ZAGREB, 23 Jan (Hina) - Croatian parliamentary representatives differed over the Croatian government Letter of Intent at today's lower house session.
ZAGREB, 23 Jan (Hina) - Croatian parliamentary representatives
differed over the Croatian government Letter of Intent at today's
lower house session. #L#
Minority representatives Njegovan Starek and Sandor Jakab
criticised the fact that certain paragraphs of the Letter gave
privileges only to one ethnic community, although there were other
minorities in eastern Slavonia as well.
As examples of that representative Starek spoke of the right
to the post of sub-prefect, a joint council of municipalities, a
regulation saying that the President of the Republic can appoint
two representatives of the Serb minority to the House of Counties
and a regulation on the postponement of military service.
'I cannot agree with the Letter, I am for the peaceful
reintegration but not in this way. I demand that all national
minorities have the same rights in Croatia', Starek said.
An independent representative Veselin Pejnovic said he could
not and would not support the Letter. If the Letter became part of
the legal system, Pejnovic said, he would seek legal satisfaction
before the Constitutional Court. Pejnovic also opposed the division
of citizens according to their nationality.
The Letter contained a large part of commitments from the
Erdut Agreement but not all of them, said Milan Djukic (Serb
National Party, SNS), adding that the offered rights were not
completely defined.
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) representatives supported the
Letter, which, HDZ representative Vladimir Seks said, was a
political document and one-sided political statement which
reiterated postulates of the Croatian state policy and basic
constitutional and legal documents.
The basic precondition for the presence of Croatian
authorities in the Croatian Danubian area was the completion of the
UNTAES mission in the area and to facilitate the completion of the
U.N. mandate, one had to implement the elections, Seks said.
'This is a document which is aimed at bringing about the
elections', Seks said.
Mato Arlovic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) asked what
would happen with Croatian citizens who had lived for example, in
Knin, and decided to exercise their election rights in the Croatian
Danubian area and then asked to return home. It is questionable how
that would affect the return of Croat displaced to the Croatian
Danubian area, Arlovic said.
The Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) bench opposed the Letter.
Vlado Jukic stressed that the Letter did not express the will of
those it concerned most, namely Croat returnees.
Ivan Gabelica of the Croatian Pure Party of Rights (HCSP)
stressed that the Letter went beyond the Erdut Agreement and the
Agreement on the Normalization of Relations Between Croatia and
Yugoslavia.
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