ZAGREB INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MINORITIES ENDS

ZAGREB, April 6 (Hina) - A two-day conference called "Challenges of the Minority Policy in Croatia Today" ended in Zagreb on Friday with a call to regulate the rights of minorities through legislation and apply it in practice. The conference was organised by Croatia's Serb People's Council (SNV), the German "Friedrich Naumann" foundation, and the Croatian Legal Centre, and was attended by representatives of minorities, non-governmental organisations, the Croatian parliament and government, international organisations, religious communities, and embassies. The minorities in Croatia in the past decade have probably been reduced by half, said SNV president Milorad Pupovac, who added that until last year, the "anti-minority policy" was helped by the war and the separatism policy among local Serbs in central Croatia. Pupovac advocated a new policy towards minorities, abolishing the discriminating practice, ensuring the return of minority refugees, acknowledging multiculturalism, and introducing minority self- government. He believes minorities should be given the possibility of proportional participation in local bodies of authority, and urged passing a constitutional law on minorities and signing agreements with mother countries on the status of the Serb, Bosniak, and Slovene minorities. Legal frameworks are important for improving multiethnic issues, said Silvije Devetak, the president of the International Scientific Conference Minorities for Europe of Tomorrow, who spoke about the minority issue on the territory of the former Yugoslav federation. He mentioned as equally important stamping out xenophobia, advancing real democracy, reconciliation, and the creation of euro-regions. The European Union convention on the protection of minorities should be viewed as a starting point, not as the maximum in minority rights, Devetak said. According to Stipe Suvar, the president of the Social Labour Party, the current census Croatia is conducting will show a significantly smaller number of minority members, Serbs in particular, than a decade ago. The reduction of the Serb minority is not only the result of those who fled but also those who declared themselves Croat for fear of having a finger pointed at them, he said. Rade Dragojevic, a journalist with Novi List daily, slammed inflammatory articles in the media. He maintained the method of crude media lynching was replaced by a "more sophisticated mechanism." (hina) ha sb