SEMINAR ON NATIONAL MINORITIES IN EASTERN SLAVONIA ENDS

VUKOVAR, May 12 (Hina) - A two-day seminar on national minorities in eastern Slavonia, which was organised by the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (HHO) and the Council of Europe, ended in Vukovar on Saturday. Representatives of the Council of Europe, the Croatian government, HHO and other non-government organisations pointed in their lectures to the status of national minorities in Croatia and conventions and political and social practice in developed European countries. "The purpose of the meeting was not, nor was it possible, to adopt conclusions which could change the current situation significantly, however, it is a fact that political structures and non-government organisations see the position of minorities in Croatia differently," the president of the HHO Osijek office, Jaroslav Pecnik, said after the seminar. The purpose of discussions at the seminar was to "show that relations in Croatia are far from being ideal, including those between minority and majority peoples, among the minorities themselves, and within individual minorities, which are losing their identity, as is the case with the Serb and Slovak minorities in the Osijek area," Pecnik said. A multicultural, multiethnic and multiconfessional society is not only Europe's priority, it is Croatia's advantage which should be used in the process of drawing closer to Europe, he said. (hina) rml