BOOK ON BURGENLAND CROATS PROMOTED IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, June 20 (Hina) - "Selected Documents on the Movement of the Burgenland Croats in the 16th Century (unofficial translation)," is an extensive scholarly work, published in the German and Croatian language. The book, the authors of which are scholars Geza Palffy, Miljenko Pandzic and Felix Tobler, was presented in the Croatian national archives last Tuesday. The 300-page book gives the chronology of Ottoman incursions into Croatian areas between 1463 and 1606, lists of towns, villages and persons, lists of villagers and farmers abducted and other sources of information. The presented work contains original documents and 173 deeds. "The documents do not cite only causes of Croats' exodus, they also bring a series of new data which are useful for further research," said Milan Kruhek at the book's promotion. Felix Tobler, the head of this project, spoke of how an idea had occurred for conducting this project. There were plans for such a work in the thirties, but it was finished in the nineties. ?he name "Burgenland Croats (Gradiscanski Hrvati)" does not refer only to Croats in Burgenland (Gradisce), Austria, but it covers the Croatian Diaspora created in the Austrian-Hungarian-Slovakian border areas and in Moravia, Tobler wrote in the introduction to the book. The book was published by the Croatian Cultural and Documentation Centre (HKDC) in Eisenstadt, Austria. Austria's Ambassador to Croatia, Rudolf Bogner, who attended its promotion in Zagreb, said this work contributed to the both Austrian and Croatian national identity. (hina) jn ms