SYMPOSIUM ON EUROPEAN SECURITY IN 21ST CENTURY STARTS IN DUBROVNIK

DUBROVNIK, May 6 (Hina) - An international conference on security in Europe in the 21st century and challenges in south-east Europe started on Thursday at the International University Centre in Dubrovnik, southern Croatia. The three-day meeting gathered about a hundred participants, including representatives from 17 embassies in Croatia. The event was organised by the Croatian Centre for Strategic Research, the Institute of Social Sciences "Ivo Pilar" and the European House from Zagreb. A representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from Vienna, Brigadier Carlo Jean, spoke this morning about OSCE's role as regards the European security. Dana Allin of the British International Institute of Strategic Studies spoke about the prevention of ethnic conflicts. Speaking about the war in Kosovo, he said it was an act of Serbian ethnic- nationalist aggression similar to genocide. Slobodan Lang, advisor on humanitarian issues to the Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, spoke about the problem of refugees as a threat to the European security. The international community has once again failed on the humanitarian plane in the Kosovo crisis, Lang said. (hina) jn rml