THE CROATIAN DEMOCRATIC UNION IN B&H

Subject: The HDZ of B&H only wants an equal nation and peace. It was the only party to resist the Great-Serbian aspirations and, relying on its own forces, create its own homeland Herzeg-Bosnia - stated the HDZ B&H President in Skenderija.

THE PEACE IS OUR CHOICE

Sarajevo, August 26, 1996 (AIM) - Equality, peace and democracy in a common state of three nations are the basic tenets of the HDZ B&H forwarded on Sunday before 1.5 thousand visitors in the Skenderija Center at the promotional pre-election rally of this party which claims to be entrusted with a historic task to lead of the Croats.

Addressing the audience at the beginning Bozo Raic, President of the HDZ of B&H and a candidate for the House of Representatives of the Federal Assembly of B&H stressed that the HDZ has opted for the peace because it was a liberating, reforming and nation-building party, and as such also a European, Christian and democratic party whose followers want to live according to the principles of Christianity and faith.

"The Lord said: I leave you peace and I leave you my peace. In politics we shall therefore advocate the peace and fight for it", said Raic. "We want that which belongs to every nation, according to both man's and God's laws. The Croatian people here did not ask for anything else, but to exercise the rights of the Western and civilized world to create the best possible world for itself, without threatening anyone else".

He further added that two creations that had stifled the Croatian spirit - namely Yugoslavia and communism - had been destroyed and no longer exist, and that that was all that the Croats asked for.

"We did not want to enslave anyone, but only to be one of the three equal nations in B&H, and they would not let us", continued Raic. "We rose and opposed the Serbian contraption of the forth army of Europe. It was not easy to make such a decision, it was ony the vision of Tudjman and this party who made it possible".

The HDZ B&H President stated that his Party was the only one to resist the Great-Serbian expansionism when the legal authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina were confused and helpless. He emphasized that the Croats then learned the lesson that they have to turn to themselves, to their own homeland B&H and had therefore created the Croat community and later on, the republic - Herzeg Bosnia and the Croatian Defence Council, as their own institutions of defence and government. He pointed out that, with a few honourable exceptions, only the Croats defended B&H at that time.

"Those who refused you bread and gun at that time do not deserve a drop of water from you now", said Raic to the assembled masses. "The Croatian people emerged from the disintegration of Yugoslavia as a first class par excellence winner".

He also pointed out that the Croatian people was a constructive partner of the international community, as well as that from the Lisabon to Dayton meetings it was always for the peace by way of compromise. He underlined that the Federation with the Bosniacs was a result of such a compromise and that the Croatian people should not lament over Herzeg-Bosnia, beacuse the Federation was the objective that could make the aspirations of Croats in B&H come true. He also criticized the B&H media because, according to him, they only write of the disintegration of Herzeg-Bosnia without mentioning that both the HRHB (The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia) and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina have transferred their competences to the Federation, while Herzeg-Bosnia will remain sacred and the Federation the only possibility for B&H, concluded Raic adding "that we need no coalitions, as the HDZ is in coalition with the Croatian people and there is no doubt that we shall win".

Kresimir Zubak, Vice-President of the HDZ B&H emphasized that the Croats in B&H have their other homeland

• the Republic of Croatia: "We respect our differences and there is nothing we should dictate each other, and to the Croats of Sarajevo I can only say that we shall secure equality in the full sense of the word, and even change the infamous housing law," said Zubak, while Jadranko Prlic added that "during the war the Croats fought for one state and got two". Alija Izetbegovic, President of the B&H Presidency and the Cardinal Vinko Puljic did not attend for valid reasons, but present were Tereza Kesovija, Jure Stublic, Maja Blagdan, Gertruda Munitic and Oliver Mlakar.