ITALIAN UNION DEMANDS THAT ID CARDS INCLUDE INFORMATION IN ITALIAN

RIJEKA, Jan 23 (Hina) - The president of the Italian Union Assembly, Giuseppe Rota, told reporters on Wednesday the Union advocated the introduction of trilingual ID cards, containing information in Croatian, English and Italian, for all citizens in Istrian towns with Italian communities, regardless of nationality. Citizens who do not want trilingual ID cards should be provided with bilingual ID cards, with information in English and Croatian, he said. The Union demands that some of 13 regulations of the Istria County Statute granting special rights to the Italian minority be incorporated in the statutes of towns and municipalities in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County with Italian communities. Rota says this particularly refers to Rijeka, Moscenicka Draga, Lovran, Opatija and the islands of Cres and Losinj. He also claims that the Italian minority in Slovenia enjoys more rights "on paper", but has less influence on the public life of the Slovene part of Istria than the Italian community in the Croatian part of Istria, which is bigger. (hina) rml