EACH YUGOSLAV SUCCESSOR STATE IS ENTITLED TO ARCHIVAL HERITAGE

( Vidi vijest: 5716 ) ZAGREB, Oct 25 (Hina) - Croatian State Archive Director Josip Kolanovic on Saturday commented on an interview granted by Yugoslav Archive Director Jovan Popovic to the Belgrade daily "Politika" on October 23. Popovic said that "the directors of the national archives of the states of former Yugoslavia have accepted a view of the Yugoslav side that the archival material should not be divided and that it should be available to all researchers." Kolanovic told Hina that that view was "restrictively interpreted". The successor states of ex-Yugoslavia should be given individual original documents or sets of original documents which belong according to the principle of origin to the archives of members of the former Yugoslav federation, he said. Kolanovic specified that those documents referred, among other things, to documents on borders, geological research, aerial photographs and international agreements, such as the Osimo Accords. He also cited an example of a list of World War Two victims which was compiled in 1965 and which was kept in the Yugoslav Archive. All the directors of the state archives from the countries of former Yugoslavia firmly supported the principles of international archival theory and practice on the integrity of archive holdings, he said. At a meeting in Belgrade on October 7, they expressed an opinion that microfilms of original documents could be delivered to the Yugoslav Archive as well as to the archives of other former Yugoslav republics in order to fully preserve the integrity of archival holdings. The directors of the national archives of Yugoslav successor states took the view that the issue of state archives could be solved much faster if it were separated from other succession issues, Kolakovic said. (hina) vm mm 252106 MET oct 97