CROATIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER MEETS MINORITIES REPRESENTATIVES

ZAGREB, April 2 (Hina) - Croatian deputy prime minister Ljerka Mintas-Hodak on Tuesday held separate talks with representatives of the Serb, Hungarian and German and Austrian minorities and their associations on the financing of their projects. Representatives of associations and parliamentary deputies of the Serb minority said that respect for human rights was the basis for improving the overall position of the Serb community in Croatia. The peaceful reintegration of the Danubian area of eastern Croatia should include the reintegration of both territory and people, Serb representatives said. They raised the issue of return of Serb citizens who had left Croatia during the liberation of occupied Croatian areas last summer. The deputy head of the Office for Displaced Persons and Refugees, Damir Zoric, said that the Office had granted requests for return by 3,700 Serb citizens, of whom 3,000 had already returned. About 3,000 requests were still being processed, he added. Mintas-Hodak said that the Croatian government would like Serb associations to present their own programmes, particularly those in education, which they would like to be financed by the government. She and ethnic Hungarian representatives discussed the financing of a newspaper of the Hungarian minority. In talks with representatives of the Austrian and German minorities, Mintas-Hodak said that their associations should improve coordination of their activities because the government could not finance two identical or similar projects. (hina) vm jn 022110 MET apr 96