ZAGREB, Feb 9 (Hina) - Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa on Tuesday said the meeting of top Croatian government officials with an international delegation for human rights and freedoms was an exceptional opportunity to discuss all
issues, sometimes even controversial ones, linking Croatia and the international community. "The discussion, which was very open, included both critical notes and commendations, in the measure in which Croatia has been more or less good in meeting the standards we want to be compared to," Matesa told reporters after the Tuesday meeting. He assessed the meeting as a good starting point for continuing dialogue on all levels. According to the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Tim Guldimann, the aim of the international delegation's visit to Croatia was to "express the very close cooperation of all the parts in the interna
ZAGREB, Feb 9 (Hina) - Croatian Premier Zlatko Matesa on Tuesday
said the meeting of top Croatian government officials with an
international delegation for human rights and freedoms was an
exceptional opportunity to discuss all issues, sometimes even
controversial ones, linking Croatia and the international
community.
"The discussion, which was very open, included both critical notes
and commendations, in the measure in which Croatia has been more or
less good in meeting the standards we want to be compared to,"
Matesa told reporters after the Tuesday meeting.
He assessed the meeting as a good starting point for continuing
dialogue on all levels.
According to the head of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Croatia, Tim Guldimann, the
aim of the international delegation's visit to Croatia was to
"express the very close cooperation of all the parts in the
international community, particularly these institutions which
participate (in Croatia), from the OSCE, from the Council of
Europe, and from the United Nations."
"(...) this close cooperation means that we also try to have a
dialogue with the (Croatian) government, a positive dialogue in
which we have expressed our concern in issues which the Prime
Minister has referred to," Guldimann said.
Asked by reporters to comment on the latest OSCE Mission report on
Croatia's compliance with undertaken obligations, Premier Matesa
said it was not up to him to comment on reports by international
organisations.
He said however that these reports always focused more on what
should be done or corrected in the future, than on what had been well
done in the past. "(The reports) can be more critical than they
should in truth be," Matesa said.
During the talks, the OSCE was represented by Are Jostein Nordheim
on behalf of Germany as OSCE's presiding country, OSCE's high
commissioner for national minorities Max van der Stoel, UN's
special rapporteur for human rights in Bosnia, Croatia, and
Yugoslavia Jiri Dienstbier, Council of Europe political manager
Hans Peter Furrer, and Guldimann.
The Croatian side included Matesa, Foreign Minister Mate Granic,
European Integration Minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, Justice
Minister Milan Ramljak, Reconstruction and Development Minister
Jure Radic, and the head of the government's Office for cooperation
with the OSCE Tomislav Vidosevic.
(hina) ha jn