According to the petition written both in Croatian and English, the Croatians "possess values which are dissipating throughout Europe, but without which Europe cannot survive."

The signatories criticised the European Union for punishing Croatia after the country, just as other sovereign states under the conditions of the Geneva convention, had liberated a part of its territory which had been occupied by rebel Serbs.

"In stark contrast to these proclamations, the EU punished Croatia by abolishing the Phare programme on only the second day of the liberating military operation 'Storm', calling upon false accounts of excessive shelling of Knin. Following on from this logic, the prosecution of the ICTY indicted the Croatian Generals and fabricated the legal norm of a 'joint criminal enterprise' so that it would be able to charge the entire Croatian civil and military leadership," the petition says.

"After such blasphemous accusations, the Croatian people publicly and openly asked the question, which remains unanswered to this day, and that is whether there was excessive shelling of Vukovar, Osijek, Vinkovci, Karlovac, Sisak, Slavonski Brod, Zadar, Sibenik and so many other villages and towns? Was the planned aggression carried out by the Yugoslav National Army and Serbian paramilitary forces against Croatia a 'joint criminal enterprise', after a plebiscitary vote by Croatia's citizens had overwhelmingly decided in favour independence and self-determination," the signatories said in their request.

"This behaviour from Europe can only be described as a historic example of dishonour and hypocrisy and the trampling of all of the Christian values upon which Europe has sustained itself throughout the centuries."

The petitioners say that the European Union "has continuously demanded Croatia's respect and conformity to the judgements of the ICTY court, even though that 'court' has behaved in a racist manner towards selected nations."

The petition reads that "all Croatian governments since January 3, 2000, have obediently accepted or ignored, supposedly because of higher ideals, twisted perspectives on fundamental values."

The signatories deem that "entering the EU under these conditions, Croatia will not be able to assist the EU in recognising the real ideals, without which it cannot survive."

"This is why we are urging the Croatian Government to change the date of the referendum and defer it until such time as the final judgement for the Croatian Generals is brought down by the ICTY court in the Hague," they said.

"We would like to have one more opportunity to validate Europe's credibility, we would like to determine whether Europe has recognised the victims, does it differentiate between the values of sweet, dear freedom and subjugation. This is why we need to go to the referendum on accession to the EU only once the final judgement has been delivered for our Generals."

"If the Croatian Government does not wish to defer the referendum, they will significantly reduce the plebiscitary participation in the referendum on accession to the EU," they said among other things.

"In the event that the referendum is not deferred, this will serve as proof that the Croatian Government does not wish to assist the member countries of the EU, so we call upon the citizens of Croatia to unite and demonstrate to one and all, that similar to Bishop (Michel) Dubost, that they cherish traditional, Croatian and Christian values far more than those being propagated by the EU, which Croatian Governments since 2000 have blindly supported, looking out for their own self-interest rather than the welfare of the people of Croatia as a whole."

The signatories say that they cannot be "intimidated by the possibility of another sort of Balkan association and parliament, for we simply do not belong there".