ZAGREB, April 10 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stipe Mesic on Monday received Bosnia-Herzegovina's (BH) Ambassador to Croatia Hasan Muratovic, with whom he discussed activities aimed at realising co-operation as agreed during Mesic's
recent visit to Sarajevo, and constitutional changes in connection with Bosnian Muslims' position in Croatia. During his visit to BH's capital on March 23 and 24, President Mesic held talks with BH's leaders and attended a meeting of a Croatian-Bosnian council for co-operation. The topics were trade relations, property-rights issues, social insurance, employment, dual citizenship, customs co-operation, and extradition. "Today we talked about the new Constitution. For a long time we have been advocating that the Muslim minority should be treated as others in the Constitution. This means that it should either be included in the Constitution's new text or that other minorities sh
ZAGREB, April 10 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stipe Mesic on Monday
received Bosnia-Herzegovina's (BH) Ambassador to Croatia Hasan
Muratovic, with whom he discussed activities aimed at realising co-
operation as agreed during Mesic's recent visit to Sarajevo, and
constitutional changes in connection with Bosnian Muslims'
position in Croatia.
During his visit to BH's capital on March 23 and 24, President Mesic
held talks with BH's leaders and attended a meeting of a Croatian-
Bosnian council for co-operation. The topics were trade relations,
property-rights issues, social insurance, employment, dual
citizenship, customs co-operation, and extradition.
"Today we talked about the new Constitution. For a long time we have
been advocating that the Muslim minority should be treated as
others in the Constitution. This means that it should either be
included in the Constitution's new text or that other minorities
should also be left out," BH's ambassador told reporters.
President Mesic told the press his task force in charge of
constitutional changes gave precedence to a solution which would
avoid listing minorities by name. Asked whether according to the
new Constitution Croatia would be a citizens' state or one with
minorities, the President said Croatia would be a "civic state in
which citizens live."
Mesic and Muratovic also exchanged views on the results of recent
municipal elections in BH. Ambassador Muratovic said the elections
had been "within the frame of the expected," and that due to their
local character, they should not affect Croatia-BH relations.
Speaking about prospects of finding a solution to problems in
Croatia-BH relations, BH's ambassador said the two countries did
not have "even one serious open issue," that all could be settled,
and that some were of a purely technical nature.
Muratovic was sceptical about entrusting people who had been unable
to solve those problems in the past with solving them now. He was
equally sceptical in connection with Bosnian Serb leadership's
promise regarding refugee returns.
(hina) ha mm