Ljubljana, 02 June - Ombudsman Matjaz Hanzek pointed to recurrent problems of court backlogs, intolerance, and the erased as he presented the annual report of his office to the press on Thursday.

Hanzek maintains in the report for 2004 that certain human rights violations keep occurring despite the fact that the ombudsman's office has already highlighted them on several occasions.

If some problems have gone away though, this is not due to efficiency of state institutions, but simply because they have been "exhausted", said Hanzek. He named the problems related to citizenship and denationalisation as an example.

As to the persisting issues, the ombudsman underlined sluggish court procedures and unfriendly attitude of state institutions, which rather that searching for solutions "look for excuses as to why they are not empowered to do anything".

He also pointed to a high number of intolerant statements publicly pronounced by politicians, notably against the "erased citizens", the Roma and Muslim communities, and gays and lesbians. The ombudsman was hopeful that such intolerance was only a consequence of the election year in 2004.

Little or no progress, according to Hanzek, was reported in the problems related to the protection of children's rights, the erased, the Roma community, the status of mental patients and improper police treatment.

The ombudsman was on the other hand pleased with a change in attitude towards the Constitutional Court: whereas ten of the court's decisions remained non-implemented in 2003, the number halved in 2004.

The ombudsman handed the report to Speaker of Parliament France Cukjati today, with MPs expected to discuss it in September.