by Anita MALENICA
SLOBODNA DALMACIJA: What is your assessment of the rallies in support of General Norac in Split and Zagreb?
ROJS: The rally in Split was really imposing. Nothing else could have been expected from the great Croat city of Split. Such a rally will never be repeated. As far as the rally in Zagreb in concerned, I support it as well, because it was in support of General Norac. And its goal was to draw attention to everything that was happening with Norac and around Norac. However, if there are no positive changes soon, I announce a glorious rally in Zagreb, that will gather more than half a million of Croats.
I did not pay for that train with HDZ money. My friends and I paid for the disabled war veterans from the Homeland War. But, at the same time, let me ask you how come the Zagreb mayor [SDP member] provided logistical support for the rally and no one questioned that? Similarly, if these were disabled war veterans and families of slain defenders who traveled to Split, why didn't Ivica Pancic, the Minister for Croatian War Veterans, who until recently complained that he had no roof above his head and that he was an expelled person living in a hotel, did not give up a lavish wedding ceremony in the Hotel Intercontinental and, if it is true that the wedding cost $25,000, reduced the costs a bit and donated the rest of the money for the train tickets to Split?
Therefore, let me repeat, my friends and I collected 82,000 kunas and paid for a train to Split. That was our contribution so that our friends could attend the glorious rally in Split, the hero city. We are similarly prepared to help when trains travel from Split to Zagreb. It is my problem what I do with my own money.
During the last two-three days you were the main star of the parliament session. You were nearly cautioned several times. Do you still stand behind everything you said at the session?
I stand behind everything I said at the session. Neo-stalinist accusations about preparations for a coup and violation of constitutional order are at work. It is obvious what sort of democracy reigns in Croatia.
There is no democracy, because Ivica Racin is trying to impose democratic centralism, which is familiar to him and his political supporters from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Who suppressed the beginnings of young Croatian democracy in the spring of 1971? Who put Budisa, Gotovac, Tudman and Cicak in jail? It is known that Ljubo Cesic Rojs did not do that. Mr. Racan did!
What were you referring to when you said to the deputy president of the Parliament, Mato Arlovic, that he did not pick strawberries in Kupres in 1972?
Well, in that moment I simply repeated the claims of his neighbors and relatives from the Bosnian Sava Valley region, that he was supposedly a former Yugoslav Counter-Intelligence Service (KOS) captain, under secret name of Vrbik, and that in 1972 he was in Kupres and did what he was supposed to do.
On Thursday you provoked an incident in the parliament. Why did you lose nerves and attack Dino Debeljuh?
I did not lose my nerves. Colleague Debeljuh was interrupting all the time after comrade Vesna Pusic stated that the Croatian people had carried out an aggression against Bosnia-Hercegovina. Let me remind the readers that the Croatian nation is not even aware of what she said.
Isn't the real reason for your attack Debeljuh's claim that you at the time wanted to kill General Mirko Norac?
What sort of accusation is that? General Norac and I are friends. Do you see what that yellow press is doing? That is a clear indication of what sort of democracy we have. They want to sow discord among us and to proclaim some for war criminals, others for ordinary criminals, and yet others for drug smugglers. Simply they want to force the Croatian state on her knees and to for who knows which time in history, return the Croatian state to the kindergarten.
Similarly, I was cautioned on Thursday. Do I not, as a representative in the Croatian Parliament, have the right to warn our people where Croatia is going? Just look at what they are doing. They are humiliating the Homeland War, condemning and persecuting its defenders, there are bankruptcies and mass dismissals, and all of that is being carried out within the so-called reform of the economy.
Are mass wire-tapping and surveillance, conducted by these authorities, honest? Is the repression against TV editors honest? Is the control of all media and the whole press honest? Do you think that mass purges in the Army and Police, from janitors to cooks, are fair?
These authorities are deliberately intimidating the Croat people with military coups and similar lies. That is why I say - Mr. Racan, your time is over! It is time you confess everything to the Croat people, about your games and intentions. Democracy belongs to the people, not to Communist diktats.
Mr.Rojs, even the HDZ president, Ivo Sanader, distanced himself from similar statements of yours. He stated that he could not agree with that sort of classification of representatives. Your comment?
Perhaps our president of the party, Ivo Sanader, is blackmailed, and that is why I would rather not comment. I have evidence for everything I say. I am only sorry I did not get a chance to reply to Nenad Stazic.
Who gives him the right to talk about the Homeland War? I know that his lot was also on the Chetnik [Serb] side, and I do not know whether any of them fought with the Croatian army. Therefore, he has roots on both sides [Rojs is implying that Stazic comes from a mixed Croat-Serb marriage]. Let him explain where he was between 1991 and 1995, when the Croatian state was being defended.
Mr. Rojs, he was the editor of the domestic news desk on the Croatian radio.
I do not care about that. Let him show the trench in which he was. Similarly, let me warn, one third of representatives in our parliament are either Serbs, or are married to Serbs, or either work for UDBA or the former Yugoslav counter-intelligence service. Let me ask one more thing - where is our Croatia going? They want to establish a dictatorship and want to exterminate both the Croatian State and the Croatian people. And that is why I repeat - Racan has learned that independent judiciary only implements his decisions.
That is why he picked people for the so-called independent judiciary with so much care, from his close friend Ivanisevic, all the way to his friend Ortynski. Racan only appoints proven enemies of the Croatian people from 1971 to important positions. He wants to again establish the rule of the Central Committee, and a center in Belgrade. But, let me repeat, he will not succeed.
Mr. Representative, you keep stressing that you are for reconciliation, but these and similar statements of yours only additionally complicate already tense situation in Croatia. Your words are not exactly soaked with the spirit of tolerance?
The news that the state has reached an agreement with you regarding the machinery of the 66th engineering regiment has received scant attention. Your comment?
That shows that I was right. Let me repeat, I do not seek mercy from anyone. I never did, and will not show it to anyone. I was right and I proved to the whole Croatian public that I love my homeland and that there is not job I am not prepared to do for that homeland. If necessary, I am prepared to eat grass to preserve our one and eternal Croatia.
As far as the engineering and engineering work, during the last year, the government of the six led by the president of the Central Committee Ivica Racan has managed to inflict $5 million of damage on inactive machinery. It would have been better if we distributed that money to the poor. At the same time, had we used that machinery, we could have built 50 kilometers of new highways. Namely, we've messed up many plans.