MOSTAR/KOSTAJNICA, Aug 31 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran Granic on Sunday opened in Kostajnica near Konjic, central Bosnia-Herzegovina, a renovated bridge and a library dedicated to the members of a local Croat family, who were
killed on Christmas Eve last year.
MOSTAR/KOSTAJNICA, Aug 31 (Hina) - Croatian Vice-Premier Goran
Granic on Sunday opened in Kostajnica near Konjic, central Bosnia-
Herzegovina, a renovated bridge and a library dedicated to the
members of a local Croat family, who were killed on Christmas Eve
last year. #L#
The Croatian government has financed the two projects, as well as
the reconstruction of a local church in Kostajnica, with more than
half a million kuna from this year's funds intended for Bosnian
Croats, which total 25 million kuna.
Granic attended Mass celebrated by the Bosnian Archbishop,
Cardinal Vinko Puljic, and visited the Andjelic family in their
house, where Muamer Topalovic last year killed Andjelko Andjelic
and his daughters Zora and Marica.
"The reconstructed bridge should be a point of integration and the
library a place of meeting, not hatred," Granic said after the
opening ceremony.
The Croatian government will continue assisting Bosnian Croat
returnees as well as their cultural, scientific and educational
institutions.
Commenting on concern over reported attempts to eradicate the
Croatian language through the ongoing reform of Bosnia's education
system, voiced among others by Cardinal Puljic, Granic said the
Croatian government would voice its stand should the concern prove
to be founded.
"Any such attempt is doomed to failure. Nobody can strip the Bosnian
Croat people of its language and the right to be educated in the
Croatian language," Granic said.
Granic confirmed that the government would discuss a proposal by
Mostar University, the only institution of higher education with
classes in the Croatian language, that it receive permanent funding
from Croatia.
(hina) rml