ROME, Nov 19 (Hina) - The Croatian-Italian friendship agreement will not be signed until further notice, representatives of World War II Italian refugees from Istria said on Monday evening after meeting Italian government officials.
The refugees (esuli) were received by Vice Premier Gainfranco Fini, Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero and the ministers in charge of relations with parliament and Italians living outside the country, Carlo Giovinardi and Mirko Tremaglio, respectively. An independent commission will be set up to establish all issues related to the return of property of Italian refugees from Istria and Dalmatia, after which it will be possible to sign the friendship agreement, Giovinardi was quoted by the news agency ANSA as saying. A platform for joint action and open issues has been formulated, Giovinardi said, adding Italian government officials and refugee associations would meet ag
ROME, Nov 19 (Hina) - The Croatian-Italian friendship agreement
will not be signed until further notice, representatives of World
War II Italian refugees from Istria said on Monday evening after
meeting Italian government officials.
The refugees (esuli) were received by Vice Premier Gainfranco Fini,
Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero and the ministers in charge of
relations with parliament and Italians living outside the country,
Carlo Giovinardi and Mirko Tremaglio, respectively.
An independent commission will be set up to establish all issues
related to the return of property of Italian refugees from Istria
and Dalmatia, after which it will be possible to sign the friendship
agreement, Giovinardi was quoted by the news agency ANSA as
saying.
A platform for joint action and open issues has been formulated,
Giovinardi said, adding Italian government officials and refugee
associations would meet again on December 12 and the friendship
agreement between Croatia and Italy would certainly not be signed
before that.
According to ANSA, there are 5,000-6,000 still unresolved cases
concerning the property of Italian refugees in Istria.
The president of the Association of Italian Refugees from Istria
and Dalmatia, Renzo de Vidovich, who took part in today's meeting,
said he would investigate the possibility of returning abandoned
property on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
"We are not demanding the return of all abandoned assets, tens of
thousands of houses and land plots, because that is unrealistic.
Many refugees have died and not all those who survived are demanding
property restitution," de Vidovich said, adding however that
partial restitution at least should be possible.
Croatia's Ambassador to Rome, Drago Kraljevic, said this evening
there was not enough time to prepare the signing of the friendship
agreement before the meeting of the Central European Initiative in
Trieste, to be held at the end of this week. The establishment of the
commission in Italy is Italy's internal affair, he added.
(hina) rml