People Did Not Die to Have Survivors Starve

I do not exempt myself from errors in the past, Mesic said, adding one should not promise that which we know cannot be fulfilled.

-- People did not die for Croatia so that those who survived would starve – President Stjepan Mesic said at Monday’s ceremonial government sitting on occasion of the 15^th anniversary Croatia’s international recognition. 

He commented on the electoral campaign, saying that the state should not live exclusively by parties conceiving their programmes from election to election, because parties came and went and Croatia remained.

The government’s obligation is to tell the truth 

-- We have the obligation towards those who sacrificed themselves for this country to build it into a country they can be proud of because it is the obligation of the government to tell the people the truth, not to promise what we know is not plausible – Mesic said.

The president’s recipe for a better future is to rid oneself of the ballast of the past.

-- This means to acknowledge all mistakes of the past, from which, of course, I do not exempt myself – Mesic said, alluding his past pro-Ustasha attitude.

Sanader: we will finish the job 

In his speech, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader stressed that the state leadership headed by the late President Franjo Tudjman had seized the opportunity and managed to realise the century-old aspiration of the Croatian people for independence.

-- The government I am leading will be able to finish the job – Sanader said, adding that he saw Croatia’s accession into the European Union and NATO as a rounding up and completion of the most important cycle in modern history.

Croatian Parliament President Vladimir Seks recalled Croatia’s true friends, Germany and the Vatican, which were the first to recognise the Republic of Croatia, but, he said, the pivotal role was that of the Croatian Homeland War soldiers.

Nothing without the Homeland War soldiers 

-- Had it not been for the heroic defence and victory in the Homeland War, all key political victories and decisions relating to Croatia’s statehood and sovereignty would remain a dead letter, had they not been confirmed by the sacrifice of the Croatian people and with the blood of Croatian Homeland War soldiers – said Seks.

Greek Premier Kostas Karamanlis, who also attended the ceremony, stressed Greece’s support to Croatia’s joining the EU.

The ceremonial session continued with a reception at the State Residence at which, apart from the state leadership, all those who bear credit for Croatia’s international recognition in 1992, were present.