VECERNJI LIST COMMENT PIECE: "HANGING THE SCAPE-GOAT"

ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - Today's VECERNJI LIST carries a comment piece by Mirko Galic, headlined "Hanging the Scapegoat," which discusses the accusations against Croatian forces levelled by UN sources after the highway action in western Slavonia. "They had a cliche all ready - that the Croatian authorities 'separated husbands and fathers from their wives and children', that they 'isolated the Serbs,' 'took away the soldiers'... Could they have done anything else? "The best would have been, I repeat, for the Croatian authorities to have taken over western Slavonia without a bullet. But who asked for a fight? And what should have been done afterwards? Should they have given medals to those who took up arms against legitimate Croatian authorities? Or rather interrogate the gunmen? It is not unimportant how this interrogation was carried out and if the adversaries were respected as people? The dignity and credibility of the Croatian state are at stake: by respecting laws, it confirms its legitimacy; by guaranteeing freedom and equality to all its citizens, it ensures its own stability. The Croatian authorities did separate fathers and children, husbands and wives - but didn't the men return to their homes, or at least start to return? And what about the separated Croatian husbands and fathers who had been taken away and never heard of since? Croatia is expected to be perfect; I can live with that. But do those who forget the 1991 prisoners have the right to demand perfection from Croatia? What moral standard is this? What policy? Or are they two different standards and two policies? "There is not the least doubt that Croatia has a responsibility to all its citizens - but the citizens also have a responsibility to Croatia. Have all those 'world factors' who are now busy hanging the scape-goat, thought of this?," Galic muses. (hina) jn as 111215 MET may 95