Zagreb - Croatian Parliament Speaker Željko Reiner has met with a delegation of the World Jewish Restitution Organisation, led by US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Nicholas Dean, and at the talks Reiner underscored that there was no anti-Semitism in Croatia, according to a press release issued by the Sabor.
Reiner and Dean discussed the process of restitution of Jewish property confiscated during the Ustasha regime in the Second World War and by the Communist authorities in the former Yugoslavia.
The Croatian parliament speaker, who spoke about the contribution of the Croatian Jews to Croatia's history and heritage, outlined a few models how to solve the issue of the restitution of property owned by the Jews.
He briefed the delegation of the rights which ethnic minorities, including the Jewish community, can exercise in Croatia, and pointed out education about the Holocaust in the country.
He also said that compared to many other countries, Croatia was not faced with anti-Semitism as a problem.
Although the visit of the WJRO delegation and the U.S. envoy Dean had been arranged some time ago, their arrival in Zagreb coincided with the decision of Croatian Jewish representatives not to attend the 22 April official commemoration of victims of the WW2 Ustasha-led concentration camp in Jasenovac.
The delegation was received by top Croatian officials, including President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Deputy Prime Ministers Tomislav Karamarko and Božo Petrov.