OSIJEK, April 23 (Hina) - Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs on Tuesday visited Osijek where he met the prefects of the Osijek and Vukovar counties, Branimir Glavas and Vlado Osust, as well as the head of the government Office
for the Temporary Administration in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, Ivica Vrkic.
OSIJEK, April 23 (Hina) - Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs
on Tuesday visited Osijek where he met the prefects of the Osijek
and Vukovar counties, Branimir Glavas and Vlado Osust, as well as
the head of the government Office for the Temporary Administration
in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, Ivica Vrkic. #L#
"Croatia wants to return to its border peacefully," Glavas
said, expressing his conviction that this would be soon.
Kovacs asked Glavas to personally help in the opening of an
education centre in Osijek for primary and high schools in the
Hungarian language.
Kovacs was interested in how many people had lived in the
Croatian Danubian area before the Serb aggression and how many
people lived there now.
"The question is difficult to answer. The Serbs say that some
180,000 people are living in the area at the moment, the
international community say the figure is 150,000, and we believe
there are no more than 80,000 people living in the area," Vrkic
said.
Vrkic expressed his conviction that the peaceful reintegration
would be successful.
"Most of the population in the occupied area realize that
Croatian authority will be established there," Vrkic said. He added
that Hungarians with Croatian citizenship would equally participate
in the return and reconstruction of areas where they had been in
majority before the aggression.
(hina) lm mm
231804 MET apr 96