Global Voices » Miquel Hudin

Croatia: EU Membership Approval

Miquel Hudin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:47:56 +0000

On June 10, 2011, Croatia was cleared to become the newest member state of the European Union. There is still a long road before Croatians are officially a part of the EU, and the timing at the moment is, at best, precarious, creating many skeptics.

Beyond the current state of the economy in Europe, there is also the fact that on April 15, 2011, the ICTY convicted former generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač of war crimes.

As noted on This Just In:

The verdict was greeted by boos and hisses from crowds gathered in the central square of Croatia's capital, Zagreb, the BBC reported. The generals are regarded by some as national heroes.

Anti-EU protest on the day of ITCY convictions. Image by Flickr user Sophie Guesné, used with permission.

This public opinion is important to note, as prior to joining, Croatia will hold a national referendum which, if held currently, could fail with approximately only 38 percent voting “yes” or could pass easily with 64 percent voting in favor of joining, depending on the source.

Despite this electorate uncertainty, the Croatian government has continually pushed forward on the joining, as noted [hr] on Jutarnji List:

[Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor] said that the decision of the European Council is a joyful moment for Croatia, especially as Croatia this week marks the 20th anniversary of independence. “I have always said that this would be the greatest reward for the anniversary of independence,” stressed the Prime Minister.

Of course, most of the accession frustration in this country of 4.5 million people revolves around the length of time it has taken to get to this point, as was written [hr] on gospon profesor:

So, these six so far and two more? And I thought that when we finish negotiations, hop, here we are in the EU. But, no.

A commenter on that post by the name of Kinky Kolumnista [hr] approaches the pending accession from a practical standpoint:

Let's face it, if there was no pressure from the EU, none of these minor [country] improvements would have happened and we were the same quagmire as before […] EU countries are definitely more successful than we are, and those who are bypassed are at a disadvantage.

Much will still be expected of Croatia in the next two years, but currently everything points to their becoming the 28th member of the EU.

Croatia: A New President, A New Path

Miquel Hudin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:38:28 +0000

On Friday of last week, Ivo Josipović took office as Croatia's third president, replacing outgoing two-term president, Stjepan Mesić. The BBC ran an extensive article covering what the new president symbolizes as well as the hurdles that Croatia faces in getting ever-closer to EU membership in 2011 or 2012. But, let's look at what bloggers are having to say about this large change of power that has coincided with Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, suddenly stepping down last year and completely withdrawing from politics.

Funky Business writes (HRV) of the inauguration:

I very much liked today's inauguration of the new president. The whole ceremony was very culturally active, upscale and European.

On a previous post, the day the results were announced, Funky Business also wrote (HRV):

Croatia has elected justice. Croatia has chosen light. Croatia has chosen a better tomorrow. Croatia has chosen educated, European president. Croatia has chosen wisely. Finally!

Others are more cautious as fra gavun (french melt) wrote (HRV):

Tonight I am happy, happy but not euphoric. Happy because I was not disappointed, happy because he won the mind.

Naturally, there are detractors, such as some of these comments (HRV), especially one by Vidi pisme ove (see this song):

All this is just a performance, nothing more…
we are all long since bought and sold…
politicians are just actors, who work in someone's script…
anything we do not choose, unless you want to watch the show or not,
that's all…

And it is echoed by a longer comment by Dosanjani:

Although I was too young to have participated in them, I remember the elections in the former Yugoslavia when we were offered the party candidates - on a piece of paper of five to six so that you, choose the selection. It is the same now.

Josipović has a daunting task ahead of him as Croatia is in a massive recession and the country has very large goals to reach EU membership. It is understandable that comments haven't been terribly forthcoming from Croatians at large as they wait to see if new leadership will bring new economic growth and stability.

Croatia: Changing Eminent Domain for a Golfing Gain

Miquel Hudin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:32:53 +0000

Near the end of last year, a law was passed in the Croatian Sabor (Parliament) that made a number of changes to how eminent domain can be used within the country, specifically when it comes to the development of golf courses. The blog for Lifejacket Adventures describes why this particular type of development required government intervention:

Currently it is very difficult to organize a large parcel of land in Croatia for a golf resort as the country is divided into numerous small plots, many of which are owned by numerous owners, who may also be dead or living overseas. The newly passed law is a heavy-handed attempt to break this impasse.

The new law allows the government to use ‘eminent domain’ to confiscate land from its owners if a golf course resort is proposed nearby and the land is required for the development, even if the owners don’t wish to sell. There is no right of appeal.

…The situation smacks of overt corruption - several golf developers have given sizable donations to HDZ [the majority party of Croatia] and a local Istrian law firm, who has a number of large golf developers as clients, had a hand in drafting the legislation.
It seems that there is now no way to prevent Jupiter Adria from building its resort below Motovun.

The town in question that this immediately affects is Motovun, an otherwise idyllic hilltop town similar to others that dot the landscape of the Istrian Peninsula in the far western region of Croatia.

The approach to Motovun, from Hudin

As this process started, a local to the area named Ranko Bon began writing about what was happening on his site, Residua:

In major developments, such as golf in Motovun, the state land is leased for a period of many years, while the private land adjoining it is sold outright to foreign investors. The spatial or physical planning process preceding individual development projects is widely used in the region to ensure that leasing and sale go hand in hand. In accordance with the Croatian law, agricultural and urban land use can be switched in the planning process without informing the owners.

Motovun is a very small place and this article did not go without notice. Just a few weeks after publishing the article, Ranko was summoned to court for slander as he wrote in a later article:

…this morning I got a hefty piece of registered mail summoning me to the County Court in Pazin on December 1. Vugrinec is suing me for slander on account of a piece of mine published on my website (”Croatia Spells Conflict of Interest,” October 3, 2008)…

…the mayor demanded my apology for slander, which I refused to give. I told him that we should discuss such matters in the presence of our lawyers, and that the public discussion should concern only the study itself.

Ranko's situation to date remains unresolved and is still in legal proceedings.

Valley fields at the base of Motovun. Land such as this is being eyed for federal seizure and development. From Hudin

This issue has become a national concern as well, due to the fact that in addition to not being in line with the EU acquis, there are large environmental concerns as well with the group Zelena Akcija (Green Action) taking up the issue and creating the Facebook Cause, Zahtijevamo ukidanje Zakona o igralištima za golf! (We demand the abolition of the Golf Course Law!) (HRV) which was started by organization member, Jagoda Munić. In the Cause, they outline a good number of the issues and elaborate on how the law came about:

The law was secretly pushed through and threatens the right of ownership and entrepreneurial freedom.

…The law was without a public hearing and deferred through the urgent parliamentary procedure, although it does not relate to the harmonization of Croatian legislation with EU acquis.

They also talk about how large the scope of definitions for golf courses have now become:

Thus the law sets the minimum surface of the golf course to be 85 hectares [210 acres], a building can occupy up to 25% of the total surface area, which makes the possibility of building luxury accommodations and villas, as has already been done by law in the case of Golf & Country Club in Zagreb.

This means that an extremely large resort can be constructed right next to a town that claims fewer than 1,000 inhabitants during the warm months of the year. But, beyond relaying the facts, there is a call to action by multiple groups. On Barkun prozor u istra (A Window into Istria) they write (HRV):

NGOs have called on the citizens to speak up if they are directly affected by this law, and tell others to become a member of the ‘facebook group' under ‘Zahtijevamo ukidanje Zakona o igralištima za golf!' which currently has more than 1200 members.

Citizens are also invited to an Internet page where Green Action can send automated mails to all MPs in the Croatian Parliament, Government, and the Ministry of Tourism with the request to revoke this law.

While the Facebook Cause now has 2,700 members, Croatia is a small country and the people fighting this law need all the help they can get. For anyone who wishes to support (or challenge) their cause, join the Facebook Cause or go to Zelena Akcija and send the email. Also, stay up to date with the predicament of Ranko Bon, which he writes updates on (as well as a great many other topics) at his site, including this one three weeks ago:

Concerned with the legal pickle in which I found myself, Vjeran Pirsic, a friend and a Croatian ecological activist of note, recently wrote to Zarko Puhovski, a professor of political science and a Croatian human-rights activist of note. “Concerning Bon,” responded Puhovski tersely, “only two things can help–a good lawyer and a good deal of public noise.” And I have followed his advice to the letter. Having already hired the best lawyer I could find in Istria, yesterday I agreed to appear this Monday at a press conference in Pula organized by some of the Istrian greens, and then I wrote a one-page statement that I will distribute to the journalists who appear at the event […] And now I am sitting with a glass of wine in my hand and waiting for that noise to begin. I can almost hear it already.

Croatia: The Anti-Sanader Facebook Group Controversy

Miquel Hudin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:33:32 +0000

The people of Croatia are upset by their current government to produce realistic economic plans and have taken to the streets as well as the internet. The majority of the frustration is directed at Prime Minister Ivo Sanader which spawned the creation of a Facebook Group: “I bet you'll find 5000 Facebook users who do not like Sanader!”. Naturally, the group has well over 15,000 members as of this writing.

A screenshot of the Facebook group.

The creator of the group, Niksa Klečak recently got in to trouble as relayed by Svetlana Gladkova on Profy:

…the main problem with it was that the guy was not just some regular citizen unhappy with his Prime minister and the financial ideas of the government - he is actually the president of one of the local branches of the youth of SDP (social democratic party) which is in opposition to the government in Croatia…But the result of this situation is simply outrageous as yesterday the guy was arrested by the police that claimed he kept some Nazi symbols and propaganda at home. When they could not find any evidence, they claimed he had links to child porn somewhere and that could be another reason for the arrest. Eventually Niksa Klecak was let go by the police for lack of evidence but the social networks and the local media outlets are all abuzz about these actions of the police.

A very prominent voice to speak out on the absurdity of this arrest was Vesna Škare Ožbolt who was a former member of Sanader's cabinet. She wrote on her blog, Funky Politika (HRV):

In France you may sell voodoo dolls with Sarkozy.
In Croatia, virtual gatherings on Facebook are prohibited.
I can not imagine what would happen to those who would be in the middle of Zagreb selling voodoo dolls with a figure of he whose name we may not speak.
…After the incident on Facebook it has sent all a message. The message is that those who fight for the freedom of words in this country must be stronger.

On Reci.hr (Words), T-Zombix writes (HRV):

Now it is becoming clear that the main tasks of our police are: the clearance of the Mafia, who are the Mafia, and where are the Mafia. So, the Mafia is on the Internet and very active on Facebook where they are inflicting incalculable harm to this country.

Prime Minister Sanader has officially been taking the high road, as the BBC reported that he claims this was not his doing, “…no-one should be detained or arrested in Croatia for expressing different views.” Of course this is contrary to what Klečak believes as written by Marko Biočina on Tyche (HRV):

Klečak, who is not affiliated with the organization of protest initiative 5th December, in his first statements, he argued that his arrest was ordered directly from Zagreb.

The “protest initiative” is part of a movement over the past few days, that has led a great many to called for action as written on Opurba (HRV):

It is smart to choose the virtual world in which we all so brave, I do not know fear, we have our opinions and we want the Internet to a new revolution.
One of these should now leave the virtual world and overflow into the streets of major Croatian cities.

The calls were answered as Marko Biočina wrote (HRV):

…if everything is according to plan, [protests] will be held on the 5th of December at the city's central squares, eight Croatian cities, Zagreb, Split, Osijek, Rijeka, Zadar, Sibenik, Pula and Požega.

Croatian newspaper, Jutarnji (HRV) reports that the largest crowd was of 2,000 in Zagreb. It will be interesting to see the end result of these actions as Croatia is standing at a delicate point in its modern history with EU membership just within reach. Vesna Škare Ožbolt is very much aware of this as she closes (HRV) her post by stating:

Thus the continuation of repression and convulsions for the armchair power struggle could stay with us and eventually lead to a mass-produced voodoo doll, of course … only when join the EU, which is near is not it?

Croatia: Car Bomb Assassination of Journalists Ivo Pukanić & Niko Franjić

Miquel Hudin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:12:25 +0000

Zagreb, Croatia's capital, was stunned by a car bomb attack directed at the editor-in-chief and publisher of Croatian political weekly Nacional, Ivo Pukanić, which killed both him and fellow journalist Niko Franjić on Thursday.

Arhangel summed it up (HRV) in detail:

…tonight around 18:20 pm in Palmotić street in Zagreb in the courtyard of “Nacional” an explosive device killed Ivo Pukanić, chief executive NCL, and Niko Franjić, his colleague. As I was first informed of the news, a remote control detonated the explosive device under Pukanić's Lexus. Croatia is in shock.

Price iz Becke sume concurs (HRV) the current sentiment:

I can not believe, still one mafioso murder in the middle of town, in the middle of the day! Ivo Pukanic killed and a journalist colleague from Nacional. Horror!

And Funky Business wrote (HRV) about the situation on the ground in the center of Zagreb, a city of 1 million people:

…central Zagreb was blocked. On the streets of the capital of the government there is fear, disbelief and panic among citizens. It is recommended to restrict movement for all citizens of the city center due to blockade of police who are trying to blockade a large circle around the town to close a crime that evidence would not be destroyed.

As the head of Croatian newspaper, Nacional, many saw Pukanić as a marked man. Ivo himself believed that there was an assassination plot against him, but others doubted it. Sadly, they were wrong, as noted (HRV) by Denis Avdagić on his blog:

…clearly, and to all who doubted that the previous assassination attempt on Pukanić - were completely wrong!

The Upper Town of Zagreb, Croatia. From, Hudin

Zagreb, which has been steadily building itself to be a proper European capital in recent years, has suddenly felt the confidence of its citizens erode with this and other recent events of brutal violence. ViN writes (HRV) more:

Is it time for the mass but little severe protests? Can the police stop all this? Can I help a recent shift in the ministries of Interior and Justice? I doubt it. Can the people change it? Because I believe that today is not easy to be a resident of Zagreb. This will not only stop so easily.

Needless to say, this event will evolve over the coming days as more details become available. Only then will it be possible to place blame and understand what this recent attack truly means to security and free media in Croatia as it gets ready to begin EU accession talks next year.

Montenegro: The .ME Domain Release

Miquel Hudin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 10:06:48 +0000

The big news of 2008 in the world of domain names was that someday, we'll not need what is called the Top Level Domain or TLD in the manner that we do now. For example, instead of going to the address http://www.globalvoicesonline.org, it could just be http://globalvoicesonline. Of course this day is far off in the future and we don't really have much of a timeline for the deployment of this system. In the meantime, that TLD is a very important item and because of that, the release of the new extension, .ME has received a decent amount of attention. After all, who wouldn't want to own such domains as: watch.me, love.me, or thisannoys.me?

The marketing campaign for .ME

It's rather plain to see in the official site that the source of this .ME extension isn't really advertised all that much, when in fact it actually turns out to be Montenegro's country extension. Yes, this country with a population of only 589,000 has one of the newest domains on the web. People may be surprised to hear that it's a “new” country extension as Montenegro has officially been an independent country since 2006 and an autonomous region in various capacities for the decade preceding. Some time back, I wrote about how the history of name assignments came about on, Hudin:

Take for instance former Czechoslovakia. When the internet came around, it got the .cs extension, which was then given up as they split in to the Czech Republic - .cz and Slovakia - .sk… So, .cs actually got re-purposed in to the ill-fated union of Serbia and Montenegro. They of course have since split and have become .rs and .me respectively… This is all something of a mess, except in the case of Montenegro. They've gotten quite a windfall with the .me domain. If they want to (and most likely they will) they can open up registration to anyone…

It's much the same as what happened to Tonga who received .to and Tuvalu which received the even more coveted .tv extension. Naturally, selling off the national domain to international customers raises a good deal of alarm from the citizens. A person by the name of ‘Ego_and_HIS_OWN' wrote on MADEinMontenegro (MNE):

…it is completely and unreasonable to award a company all rights and exclusivity over the sale of domains. This is certainly something that is against the interests of Montenegro, where it is necessary that her brand will be available to everyone, within the population. Thus probably due to interest groups of individuals who are very highly paid on this work and whose close friends are members of this council. The domain is practically taken from Montenegrin society and sold for small money and is doing irreparable damage to Montenegro and its future.

These concerns are well-justified as to date, Montenegrin registrants for the .ME extension don't even breach 1% of the total 100,000 names registered, although provisions were officially made for filing by Montenegrin companies and brand holders to buy their names before .ME was released internationally. Naturally, the United States and United Kingdom are the top two countries for registrants as ‘me' is an English word and is not a commonly used word in Montenegrin. One can see the breakdown of the top 10 registrants, here.
While the history of this domain is readily apparent, there comes the question of how does one go about registering a name? New domain names are not like the ones we all know, making registering website.me a bit more of a process than registering website.com. One writer on MADEinMONTENEGRO (MNE) named, ‘anon1′ was among many to list the possibilities that should be registered:

We should now grab and register on their behalf addresses of all types: milodjukanovic.me; svetimarovic.me, ficovujanovic.me, bolnica.me, zdravstvo.me, berza.me, … and after that sell others for a lot of money.

But it's not that easy. The initial release of the names (or landrush) wasn't a simple system wherein one could just visit a registrar and buy the name. The Montenegrins set up the system to fully monetize these domains by using an auction system. I was curious and made an attempt to buy a name myself over this last summer as I wrote on my site, Hudin:

I searched around for a name that seemed to be available, which was taste.me, filled out the forms, submitted the credit card info and thought that I was the proud owner of this name. Oh how I was wrong… It turns out that this was all for the better as paying that initial $100 for the name was not actually buying it. It was reserving a place in line to be able to bid in a domain auction further on. All of this is not readily apparent and with good reason. I doubt most folks would be $100 for the right to then bid on something as small and silly as a domain name… Oddly enough, I continued to receive updates about the auction for taste.me. This was interesting to follow because unlike a normal auction where there is a set time frame, the way this auction worked was that once someone submitted a bid, if there was a new bid submitted within 24 hours, the auction would continue… In the case of taste.me, the auction went on for about two weeks and ended up at a final price of $6,505.

Other names were auctioned at $30,000 and up. If this system wasn't hard enough, a number of names were purposely held back from general consumption. These will be auctioned off on September 25th. Needless to say the whole method has been less than transparent, but for those who wish to try and register a name now, they're costing about $20, but it appears that they log popular name choices to put them to auction. So, if you decide to take a chance and buy mykittyneeds.me, you may find it costing you a good deal more than $20 to buy it in an auction at a later date. In short, good luck.

Croatia: The Death of Dinko Šakić

Miquel Hudin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:36:05 +0000

For most people outside the Balkans, the name, Dinko Šakić, the location of Jasenovac, and the group named Ustaša will have little meaning. For Croatians though, these names keep coming back time and again to replay on a national and international level.
In explaining the importance of this, it's best to start with the Ustaša. This was the name of the ultra-nationalist, fascist group that seized control of Croatia during WWII and acted as a puppet government for the Nazi regime with Ante Pavelić as head of state. They had the distinction of proving that they were not only just as brutal as their Nazi counterparts, but actually even more so.

Ustaša Flag image from Wikipedia

Such an example was the creation of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp which the Croatian regime used to imprison, torture, and kill Jews, Serbs, Roma, Partisans (Croatians fighting against the Ustaša regime), and just about anyone else that they found to be an enemy. It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of prisoners killed at this Croatian version of Auschwitz, but the official and generally accepted figure is approximately 70,000-85,000 people with other estimates in the past putting the number as high as 500,000 (higher figures have been discredited as being inflated). The commander of the camp was a man named Dinko Šakić, who managed to flee Europe to hide in Argentina once the Ustaša regime fell in 1945.

Marko of the blog Greater Surbiton summed up the legacy of the Ustaša:

The history of the Ustasha movement, in other words, was utterly shameful - not only from the moral, but from the patriotic Croatian perspective. Nevertheless, ever since the Communist regime in Croatia fell in 1990, there have been those Croats who have sought to perpetuate the disgrace by their loud statements upholding the legacy of the former Ustasha regime.

Dinko Šakić in uniform at Jasenovac (Photo from Wikipedia)

In 1998, Šakić was found in Argentina and shortly after extradited to Croatia to stand trial for his term as commander of the Jasenovac prison. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail, which it turns out he would only serve half of as he just recently died on July 20, 2008. His death was a minor event given that he was 86, but his funeral has caused a great deal of controversy in Croatia and with Jewish people at large whom he directed the extermination of at Jasenovac.
His funeral called for him to be buried in his Ustaša uniform. When taken out of this Croatian context and transposed on another setting, many people would find this ludicrous as was pointed out by Matthew on the Serbian news portal B92:

Could you imagine such a funeral for the commander of Auschwitz?

As if that wasn't enough, as stated by Marko of Greater Surbiton:

…at his funeral the presiding clergyman, Vjekoslav Lasic, said that the ‘court that convicted Dinko Sakic convicted Croatia and the Croatian nation'; that the ‘NDH is the foundation of the modern Croatian homeland', and that ‘every honourable Croat should be proud of Sakic’s name'.

Bear in mind that this is not an opinion shared by every Croatian, but these words carried far with their meaning. On both a national and international scope, those who were effected by the killings of Šakić's command of Jasenovac were outraged by these events as was relayed by LimbicNutrition Weblog:

Vice-President of the Jewish Community Jasminka Domas claimed “the disgraceful events that occurred at the funeral of Dinko Šakić in Zagreb insult the memory of all the victims of the Ustasha regime, and besmirch the Republic of Croatia's good name.”
Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem Efraim Zuroff has written to Croatian President Stjepan Mesić to express his anger at the way Šakić’s funeral was organized and at the priest’s speech.

Ari Rusila of BalkanPerspective also commented on the issue by quoting what Shmuel Meirom, the Israeli ambassador to Croatia said of the funeral:

“I'm convinced that the majority of the Croatian people are shocked by the way the funeral of the Jasenovac commander and murderer, dressed in an Ustasha uniform, was conducted,” ambassador Meirom said in a written statement to the state news agency Hina. “At the same time, I strongly condemn the inappropriate words of the priest who served at the funeral and said that Sakic was a model for all Croats” Meirom said.

And indeed Zoran Oštrić of Zelena Lista (The Green List) [Croatian] is one of those Croatians who is against the honoring of such a man as Šakić and laments how the popular culture of Croatia is holding him to be a Croat worthy of respect:

It is unfortunate, that when Croatia convicted him ten years ago that whether from the urging of their grandfathers or on their own that his name [Šakić] was chanted at soccer matches by many of the youth.

Why do these people become cultural icons despite the hard facts that they have murdered countless people? The simple answer to this is that it is much easier to forget about such figures in history as opposed to actually coming to terms with the actions that they did at the bequest of the government at the time. One sentence on Ljevica (the Left Hand) [Croatian], an otherwise very left blog states:

They convicted him because he was a person with the pistol who killed forty detainees and ordered the hanging of 22 prisoners of war, but now this is not important.

While an admission of the crimes that he committed, it has been seen that those who were directly affected by the killings ordered by Šakić do not agree that just because he is now dead that what he did no longer matters.

Croatia: Reactions to the Karadžić Arrest

Miquel Hudin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:05:07 +0000

Cover images from Jutarnji List and Slobodna Dalmacija

While not having suffered as severely as the Bosniaks at the hands of Radovan Karadžić, opinions amongst Croatians were varied, although most were pleased with his arrest and looked forward to the day when he will face trial. Here are some opinions from the Croatian blogosphere:

Tinolovka writes (HRV):

Sacrificed victims cannot return to life and it is difficult to bring a fair and appropriate judgment that would finally find satisfaction of all the evil that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is hard to find consolation for Srebrenica, but this is a good start, only now they should not stop until all ultimately responsible stand before justice.

Tonique DeWeen writes (HRV) about his disbelief of Karadžić living in plain sight in Belgrade, yet not being found:

Such a scenario would not have even come up in Hollywood: a wanted war criminal hiding in the capital city under the false identity of an alternative medicine doctor who published papers in journals and appeared on TV, and nobody alive recognizes him?

Angel&Wolf takes steps (HRV) beyond cautious optimism to take a more pessimistic stance:

…I have an uncomfortable feeling that this is no longer important. The arrest of Radovan is a matter that will pass after a week and once again we shall all continue to enjoy what was the legacy of Radovan…

Žuta Minuta (”Yellow Minute”) recalls (HRV) life in Sarajevo during the war and her feelings the day Karadžić's capture was announced:

…the memory of my first true fear of war. It was a 1992. With my mother, brother and I we dwelt in the Sarajevo settlement of Dobrinja. […] So Radovan Karadzic did not celebrate Vidovdan [St. Vitus Day] in Dobrinja. In fact, perhaps he did, sometime later, but no one recognized him. I do not know in which moment I slept, but today the whole day I feel good and rested. Honestly, I lost faith that they would ever catch Radovan Karadzic, so I was delighted.

Croatia: At Odds with Slovenian Borders

Miquel Hudin — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:55:14 +0000

Since the breakup of former Yugoslavia nearly 20 years ago, ongoing issues have dogged Croatia's progress as a nation headed towards eventual membership with the European Union. The most public of these issues was the arrest of former general Ante Gotovina at the end of 2005; he is now standing trial in The Hague.

Unknown to most are more transparent issues that involve the borders of Croatia. When looking at a map, it's understandable why such issues would arise, given the twisting layout of the country. The building of a bridge to the Pelješac Peninsula to bypass Bosnia and Herzegovina where it bisects Croatia in Dalmatia is one issue. Another is disputed ownership of islands in the Danube River where Croatia and Serbia meet. While these items are still very much in need of resolution, it's Croatia's border with Slovenia that is posing one of its largest problems due to EU enlargement considerations.

At the forefront have been the maritime issues involving Slovenia's access to the Adriatic Sea. Currently, Slovenia is seeking a corridor in the Adriatic through Croatian waters (by way of waters claimed outside their current borders), to give them access to International Waters:

Image from Wikipedia

The issue is contentious, to say the least, with each side in the dispute citing historical foundation for why they're right, as was written (SLV) in the Slovenija RTV forums:

- We should organize an international conference on the division of the Adriatic Sea, which has never belonged to Croatia.
- Croatia did not exist until after World War II.
- Istria has always been Slovenian.

Another border issue that is slightly less pressing in Istria concerns the demarcation set by the Dragonija river, which was rerouted in Yugoslavian times. This change poses a problem as the borders of the former Yugoslavian countries were set by the Badinter Arbitration Committee to be as they were while each current-day country was a state in Yugoslavia. This naturally causes strife when historical borders were placed along rivers that no longer run where they used to.

The issue of river-based borders rises again when moving to the northernmost area of Croatia. Specifically, the border formed by the Mura River creates an issue near Sveti Martin na Muri. The debate surrounding this reached a troublesome point in 2006, when Slovenian journalists were captured for supposedly trespassing into Croatia due to the area being contested. Again, the issue revolves around historical borders not corresponding with geographical borders and the borders as they were set at the demise of Yugoslavia. Dragutin Lesar, a member of the Croatian Parliament, writes (HRV) on Nebu Išlo (”It will not go”) in more detail about the situation:

…Slovenes believe that the borders must go through the middle of the river beds Mura. […] the borders between Slovenia and Croatia (formerly part of the Republic of Yugoslavia) were identified by the old mapped boundaries of municipalities. This was the existing situation on the day of June 25, 1991, when Slovenia declared independence.

The Badinter Committee confirmed these borders as the borders newly formed States.

In addition to this, Lesar points out:

From the statement of Pogačnika Rudolf and after that meeting, it could be clearly known that Slovenia remains with about 22 disputed points on the common border between Croatia and believes that only 8 of them are controversial.

The 14 “non-controversial” points of contention with Slovenia (which include the nuclear power plant, Krško, that suffered a small leak last month) show that there will be continuing negotiations as Croatia gets closer to its current target date of 2010 to join the EU. Of course, frustrations rise for the Croatians as they see this date get closer, but see very few resolutions, as Hyeronimus writes (HRV) on Pollitika in regards to the situation of the Mura River border:

…the Croatian public, the Croatian politics, Croatian diplomacy, the Croatian police and the government are simply silent.

Photo of the Slovenia Border Crossing in Istria from Hudin

While these issues have been around for years, they had light shed on them again with Slovenia becoming part of the Schengen Agreement in 2007 and the border becoming not just the border to Slovenia, but also to the EU. New issues arose out of agreements left over from both countries' independence declarations that had to be addressed. Of course, the Slovenes and Croats are not without a sense of humor in this, as Balkan Insight reported last year:

…customers in a pub which lies across the Slovene-Croat border at Obrezje, have joked that they will need their identity documents before they are allowed to go the toilet on the other side of the official border.