NON-ROMANY PARENTS DETERMINED WITH REQUESTS

CAKOVEC, Sept 9 (Hina) - Dissatisfied parents of some 30 Croatian children who are going to the Dzimurec primary school along with 127 Romany children on Monday, after the first school class, closed and locked the school doors to pressurise the education ministry in changing its decision on class organisation. They said they would keep the school locked until the ministry meets their demands. #L# The parents of non-Romany pupils are requesting that their children take classes in two classrooms, with several advanced Romany pupils, while the other Romany students would be organised in five other classrooms. The parents told Vice-Premier Anto Simonic and participants of a seminar on the education of Romany that they did not wish for segregation. Rather, they said, their children would be educationally neglected since Romany children, they said, did not know Croatian and had no study or hygienic habits. Simonic said tensions should be defused, not let them get out of hand. "I shall help as much as I can. We will establish an inter-ministry team, but for now it is important that tensions calm. I plead with the local authorities to help with that. We must think and act wisely. Croats and Romany remain neighbours, we must consider domestic and European norms and respect the rights enjoyed by the Romany minority," Simonic told the parents. He added that the seminar on the education of the Romany, which began today in Cakovec, was attended not only by representatives of the Croatian government, Medjimurje County and Romany associations, but also representatives of international institutions, as well as world famous experts in the education of national minorities. (hina) lml