PRESIDENT TUDJMAN'S INTERVIEW WITH VATICAN RADIO AND TELEVISION (2)

( Editorial: --> 4818 ) ZAGREB, Oct 1 (Hina) - Vatican journalists were interested in whether inter-European dialogue was possible - which the Pope had called for back in November 1982, a dialogue of reconciliation which would lead to a just, united and democratic Europe - and what Croatia was doing regarding this. Today we have reached greater accord among European nations, European states, and even European powers than ever before in recent history, Tudjman said, and added: "Praiseworthy are the efforts of the Holy See and the Holy Father as the leading moral authority to direct all of us to find such relations in Europe which would prevent the erupting of new conflicts which we had in the past, as well as in this century. It seems to me that Europe only can be, as General (Charles) de Gaulle once said, a Europe of homelands and nations. Any attempt to form some unitary Europe by itself would mean an attempt at imposing hegemony or overriding by one or more European powers." Having learnt from its own history, Croatia also opted for such a Europe, a Europe of homelands and nations. The appearance of Karol Wojtyla as the Pope signified change, and was an important event in the life of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was searching for the possibilities of renewing its spiritual influence in the world by allowing religious services in national languages. The election of a Pope from Poland by itself meant a reversal, and was a far-sighted decision by Catholic circles on the renewal of Catholic and Christian civilisation, and in the then Communist countries. Karol Wojtyla's personality established him as the greatest moral authority in today's world, the Croatian President said. Tudjman was asked what the Croatian Government was doing in relation to calls by several countries for Croatia to guarantee full freedom of the media. "Those demands come from those international circles who cannot come to terms with Croatian freedom, Croatian democracy and Croatian independence (...), those circles who wanted to preserve Yugoslavia at any cost. "The Croatian people are one of the oldest European nations and they have no need to move closer to Europe because they were in Europe from its very beginnings. There are few nations in Europe who have such cultural and written monuments like the Croats." There exists a rich legal foundation of Croatian national consciousness and culture, Tudjman said pointing to several historic statutes. Ambitions to teach us parliamentary democracy are not based on a knowledge of Croatian history nor good intentions, but on particular interests on account of Croatia, he said. Even though it suffered aggression, which at one time meant one- third and until 1995 one-quarter of Croatian territory was under occupation, Croatia held elections even in those war circumstances. In these eight years of Croatian independence elections were carried out eight times, Tudjman said. "Concerning media freedom, it is so wide that part of it carries over into uncultured chaos. When we showed these defenders of European and American democracy, who constantly told us about this because they wanted another type of Croatia, what kind of freedom these opposition newspapers have and what they publish, they said 'disgusting, totally inconceivable'." Croatia was established on democratic principles, and is based on its own democratic constitution and implements democratic policies, Tudjman added. This raises the question of why are there such denials and unfounded opposition, despite Croatia achieving great success and economic stability? This is because many can not come to terms with the establishment of an independent democratic Croatia, and also because of good relations between today's democratic Croatia and the Catholic Church and the Vatican. Addressing the issue of Croatia's policy towards Bosnia- Herzegovina, Tudjman emphasised that for the cessation of hostilities in that country the Washington agreement had the greatest importance, as well as the agreement on establishing peace between Croats and Muslims in BH and on creating the Croat-Muslim Federation. We were only able to agree to the Croat-Muslim Federation on the condition that there would be confederal links with Croatia, as was outlined in the Washington agreement. These were not our proposals, but proposals from the United States of America and probably its allies. These confederal links were formulated in the Dayton accord as "special relations" between the Federation and Croatia, and applied to the Serb republic's links with Serbia and Yugoslavia. "I consider that ... a consistent implementation to their spirit and letter will indeed be the only base for resolving the very complicated Bosnian crisis." Commenting on the position of Serbs in Croatia, Tudjman recalled that the local Serb population had taken part in the aggression by the Yugoslav People's Army against Croatia. This historic fact has certainly left not only political but also deep moral- psychological consequences. This cannot be denied and cannot be conquered over night. We have done everything on our side to offer the hand of reconciliation to Serbs in Croatia who had raised arms against the Croatian authorities, and we have also stated we want normalised relations with Serbia and Yugoslavia. I believe that after political and military defeat, a major part, even the most responsible people in Serbia, have understood that they cannot build their relations towards Croatia on such imperialistic and aggressive undertakings, Tudjman said. It is important to achieve fully normalised relations between the Croatian and Serbian people as the two most important and largest nations in this region, President Tudjman. (Hina - to be continued) mbr jn/bs 020200 MET oct 98