Croat minority has great expectations from renewed Croatia-Serbia dialogue

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Leaders of the Croat minority in Serbia are confident that the most sensitive issues of their status concerning political representation and education will be addressed after the foreign ministers of Croatia and Serbia met at the weekend, the Vojvodina TV broadcaster said in a Croatian-language programme on Monday.

Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman and his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic discussed steps to renew dialogue and improve relations between the two countries at their meeting on Saturday in the northern Serbian city of Subotica, where they attended a traditional Carnival event of the Croat Bunjevci community. The leader of Croatia’s Independent Democratic Serb Party, Milorad Pupovac, was also present.

“We are a bridge in cooperation between Croatia and Serbia,” the head of the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina and minister in the Serbian government, Tomislav Zigmanov, said on that occasion.

The representatives of the Croat minority, together with their partners from the Serb community in Croatia, “are constantly devoted to creating prerequisites for regular communication between the two countries,” he said, adding that they will continue to address the challenges faced by the Croat community in Serbia.

As for political representation, Zigmanov said that the Croat minority expected to participate in local government in Sombor and Subotica, important centres for the Croats in Serbia. He said he expected that efforts would be made to start resolving the infrastructure and utility problems of the Croat community in Serbia.

Croat National Council president Jasna Vojnic said she was proud that a thaw in the relationship between Serbia and Croatia was not just lip service.

Stressing the importance of discussing all unresolved issues, Vojnic said she was confident that parents would stop being afraid to enrol their children in Croatian-language classes, and that the issue of opening a Croatian school in Subotica would be addressed. She also expressed hope that perception of Croats in the media would change for the better.