by Anita MASLENICA
After watching that tape, we decided to take out several important questions addressed to Mesic.
To the question about what he thought about the defense of Gospic, Mesic said the following:
The same person in 2000, after the murder of Milan Levar, commenting on the situation in Gospic and replying to the question why he was not going to the Olympic Games in Sidney, gave a laconic answer:
"Among other, I am afraid that someone from Gospic may go there, so that I could meet the same fate as Milan Levar."
Asked to comment on the situation in Croatia after the Greater Serbian aggression, Mesic said the following:
"In Croatia we have an aggressive war of Serbia against Croatia. The war started when we decided to protect our interests; we experienced an aggression because Serbia wanted to rule others and now they are destroying our towns and villages, burning our houses. Those people came uninvited. After Serbia pays war damages, I believe that the time for the normalization of relations will come.
"Those Serbs from Croatia who rebelled and took up arms against Croatia lost one homeland, and what their life in another homeland will be like, we shell see. However, they have nothing to look for in Croatia," Mesic said in 1992 in Switzerland.
However, now the Croatian president supports the plan of the international community and is calling all Serbs who left Croatia after the operations "Flash" and "Storm" to come back. To back that up he states that as a president of all the citizens of Croatia he apologizes to everyone for everything.
President Mesic's words from 1992 give the best illustration of the character of the Homeland War. We quote:
"We must tell the world and everyone that in Croatia there is no civil war, there is no inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflict. That is a conflict of the Serb aggressor and the Croatian Army and policemen."
To the question whether there was an agreement between President Franjo Tudman and Slobodan Milosevic about a division of Bosnia-Hercegovina, at the time the closest collaborator of Franjo Tudman, and now the president of Croatia, Stipe Mesic said:
Furthermore, Mesic added that Alija Izetbegovic and Kiro Gligorov calculated, believing that the war would not spread to their borders.
"Alija was convinced that there would be no war in Bosnia-Hercegovina and that Milosevic would not attack him. However, you saw what happened," concluded Mesic.
To the question whether he supported annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina to Croatia, Mesic said:
"As far as I am concerned, I do not have anything against that. However, our priority is to chase Chetniks out of Croatia and then we shall resolve our borders by agreement," Mesic said to gathered Craots provoking an enthusiastic applause.
Furthermore, he said that the task of Croatia is to take care of Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina because that is indivisible Croatian interest, and added that one must not divide Croats in the common struggle for the final and thorough victory both in Croatia and Herceg-Bosna.
by Anita MASLENICA
To the question why the HDZ authorities were treating Dobrosav Paraga so roughly and whether Paraga was with his army in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Mesic had the following to say about his current political ally:
"Paraga does not have an army. These are stories for kids. In Bosnia-Hercegovina Croats and Muslims are organized against the aggression from Serbia, which is similar to that against Croatia. If a person who charged Banski Dvori at the time when 200 tanks started towards Croatia is a fighter for Croatia, then you should applaud Paraga.
"Your Paraga, at the time when the HDZ created a state, was in another state, and with a Slovenian passport. He sat in New York, while we were destroying the Communist regime."
Croatian emigrants were also commended by Stipe Mesic for their participation in the creation of the Republic of Croatia. Moreover, he specifically said that Croatia was under blockade and without an opportunity to arm herself and that the financial support that came from abroad was crucial for Croatia.
"I know the meaning of 'Club 100'. That is the club that collects money for Croatia's needs. Croatian institutions then establish priorities and everything is under Government's control," Mesic stated in Buchs.
And in the pre-election campaign for the parliamentary elections in early 2000 Stipe Mesic forcefully advocated the view that Croats living abroad should be denied their representatives in the Parliament and furthermore, that they should be allowed to vote only if they pay taxes in Croatia. The gathered Croats wanted to know how Stipe Mesic assessed the role of the last Yugoslav Prime Minister, Ante Markovic [an ethnic Croat].
"He wanted to create a third Yugoslavia. However, Ante Markovic will be remembered as the last Yugoslav Prime Minister. Therefore, in 1992 he is in Zagreb and awaiting a pension from Belgrade," emphasized Mesic and finished with a punch line: "and he will never get it!"
However, let us recall, in 2000 Ante Markovic on several occasions met with Croatian president and there were rumors that he was supposed to become the president's advisor for economy.
To the question from the audience whether there was any need for the creation of a new Yugoslavia or other associations, Stipe Mesic had a definite answer:
"There is no need to return to a small integration if all of us can join the greater European home," which was rewarded by strong applause.
However, in 2000 in Zagreb the Summit of the Western Balkan Region was held and many justifiably wonder what happened with individual approach to the European home.
Asked in the end to reveal whether he wears a beard because he is hiding a letter U under it, Mesic jokingly responded that he was asked a similar question on the Serbian TV and replied that he had no tattooed letters on his body. However, he added:
"Ustashe were the ones who wanted the Croatian state. They simply used their chance given by historical circumstances to establish a state. Croats were not fascists, but wanted their state," asserted Mesic in front of gathered Croats in Switzerland, adding:
"Even if there were crimes, it was in a war in which everyone fought everyone else."
"The war being led against Croatia is a Greater Serbian aggression whose goal is to destroy everything standing in the path of the creation of Greater Serbia, and the targets are kindergartens, churches, schools," the current Croatian President said in 1992, and now he easily ignores statements that Croatia was created by terror.
Furthermore, in 1992 Mesic spoke how Serbs turned themselves into victims, starting with Knin, Plitvice Lakes, and over the Log-revolution.
The president of the HND in his statement stresses that he does not want to give a political assessment of the relations between the management of Slobodna Dalmacija and the President of the Republic, moreover because neither the Zagreb nor Split branches of the HND have said anything about this case and they are far better qualified to do so.
In the enclosure of the statement one can find the letter sent by Anita Malenica to the president of the trade union of journalists of Slobodna Dalmacija Davorka Blazevic, in which Malenica informs her that she was leaving the trade union.
In that letter Malenica states that president Mesic brutally condemned her and the newspaper she works for because of the article whose accuracy hasn't been brought into question. She emphasized that she expected that the Trade Union of the journalists of Slobodna Dalmacija protect her as its member, but as the Trade Union hasn't said anything four days after President's statement, she on October 1 left the trade union.
Anica Malenica in the end says that she keeps the right to stay in the Trade Union of the Journalists of Croatia.