The participants said they would not recognise the recently established coalition government in Bosnia's Croat-Bosniak entity (Federation) which they accused of ignoring the will of a majority of Croats who went to the polls for the general elections last October.
The Assembly requests the amending of the Constitution in a way that will ensure equal status for the Croats as enjoyed by the Bosniaks and the Serbs. In this regard, it asks for a thorough reform of the constitution, the modification of the internal territorial organisation and the establishment of several federal units with at least one of them being predominantly populated by Croats.
The leader of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH), Dragan Covic, was elected as the HNS presidency's chairman, and Bozo Ljubic of the HDZ 1990 was elected the chairman of the HNS Main Council, a body with political and executive powers set up to coordinate political authority in the Croat-populated areas.
Covic said that all decisions adopted today complied with the Constitution and laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He later told a news conference that Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor had expressed support to the HNS moves.
Branko Vukelic, who attended the Mostar meeting as the envoy of Jadranka Kosor, Croatia's PM and HDZ leader, said that Zagreb offered unequivocal support to efforts to ensure equality of the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina which he said "must remain the homeland of the Croat people".
The HNS was established on 28 October 2000 in Novi Travnik as an informal body consisting of elected Croat representatives from municipal councils and the cantonal, entity and state parliaments. The purpose of its establishment was to warn that the elected Croat representatives in the authorities were not equal to representatives of the other two peoples, the Serbs and the Bosniaks. On March 3, 2001, the HNS declared Croat self-rule in order to oppose decisions of the entity and state authorities which did not include political parties which won most Croat votes, primarily the HDZ BiH. The establishment of the self-rule was met with criticism from the international community that later blocked the operations of the Hercegovacka Banka deeming it to be the main financier of that political project.
The body was never formally dissolved, but it ceased its activities and the Croat self-rule was dissolved in late 2001, when HDZ deputies started attending sessions of the entity and state parliaments.
Today's gathering began with the adoption of a statement condemning the recent judgement by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the case of three Croatian generals. The statement particularly criticised the trial chamber's ruling that there was a joint criminal enterprise, which is also alleged in the indictment against six Bosnian Croat war-time leaders who are awaiting the outcome of their trial before the Hague-based tribunal.
Operation Storm was a legitimate military and police operation in which Croatian forces liberated Croatia's areas and paved the way for the cessation of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the conclusion of a peace agreement, reads the statement. Croatia's generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac were found guilty of war crimes for their roles in the August 1995 Operation Storm when Croatia's troops retook central and southern areas from rebel Serbs.
Croatia's Ambassador to Bosnia, Tonci Stanicic and Bosnian Croat Catholic dignitaries were also present while there were no high-ranking international diplomats.
The session was covered by over 100 reporters with the TV1 Sarajevo television station broadcasting it live.
The Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HSP BiH) and the Prosperity Through Work Party, which together with the Social Democrats formed the new government in Bosnia's Federation entity, recently said they would not attend the HNS conference in Mostar, describing it as a political conference of the two HDZ parties.