ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on Thursday received a delegation of the Democratic Alliance of Croats of Vojvodina, headed by its president Bela Tonkovic, a statement from the Foreign Ministry
said.
ZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on
Thursday received a delegation of the Democratic Alliance of Croats
of Vojvodina, headed by its president Bela Tonkovic, a statement
from the Foreign Ministry said. #L#
Tonkovic described the position of the Croats in the northern
Serbian province of Vojvodina as very difficult.
"They can never be sure will the police protect them or not,"
he said, referring to harassments they were lately exposed to.
"The Croats in Vojvodina will not demand more than all other
communities already have and what has been stipulated by
international conventions on protection of minorities," Tonkovic
said, specifying that Croat minority in Yugoslavia particularly
insisted in obtaining a cultural autonomy.
Granic told the delegation that he had discussed the issue
with his Yugoslav counterpart Milan Milutinovic during his visit to
Belgrade last month, as they would discuss it again at the coming
Milutinovic's visit to Zagreb.
Croatia would push for a prompt solution of the status of its
minority in Yugoslavia, including the right of the Croats who had
fled from Yugoslavia to return on voluntarily basis, Granic said,
adding that the normalization of ties between the two countries was
a necessary precondition.
The Republic of Croatia would at the same time guarantee to
its Serb minority all of the human and minority rights as
stipulated in all international conventions, the statement said.
(Hina) mm bk
151931 MET feb 96