CROATIAN PRESIDENT'S PRESS CONFERENCE (II)

ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Asked by a reporter to comment on recent statments by US Ambassador Peter Galbraith, who had presented political views which could be interpreted as interfering in a country's internal affairs, President Tudjman said that such statments should be judged on the basis of foreign ambassadors' desire to contribute to a peaceful settlement. Tudjman added that Croatia was well within its rights to expect foreign ambassadors to bear in mind that they were representatives of their countries in Croatia, and that they should act in line with Croatia's constitutional order. Accordingly, they should not present proposals in such a way that would necessitate a change to the Constitution and the established constitutional and legal order of Croatia. Tudjman recalled that the Croatian Constitutional Law on minority rights was enacted under the framework of the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia to solve the problem of the Serb ethnic community in Croatia. The Law had the scope to solve issues at the level of international conventions. Asked if Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, as his ally, had told him that he would negotiate with Bosnian Serb leaders, Tudjman said no. "For four years Izetbegovic has been familiar with my views in which I have supported efforts aimed at solving the crisis in former Yugoslavia in a peaceful way - through negotiations - from that point of view I don't mind if Mr Izetbegovic, as a representative of the Bosnian Moslem people, negotiates with Pale (Serb headquarters outside Sarajevo)." "I'm not against negotiations, on the contrary, I favour a negotiated settlement that will end the war and the crisis in the former Yugoslavia, and create preconditions for a new international order in the former Yugoslavia, in this part of South-East Europe and the neighbouring Balkans, on the basis of the mutual recognition of states which have emerged and are emerging in the former Yugoslavia," Tudjman said. Asked if he expected Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic, to find a reasonable approach to resolving the crisis, Tudjman described Belgrade, and Milosevic personally, as the key factor in solving the problem of occupied Croatian areas. Tudjman said that Milosevic was to blame the most and he could not shirk the responsibility. "But I think - judging by certain political steps and the Belgrade public - they have begun to realise that they will have to give up the occupation of Croatian territories," Tudjman said. Speaking of a proposal by French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppe, to start a new round of talks for the peaceful resolution of the crisis in former Yugoslavia, Tudjman said that Croatia, in its search for a political settlement, had accepted Juppe's initiative as it had accepted all other initiatives presented so far within the International Conference on Former Yugoslavia, particularly those from the United States. Noting that the Bosnian crisis was a very complicated problem, Tudjman recalled that it was a centuries old crisis that major European and world powers tried to resolve at the Berlin Congress in the last century. The President said Europe, the US and Russia had to seriously deal with the issue which did not only involve a Moslem-Serb-Croat conflict and their delimitation but also the delimitation of civilizations in the region. In the end, international factors would have to solve the problem in a way which would be fair to all the three constituent peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Negotiations we're conducting to normalize Croatian-Serbian relations and solve the problem of occupied areas in Croatia do not include discussions on dividing Bosnia or talks at Bosnia's expense," Tudjman stressed. The resolution of the latent crisis which had always existed in former Yugoslavia, and overcoming the instability in the Balkans, can only be achieved through a 'Scandinavisation' of the Balkans. Or, in other words, on the basis of mutual recognition. Both the Croatian and Serbian peoples were the oldest and the most populous in the region, with most clearly defined features of statehood, and the main factors in establishing a new international order in the region. "It is a historic necessity and in the interest of not only Croatia and Serbia, but of all peoples in the region, and Europe, to normalise Croatian-Serbian relations as a precondition for creating a new international order in this part of South-East Europe," Tudjman said. (hina) jn sd vm 101947 MET feb 95