SABOR PRESIDENT PROPOSES SET-UP OF BODY FOR INDIGENOUS CROATS

ZAGREB, May 17 (Hina) - Croatian National Parliament's President Zlatko Tomcic on Wednesday met a delegation of the Croats' Democratic Alliance in Vojvodina led by the Alliance's President Bela Tonkovic. Tomcic and Tonkovic agreed on launching an initiative for the establishment of a central organisation for Croats who are indigenous people in third countries. "I have suggested that the current "Matica Hrvatskih Iseljenika (Croatian Emigration Institute)" be transformed into a new governmental organisation - the chief organisation for indigenous Croats in third countries," Tomcic said. Tomcic said they had come to such a conclusion after they established that "at this moment Croats in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), particularly in Vojvodina, have no right to exercise their cultural and linguistic autonomy or to exercise rights to education and information in the Croatian language." "This meeting has been very important as we have agreed that we shall together launch the initiative to set up an institute for indigenous Croats in third countries. That body should take care of Croatian ethnic communities in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Austria," Tonkovic said after the talks. Asked about problems Croats were facing in Vojvodina (northern FRY) he answered that it was their "survival, the recognition of the status, (their) language and the recognition that they exist and live there." (hina) mm ms