PRESIDENT TUDJMAN RETURNS TO ZAGREB (1)

ZAGREB, Nov 23 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman returned from Washington to Zagreb at 9.00 hours on Saturday. Accompanying President Tudjman were his wife Ankica and son Miroslav. At the Zagreb airport, President Tudjman was warmly welcomed with the highest honors by his family members and highest state officials: Upon arrival at the airport, President Tudjman gave a short interview to reporters. Asked about his health, Tudjman said, "I feel well. It is understandable that after 11 days of hospital check-ups and treatment and 12 hours of traveling by car and plane, even young people would feel a little tired. However, I am satisfied, I am home, in our Zagreb, in our Croatia, among my people". Asked to comment on events which had happened in Croatia during his absence, Tudjman said, "First of all, I would like to thank the hundreds and thousands of Croatian people from the homeland and the whole world who phoned, sent letters, messages, wishes, concerned not only for my health, but also for Croatia. I want to tell them and the whole Croatian public that they do not have to worry for the future of Croatia. I am here, and not only I, but also all those who created the Croatian freedom, the sovereign Croatian state, Croatian democracy and we shall be consistent, together with all forces of democracy, with all people of good will and common sense, in strengthening Croatian freedom, Croatian state sovereignty, democracy and its legal system. We shall not allow the remains of the Yugo-Communist system to put all that into question". "(We shall neither allow) political dilettantes, mindless disoriented people, who do dot realize what is in fact being done in Croatia and the world concerning all sorts of regional plans (to jeopardize Croatia's sovereignty and independence). We shall not allow (this to be done) by those who (...) are linking themselves with all adversaries of Croatia's independence, not only linking, but also offering and selling themselves, and, as they themselves boast, who are receiving financial support from world centres," Tudjman said. He added that opponents of Croatia's independence were linking themselves with fundamentalist extremists, all sorts of phony preachers, as well as pseudo-democratic hoaxers who were today preaching great ideas about human rights and the freedoms of the media. "Indeed, we have created our Croatia for human rights and for the freedom of the media, for human rights for primarily most of the Croatian people, but we shall, of course, through the Croatian freedom and democracy, ensure the same human rights and freedom of the media to the minority. However, we shall not let solutions be imposed on us from the outside. Croatia will be nobody's colony. Croatia has long enough been under the control of Venice and Stambul and Vienna and Budapest and Belgrade. Croatia has obtained through struggle its freedom, its independence, its right to decide for itself about its destiny. The Croatian public, the Croatian people, can rest assured that the democratic majority of the Croatian people will know how to preserve its freedoms and the freedom of the media and its democracy, and that they will not allow this to be jeopardized as many people had written in their letters, people of all generations and professions, from academics to sports people, from children to mature adults. Be sure in yourselves, in the future of the Croatian people. Those who fall for (theses) that some kind of human rights and freedom of media have allegedly been endangered, I shall remind that the Croatian people, that us, who have created Croatia, knew how to learn from great ideas." 231503 MET nov 96