ZAGREB, Oct 7 (Hina) - Italian President Carlo Azegli Ciampi's visit to Croatia on 9 and 10 October will contribute to the enhancement of the bilateral relations and strengthen the belief that the two countries have settled all issues
inherited from the aftermath of the Second World War.
ZAGREB, Oct 7 (Hina) - Italian President Carlo Azegli Ciampi's
visit to Croatia on 9 and 10 October will contribute to the
enhancement of the bilateral relations and strengthen the belief
that the two countries have settled all issues inherited from the
aftermath of the Second World War.#L#
On 9 October, Ciampi will hold talks with his host, Croatian
President Stjepan Mesic, Premier Ivica Racan and Sabor Speaker
Zlatko Tomcic, and will also meet leading dignitaries of the Roman
Catholic Church in Croatia, the Orthodox Church and the Jewish and
Islamic communities.
During his visit to Zagreb on Tuesday, the Italian head of state
will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero, and on
Wednesday, during his trip to Rijeka and Istria where he will meet
local authorities and ethnic Italian representatives, Ciampi will
be accompanied by the under-secretary of the Italian foreign
ministry, Roberto Antonione.
Ciampi's tour to Croatia has been prepared by Minister Ruggiero and
Under-Secretary Antonione who discussed a series of topics,
including the property of optants, with officials of the Croatian
foreign ministry last Monday.
Optants, or the so-called esuli, were residents of Croatia with
Italian origin who opted for Italian citizenship and moved into
Italy in the wake of the WW2. Most optants had lived in the areas of
the biggest Croatian seaport of Rijeka and the peninsula of Istria.
The question of the restitution of their property has recently been
raised through some speculation. Some claim that Rome could insist
on the restitution in return for its support to the bids of Croatia
and Italy to enter the European Union.
The Croatian foreign ministry, however, asserts that the issue of
the optants' assets and the nationalised Italian property was
regulated by bilateral treaties which the former Yugoslavia (the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or SFRY) used to conclude
with Italy.
The last agreement of such kind was made in Rome 1983, and it
envisaged that the then SFRY should pay 110 million dollars for the
property which the optants left while moving into Italy.
The SFRY managed to pay only one instalment of the agreed amount,
and it soon broke up.
The obligations of the former federation were then assumed by
Croatia and Slovenia. The latter has orderly met its obligations
and now has only the last one instalment to pay.
Last Monday during the talks with Antonione, Zagreb officially
asked for the number of the account and the name of the bank where it
could start settling its debt totalling 35,369,233 dollars. The
former Croatia authorities had opened an account for this purpose
but it was all they did.
It is important to say that the former SFRY and Italy regulated
bilateral financial claims and debits through various treaties and
agreements for 36 years since the end of the WW2.
Under the Rome 1983 agreement, Belgrade bound itself to make the 179
cases of optants' property available for use and it met its
commitment. The restitution of nationalised property has been
settled by international agreements and cannot be the subject of
additional claims, sources in the Croatian foreign ministry said.
(hina) ms