CROATIAN DELEGATION HOLDS TALKS WITH POLISH OFFICIALS

( Editorial: --> 0381 ) WARSAW, March 17 (Hina) - A delegation of the Croatian National Parliament's upper House of Counties headed by chamber president Katica Ivanisevic on Tuesday met officials of both houses of the Polish parliament in Warsaw. Comparing both constitutions, especially problems regarding the banning of abortions, world pressure on Croatia because of the departure of Serbs from the Danube region and the decentralisation of authority in Poland were the main topics of discussion. In talks with the president of the Polish parliament's upper house the Senat, Alicja Grzeskowiak, they mentioned the issue of banning abortions, which was included in the Polish constitution in 1997, but the new composition of parliament is likely to abolish it. House of Counties deputy president Ivan Aralica said the abortion issue had not been discussed in parliament but by the church and several non-government organisations. Regarding pressure by the international community on Croatia because of the departure of Serbs from the Danube River region, Aralica explained to the Polish parliamentarians that Croatia had fulfilled absolutely all conditions which the world had asked of her, because Croatia did not want to be responsible for a lack of success in the concept of returning all refugees to their homes, including Bosnia-Herzegovina. Ivanisevic said two-way return was a key concept for Croatia and that the departure of Serbs from the Danube region was not a political but an economic problem. The third member of the Croatian delegation and an upper house deputy president Bozidar Pankretic added that in regard to the return of refugees everything began and ended in Bosnia- Herzegovina. He recalled that in Croatia lived a large number of displaced Bosnian Croats who had nowhere to return to and whose return required help from the international community. Following the Senat president, the Croatian delegation was received by Jan Krol, the deputy speaker of the Polish parliament's lower house the Sejm. (Hina) jn mb 172248 MET mar 98