(ANSA) - TRIESTE, FEB. 2 - Writer and essayist Predrag Matvejevic died, aged 84, in the hospital in Zagreb where he had been hospitalized for some time. Committed to supporting human rights, Matvejevic was also a university lecturer and has always fought for peace and dialogue between peoples, in particular among those in the Balkans.

Born in Mostar when the city was part of Yugoslavia (later Bosnia and Herzegovina), he has also lived in Italy (1994-2008), where he taught Slavic Studies at the "Sapienza" University of Rome from 1994 to 2007. He had previously been professor of French Literature at the University of Zagreb and comparative Literature at the New Sorbonne-Paris III.

He migrated to France in 1991, and was a consultant for the Mediterranean Area in the Group of the Wise of the European Commission under President Prodi; then vice president of the International PEN Club in London; co-founder and president of the Scientific Committee of the Fondazione Laboratorio Mediterraneo (today Fondazione Mediterraneo) in Naples. For his work as a writer he was awarded numerous prizes in Italy and abroad, including the Malaparte Prize in 1991, the European Strega Prize in 2003 and the Prix du Meilleur Livre étranger 1993 in Paris.

The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, the President of the Italian Republic awarded him Italian citizenship and the title of Commander of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity. Among his most important works, "Mediterranean Breviary" - translated in many languages - "Sarajevo", "Cursed Europe", "Our bread". (ANSA).