CROATIA CELEBRATES 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE ON TUESDAY

ZAGREB, June 24 (Hina) - Five years ago, on 25 July 1991, the Croatian Parliament passed the first constitutional acts which established the independent and sovereign Republic of Croatia. On the basis of a referendum, the Parliament issued a Constitutional decree on the sovereignty and independence of Croatia and a Declaration on the establishment of the sovereign and independent Croatia, as well as a Charter on the rights of Serbs and other nationalities in Croatia. "That 25 June 1991 will remain inscribed in the history of Croatian statehood with golden letters," president of Parliament Vlatko Pavletic told Hina. The former president of the Parliament, in 1991, Zarko Domljan, stressed that the "Declaration is the first, crucial and basic document which formally expresses the wish of the Croatian people for an independent state". #L# "From that historical moment, Croatia established all institutions on which a democratic state lies," Pavletic said, adding that the Parliament "passed an enormous amount of laws," that Croatia had a currency which was one of the most stable in Europe, that the Croatian market had been fully open during the war, that during the war the government had not censured the media and that Croatia had built "such an administrative system and military and police organization which had taken several decades for other countries to establish". "All this is the reason why we feel that the independent and sovereign Croatia exists much longer that it really does," Pavletic said. "Croatia must take care about the interests of the state and the Croatian people, but it must consider the interests of the European and world community, and find a balance," Pavletic said. "The independent Croatian state exists from the day the Parliament accepted the Declaration," Domljan said. He pointed out that the participants in all talks on the succession of the former Yugoslavia accepted this date as the date of the beginning of the independent Croatian state. "All interpretations of later events resulted from this Declaration, for example of the succession, the interpretation of the attack of the former Yugoslav People's Army on Croatia as an international conflict, not as an interior conflict, civil war or some other conflict, which results in the violation of international laws, war crimes, and all other interpretations," Domljan said. He recalled that the Parliament had issued the Declaration on the basis of the results of a referendum from 19 May 1991. "The positive result of the referendum at which more than 94 percent of the total Croatian population, whatever their nationality, party membership or any other affiliation, expressed their wish for an independent Croatia, gave us a strong basis for issuing of such a document, Domljan stressed, adding that on the same day, the Slovenian Assembly also issued such a declaration, based on agreement. Slovenia celebrates this day as statehood day. Domljan stressed that the Parliament also issued a document which took into consideration the reserves of a certain section of the population towards the new authority in Croatia. At the same time when the Parliament issued the Declaration, it granted a Charter on the rights of Serbs and other nationalities in the Republic of Croatia, Domljan recalled. (hina) lm mm 241149 MET jun 96