US embassy cable - 05ZAGREB273

UNCLAS ZAGREB 000273 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, HR, Political Parties/Elections 
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT MESIC'S SECOND INAUGURAL SPEECH -- 
CROATIA UNITED, AND ALL BUT NON-ALIGNED 
 
REF: ZAGREB 262 
 
1.  (U) President Mesic's second inaugural speech (ref a) was 
classic Mesic -- soaring rhetoric delivered in simple 
language.  While claiming that the election results validated 
his policies, Mesic also reached out to those that did not 
vote for him.  Addressing neighboring states, Mesic noted 
that some obstacles to cooperation were on Croatia's side, 
some on their side.  He called for cooperation "on the path 
towards a united Europe, because this path is our common 
one!"  Mesic spoke eloquently of the need to confront the 
past: "Let us not allow our past to frustrate our path to the 
future.  However, let us not pass over the past in silence. 
And perhaps more importantly, let us not falsify the past, 
neither that of yesterday nor the recent one...Let us summon 
our courage to face up to the truth, the truth about 
ourselves and then only about others."  He reached out to 
"all those who fled the country or were forced to leave their 
homes, to return in peace and security." 
 
2.  (SBU) On foreign policy, Mesic claimed credit for leading 
Croatia out of isolation.  While noting that terrorism was a 
global menace, in what was generally seen as a dig against 
the Iraq war, he alluded to "the not always suitable methods 
being employed in the fight against this evil of our times." 
While asserting that Croatia was among the first to call for 
a global anti-terrorist alliance, Mesic lectured "we shall 
continue to demand that everything be in line with the United 
Nations Charter and under the mandate of the world 
organization."  In a remark reminiscent of the old 
Yugoslav-led non-aligned movement, Mesic said "the world I 
dream of is a world where war will not be the rule and peace 
will not be the exception, a world where development will not 
be privilege, but rather a right, a world where the great and 
the mighty will prove their power by helping the small and 
the weak instead of dominating them." 
 
3.  (U) The press -- for the most part approvingly -- noted 
that Mesic continued to define an "independent" foreign 
policy.  One daily's headline was "Mesic Attacked Bush's 
Fight Against Terrorism."  In press interviews over the 
weekend, Mesic reiterated his determination not to send 
troops to Iraq, saying "we are not in NATO yet, and once we 
are, we would have to discuss it (sending troops to Iraq)." 
He repeated his often heard concern about possible damage to 
Croatia's tourist-based economy of a single retaliatory 
terrorist attack. 
FRANK 
 
 
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