OSIJEK, May 6 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on Monday visited Osijek where he held talks with the Osijek County prefect Branimir Glavas, representatives of the government Office for the temporary administration for
establishing Croatian authority in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, as well as heads of municipalities in exile and representatives of the Refugee Union. The talks focused on the peaceful reintegration of the area.
OSIJEK, May 6 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic on
Monday visited Osijek where he held talks with the Osijek County
prefect Branimir Glavas, representatives of the government Office
for the temporary administration for establishing Croatian
authority in eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem, as well
as heads of municipalities in exile and representatives of the
Refugee Union. The talks focused on the peaceful reintegration of
the area. #L#
Thanking Granic for his visit to Osijek, Glavas said that the
war had left deep traces in this county, traces which were felt in
the halved economy and other consequences.
The overall wish was that Croatian authority began its
function in the occupied areas as soon as possible, Glavas said.
Granic stressed that Croatia's strategic goal was to
reintegrate the whole area into its constitutional and legal
system.
"We are approaching the goal and there are no big obstacles to
its realization," Granic said.
Granic described the normalization of relations with Belgrade
and the opening of the Zagreb-Belgrade highway as important and
added "The speed of normalizing relations between Zagreb and
Belgrade will highly depend on the process of searching for missing
and imprisoned persons".
Croatia ensured to all its citizens the protection of human
rights and equal freedom, Granic said, recalling that the Croatian
government was discussing a Bill on Amnesty.
As regards the next elections in the Croatian Danubian area,
Granic said that Croatia would ask General Klein that elections be
held on the basis of the 1991 census.
Every Croatian citizen had the right to choose his place of
residence, but could not stay in the house of a Croatian refugee
once he had returned, Granic said.
The head of the Bilje municipality, Darko Varga, suggested
that Serbs from western Slavonia who were staying in Croat,
Hungarian or other houses, live in refugee camps where Croatian
refugees lived now, after the owner of the house returned and if
they could not go to their own homes until their houses had been
reconstructed.
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