FORMER CROATIAN PRESIDENT Stjepan Mesic has been working in his new office on Grskoviceva Street for the past two months, and is carefully following the development of the most important social and political events in CroatiaFormer Croatian President Stjepan Mesic was one of the first in Croatia to call for the public release of the Veteran's Register. Nacional's reporter visited him in his new office on Grskoviceva Street in Zagreb, where he commented on the release of the Register and other current events in Croatia.

NACIONAL: During your mandate you said that the Veteran's Register should be transparent. Do you think it's a good thing that it has been released? There are some theories that its release was aimed at harming President Josipovic, while others claim it was an attempt to undermine Jadranka Kosor. What do you think?
- I wouldn't want to speculate on who wanted to hurt whom. I have always said that the Veteran's Register should be a public document, for all those who defended the Croatian state did an honourable thing. If we have lists of those killed, and lists of those missing, then by what logic should we not have a register of living veterans? I think that once it is officially released, then the politicisation around the issue will end.

NACIONAL: Have you taken a look at the Register that was released?

- I haven't, because until there is an official Register, we can only guess as to who released it and why. I think the entire situation can only be remedies by the government releasing the official register. I think that the information is not confidential, because each one of these veterans fought openly and publicly for their country. There are no confidential data here. The entire fuss is likely over some people who are on the list, but don't belong there.

NACIONAL: Allegedly, the list doesn't include the veterans who fought in Bosnia?
- That is likely so, but I think that a greater reason for manipulation of the register is that it contains the names of those who did not fight. The authorities claimed, Tudjman and Susak told me, that all those who went to Bosnia did so voluntarily. Even though I received some letters from people claiming that they did not go voluntarily.

NACIONAL: Will you attend the upcoming annual ceremony at Jasenovac which marks the penetration of a large group of those incarcerated at the very end of World War II?
- I recently had the great honour of being appointed honorary president of the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Veterans and Anti-Fascists of the Republic of Croatia. This binds me to insist, perhaps even more intensively than before, on the anti-fascist roots of present day Croatia, and to resist every attempt at historical revision. No one should expect me to be quiet on the topics of anti-fascism, democracy, human rights and equality on the world scene. I will certain attend, there is no doubt, as I promised last year that I would come again. At that time, I promised that I would come as a citizen and an anti-fascist, as I had no idea then that I would now be attending as the honorary president of SABA. I will attend, and I will speak, and I think that after my speech, no one will be able to say that I have withdrawn from political life.

NACIONAL: What will you speak about?
- Obviously, I won't reveal the details to you. I will speak about what is going on around us, what we should be reacting to. Those kinds of necessary reactions are either completely missing, or are not coming from the places they should be coming from, or they are very meek. I will speak, not because of the past, but because of the future. I know that the Croatia that would have fallen into the trap of flirting with neo-fascism from the early 1990s does not and cannot have any European perspectives. Europe, and only Europe is our future.

NACIONAL: You recently expressed great enthusiasm over our entry into NATO. However, for a time, it seemed as though you, unlike the government, were not overly supportive of entry into the military and political organisation.
- Perhaps enthusiasm is too strong a word, but I am certainly pleased that the entry into NATO, one of Croatia's two main foreign policy goals, was achieved during my mandate. Now, of course, it is up to us to use this membership wisely. We need to realise that we did not enter into NATO exclusively to serve. We are a full member and we must present our perspectives on every issue, until a decision is made. Only then can we support those decisions. And what seemed to you to be a certain dose of reservation on my part, was only an expression of the knowledge that NATO is still in the process of defining its role in the changing world conditions. We entered into an alliance that is still "soul-searching". I don't see any reason that would prevent Croatia from participating in that process, actively and constructively. I know that many of us are expecting it to do so.

NACIONAL: Do you have something concrete in mind?
- I have several things in mind, but I can give you one example. I recently heard the opinion that Croatia does not need an exit strategy for the engagement of our armed forces troops in Afghanistan. Some would say that there is an American plan and we will act in line with that. Indeed, there is an American plan, created in Washington and based on the objectives and interests of the United States. I don't know why that would be a reason to not consider our own interests, to assess our own needs and abilities and say, 'Here, this is our plan for Afghanistan.' Several of the older NATO members have done that, and some have completely withdrawn from Afghanistan.

NACIONAL: To get back to Croatia. You were virtually the only member of the state administration to warn several years ago of the coming economic crisis. Then, they didn't believe you. Do you think that Croatia today is handling the crisis well?
- Exactly, I warned about the crisis when no one wanted to hear me out, or when they said I was not telling the truth. Unfortunately, it was the truth. Today, we are all paying the price for closing our eyes to those realities. I can only repeat that the only way out for the entire country is to start up production. That is the only way out. I am afraid that calling upon the representatives of big capital is not enough to find a way out of the crisis, even though they are an unavoidable part. Above all, we need to work on a long-term development programme, not only economic, but for the entire country.

NACIONAL: How do you view the development of the Podravka scandal? Former Economy Minister Damir Polancec is in policy custody, there is much talk about whether former Premier Sanader knew about everything that was going on in Podravka. What do you think?
- I have already said that the ministers could have made decisions within their portfolios that the premier did not know about. But decisions on major financial issues or dealing with state liabilities, that couldn't have happened within the premier.

NACIONAL: What do you think the role of the HSS is in Podravka, how familiar was Josip Friscic with the events?
- I don't think that any party belongs in the economy, in companies, or in Podravka. The management has to be formed the way they do in a market economy, and there is no room for politics there, or for HSS.

NACIONAL: You were the first to ask the question about why management rights in INA were handed over to the Hungarians. Is the situation any clearer to you know, and how do you think the case will continue to develop?
- The situation is not any clearer to me, or the Croatian public. All I know is that at one time, INA CEO Tomislav Dragicevic came to me with concerns that he had heard INA was up for sale and that he would like to speak to the premier about it. I asked Sanader, and he told me that this was not true. After a while, Dragicevic came to me again and said that other members of the board had heard that INA would be sold, and they would like a meeting with the premier. I again asked him if he would receive them and he agree, but did not. I asked him a third time to receive them, to hear their opinion on the situation, because the people who know the most about INA are its management board. At that time, he told me that INA would not be sold. I told him that he could sit down with them, as this was the largest company in Croatia, and all he said was 'fine.' After Sanader refused to react again, I asked him a fourth time to receive the INA management board. At that time he told me, 'There's no need, Polancec has agreed everything.' When I said this publically, the premier flew off the handle. I don't know why the truth would hurt him so much. I asked him four times to receive the INA representatives, and he did not. He could have said that he was busy with Podravka issues, or something else, and that he didn't have time for INA. I never received any answers to the questions I asked during my mandate. Nor did the Croatian public receive any answers. I am interested why the State Attorney's Office was not the one to negotiate on behalf of the Croatian state. We hear that millions are being paid to law firms, but we have no idea as to the criteria by which those firms are selected. We only see that some people are always connected to the same law firm, but this is state money, taxpayer money. I don't know why the State Attorney's Office has not reacted. It is obvious that State Attorney Mladen Bajic is being passed over, and no one has asked him to participate in the negotiations. Here, the contract is the least controversial part. The real issue is who did the negotiating and what was negotiated. One the negotiations are complete, it's no problem to draw up the contract.

NACIONAL: Do you think the reason behind hiring a private law firm instead of the State Attorney's office is that these were procedures that included off-shore companies, and perhaps the people at the State Attorney's office do not have that kind of experience?
- Those who have experience with off-short companies are now receiving additional education in the Remetinec jail.

NACIONAL: You know the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski. Do you plan to attend his funeral?
THE LATE POLISH PRESIDENT Lech Kaczynski and Stjepan Mesic met several times; here photographed with their wives: Maria Kaczynski, who also died in the crash, and Milka Mesic- Yes, I knew him. If it is possible for me to attend, if they take me, I would go. I met with him several times. In all of our conversations, topics from the war in Croatia and BiH surfaced, and whether the war could have been prevented. The last time we spoke was when Croatia was accepted into NATO.

NACIONAL: What was your impression of him?
- He was undoubtedly a great Polish patriot, but also an advocate of democracy. He belonged to the right centre, and viewed European integration in that light. He was a little sceptical of it, while I always told him in our talks that if the Germans and French could open their borders and cooperation, then so could we.

NACIONAL: And finally, what is your schedule like for the coming months?
- I have several invitations to go abroad. I have decided on some, and am still thinking about others, trying to fit them in with my existing obligations. In early May, I have been invited by President Medvjedev to Moscow to the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the victory in World War II. I am travelling as a former statesman and as honorary president of the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Veterans and Anti-Fascists. I am particularly pleased that I was the first in Croatia to receive an invitation to this event. In June, I will be travelling to Israel, at the invitation of the Yad Vashem Memorial centre, and there I will participate in the work of an international conference on education about the holocaust. I consider this to be exceptionally important, as we simply must not allow anyone to forget, relativise or negate the crimes of fascism and Nazism. Especially the young in Croatia, where we are subjected to a real avalanche of publications of historical revisionism, they need to hear the truth.