MESIC WRAPS UP FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT TO BELGRADE

BELGRADE, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Wednesday night ended his first official visit to Belgrade, following meetings with Croatian minority representatives in Serbia-Montenegro and representatives of NGOs involved with refugees and a meeting with the president of the Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak. #L# "I am satisfied with my talks today in Belgrade because they were marked with a look towards the future and endeavours to rid ourselves of the past and to live a real life and address real problems," Mesic told Hina prior to returning to Zagreb. He added that he invited Serbia-Montenegro's President Svetozar Marovic to pay a return visit before the year's end. During the afternoon, following talks with Serbian Premier Zoran Zivkovic and acting President of Serbia Natasa Micic, President Mesic met with Croatian minority representatives and then later with representatives from the Serbian Democratic Forum from Belgrade, the Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance (HCIT) from Novi Sad and representatives from the Serbian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. "Croatia wishes that its citizens return to Croatia. We have European regulations in c line with European standards however, barriers still exist at the lower level, Mesic said adding that he would use his authority to urge the establishment of a control mechanism that will guarantee restitution of property, return rights, security, education and all other rights for Croatian citizens. After the meeting, the Executive Director of the Helsinki Committee Ratko Bubalo said he was satisfied with his talks with Croatia's head of state. He assessed that Mesic's visit today was a great step towards resolving the problem of refugees. Nenad Canak, who was the last official that President Mesic met in Belgrade, said they had discussed the strengthening of economic co- operation between the relevant chambers of commerce. Canak informed Mesic of achievements of Vojvodina's assembly that introduced multi-linguilism and where Croatian is one of an official languages. "We asked President Mesic to inform the Croatian public on our experience and to initiate the same matter in the Croatian Sabor so as to possibly introduce Serbian as an official language in that parliament," Canak said. (hina) sp ms