In response to the the video footage of his speech which the Index.hr portal showed on Saturday, President Stjepan Mesic told the Croatian Radio on Sunday that he also doubted the authenticity of the video.
"I cannot remember exactly where it was. This was obviously when I held no official state post, and when I was a high-ranking official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and when we were at a rally in the Diaspora where there were many nostalgic about the NDH. But we should get them for our cause and make them realise that it was anti-Fascism that won the Second World War, and that we, Croats, participated in that victory and sat the the table with the winners," Mesic told the Croatian Radio.
He went on to say that In that speech he wanted to say that in 1941 Croats were divided - while some of them welcomed the establishment the NDH and the arrival of German tanks as they believed that it was the establishment of Croatia and that it was important to leave the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, others joined the Partisans.
"I have never supported NDH crimes and what the NDH was. I only noted (in that speech) that a part of countries recognised such NDH and in a way, I made a concession to those standing in front of me and listening to me, and who believed that the NDH was being restored. But at the end (of the speech) I tell them: 'We were at the victorious side at the end of the (WWII) war'," Mesic explained.
As regards the issue of the NDH-run Jasenovac concentration camp, Mesic said he had wanted to negate what was claimed in Serbia when they said that 1.5 million Serbs had been killed there, which the Croatian president labelled as historical falsification.
I wanted our people to homogenise so as to defend Croatia which was established on an anti-Fascist basis, Mesic said.
Asked by a radio reporter whether he wondered why at this moment this contentious video appeared and who he thought was behind this, Mesic said he was not surprised.
He said that the appearance of such a video public was an attempt to make the public forget plunder and privatisation, war profiteering, mobsters who plundered Croatia and forget that it is necessary to individualise guilt "as we can see who is against the individualisation of guilt".
Damage was always done to Croats when they had to answer for acts individuals committed. Now, we have created such an atmosphere in Croatia in which individuals should answer for what they have done, and when it is up to court to establish who should answer.(...) Some, however, would like to make the entire Croatian people take over responsibility for what individuals have done, Mesic said.
"These murky circles would like to discredit me or at least, make me not trustworthy, so that Croatia can be pushed in some sort of NDH. However, they will not succeed, their attempts are doomed to failure," Mesic said.
Asked by the reporter about the authenticity of the video footage, Mesic said he could not remember the time or place when it had been.
In this context Mesic said he doubt that there were some attempts to tailor the video and that it was evident that some interventions were done, adding that he believed that the speech was not delivered in Austria but in Australia.