ZAGREB, July 31 (Hina) - Instead of the current two minority self-government units, stipulated for ethnic Serbs in a letter of intent written by the Council of Europe, a constitutional bill on national minority rights provides for
self-government units for minorities on the entire Croatian territory, said Croatia's vice premier, Goran Granic, presenting the bill to the parliament on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, July 31 (Hina) - Instead of the current two minority self-
government units, stipulated for ethnic Serbs in a letter of intent
written by the Council of Europe, a constitutional bill on national
minority rights provides for self-government units for minorities
on the entire Croatian territory, said Croatia's vice premier,
Goran Granic, presenting the bill to the parliament on Wednesday.
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Granic added that a discussion on the bill, was imbued "by a deficit
of trust," describing it as a result of "the past war period and the
engagement of a part of a national minority into the aggression."
Granic stressed that the bill on national minority rights would not
be adopted because of the past but because of the protection of
rights of minorities and because of the contribution to the
development of a multicultural society and tolerance in Croatia.
He said he had to mention that an MP, Milan Djukic, who represents
the Serb community in the parliament, did not participate in the
efforts to draw up the bill, although he was given drafts of the
proposals every time. Therefore the government talked with
representatives of ethnic Serb societies.
According to Granic, the contentious article on the election of
minority representatives to the parliament shows "positive
discrimination", on which minorities insist, given that a minority
MP may be elected with considerably less votes than deputies from
political parties' electoral slates.
Granic considers the article as a compromise between a proposal of
the ruling coalition that asked for the election of minority MPs
from party electoral slates and the demand of the minorities for
enabling minority members to have the right to dual voting, i.e.
that they can choose candidates from general electoral slates and
from lists of minority candidates.
Granic added that the government was in favour of the election of
minority MPs, as this had become a good Croatian tradition.
However, he stressed, there are no international obligations or
European standards which impose something like that. The election
of minority representatives to the Sabor is exclusively the matter
of the political will in Croatia, the official said.
The government, the sponsor of the bill, did not cite names of
minorities in it, as it regards the bill as a general act which
offers equal rights to each minority, but the possibility for
mentioning the names remains open, Granic added.
Three parliamentary committees for Constitution, for legislation
and for local and regional self-rule advocate the citation of the
names of minorities as follows: Albanian, Austrian, Bosniak,
Bulgarian, Montenegrin, Czech, Hungarian, Macedonian, German,
Polish, Romany, Romanian, Russian, Ruthenian, Slovakian,
Slovenian, Serb, Italian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vlach and Jewish.
On behalf of the said committees, Josip Leko said they were in
favour of the election of minority representatives from general
electoral slates.
The head of the minority sub-committee, Borislav Graljuk, asked for
the dual voting so that minority voters can choose candidates from
the general slates and from lists of minority representatives.
(hina) ms