Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said during his visit to Sydney on Monday that his government had nothing to do with political persecutions that had forced many Croats to emigrate to Australia.
Many people came to Australia as victims of political persecution or come from such families and I can understand that, but I wasn't the one who persecuted them. Those times have passed. My government is liberal and social democratic and by no means Titoist or Communist. I have nothing to do with that, unlike some people from the opposite political camp. I think that some people here live in the past too much, Milanovic said in an interview with the Australian public broadcasting network SBS.
Ahead of his visit, some Croatian clubs in Australia told the prime minister that he was not welcome, and local newspapers were full of criticism whose clear purpose was to deter him from visiting the country. Milanovic said he did not resent that.
Some people have labelled me here as Tito's puppet, which cannot be more ridiculous, Milanovic said, stressing that he was never a member of the Communist Party nor did he serve in the Communist police. He noted that Australian Croats had accepted the late President Franjo Tudjman, who served as a Communist general for a while. However, when the situation was hardest he was possibly the best leader the country could have and people here accepted him as such, he added.
When asked if he picked the wrong time for his visit, because it comes at the time of a budget revision in Croatia, Milanovic said he agreed. "It should have been done a year ago, he said, adding that he was the first senior Croatian official to visit Australia in more than 20 years, with the exception of Tudjman. This is simply my duty and I will carry it out with pleasure, he said.
When asked what he aimed to accomplish with his visits to Australia and New Zealand, the Croatian prime minister said: To see, talk, establish contacts, eliminate prejudices and present my country. I will certainly not sow dissent among the Croatian clubs.
Milanovic said he did not want to go into the lengthy process of extradition of Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as Captain Dragan, who is wanted by Croatia for war crimes committed during the 1991-1995 war in Croatia. He denied that the extradition request was politically motivated, noting that as an EU member, we passed a very demanding test in accession talks, especially the judiciary, and Croatia is ready to hold a fair trial.
When asked to comment on the recent statement by Croatian opposition leader Tomislav Karamarko that Croatia has a government that never wanted Croatia, Milanovic said that elections showed that people found such rhetoric irritating.
In Croatia, as shown by the last 20 years of free elections and democracy, rigid and extreme parties, both on the left wing and on the right wing, never win, he said, adding that such statements were frivolous and spoke much more about people who made them.
We are all Croats and Croatia is our destiny. I'm doing my best for my country, both at home and abroad. I have been in politics for a relatively short time and I don't have a history as some people do, such as the gentleman you mentioned who did all sorts of things and served everyone, he added.
In conclusion, Milanovic issued a message to the Croatian community in Australia, saying that the war was behind Croatia, that some things would never be forgotten and war crimes would always be investigated and prosecuted because they should not go unpunished.
What I am prepared to defend and prove as a fact is that Croatia in its history has never been in a more stable position than it is today, and not necessarily thanks to me or my government, but thanks to a combination of circumstances and events. Today Croatia is a member of the European Union and NATO, which is also limiting in a way because a good deal of legislation is prepared and adopted in Brussels, but which in relation to our neighbours also puts us in a firm position not as a mentor or tutor or bully, but as a good neighbour, he said.
(Hina)
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