SEVEN CROATS ARE MAYORS IN HUNGARY

BUDAPEST, Oct 21 (Hina) - At local elections in Hungary on Sunday, Croats won enough votes to establish 73 local Croat minority self- governments, president of the Croat World Minority Self-Government in Hungary, Mijo Karagic, said on Wednesday. Croats have been elected mayors in seven towns which have a Croat majority, he added. There are more Croat mayors in Hungary, even in cities such as Mosonmagyarovara which is located near the Hungarian-Croat border. They do not count, however, because they ran in the elections as party representatives. The seven mayors ran also as representatives of the Croat minority, Karagic explained. In the past four years, Croats have established 57 local minority self-governments, which was not easy, because the Croat minority had to constantly prove their presence among the Hungarian population, as well as their maturity, Karagic said. "An honest minority policy is based on honest dialogue between the majority population and minorities. Mutual respect, understanding and tolerance must exist between them, if it is a true European democracy as Hungarian democracy is. If these conditions exist, the path towards cultural autonomy, which is our goal for the future, can be shortened," Karagic stressed. For this path we need clear legal and financial guarantees, so it is necessary to resume negotiations between the authority and minorities on the promotion of not just the minority law, but also laws closely connected with it," he added. (hina) lml/ab