$ T ZAGREB, Nov 8 (Hina) - President Tudjman's chief-of-staff Hrvoje Sarinic and US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith appeared in Friday's prime-time TV news broadcast to comment on the progress of the implementation of the Erdut
Agreement.
AGREEMEN
$ T
ZAGREB, Nov 8 (Hina) - President Tudjman's chief-of-staff Hrvoje
Sarinic and US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith appeared in
Friday's prime-time TV news broadcast to comment on the progress of
the implementation of the Erdut Agreement. #L#
The Erdut Agreement, the framework document for the
reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area, will celebrate its
first anniversary Tuesday, Nov 12. Both Sarinic and Galbraith
played a key role in the process that led to the signing of the
agreement, Sarinic as Croatia's chief negotiator and Galbraith as
mediator and witness.
"I believed in that Agreement - I wouldn't have signed it
otherwise," Sarinic said.
"Still, I was agreeably surprised by the progress that has
been achieved in the implementation of both the letter and the
spirit of the Agreement," he said.
Sarinic and Galbraith met today to review what has been done
and the next steps toward the final objective - the full
reintegration of the Croatian Danubian area into Croatia's
constitutional and legal system.
"We both agreed that progress was satisfactory and there was
no reason for extending deadlines except for the three months that
have already been agreed upon and maybe another three months for
monitoring the situation, as has been defined by President Tudjman
and Minister Granic," Sarinic said.
"Anyway, I think the implementation will be even more
expedient now and I'm not expecting any difficulties," he said.
Stressing that the "Erdut Agreement has been very successful,"
and that its "goal will be achieved very soon," Galbraith said that
the area "will be reintegrated into the Croatian constitutional and
legal system in a few months, certainly less than a year."
"This goal will be achieved by protecting the legal and civil
rights of all - the rights of Croats who will be able to return to
their homes, the rights of Serbs who used to live there, and of
Hungarians and other minorities," Galbraith concluded.
(hina) as
082328 MET nov 96