PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE TO FORMULATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

( Editorial: --> 4499 ) ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - The Croatian Parliament's House of Representatives passed a decision on Friday on formulating a draft law on constitutional amendments, with 69 votes in favour, 12 against and nine abstentions. The amendments will be formulated by the Committee for the Constitution and the Political System. Constitutional changes were proposed by President Franjo Tudjman. Proposed changes can be classified in three groups. The first group relates to the erasure of provisions which were or had to be adopted because at the time of the promulgation of the Constitution in 1990 Croatia was part of the former Yugoslav federation. The second group of changes relates to the specification of certain legal terms which could be interpreted differently. The third group concerns the prohibition of starting a procedure for associating Croatia in alliances with other states which could lead to the restoration of a Yugoslav state community or any Balkan state association. During a discussion the proposed changes were backed by deputies of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, and in principle by the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP), while other opposition deputies stressed that they would not support the changes. Opposition parties assessed as unnecessary a proposal to replace the word "citizen" with "every man", the word "republic" with "state", and "the Sabor (parliament) of the Republic of Croatia" with "the Croatian State Sabor". The opposition was also against a proposal to omit the listing of national minorities from the preamble to the Constitution. They also considered unnecessary a proposed provision banning Croatia from joining other state associations, arguing that the Croatian people did not want any constitutional and legal ties with Balkan nations or the restoration of Yugoslavia. However, HDZ deputies stressed that the basic motive of the proposed constitutional ban was to preserve the state interest and that the proposed provision was not only a confirmation of the historical aspirations of the Croatian people, but also the Sabor's obligation to its own people, particularly with regard to their suffering during the creation of the Croatian state. (hina) vm jn 281903 MET nov 97