CROATIA'S RULING PARTY ISSUES ELECTORAL PROCLAMATION

ZAGREB, Feb 23 (Hina) - The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party issued a proclamation on Sunday ahead of elections scheduled for April 13. The following are highlights of the proclamation: The HDZ calls on you to take part in the elections for the upper House of Counties of the Croatian Parliament, for county assemblies, city and municipal councils, and thus exercise your civil right and perform your patriotic duty. We would never have attained national freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law if we had not established our independent state - Croatia. As a true expression of the people's will and determination to establish a sovereign, independent and democratic Croatian state, a society of freedom and justice, human rights, morality and work, personal happiness and welfare of all Croatian people and citizens, today, on the eve of elections, we are proud and satisfied. The HDZ and the Croatian people, through political and war victories, ensured the establishment of stable and democratic Croatia on the basis of social justice and the rule of law, strengthened an equal international position and reputation of Croatia as a central-European and Mediterranean country, and established a stable national currency, the kuna. The HDZ and the Croatian people, by passing the Croatian Constitution and modern legislation, enabled transition from Yugo-Communism to the Croatian democratic multi-party society, as well as transition from the inherited socialist ownership to pluralistic ownership and private enterprise, on the model of market economies. The HDZ and the Croatian people have built and repaired more than 30,000 houses for Croatian displaced people and 50 km of modern roads. The HDZ and the Croatian people solved the complex problem of denationalization, satisfying the righteous interests of the majority of citizens while at the same time protecting strategic interests of the national economy. As a people's and all-Croatian party with a programme based on the principles of Christian civilization, the HDZ offers a clear, comprehensive and well-worked-out programme for building a democratic Croatian society in which every Croatian citizen will have equal opportunities to attain happiness and wellbeing through his work and ability . The HDZ calls on the Croatian people and all Croatian citizens to finish what they started at the 1990 elections - the establishment of independent Croatia - by fully completing the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area by July 15 and bringing Croatia and its displaced persons back to Vukovar and the banks of the Danube river. The HDZ will create preconditions for improving living conditions and increasing the standard of living of all employees, pensioners and victims of the Homeland War. In 1997 we shall create 50,000 new jobs and ensure a seven percent increase in the gross domestic product, with an insignificant, two percent inflation rate. We will encourage investment and technology, and ensure favourable loans for private enterprises, the development of which, along with social justice, is the best way to increase the wealth of the country and the wellbeing of all its citizens. We will also ensure favourable long-term housing loans. We will ensure that strategic national and economic advantages of the Croatian Adriatic and of all Croatian regions are used for the speedy development and raising of living standards, without rashly selling national resources to foreign investors. We will protect Croatian farmers, encourage the development of family farms and ensure the production of sufficient amounts of food for our own needs, and even for export. We will remove all bureaucratic obstacles and take necessary steps to ensure the efficient legal protection of civil and human rights and freedoms and the functioning of the rule of law. The HDZ calls on all truly Croatian parties and on all Croatian citizens to achieve national unity on strategic issues and essential interests of Croatia as a basic precondition for a strong, economically prosperous, socially just and truly democratic Croatian state. (hina) ha vm jn 232052 MET feb 97