INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY COUNTS ON STABLE CROATIA - SAYS TUDJMAN

ZAGREB, Dec 14 (Hina) - "In creating the Croatian state, significant was the creation of the Croatian Army and Armed Forces, and this is what the Croatian state and people can found their all- round policy on," Croatian President and Armed Forces supreme commander Franjo Tudjman said on Monday. Tudjman's spoke at the opening of the Ban Josip Jelacic War School in Zagreb. Calling on prudence, strength, and unity in resisting the pressures Croatia is facing, the President said: "We also have to be ready for a long war, and the fact that never, under no price and no conditions must we capitulate." Tudjman stressed the necessity of preserving the unity of the Armed Forces and of the Croatian people. He added the establishment and strength of the Croatian state had depended on the Croatian army, and that it would be so in the future as well, regardless of how the situation might develop. Croatia's aspiration was inclusion into Euro-Atlantic security systems, but not at any price, the President said. This kind of integration must not be pointed out as the primary and only goal because, he explained, the first goal was the creation of an armed force serving Croatia's interest. "We must not allow ourselves to become someone's object, governed by others, either in the military or economic sense," said Tudjman. He stressed Croatia must retain independence in the political, military, strategic, and technological sense. "We must see to it that we do not become unilaterally oriented, because in world terms, a certain balance exists, despite Russia's economic crisis," the President said. He warned about various intelligence services active in Croatia in a variety of ways which, he said, monitor the situation in the country. These services, he added, had until recently worked on the creation of another Croatia which would not be independent in running a policy in its own interest. "With our policy we have forced them to abandon the notion of destabilising Croatia, and we have been given official assurances that the international community is counting on a stable Croatia," Tudjman said. "They gave up on pressuring us until a few days ago, when they headed with armoured vehicles towards Martin Brod (a border town between Croatia and Bosnia). I told them, if they pass, they must be stopped, not only with the police, but with the army too. Faced with that, they agreed to have border issues resolved by commissions in charge of resolving border issues," the President said. He added there were some other open border issues besides Martin Brod. Tudjman also said the war crimes tribunal in The Hague was preparing indictments against prominent Croatian generals as part of the pressures against Croatia. Speaking about the significance of strategy in contemporary war- waging, the President said not one strategic error had been committed in fighting for independent, sovereign Croatia, ever since day one, he explained, when Croatia resisted the former Yugoslav communist army and the Serbian aggression at a time when Europe and the United States wanted to preserve the former Yugoslav federation. (hina) ha mm