Stories about Croatia from August, 2008
Georgia: Similarities with 1995 Croatia
Gray Falcon compares the current situation of South Ossetians in Georgia with that of Serbs in Croatia in 1995.
Balkans: No Progress for Minorities in EU-Integration
Romano Them discusses why the countries of Southeast Europe make little or no progress in improving the lives of marginalised minorities – at least judging European Union reports.
Croatia: The Death of Dinko Šakić
A few days ago Dinko Šakić, the commander of the infamous WWII Jasenovac Concentration Camp (Croatia) died, having served only half of the sentence in jail for his role in the extermination of inmates. He was buried in his war-time Ustaša (Nazi Croatian movement) uniform, causing a stir in Croatia.
Balkans: “The banality of journalistic evil”
Gray Falcon writes a detailed critique of a recent article by Dan Bilefsky published in the New York Times titled “Hero to Some, Butcher to Others”, about fugitive Ratko Mladić. In it he complains about what he calls “the Good versus evil, black-and-white, typical coverage of Bosnia (and the Balkans...
Croatia: Interview with Dubravka Ugrešić
Balkanikum [French] posted an interview with Croatian writer Dubravka Ugrešić, published by H-Alter on the occasion of the publication of her latest novel in French, Baba Yaga a pondu de oeufs (not yet published in English).
Croatia: Anniversary of Operation Storm
On the 4th of August 1995 the largest European land offensive since World War II started in Central Croatia, in the area of Krajina. Until then Croatian Serbs were the majority population there, but a few days later there were no Serbian families left in this area. For that reason it was called Operation Storm (Operacija Oluja). Bloggers comment on the anniversary.
The Balkans, U.S.: Holbrooke and Karadzic
Eric Gordy of East Ethnia explains why he believes that “that maybe Richard Holbrooke did make some promises to Radovan Karadžić.”