President Milanović: There were 600 NCOs and officers from BiH at the Croatian Defence Academy, yet the participation of the Croatian Army in the peace mission in BiH bothers them
“I would be happy if the pension funds had taken over Fortenova’s shares but in assessing risks and viability of an investment they have to take certain criteria into account. The decision is theirs alone. Why the AZ fund was opposed to it, you’ll have to ask them. They answer to their owners”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović commented on Wednesday the controversial sale of Fortenova’s shares to an Arab investor, instead of to the pensions funds.
Asked how he interprets the words of the Prime Minister who called the pension funds to account, the President added: “He likes to make empty threats, calling out the SOA (Security and Intelligence Agency), that is irresponsible when you have so much power in your hands. The SOA is not the KGB, thank God, it is not the CIA, it is a democratically supervised agency that protects the constitutional order and Croatia from various real or potential enemies. As for the Arab investor that bought the shares, President MIlanović said “I never heard of him. What is important for me is that Fortenova is continuing to operate”, he added.
Asked to comment on the letter of the Mothers of Srebrenica who wrote to the UN requesting that Croatia be prevented from participating in the peace mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and accusing Croatia of being an aggressor in BiH, he said: “For more than twenty years now soldiers from the Army of BiH, officers and NCOs have come to study in Croatia. About 600 NCOs and officers of the Army of BiH went to the Croatian Army’s schools, the Croatian Defence Academy called Dr. Franjo Tuđman, what irony. Therefore, 600 soldiers from BiH, in uniforms and with ranks, went through the Croatian system of military education. Among these 600 were at least 200 Bosniaks, no Serbs. Your army, which is made up of three ethnic groups is receiving its education in Croatia at its military institutions, in that same Croatia whose army must not even symbolically participate in BiH”, President Milanović noted, and added that participation in the mission in BiH will be decided by Croatia.
“Will the Croatian Army go to a peace mission in BiH depends exclusively on the Croatian government, Plenković and ultimately on my order without which the army cannot go. BiH is no longer a Turkish empire. You want to join the EU? There are different rules of the game there”, President Milanović underlined.
He also reminded of the arrival of representatives of the Mothers of Srebrenica in Knin in August 2015 at the celebration of Operation Storm. They arrived at his and at the invitation of former President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. President MIlanović quoted the representative of the Mothers of Srebrenica Munira Subašić who had then said: “Had it not been for the liberation of Knin, there could have been a second genocide in Bihać”, and she congratulated Croatia on Victory Day. “Therefore, to let oneself be manipulated by bad guys in this way and write self-defeating letters is to lose all integrity”, he said in commenting on the mentioned letter.
Furthermore, President MIlanović once again warned about the behaviour of the Foreign Minister who, without consulting him, in Brussels accepted on behalf of Croatia the commitment to train Ukrainian soldiers. “The Minister did so without consulting or discussing anything with me as Commander in Chief. You cannot accept a commitment that the Croatian Army will take part in the training in Croatia or abroad. There are states that have yet to state anything because their ministers wouldn’t dream of accepting a commitment without consulting and seeking agreement from those bodies that decide in accordance with their constitutions. In Croatia that’s me”, President Milanović explained.
“And at the same time they request my opinion on donating 14 helicopters to Ukraine that are unpromising. This they can do without me. But they won’t get my opinion because they didn’t explain how they will substitute them. I won’t oppose it, but I won’t give my opinion in writing. They’re afraid to make the decision”, President Milanović added, and warned that those helicopters aren’t scrap iron and have a certain value. “These 14 helicopters Croatia purchased in impossible conditions of an embargo cannot be donated without a clear explanation of what they will be substituted with and when. I asked the Defence Minister to explain it to me, I got no answer. That’s why they won’t make me an accomplice in some suspicious activity he decided to undertake on his own. Do it but without my opinion because you didn’t give me an explanation whether yes or no”, President Milanović continued and explained that he will accept the decision but only if he gets an explanation on how the military equipment will be substituted”. I won’t give it for free”, he noted.
President Milanović was again asked whether this would be a topic for a session of the National Security Council that he had proposed several times. “You can’t pretend that the President of the Republic doesn’t exist. Those people are constantly violating the Croatian Constitution, both the Defence minister and Plenković”, he concluded.