RETIRED GENERAL TUS GRANTS INTERVIEW TO 'NOVI LIST'

ZAGREB, Sept 29 (Hina) - A retired Croatian general, Anton Tus, maintains that President Franjo Tudjman "often subordinated military operations to political decisions" during the liberating war against the then Yugoslav Army (JNA) and Serb rebels. In his interview to Rijeka's daily 'Novi list' on Saturday's issue, Tus cited, as proof of his claim, the examples of the halting of attacks on several (JNA-held) military barracks in the 1991 summer and the halting of attempts to lift the siege around the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar . General Tus said that Tudjman opposed his suggestions, in the end of 1992, to "take (Bosnian) Sava river area and western Bosnia" and his proposals to try to do the same three years later in the wake of the liberating operation "Storm". Speaking of disagreement between him and Tudjman who is the chief commander, Tus said that Tudjman assessed that attacks against military barracks would be too risky as he thought that the "JNA will destroy everything," Tus said and added that "barracks in Karlovac, Delnice, Samobor, Buna, … were taken without the (given) go-ahead." He also said that he did not obey the command when he decided to seize the military barracks in Bjelovar and he regarded that the taking of the barracks prevented the armoured brigade ( in that barracks) to "join enemy forces east of Daruvar .. and cut off the entire Podravska highway." Being the Croatian Army chief-of-staff at the time Tus assessed that the break through the enemy circle round Vukovar in the mid-October 1991 would have been successful if President Tudjman had not stopped the attack and allowed the passage of a humanitarian convoy (of Doctors without Frontiers) under the pressure of the then chairman of the European Union, Van den Broek. We had liberated a half of Marinci (a village) and we had no obstacles after the village, Tus explained. For the siege of Vukovar, the then Yugoslav Army engaged about 600 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, a huge number of pieces of artillery weaponry and several dozen thousand well- armed soldiers, whereas its air force dominated the sky. After leaving the post of the Croatian Army chief-of-staff, Gen. Tus was the chief military advisor to President Tudjman for three years until autumn in 1995. (hina) jn mš 292219 MET sep 97