Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Sunday dismissed accusations that he said there was a civil war in Croatia, saying his statement on Nova TV was cut in mid-sentence so viewers did not hear him saying that Croatia was the only state joining the European Union which had gone through a destructive war and a military aggression.
Milanovic showed reporters a video of his entire statement, saying it was interrupted and that the reporter drew her own conclusion.
This is gross manipulation and a deliberate move to cause such a debate, he said.
The reporter knew what she was doing and why she didn't air the whole sentence which fully explains my statement, and everyone who was there with cameras didn't understand it like that because they made an effort to listen to what I said and how I finished the sentence, Milanovic said.
He said he was talking about Croatia carrying traumas from the war in relation to countries such as Finland and Denmark which had been living in harmony for 150 or 200 years.
When you say in Finland that Finland is for the Finns, it has a completely different mental and emotional content than when you say in Croatia that everyone in Croatia who isn't a Croat is a guest. Those are huge differences and this isn't objective reporting but continues to incite chaos and disorder, Milanovic said.
He appealed for not cutting in mid-sentence his statements and those from the opposition HDZ party, adding that "the Europhobic deputy of the HSP at least had the privilege that her statement was aired from A to Z" and that she had publicly accused an MP of pointing out people to be killed at Ovcara in 1991 during the war.
The citizens who took part in the military aggression and rebelled against Croatia have been returned to the Croatian constitutional order and that is the biggest recognition for Croatia, the fact that the Croatian citizens who were amnestied respect Croatian laws and are now our colleagues in parliament, Milanovic said.
