PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES FAIL TO REACH SOLUTION ON MINORITY LAW

ZAGREB, Nov 29 (Hina) - The Croatian parliament's Human Rights Committee on Friday accepted a compromise solution for a constitutional law on the rights of national minorities, while the Committee on the Constitution, Rule Book and Political System withheld its support, announcing further discussions. #L# Representatives of minorities on Thursday held a meeting with Prime Minister Ivica Racan and his deputy Goran Granic at which they reached a compromise by which double voting rights for minorities would not be regulated by a constitutional, but by an electoral law. A constitutional law would guarantee minorities the right to elect their own parliamentary deputies of whom there would be at least five. This solution was accepted by the Human Rights Committee. Mato Arlovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said at today's session of the Constitution Committee that this was only one possible solution. On behalf of his party he proposed an amendment under which the number of minority MPs should correspond to the size of a minority electorate. The representative of the Italian minority, Furio Radin, said that Arlovic had thus abandoned the compromise. A representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe who attended the session of the Committee on the Constitution, Rule Book and Political System told MPs and the government that the adoption of a constitutional law required the consent of national minorities and that their acquired rights should be maintained. (hina) lml sb