ZAGREB, July 29 (Hina) - The leader of the Serb People's Party (SNS) said on Monday he would vote against a constitutional bill on national minorities as it did not regulate the rights and freedoms of Serbs in Croatia.
ZAGREB, July 29 (Hina) - The leader of the Serb People's Party (SNS)
said on Monday he would vote against a constitutional bill on
national minorities as it did not regulate the rights and freedoms
of Serbs in Croatia. #L#
Serbs in Croatia do not want a state, only the rights they have been
entitled to as a constituent people since 1991, Milan Djukic told
reporters in Zagreb, adding that Croatian Serbs had been reduced to
a discriminated national minority.
Djukic said that some positive solutions in the bill, for example a
minority self-government, were viable only in a civilised state. He
added, however, that these were useless when Serbs were denied
their rights to a home and property.
He criticised the bill, which parliament is set to discuss this
week, for not containing provisions on the dual voting right, the
proportional representation of minorities in bodies of authority,
and the fact that the government will appoint and control a national
minorities council.
Djukic maintained these solutions had been urged by the
opposition's Croatian Democratic Union and the Croatian Party of
Rights.
He labelled the bill a big lie the ruling coalition was using, by
lending a hand to the right wing, to stay in power.
Djukic said he would support a new Ivica Racan cabinet only if the
prime minister-designate stated clearly if he was aware that Serbs
are Croatian citizens and if he intended to take a clearer stand on
their basic rights.
Commenting on an incident which occurred on the Croatian-Yugoslav
border on the Danube on Sunday, when the Yugoslav army arrested a
Croatian delegation, Djukic suspected it had been caused
deliberately to foment tension prior to the voting on the
constitutional bill on national minorities.
Perhaps someone wanted to depict the Serbs as killers, said Djukic,
adding that he would not mind if the right wing used the incident to
vote against the bill.
Ending the news conference, Djukic produced a humanitarian aid
package containing food gone bad which had been given to one
Croatian Serb returnee by the Red Cross in Gospic. This is what
Croatian Serbs get while being offered a constitutional law, he
said.
(hina) ha