Croatia to Open Highway to Serbia
ZAGREB, April 29 (Reuters) — Croatia plans to open the last section of a motorway linking its capital Zagreb with the Serbian capital Belgrade, state television reported on Monday. Zagreb officials announced the decision to open the motorway through a rebel Serb enclave in eastern Croatia after talks with Jacques Klein, a U.S. diplomat overseeing the transfer of authority in the enclave. "We have agreed with Mr Klein to officially open the motorway on May 7," deputy prime minister Ivica Kostovic told the television.Klein heads the U.N. transitional administration of Eastern Slavonia, the last Serb enclave which should revert to Croatian authority within two years. Kostovic said the motorway was already open to traffic but the May ceremony should mark "an important step for the normalisation of relations with Belgrade and for the reintegration (of Eastern Slavonia)."
Shortly after opening the motorway, the government plans to open a railway between Vinkovci in Croatia and Sid in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, the television said. Croatia and rump Yugoslavia — comprising Serbia and Montenegro — agreeed at talks in Belgrade and Zagreb in recent months to open the motorway and revive telephone service as part of a restoration of normal relations.
The two countries still have not recognized each other after Croatia seceded from federal Yugoslavia five years ago. The highway has been shut since war broke out in 1991 following Croatia's break with old Yugoslavia.
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