NEW CROAT INITIATIVE ACCUSES RIVALS OF USING PRESSURE AND ABUSE

( Editorial: --> 5591 ) SARAJEVO, Aug 24 (Hina) - Leaders of the New Croat Initiative (NHI) on Monday accused their Bosnian Croat political rivals of using systematic intimidation and attacks on the party's supporters. The NHI also announced it would organise its own protection to allow its planned political rallies to go ahead freely right up to the September 12 and 13 nation-wide elections. NHI president Kresimir Zubak, the incumbent Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, told a press conference in Sarajevo that the tearing down of his party's election posters had escalated in recent times throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. He said this was especially the case after last week's meeting of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) leadership with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. The NHI was only recently formed by disaffected members of the HDZ BiH, which is Bosnia's major Croat political force and the Bosnian wing of Croatia's governing party. "We did not expect the HDZ BiH to have such a negative attitude towards us," Zubak said, emphasising how the NHI had called on its supporters to not react in this way towards other parties and their promotional material. He also said that in recent days the HDZ BiH in central Bosnia had been delivering huge amounts of purchased agricultural products which could not be sold in the southern Croatian region of Dalmatia. "If this is a way of attempting to gain votes, then this is degrading for the Croat man," Zubak said. The NHI leader confirmed today that his party was dissatisfied with its treatment by the media in neighbouring Croatia, especially Croatian Radio Television (HRT). He said that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) reaction to the unequal treatment of political parties in HRT programmes was to be expected. Zubak also accused the HDZ BiH of trying to manipulate members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) for pre-election purposes. He said there was evidence that two Bosnian Croat generals on August 20 held a meeting in Novi Travnik with several political officials and priests from central Bosnia and demanded they support the HDZ BiH in their activities. NHI vice-president Ivo Lozancic told reporters that some HVO members had openly talked about receiving commands which obliged them to attend HDZ BiH election rallies in civilian clothes. He claimed the NHI's political rivals were using the military and police to settle accounts. Lozancic also accused the HDZ BiH together with "a part of the Croatian state leadership" of trying to destroy the NHI. "If this continues we will have to organise a Croatian people's protection," he said adding that such protection should guarantee the unhindered holding of election rallies. (Hina) mbr/ha 241809 MET aug 98