Prime Minister dr. Ivo Sanader
US, Israel send greetings to new Croatia’s PM, urge closer ties
Wed Dec 31, 2003
ZAGREB (AFP) – US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged Croatia to support the fight against terrorism and boost ties in 2004 in their greetings messages to the country’s new prime minister, the government said. Bush’s message to Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the US knew it could “count on the support of the Croatian people and the Croatian government… in the fight against international terrorism.” It added that Croatia had “shown once again its firm commitment to democratic values”.
Sanader heads the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which won the legislative election in November, defeating a centre-left alliance. The HDZ says it has turned the page on its nationalist past and is serious about bringing Croatia into the European Union (news – web sites) in 2007. Israel’s Sharon voiced hope for a “further improvement of the cooperation and friendship between Croatia and Israel”.
Relations between the two countries were frosty during the 1990s rule of the Croatia’s late autocratic president, HDZ founder Franjo Tudjman, who Israel accused of failing to issue a strong enough denunciation of Croatia’s pro-Nazi World War II regime.
Editor’s note:
In reading most of the texts around the globe, there is very little information on Croatian antifascist movement during
World War II that actually led onto defeat of axes. Croatians formed 11 divisions and defeated fascism in former Yugoslavia. Period. This fact must be told. When shall we start to read about that? Also the fact that the late Croatian President Dr. Franjo Tudjman (1922-1999) was a resistance fighter who fought fascism in the World War II. We must inform the world that during the WWII Croatians were overwhelmingly (98%) anti-fascist. Fact is that the anti-fascist movement in the former Yugoslavia started in Croatia says it all and is nowhere to find due to a 50 years of stolen history and distortion. It seems to me that our generation MUST do the work and tell the truth, which needs systematic approach and not just random expression of dissatisfaction, like this, after 50 years of systematic distortion.
Nenad Bach
CROWN, Editor in Chief