Republika Hrvatska

PREDSJEDNIK

Dear Secretary Baker:

Thank you for taking the time and interest to visit with me during your trip to Belgrade. However, your comments regarding apparent new U.S. policy towards the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia perplex us.

Croatia and Slovenia have proceeded on a democratic course in response to the historical invitation to join the nations of the free world by breaking away from the Marxist world. It has taken tremendous courage and self-determination of millions of Slovenians, Croatians and others to believe that freedom can be won in the ballot box. Our democratically elected political leaders of Slovenia and Croatia are now installed in positions of public trust, mandating we act in the interests of our courageous voters in seeking their additional freedoms. We will not allow Croatia and Slovenia to now be blackmailed by the Central Federal Government which has openly threatened to use military force to stop the will of the people. Many feel your change of policy encourages the latter. Yes, we are perplexed in now being told, a full year after our democratic governments have in good faith attempted to reach a peaceful solution with the reformed Marxists that we must remain united with them.

Having exercised our self-determination, Slovenians and Croatians and other like-minded nations are committed to the peaceful transition to full democracy. The alleged ethnic issue is a manufactured scenario utilized to create the illusion of narrow nationalism and hopelessness; to create a belief that there are no options but to maintain the slightly reformed status quo; to destroy the hopes and aspirations of freedom for those millions who voted for real democracy.

In reliance on the free world’s invitation to rejoin it, Slovenia and Croatia have been building their roads to freedom for over a year, all the while subject to strong countervailing, subversive forces centered in Belgrade. The will of the people cannot be killed. We remain united and determined to gain full liberty not by secession but by decentralized confederation.

Our journey is not easy, but we pray that the Western powers will recognize our commitment to peace, freedom and free market economy, and continue to support us as they did in our early efforts. Far more important than your proffered financial assistance, we ask for your continued moral and political support in gaining our full democracy.

June 24, 1991

Most sincerely,

/Signed/

Dr. Franjo Tudjman
President of the Republic of Croatia