KAJIN: ICTY DOESN'T PUT CROATIA ON TRIAL; DAMAGE CAUSED BY TUDJMAN'S OBSESSION WITH BORDERS OF BANOVINA

ZAGREB, April 7 (Hina) - Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) Vice-Chairman and member of parliament Damir Kajin told a news conference in Rijeka on Wednesday that the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal did put Croatia on trial and what caused and would cause damage to Croatia was the obsession of (the late President Franjo) Tudjman and (former Defence Minister Gojko) Susak to see Croatia within the borders of the 1939 Autonomous Banovina of Croatia.#L# The IDS leader does not believe that the Hague tribunal's indictments bring into question the legitimacy of the 1995 Storm Operation. Kajin stressed that it was the fact that Croatia was a victim of the aggression, but the UN tribunal was also trying to establish whether or not Croatia's army had been present in Bosnia-Herzegovina before the Split Agreement and the Washington Agreement. According to official data, the ICTY's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has been for years collecting data on activities of Croatian Armed Forces' units in Bosnia, Kajin added. He believes that all sides from the 1990s war should abandon plans to seek war damages as this would only generate hatred and intolerance, while the national economies could not survive the payment of damages. Commenting on the issue of restitution of property for or compensation to be paid to Esuli, ethnic Italians who left Croatia in the wake of the Second World War, Kajin said the real problem included slightly above 5,000 people who received confirmations that they had been erased from the lists of persons who had the then Yugoslav citizenship and whose property was nationalised. Of the said number, only 3,000 had property in the then Yugoslavia and they have now right to ask restitution of property, Kajin said. (Hina) ms