SERBIA: Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic meet with representatives of the Croatian community in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina

Record ID: 862797

  • Title: SERBIA: Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic meet with representatives of the Croatian community in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina
  • Date: 17th October 2013
  • Summary: CHILDREN SINGING IN CLASSROOM / IVO JOSIPOVIC, CROATIAN PRESIDENT AND TOMISLAV NIKOLIC, SERBIAN PRESIDENT ENTERING / LISTENING TO SONG
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • City:
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAB0HGU21BIKO5ROH8WJBJS0OV
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: On his second day of an official visit to Serbia, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic met on Thursday (October 17) with representatives of the Croatian community in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.
    The community is located in the village of Donji Tavankut, also known simply as Tavankut, some 200 kilometres North-West from capital Belgrade.
    The two presidents visited the elementary school "Matija Gubec", where they attended a class.
    They were later greeted by children in the school's sports hall.
    During a news conference, both presidents talked to representatives of the Croatian minority about their status in Serbia.
    "I think, not only for citizens of Serbia and Croatian, and in the region, but for the whole Europe, it is a perfect sign that Serbia and Croatia can leave behind everything what was separating them, and to start making new history for their peoples, we are connected, intertwined, we had tragic events in our past, never to happen again," Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said.
    The Croatian President said that rights of minorities should be respected in both countries.
    "We know what are the problems in both countries, they are in some cases very similar, but different as well, but we concluded together , if our minorities are wealth , because these minorities are connecting us, so by respecting rights of minorities, in our countries, we do not loose, we are just gaining," Josipovic added.
    According to a national census from 2011, almost 58.000 people declared themselves as Croats living in Serbia.
    The majority of them lives around the town of Subotica, some 180 kilometres North of Belgrade, in the Vojvodina province.
    Relations between the two countries have been marred by disputes reaching back to the 1991 war, with both countries charging each other of genocide at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
    Croatia filed a genocide suit against the now defunct Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, which Serbia is considered its legal successor.
    In 2010, a Serbian law suit followed with similar charges against Croatia.
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