Commenting on a statement by the president of the HSP AS party, Ruza Tomasic, that "Croatia is for Croats and the others are guests, Milanovic said on Saturday, as aired on Nova TV, that "Croatia isn't Denmark or Finland where one can hear that Finland is for the Finns and all others are guests. However, this Finland never had a civil war."

Committee chair Zoran Pilicic told reporters in Zagreb that such a statement was a "grave insult to all Croatian war veterans, all patriots, Croats and Croatian citizens who love and appreciate their state."

He asked Milanovic if the 15,000 killed and the tens of thousands of wounded and missing Croatian defenders meant nothing to him, and if he did not know that a "tough and bloody war of conquest and aggression took place in Croatia aimed at destroying everything that was Croatian."

Pilicic also asked the PM if the Hague war crimes tribunal's acquittal of Croatian generals Gotovina and Markac as well as Croatia's genocide lawsuit against Serbia meant nothing to him either.

The HDZ's Osijek county and city branches also condemned Milanovic's statement in the strongest terms, while the HDZ's Brod-Posavina County branch urged him to resign.

In Slavonski Brod, the head of the HDZ's war veterans commission, Damir Princip, said the PM should watch what he said on behalf of Croatian citizens, "because he wasn't elected to correct historical facts but acknowledge them, taking into account the emotional distress of the victims" of the former Yugoslav army.

He said the PM should also acknowledge that more than 1,500 defenders remained unaccounted for and that war criminals still walked freely in Croatia.

Milanovic today dismissed the accusations that he said there had been a civil war in Croatia, saying his statement on Nova TV was cut in mid-sentence so viewers did not hear him say that Croatia was the only state joining the European Union which had a destructive war and a military aggression.