ILOK, July 28 (Hina) - Croatia's Prime Minister-designate Ivica Racan and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic on Sunday evening regretted an incident which occurred on the Danube earlier today when the Yugoslav army, firing
shots, apprehended a local Croatian delegation.
ILOK, July 28 (Hina) - Croatia's Prime Minister-designate Ivica
Racan and Yugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic on Sunday
evening regretted an incident which occurred on the Danube earlier
today when the Yugoslav army, firing shots, apprehended a local
Croatian delegation. #L#
The two officials held talks at the Ilok border crossing in eastern
Croatia after the Croatian delegation was released from a barracks
in Backa Palanka, Yugoslavia.
Racan condemned the incident, saying that "people from both sides
of the Danube have to live in peace and cooperate in mutual
interest."
He voiced a deep grievance over the incident, particularly the fact
that shots had been fired. "When it happens near civilians it is
unacceptable and detrimental to good neighbourly relations," said
Racan, adding that he expected Yugoslavia would submit the results
of an investigation into the matter.
Yugoslavia's Svilanovic, too, regretted the incident, saying it
had occurred because "evidently not all police and military bodies
were acquainted with the local authorities' initiative to visit the
Sarengrad river islet."
Svilanovic said the residents of Sarengrad, a town on the Croatian
bank of the Danube, were to blame as well as they "failed to obtain
all the necessary permits."
The foreign minister asserted that all Yugoslav citizens currently
on Croatian territory and all Croatians currently in Yugoslavia
could feel safe.
He announced Yugoslavia would investigate the incident.
Svilanovic dismissed the possibility that the incident might point
to anarchy within the Yugoslav army, saying he had discussed the
incident with the military chief-of-staff.
Present at the Racan-Svilanovic talks was Vukovar-Srijem County
prefect Nikola Safer, who had headed the Croatian delegation. He
stated the incident would step up the bolstering of cooperation
between his county and the nearby Yugoslav province of Vojvodina.
Asked how the Yugoslav army had treated the delegation, Safer said
"the first half hour of the incident was really ugly, one child even
fainted, but afterwards the Yugoslavs were fair."
Also this evening, Racan and parliament president Zlatko Tomcic
held talks with Sarengrad's residents. Racan said the settlement of
the Sarengrad river islet border issue would ensue after the
solving of the Prevlaka peninsula border issue in southern
Croatia.
"If we fail to reach an agreement with Yugoslavia, we shall seek
international arbitration," said Racan.
The islet is in Croatian cadastral books but has been under Yugoslav
army control since 1991.
(hina) ha