koran Islamic laws. "We prevented an agreement - this is becoming increasingly clear - we prevented a Moslem-Serb agreement, according to which Moslems and Serbs were to divide Croat territory east of the Neretva ŠRiverĆ all the way to ŠtheĆ Prevlaka ŠpeninsulaĆ. "We agreed to the Washington Agreement and made possible the Dayton Agreement both through our military triumphs and our political participation, because - given the geostrategic position of and interconnectedness between the two countries - the survival of Croats and the protection of Croatian strategic interests is possible only under the condition of links between the Bosnian Federation and Croatia. "It is interesting that we are today faced with a certain, almost ridiculous return of unitarist elements in Croatian political history. As during the creation of Yugoslavia after World War I and the disintegration of the Hapsburg monarchy, we had supporters of Yugoslav unitarism from Split and Zagreb to Varazdin, as during the fall of the former Yugoslavia in the '90s we had those supporters in the Croatian political life I had spoken about, who advocated the maintenance of Yugoslavia, but also a different Yugoslavia, so today in Croatia we have Bosnian unitarists who, of course, represent little more than themselves, but this is also very significant. "And this, it is understandable, is not only not in the interest of, but is completely opposite to the interests of the Croatian people, Croatian national being and the Croatian state, and opposite to, as we increasingly see, international factors who are involved with the organisation of a new international order, in one way or another, more or less successfully or intelligently. And the fact that major European cities, Vienna, Bonn, Paris, and not only in Europe, but tomorrow Washington, are receiving the Republika Srpska Prime Minister, points to the fact that international factors have also come to realise that the crisis in Bosnia can only be solved on the basis of three constitutive peoples and two entities who, therefore, in its own logic gain confederate characteristics, rights and international ties. "Hence, we are in favour of a solution of such a crisis, for the establishment of special relations between the Bosnian Federation and Croatia, which is in the interests of both the Croat people and the Moslem people. "In connection with it let me say something else about opinions among our own people, in Croatian ranks, concerning the discussion about the construction of motorways, concerning the draft of the tripartite agreement among the United States, Croatia and Bosnia on the construction of the road Zagreb-Bihac-Drvar-Livno-Mostar- Dubrovnik. "Some of our people ask, why does it not pass through Croatian land. Well, for God's sake, we are returning to where King Tomislav came from. "We are making safe Croathood in the Federation, we are securing strategic interests of the Croatian state. Not to mention the fact that we are connecting not only northern Croatia with Dubrovnik, but also Europe with this part, that we are creating preconditions for Croatia never to be again in jeopardy, never to end on, as people used to say, three seas, north of Zadar or east of the Neretva ŠRiverĆ. "Therefore, it is understandable that we will not forget the direct connection of north Croatia, Zagreb with Zadar, Split, etc., but we have been entrusted with the historic task of securing the strategic interests of the Croatian people and the Croatian state and we will not let it pass by." (hina) lm/mb 242237 MET feb 98