CROATIAN PRESIDENT ADDRESSES GATHERING IN VUKOVAR

VUKOVAR, June 8 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman made a speech at the war-shattered railway station in Vukovar on Sunday after arriving aboard a "Peace Train" along with government and parliament officials. "Above all, we should be Christians who know how to forgive. (…) A victor who doesn't know how to forgive sows the seeds of new divisions and future evils. The Croatian nation doesn't want that, it didn't want all that we suffered here in Vukovar and all over Croatia," Tudjman said. Speaking on behalf of the Croatian state delegation, Tudjman thanked "all those who have come on the Train of Peace, the Train of Reconciliation, as well as all those who have met them here with the same intentions." "Our arrival in Vukovar - the symbol of Croatian suffering, Croatian resistance, Croatian aspirations for freedom, Croatian desire to return to its eastern borders on the Danube, of which the Croatian national anthem sings - is a sign of our determination to really achieve peace and reconciliation, to create confidence for a permanent coexistence in the future and to never allow what has happened to us to recur," he stressed. "We have no other choice but to make every effort to overcome those evils and forget them as soon as possible." Tudjman particularly thanked UN Transitional Administrator Jacques Klein for his "inspired words" and for everything he had done in cooperation with the Croatian government and the local Serb population, who have realised that this region was part of Croatia and that their destiny is also in Croatia. The process of peaceful reintegration of the Danube region into Croatia's constitutional and legal system is nearing completion and all of us together - Croats, Serbs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Ruthenians and others - can now build our lives to the interest of our municipalities, towns, counties and the entire country, Tudjman said. The Train for Vukovar also symbolises the return of displaced persons who have spent more than six years away from their homes and who are ready to return and extend a hand of reconciliation to those who did not bloodied their hands as war criminals, he said. "In this regard, I appeal to them, as well as to the Serb population, not to allow extremists to upset our intentions. As you know, extremists can be found everywhere but it is up to reasonable people to prevent them in the interests of the majority, in the interests of human and divine love, so as not to allow more evils which we have suffered and survived," Tudjman said. This train marks not only the beginning of the final return of displaced people but it is also a proof of the overall concern of Croatian authorities and all public institutions to rebuild this devastated region as soon as possible and to reintegrate it into the overall social, economic and culture life of Croatia, the President said. For the local Serb population, the Peace Train means the establishment of trust and the guarantee of all their civil and ethnic rights, clearly, on condition that they really accept the Croatian state as their homeland and to remove all extremists, Tudjman said. "Croatia's leadership, I, as the President, and the Government, have granted all those who did not commit war crimes forgiveness and general amnesty and pardon," Tudjman said, adding he expected full trust and cooperation from the local population. The Croatian state has been creating economic and all other conditions so that all Croatian citizens living in the Danube river region, regardless of whether they are Croats, Serbs, Hungarians or Ruthenians, can live under the same conditions. That, of course, cannot be only the concern of Croatian authorities but of all of us, Tudjman said. There was a lot of doubt as to whether the Train was necessary, Tudjman said, stressing he had given assurances, both to General Klein and to all others, that "it is necessary for all of us to enter Vukovar as representatives of the whole of Croatia and to see with our own eyes the ruins, so that you could realise together with me, you from the Government and you prefects, that we have to consistently implement the policy of reconciliation, peace and creation of conditions for co- existence". "There can be no deviation from such policy, and all those who refuse to implement that policy are not acting in line with general state interests and are therefore acting against the interests of every individual here and in the whole country", Tudjman said. Tudjman also directed a request to Mr Stanimirovic and local Serb representatives: "Do not expect that Croatia is yet to prove that it is a democratic country. The fact that Croatia is a democratic country and that it wanted a peaceful solution was proved by the fact, which I mentioned in Beli Manastir, that after 'Flash' and 'Storm' we did not use weapons because we did not want all the Serbs to leave". "We wanted a democratic solution and we are a democratic country. What we are doing, we are doing not under the pressure of Europe or America, but because we want to give Serbs who want to stay and who recognise Croatia all civil and ethnic rights. That is because in their past the Croats suffered a lot of evil at the hands of others - of Hungarians, Germans, Italians and the Great-Serbian hegemony, and we do not want to do you an injustice, we want to give you full equality, but we also expect of you to be completely loyal to the Croatian state," Tudjman said. "We want the Croatian people to be sovereign in its Croatian state, and you Serbs and Hungarians and all others, to enjoy all civil and ethnic rights. We guarantee it to you, I guarantee it as the state leader, together with all Parliament and Government members, all prefects, whom I pledge to implement such policy. Accept it and our future and welfare will be secured". The Croatian state leadership and local Serb representatives have achieved a high level of agreement and large steps have been made in the peaceful reintegration after the elections. The process should now be completed without foreign tutorship, Tudjman said. Tudjman recalled the U.N. Protection Force (UNPROFOR), adding it had been dismissed "after we saw that it did not serve our goals - the establishment of sovereignty and creation of conditions for harmonious living of all Croatian citizens. We accepted UNTAES because it pledged itself, on behalf of the international community - the United Nations and the United States of America as the leading world power - to secure peaceful reintegration of the Danube river region into Croatia". We have achieved our goal, let us complete the task to the benefit of Croatia and its citizens, and not only to their benefit, let us make this operation one of the most successful peace operations in the world, let it be our contribution to the solution of the crisis in the wider area of former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia, and let it be our contribution to and support for the normalisation of relations with the neighbouring Serbia, that is, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tudjman said. All those Serbs, Croatian citizens, who took Croatian citizenship certificates and who are living in Vukovar County, in the neighbouring Osijek-Baranja County, and in the whole of the Croatian Danube river region, will be able, if they want to, to return to their homes in western parts of Croatia, from Pakrac to Knin, Tudjman said. 14,500 of them have already returned, he said, adding that those who do not want to return will receive compensation for their property and go wherever they want. For humanitarian reasons Croatia would solve individual cases also of those Serbs who fled Croatia despite the fact that he, as the head of the state, had called on them to stay, Tudjman said. We would solve individual cases, like family reunions, for humanitarian reasons, Tudjman said. Of course, the return of all 150,000 or 200,000 Serbs was out of the question, he said, adding that it could cause new dissension and war. No one in the world could force Croatia to do it, he added. Anyway, the Serbs themselves did not want to return, more than 90% of them would not return, Tudjman said. "After World War I, around 1,5 million people who used to call themselves Turks had left these regions for Turkey, and about one million Greeks left for Greece. After World War II, there were more than 12 million displaced in Europe", Tudjman said. Let's create conditions for a peaceful existence of the Croatian people, the Serb and other ethnic communities in Croatia, let's create conditions for normalization, good neighbourly relations between Croatia and Serbia, that is, Yugoslavia, Tudjman said, and reiterated that the arrival of Croatia's state leadership was a sign of willingness and determination of the whole of Croatia to realize this difficult task. But the realisation of that task required "cooperation of us all, the Serb population and the Hungarian ethnic community, Ruthenians and others with whom, after all, we haven't had problems, who also were victims both of the Yugocommunist aggression and the Greater Serbia imperialism", Tudjman said. "We have drawn conclusions from our history, you should draw conclusions and lessons from your history, and never again allow to be the instrument of some policy which threatens your very lives, your survival in the regions where you have lived for centuries", the President said. Tudjman recalled that he had appointed a special commission, headed by Jure Radic, a vice premier and Development and Reconstruction Minister, which, considering the organization of the local authority established after the April municipal election, and with the aim to coordinate both municipal authorities and the Croatian Government, should solve all difficulties on the spot and inform him about problems. "Therefore, we really want to carry out what we say. Both you and I know very well that it won't be easy, that it will take time to get over it in the moral and psychological sense", President Tudjman said, and appealed to all to take part in this, and allow no individual incidents to happen, but to work in the interest of all. Immense had been the suffering of Croatian displaced persons, who suffered most, with human losses, material losses, and who for six years lived in very difficult conditions, who looked at their demolished homes, "but of them too I demand that they have patience until we reconstruct their homes and return them to their homes. To you who have been here I say: offer them your assistance, so that they can forget and heal their wounds as soon as possible," President Tudjman said. He reminded all prefects of the duty of each Croatian county, including the capital of Zagreb, to undertake even a symbolic act of reconstruction of a building in the ravaged area. Tudjman said he also expected Serb representatives from the area to cooperate with Serb representatives from other parts of Croatia where, from Zagreb to Rijeka, they were more numerous than here. President Tudjman pointed out that Serbs in Croatia lived and worked undisturbed, about 45,000 Serbs lived in Zagreb, taught at colleges, worked in the Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, in diplomacy. He added that he had appointed two Serb representatives in the Croatian Parliament's House of Counties, while assistant ministers and advisors of Serb nationality had also recently been appointed, in line with their proposal. "Therefore, on our part, we are indeed doing everything, and I expect that you will do the same", Tudjman said. "So if I ask displaced persons and others to forget, to give you the hand of reconciliation, it is understood that I, and the whole Croatian authority as well, have the right to ask you to accept this hand with gratitude, and to take part in the building of Croatia", the President said. He recalled that on 1 June, Croatia's legislation had been introduced in the Danube region, and Croatia's currency, the kuna, had become the legal means of payment. Vehicle registration had begun, in line with Croatian regulations and with benefits that other citizens in Croatia and returnees did not have; the post and telecommunications system had been reintegrated, the minister of health had accepted proposals to take over hospitals in Vukovar and Beli Manastir, together with the staff. Croatian legislation would be applied in all these areas, but not restrictively, Tudjman said. He added, however, that no incidents must occur, like the one which happened a week ago, when a bridge was destroyed to prevent the arrival of the Peace Train. There was also some shooting aimed to prevent today's gathering. "You must see who these extremists are by yourselves, and remove them, so that they could not disturb the normalization of relations", Tudjman said, pointing out that neither international nor Croatian police could do that. In Vukovar alone, the Croatian Reconstruction Ministry had begun the reconstruction of 2,000 flats, the President said, adding that Croatia had ensured means for 1,500 of them. "We expect assistance and financing from the international community, which has up to now been non-existent", he further said, and added that preparations for the reconstruction of about 2,500 family houses in other parts of the Croatian Danube region were under way, as well as those for the reconstruction of water and power supply and road infrastructure. To date, reconstruction means had been provided only by Croatia, which was a large construction site, Tudjman said, pointing out that more than a fourth of Croatia had been ravaged by the war. Therefore, he said, "you cannot expect us to reconstruct all this overnight, you must make efforts so that we can repair this together, as soon as possible, so that we can dedicate ourselves to normal living". Tudjman also recalled that Croatia's oil company INA employed a large number of those who had worked at its sites in Djeletovci during the occupation (353 out of 490 employees requested to stay at INA). 312 mostly Serb employees had already signed work contracts with Croatian Railways. We aren't performing any discrimination, but we must return displaced Croats to these areas as well, Tudjman said. "If a displaced Croat comes, don't say we persecute Serbs. We do not", he pointed out. Croatia's President once again appealed to all displaced Croats, Hungarians and Ruthenians, and all who had been exiled from these areas, to show the maturity they had demonstrated so far. He told them that UNTAES' mandate was in its final phase, and that peaceful reintegration could be concluded by joint efforts of General Klein's transitional administration, international organizations, Croatian authority and local Serbs who accept the Croatian state, who must stop all those who made obstacles along the way. "We have come a long way in the peaceful reintegration", President Tudjman said, adding that "we could achieve a lot more, if you give each other a hand, you who stay and you who will come, if you assist in the reconstruction of houses, roads, homes, and if you create conditions for co-existence, in the interest of you individuals, in the interest of each municipality, regardless of whether the majority of the population in it is Croatian or Serb, since it is in the interest of this region, in the interest of the Croatian state - the independent, sovereign, democratic Croatian state, which is a member of the United Nations, which is an international subject without which nothing in this area can be solved". "Therefore, all that we are doing is not only in local interest, but in the general interest of Croatia, Europe, in the interest of peace, the future of this region and Europe. May the Croatian people long live together with the Serb and other ethnic communities in this region, long live the only and eternal Croatia", the President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, said at the end of his address in Vukovar. (hina) vm rm ha jn 082340 MET jun 97