CRO TO REGULATE RELATIONS WITH RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES BY LAW - RADIC

ZAGREB, Dec 22 (Hina) - The chairman of Croatia's State Commission for Relations with Religious Communities, Deputy Premier Jure Radic, on Tuesday told Hina Croatia would regulate by law relations with religious communities as had been the case with the Catholic Church. Radic said the starting point of the Croatian government in regulating relations with religious communities was the constitutional provision that all religious communities are equal before the law and have equal rights. "The Constitution speaks about religious communities, yet we still don't have a law which would stipulate what religious communities are. We have to work on that and this must now be the first step, to precisely determine what religious communities are," Radic said. He added there was no international legal factor for any of these communities to sign an agreement with Croatia as had been the case with The Holy See. "We had worked on the agreements with the Catholic Church for five years. I'm sure it won't take as long for other religious communities," Radic said. Asked whether works on the building of the Zagreb synagogue, which was demolished during World War Two, would commence soon, Radic said the incumbent government and generation had apparently been selected to make up for historical errors. "Just like we want to correct the historical injustices towards the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and all the citizens who fell victim in the past, it is our standpoint that the injustices done to the Jewish community in Croatia should be corrected too. We ought to deal with this issue in detail and endeavour to solve it," Radic said. (hina) ha mm