PRESIDENT TUDJMAN'S SPEECH AT HDZ HEAD COMMITTEE (3)

ZAGREB, Dec 7 (Hina) - Continuing his speech at the HDZ Head Committee session, President Tudjman said that a group congregating around those questionable emigres was systematically expanding its activities to achieve its goal. "Besides opposition figures, they are trying to attract as many 'neutrals' - such as Zivko Kustic or Vice Vukov - as they possibly can, if only to take part in their special cultural or media shows," President Tudjman said, adding that a special TV network had already been set up to supply OTV and others with features in the run-up the 1997 elections. Besides the existing gutter press weeklies, the group's new projects included the publication of a serious weekly and possibly even a daily. Contacts with publishers, printers and editors had already been made and a substantial portion of the necessary half a million dollars had already been raised, in some cases with the assistance of certain embassies, in exchange for a promise to clear editorial policies with the embassy in question, Tudjman said. These new projects required a substantial outlay, in view of the fact that the existing projects had cost four million dollars in the past year. On the other hand, neither HDZ nor the democratic Croatian government had been able to raise funds to ensure the normal running of even the daily Vjesnik. "We, who had to take care of the defence and establishment of the state, do not have the funds, and those who are plotting against that state have them. The conclusion is obvious," Tudjman said. The group had even founded the Croatian Legal Centre in Zagreb and was allegedly paying dozens of attorneys to investigate war crimes in Croatia - but they did not say a word about the crimes committed by aggressors and terrorists in Vukovar, Skabrnja etc., only about imaginary crimes they said had been committed in the "Flash" and "Storm" operations, Tudjman said. "They are into education, providing assistance to libraries, kindergartens and secondary schools. What their goals are is obvious from the examples of Ivanic Grad and Samobor," Tudjman specified. Speaking of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, run by Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, which had a large workforce on its payroll, Tudjman drew attention to Cicak's overt statements on TV that he was receiving donations from five or six international organisations and foreign embassies in Zagreb. "And then we let him hold a rally in Jelacic Square, which he does without securing a permit as he is bound to do under the existing legislation, even though he is always paying lip service to the rule of law," Tudjman said. Meanwhile, the Cviic-Banac advisory headquarters was planning everything in advance, including shows, panels and papers to be read at international conferences, Tudjman said. The group had turned certain institutions, such as the Zagreb- based Dramatic Arts Centre, led by Vjeran Zupa and Nenad Puhovski, into their headquarters. "They have openly proclaimed that their goal is to internationalise the Croatian drama and all literary subjects, what's more - to eliminate the national element from Croatian art. That means the denationalisation of the Croatian culture, or de- ethnisation, to use Banac's scholarly expression. These are their planned targets! Naturally, they are not limited to culture," Tudjman said. In the same vein, a certain Osman Stuart from Australia, who is really a Croat from Iz island, had recently discussed with Banac and Cviic the formation of a think tank - a strategic centre where a brains trust would develop their democratic ideas, after the example of similar centres in London and the United States. "How is it possible that the Croatian PEN club is internationally represented by sympathisers of Banac and Cviic, like Prosperov-Novak and similar literary nonentities, and not the big names of Croatian literature, such as Petar Segedin, Ranko Marinkovic, Slobodan Novak, Dragutin Tadijanovic, Slavko Mihalic, Pero Budak, Ivan Aralica, Ivan Kusan, Hrvoje Hitrec, Nikola Milicevic, Pavao Pavlicic, Goran Tribuson, Vlatko Pavletic, Milivoj Slavicek, Ivo Frangec, Nedjeljko Fabrio, Ante Stamac, Dubravko Jelcic, Andelko Vuletic, Nedjeljko Mihanovic, Dubravko Horvatic, Josip Pavicic or Tomislav Sabljak?" Tudjman said. The PEN example proved how tenacious were the remnants of the Yugoslav-Communist regime and how new illusionists and haters of all that is Croatian were quick to seize their chance, infiltrating all the pores of society, Tudjman said. "In a nutshell, they tried to create a state within the state to destabilise Croatia. But with meagre results," he said. Every means was being used to persuade sympathisers and the general public that the Opposition was getting stronger while HDZ's reputation and influence were on the wane in Zagreb and in the whole of Croatia. Rigged opinion polls were being published, saying that HDZ didn't stand a chance of winning the election. President Tudjman summed up the results of an opinion poll carried out by the Institute for Applied Social Research in the first three weeks of October on a sample of 3,441 respondents from 419 towns and villages. Between 48 and 51 percent said they would vote for President Tudjman at presidential elections; betwen 10 and 13 % said they would vote for Gotovac, while 11-14% opted for Tomac and 5-8% for Tomcic. In conclusion, the latest objective polls proved that HDZ remained not only the central but the strongest party on the Croatian political scene, Tudjman said. Meanwhile, foreign elements acting in collusion with the above-mentioned group were already working on strategic plans for presidential elections and had already selected a candidate from the strongest opposition party, Tudjman said. Their policy was based on the assumption that only an alliance of opposition parties would be able to beat HDZ. Besides the Versailles background and the regional goals some had hoped to achieve by removing modern Croatia's democratic government, there were other reasons behind the pressure on Croatia to change. Croatia had been affected by both the presidential election in the United States and, to an even greater degree, the competition between the European Union and the United States. "Dissatisfied with the United States playing the lead role both in the resolution of the Bosnian crisis and in Croatia, because the new balance of forces and America's role in Dayton jeopardised their approach, certain European circles sought to discredit the Dayton Accord. And it was more advisable to blame difficulties and the desired failure on Croatia, than to directly accuse the United States," Tudjman said. Meanwhile, Croatia had grown into an independent force, perfectly able to deal with issues of survival as a nation and a state on its own, thwarting plans to force it to remain attached to the Yugoslav Balkan region. What stood most in the way of the realisation of their strategic goals in this part of Europea, namely, regional integration - it did not matter whether Balkan or South-East European - was Croatia under the leadership of HDZ and Tudjman, and so it should be removed, Tudjman said. At the beginning of last year, it had been rumoured in diplomatic circles that Milosevic, Izetbegovic and Tudjman as the main alleged culprits for the breakdown of Yugoslavia, should be removed within two to three years. "After the 'Flash' and 'Storm' operations, the fact that Croatia had grown into a strong and unavoidable international subject jeopardised those plans only to a certain extent - it also actualised them," Tudjman said, adding that speculations about the President's illness had only added fuel to those plans. Certain events on the Croatian political scene, which took place at the same time as the mass unrest in Belgrade and Sarajevo, were by no means a coincidence, he said. He quoted the example of a book Warren Zimmerman, the last US Ambassador to Belgrade (from 1989 to 1992), wrote about the causes of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the people who had brought it about. Another example was an International Herald Tribune editorial written by a reputable foreign policy commentator, Jim Hoagland, and a group of Washington Post journalists, published last September. The main thesis of the article was that Serbs did not constitute the greatest danger to Bosnia; rather, the person who most threatened Bosnia's future was Tudjman, the article asserted. Similar elucubrations were sometimes found in European paper as well, including the Italian paper "Corriere della Sera" and other Italian, English, Franch and German pepers, Tudjman said. "These articles are not voicing the official views of these countries, but we would be deluding ourselves if we failed to realise that they are reflected in plans whereby the central- European, Mediterranean, Catholic Croatia would be forced to enter into a regional integration with Balkan, Orthodox countries," President Tudjman concluded. (hina) mm as 072105 MET dec 96