The Committee on Interethnic Relations held its fifth sitting on 13 October in the offices of Kikinda Municipal Assembly.
The Committee on Interethnic Relations held its fifth sitting on 13 October in the offices of Kikinda Municipal Assembly. The sitting was chaired by the Committee Chairperson Ana Tomanova-Makanova.
The Chairman of the Kikinda Municipal Committee on Interethnic Relations Tomo Lakatos, ethnic minority issues coordinator Jasmina Dudas, president of “Egyseg” Art and Cultural Society Laszlot Kiss, editor of the “Radio Kikinda” Roma programme Branislav Jovicic and president of the Association of Germans Aleksandar Konecni briefed the MPs on the interethnic situation in the municipality of Kikinda.
Kikinda is one of the larger cities in Vojvodina, home to, according to the 2002 census, 76% Serbs, 12.58% Hungarians, 2.33% Roma and less than 1% of other ethnic minorities. Its media has broadcasts in Serbian, Hungarian and Roma. Being named the most tolerant city of 2002, Kikinda declared 20 May Day of Tolerance which the municipality will strive to make a traditional event and make Kikinda known as the city of tolerance. In 2004 Kikinda opened an Office for Ethnic Minority issues, available to everyone. Following the briefing, the attending agreed that there are no ethnic disturbances in Kikinda.
The attending were then greeted by the General Consul of the Republic of Hungary Ferenc Nagy who invited them to visit the consulate in Subotica. The attending were also greeted by the President of the Municipality of Kikinda Branislav Blazic.
The Committee members then unanimously elected members to the Subcommittee for issues relating to the improvement of the position of Roma and implementation of the Decade of Roma, nominated by the parliamentary groups, viz. Donka Banovic, Jelena Markovic, Miletic Mihajlovic, Jaroslav Hrebik, Vesna Pesic, Jovan Damjanovic, Aleksandar Marton and Srdjan Sajn. The Subcommittee is to elect a Chairman at the sitting scheduled for 16 October 2007 at 10:30 am.
Regarding the national councils’ requests for a rise in financial support, the Committee requested that all the national councils submit nine-month expenditure reports for 2007, financial plan for the remainder of the year and budget proposals for 2008, so that the Committee might determine whether additional funds need be allocated.
