BELGRADE BELGRADE, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on Wednesday night ended his first official visit to Belgrade, following meetings with Croatian minority representatives in Serbia-Montenegro and representatives of
NGOs involved with refugees and a meeting with the president of the Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak.
BELGRADE, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic on
Wednesday night ended his first official visit to Belgrade,
following meetings with Croatian minority representatives in
Serbia-Montenegro and representatives of NGOs involved with
refugees and a meeting with the president of the Assembly of the
Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak. #L#
"I am satisfied with my talks today in Belgrade because they were
marked with a look towards the future and endeavours to rid
ourselves of the past and to live a real life and address real
problems," Mesic told Hina prior to returning to Zagreb.
He added that he invited Serbia-Montenegro's President Svetozar
Marovic to pay a return visit before the year's end.
During the afternoon, following talks with Serbian Premier Zoran
Zivkovic and acting President of Serbia Natasa Micic, President
Mesic met with Croatian minority representatives and then later
with representatives from the Serbian Democratic Forum from
Belgrade, the Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance
(HCIT) from Novi Sad and representatives from the Serbian Helsinki
Committee for Human Rights.
"Croatia wishes that its citizens return to Croatia. We have
European regulations in c line with European standards however,
barriers still exist at the lower level, Mesic said adding that he
would use his authority to urge the establishment of a control
mechanism that will guarantee restitution of property, return
rights, security, education and all other rights for Croatian
citizens.
After the meeting, the Executive Director of the Helsinki Committee
Ratko Bubalo said he was satisfied with his talks with Croatia's
head of state. He assessed that Mesic's visit today was a great step
towards resolving the problem of refugees.
Nenad Canak, who was the last official that President Mesic met in
Belgrade, said they had discussed the strengthening of economic co-
operation between the relevant chambers of commerce. Canak
informed Mesic of achievements of Vojvodina's assembly that
introduced multi-linguilism and where Croatian is one of an
official languages.
"We asked President Mesic to inform the Croatian public on our
experience and to initiate the same matter in the Croatian Sabor so
as to possibly introduce Serbian as an official language in that
parliament," Canak said.
(hina) sp ms