Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor in the southern Croatian town of Sinj on Sunday commented on a statement by Milorad Pupovac who said that her sending regards to generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac from the celebration of Victory Day in Knin on Friday was "worrying and dangerous."
Responding to Pupovac's statement, Kosor said it was dangerous not to comment on last year's request by Serbian President Boris Tadic who asked that the anniversary of Operation Storm should not be celebrated.
"We believe that it was extremely dangerous not to react, and only a few of us had reacted, on Serbian President Tadic's demand of last year that we must not celebrate the anniversary of Operation Storm, that we must not celebrate Croatia's liberation from Greater Serbian aggression. That was dangerous as it was dangerous to glorify the Chetnik movement ... and of course Draza Mihajlovic," Kosor told reporters when asked to comment on the statements by the president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), Milorad Pupovac.
"It was during Operation Storm that we managed to broke the teeth of tyrant (Slobodan) Milosevic, but also enabled our neighbours to open the door to democracy wide open," the PM said adding that these were the facts.
"We are doing everything to protect the dignity of the Homeland War and Operation Storm," Kosor said, reiterating: "We will not allow anyone to revise our history."
Asked if greeting Gotovina and Markac in Knin was part of the election campaign, given that the PM has not mentioned or sent regards to the two generals in years, Kosor told reporters they had "poor memory." "I was the only top state official to visit our generals Gotovina and Markac in The Hague," Kosor said.
Commenting on a statement by Croatian People's Party (HNS) vice president Vesna Pusic who said on Saturday that the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has launched the election campaign like Hansel and Gretel by throwing pebble-stones anywhere they can, Kosor said: "It is interesting that Vesna Pusic spoke about throwing pebble-stones, as if we did not remember election posters from a previous election campaign when Hansel and Gretel were Pusic and Radimir Cacic who promised 200,000 new jobs, but ended their mandate with 320,000 unemployed and a 5.4 percent deficit."
Commenting on yesterday's statement by Social Democratic Party (SDP) president Zoran Milanovic who said Croatia needed to wake up, Kosor said "The fact that he was asleep for the past years is his problem and his alone."
