ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - Establishing ties between different ethnic communities requires mutual acceptance and respect, not assimilation, the head of Croatia's parliamentary delegation at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly,
Mirjana Feric Vac, said in Zagreb on Friday. Feric Vac made this statement in her capacity as the chairwoman of a committee in charge of conducting a campaign for the promotion of a multiethnic society and democratic citizenry, launched during the committee's constituent session in Zagreb's Europe House. The campaign was originally initiated by the Council of Europe within the First Working Table of the Stability Pact and it was presented for the first time at a conference in Portoroz last year.Countries participating in the conference were entrusted with establishing national committees, which Croatia did last month, said Branko Socanac, a member of the Croatian committee from t
ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - Establishing ties between different ethnic
communities requires mutual acceptance and respect, not
assimilation, the head of Croatia's parliamentary delegation at
the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, Mirjana Feric Vac,
said in Zagreb on Friday.
Feric Vac made this statement in her capacity as the chairwoman of a
committee in charge of conducting a campaign for the promotion of a
multiethnic society and democratic citizenry, launched during the
committee's constituent session in Zagreb's Europe House.
The campaign was originally initiated by the Council of Europe
within the First Working Table of the Stability Pact and it was
presented for the first time at a conference in Portoroz last year.
Countries participating in the conference were entrusted with
establishing national committees, which Croatia did last month,
said Branko Socanac, a member of the Croatian committee from the
Foreign Ministry.
The promotion and restoration of a multiethnic and multicultural
society and the development of a democratic citizenry are the main
goals of the Council of Europe campaign, which, apart from Croatia,
also includes Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia,
Moldavia, Romania, Slovenia and Yugoslavia.
The project consists of a wide range of activities which are aimed
at strengthening the awareness of the usefulness and necessity of
cooperation among different communities on local, national, trans-
national and regional levels.
"There are numerous reasons to start this project, the most recent
ones being an attack by a group of skinheads on a Romany girl, who
was stabbed, and the horrible scenes from Wednesday's soccer match
between Hajduk and Dinamo," Feric Vac said calling on all wishing to
do so to join the project.
(hina) rml