"Hungary fully understands the situation, it is not requesting that Hungarian nationals be exempt from Croatian legislation," Ambassador Nick said.
He confirmed reports by the Hungarian agency MTI that the Hungarian foreign ministry had invited him for talks and added that the talks were friendly and calm.
"They asked that the owners of the houses be given time to remove their furniture and salvage parts of their houses that could be used again," Nick explained.
MTI reported that Hungary officially requested Croatia on Wednesday to postpone the demolition of Hungarian-owned houses despite the fact that they had been built illegally. This was also confirmed by Consul Peter Dunai, who has been on the island of Vir for the last two days.
Dunai told Hina that his country had officially requested, through Ambassador Nick, to stop the demolition drive. He also confirmed that Hungarian Ambassador Laszlo Mohai and Croatian PM Ivo Sanader met on Wednesday to discuss the matter. MTI reported that Sanader was determined to have the houses built in the protected zone torn down.
Dunai said that Sanader promised that the project would be implemented in a humane and rational way by allowing Hungarian owners to have access to their houses and take their furniture.
A house owned by a Hungarian national was torn down yesterday.
The Hungarian radio has criticised Croatia's move, saying that Hungarian nationals had invested several million euros in Vir. It also quoted a lawyer representing one the Hungarian investors as saying that information they had received about Croatian legislation was different.
Close to 10,000 houses were built illegally on this central Adriatic island in the last several years. They are owned by Hungarians, Croatians, Slovenes and Bosnians. The Ministry of Construction and Environmental Protection will tear down facilities built in the protected strip 70 meters from the sea. Four houses, built only five meters from the sea, were torn down today. Six facilities - three apartment houses owned by Hungarian investors and three smaller facilities owned by Croatian nationals - were being dismantled and prepared for demolition this morning. They were built without the necessary building location permits in the protected area of 70 metres from the sea. The removal was due to start today after the necessary preparations.