http://www.croatia.org/crown en-us http://www.croatia.org/crown N/A letters@croatia.org Sun, 03 May 2026 11:08:14 +0000 20 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11450/1/PM-Modi-of-India-attended-dinner-hosted-by-PM-Plenkovic-in-Croatias-capital-Zagreb-18th-of-June-2025.html In his address, H. E. Narendra Modi, PM of India, invited his colleague Andrej Plenkoviæ, PM of Croatia, to visit India as soon as possible. Mr Modi mentioned several interesting facts dealing with centuries old history mutual relations between the two countries: the first printed sanskrit grammar in Europe was written by Filip Vezdin, a Croatian scholar, by the end of the 18th century (1798); the study of Sanskrit in Croatia was started at the University of Zagreb already in 1876; the modern day department of Indology at the University of Zagreb was started in 1959. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 18 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11441/1/Zrinka-Ljutic-winning-Small-Crystal-Globe-in-slalom-skiing-March-2025.html Zrinka Ljutiæ, a successor of the most successful Croatian skierJanica Kosteliæ, has won her first Small Crystal Globe in Slalom, in Sun Valley in the USA, in March 2025. This is a great achievement of Croatian sports. Congratualtions to Zrinka, her family, the surrounding staff, and to Croatian Olympic Committee. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 28 Mar 2025 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11330/1/Romain-Rollands-1924-book-quotMahatma-Gandhiquot-translated-into-Croatian-as-quotNa-Gandhiquot-Our-Gandhi.html Romain Rolland's book was published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi (celebrated in 2019), and Stjepan Radiæ (honored in the year 2021). The original Croatian version of the book was published in 1924, entitled "Na¹ Gandhi" (Our Gandhi!). Issuing this reprint was suggested by Mr. Joginder Singh Nijjar, the president of Croatian-Indian Society in Zagreb. It appeared under the auspices of highest Croatian political, cultural and scientific institutions, as well as under the auspices of the Embassy of the Republic of India to Croatia. We provide a presentation of the reprint written by Ante Beliæ. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 16 Feb 2022 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11327/1/1143-years-since-the-first-international-recognition-of-Croatia.html The first international recognition of Croatia came in 879 from Pope John VIII, i.e., 1143 years ago! The Croatian Prince Branimir, 9th century, made important steps in strengthening the relations with Rome. During the solemn divine service in St. Peter's church in Rome in 879, Pope John VIII gave his blessing to the prince and the whole Croatian people, about which he informed Branimir in his letters, the first one dated on May 21, 879. This was the first time that the Croatian state was officially recognized. A special cultural program was organized on 15th January 2022 at Croatian Embassy in Tokyo on the occasion of the first diplomatic recognition of Croatia in 1992, on which occasion Yoko Nishii played her solemn pianistic concert. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 30 Jan 2022 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11299/1/NFCA-and-CFU-To-Celebrate-30-Plus-Years-of-Croatian-Independence-on-June-26th-Celebration-Webinar-.html On Saturday, June 26th at 11:00am eastern, the NFCA will be co-hosting with the Croatian Fraternal Union, a global webinar salute to the founding of the Republic of Croatia's democracy. The NFCA's webinar will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Independence Day and to honor another "Statehood Day" (1990 milestone) and Croatia's successful and historic road to democracy and it's independence achieved especially in the 1990-1991 time frame. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Thu, 10 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11274/1/Elizabeth-Peratrovich-a-native-woman-in-Alaska-and-civil-rights-pioneer-bearing-Croatian-second-name.html Elizabeth Peratrovich (1911-1958) was a native Tlingit woman and civil rights pioneer who, in 1945, was instrumental in getting the Alaska legislature to pass what historians cite as the first anti-discrimination law in America (pre-dating the Civil Rights Act by 19 years). In 1988, the state of Alaska designated Feb. 16 -- the anniversary of the signing of the act -- as a holiday honoring Elizabeth Peratrovich. Her second name of Peratrovich comes from her husband Roy Peratrovich. His father Ivan was born in Croatia on the island of Hvar, and arrived to California in 1860. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 30 Dec 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11267/1/Steve-Rukavina-behind-the-story-about-Joe-Biden-President-Elect-of-the-USA.html On the photo from 2010, Steve Rukavina with Joe Biden, who was back then vicepresident of the USA, now President -Elect of the USA. Steve Rukavina has Croatian roots, and he visited the land of his parents 19 times. He is very active in the NFCACF (National Federation of Croatian Americans, Cultural Foundation), as well as in fostering closer ties between Croatia and the USA. NFCA has organized more than 250 meetings with the USA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with American diplomats. On Nov. 2020, Steve Rukavina gave an interview to Croatian journal Veèernji list. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Mon, 16 Nov 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11262/1/Croatian-soccer-international-matches-in-1940-with-Switzerland-and-in-1990-with-the-USA.html Nenad Bach: Svaka èast ekipi kreativaca koji su ostvarili kako sam dogadjaj tako i ovaj film koji æe uæi u povijest, htjeli to neki ili ne. Svaka èast Nenad Petriæ, Dado Komerièki i Ivan Bla¾ièko, izvrsno ste slo¾ili ovaj film, bez dinamièke rupe, sve teèe kako treba, s puno emocija i èinjenica. Ivan John Opaèak, ¹to za reæi nego veliko HVALA, pokazali ste svoje sportske i ljudske kvalitete. Zadnja reèenica u filmu Mladena Vedri¹a, zapovjednika kriznog ¹taba u Zagrebu za vrijeme rata te predsjednika HNS-a 1990-1994 govori sve: "Ni¹ta manje nije bio drugaèiji odnos u ratu. Bila je to bitka Davida i Golijata koju smo u ratu dobili. Prema tome mi kao nacija imamo jedan sna¾an potencijal. Imamo snagu za presudne momente, imamo talent ..." On the photo Troy Dayak, USA soccer player, who discovered his Croatian roots in 1990. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 21 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11260/1/Mahatma-Gandhi-and-Kristian-Krekovic-connecting-India-and-Croatia.html   darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 08 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11261/1/Christophe-Dolbeau-published-his-monograph-quotBy-the-Croatian-Patriotsquot-in-French-in-2019.html Christophe Dolbea published his new monograph entitled Aux cotes des patriotes croates (By the Croatian Patriots), as a private edition, in 2019. The book commprises 11 chapters, and ends with a complete bibliography of the author. In the middle of the book, twelve pages containing the photos of the main persons described in the book are exhibited. The book deals with Croatian emmigration in France, with parts of which the author was very close. We also learn of Dominque Gay, a young Frenchman who fought during Homland Defensive War and tragically died in Croatia in 1992 near te town Drni¹. The book represent an important contribution to the study of the history of Croatian emmigration in France. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 10 Sep 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11233/1/CROWN-podrava-8-listu-Ruze-Studer-za-XI-izbornu-jedinicu.html Ru¾a Studer je roðena u jednom malom lièkom selu. Godine 1978. dolazi s obitelji u ©vicarsku, u grad Schaffhausen. Godine 2006. birana je za predsjednicu HKUD-a "Fala". Upoznaje probleme s kojima se susreæe iseljeni¹tvo i uviða da je te¹ko pronaæi kvalitetne informacije na jednom mjestu. To je bio glavni motiv koji ju je ponukao pokrenuti mre¾ni portal https://moja-domovina.net/. Uz ¾elju povezivanja Hrvata raseljenih na sve strane svijeta s domovinom, glavni cilj portala je na jednom mjestu ponuditi va¾ne informacije iseljenicima i povratnicima. U XI. izbornoj jedinici birajmo listu br. 8. MOJA VOLJENA HRVATSKA - MVH. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 01 Jul 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11218/1/Nenad-Bach-International-Newsletter-No-55-Livestream.html I will perform a few songs starting with a ping pong game that will go to 11 points, just one game then a song on a guitar, move to piano and at the same time you can send your questions opinions, desires, concepts, recommendations, connections etc., all live. The times for the livestream on Saturday April 25, 2020 will start at 10:00 a.m. New York Eastern Standard Time. This will be Midnight in Sydney, Australia, 11:00 p.m. Tokyo, 10:00 p.m. Singapore, 7:30 p.m. New Delhi, 4:00 p.m. Zagreb Croatia, 3:00 p.m. London, 11:00 a.m. Buenos Aires and 7:00 a.m. Los Angeles time. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11182/1/Vladimir-Novak-Croatians-in-America-fascinating-photomonograph-published-in-2018.html  Vladimir Novak (1928-2016) darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 27 Oct 2019 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11166/1/Vladimir-Paleeek-Croatian-humanist-and-founder-of-quotHungry-Childquot-international-fund-in-Croatia-1969.html Vladimir Paleèek: "A catastrophic earthquake hit Sicily in 1968 in which many men, women, and children lost their lives. Gibellina, Salaparuta, Santa Margarita, and Montevago were wiped off the map. ... When I walked through these places, when I saw hundreds of tents which had to replace warm homes, when I saw children without parents, when I saw children naked, barefooted, and hungry, who crowded around me, I came to the idea of creating a movement which would have one goal - TO HELP CHILDREN." With this article we mark 50 years since founding "Hungry Child", the only humanitarian NGO ever behind the "Iron Curtain". darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 19 Jul 2019 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11153/1/Teresa-Perinic-and-the-King-of-Dolls-representing-Croatia-at-the-Day-of-Europe-in-Argentina.html The Day of Europe has been celebrated on 9th of May 2019 in Buenos Aires. It consisted in Common Stories (Historias Comunes) connecting Europe and Argentina, in which also Croatia has participated. The collection of common stories consists of 20 stories from various European countries, collected in a book. The Croatian story deals with Ljeposlav Periniæ, better known throughout the world as The King of Dolls. The title of the story is "From Zagreb to Don Torquato - The King of Dolls". On the photo Teresa Perinic de Bellofatto, daughter of The King of Dolls. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Mon, 13 May 2019 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11086/1/Luka-Krilic-DIJASPORA-Kuda-idemo-to-moemo-ueiniti.html Kao pripadnik Dijaspore osjeæam du¾nost izraziti nekoliko misli o tome da je do¹lo vrijeme da mi iz Dijaspore poðemo ususret realnosti; moramo se suoèiti sa golom istinom i sagledati stvarnost ba¹ onakvom kakva ona jest, jer nalazim da je prijeka potreba i nu¾nost da poku¹amo naæi pravilan i dobar smjer koji smo, prema mome iskustvu i saznanjima, odavno izgubili. Ako je Dr¾ava u krizi moramo priznati da to vrijedi i za nas. Vjerujem da svi jako dobro pamtimo ono ¹to su nas uèili o tome da se prvi masovni val iseljavljanja iz Dalmacije dogodio jo¹ potkraj XIX stoljeæa kao posljedica bolesti vinove loze... Ono ¹to nas nisu uèili... jesu Komercijalni ugovori koje je potpisao Beè sa Italijom. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11077/1/Stjepan-Radic-1871-1928-a-great-Croatian-politician-humanist-and-martyr.html In 2018 we commemorate a tragic death of Stjepan Radiæ, one of the greatest Croatian politicians and humanists in history (on the photo with his grandchildren), assassinated in 1928 in the Belgrade Parliament. We provide an articl written by Dr. Ante Cuvalo, an information about a new street in the Prague bearing his name (and his wife Marija was a Czech schoolteacher), as well as an article about him written by a Danish writer Karin Michaelis, who used to know his family in person. We conclude the article with a very interesting article of Stjepan Radiæ about the Russian Branch of the noble Croatian family of Jelaèiæ. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Tue, 05 Jun 2018 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/11004/1/NFCA-Newsletter-Summer-2017.html We are proud to announce that the NFCA is working directly with the NY City Croatian Catholic community at Sts. Cyril Methodius Church to host a Sunday 1:00 pm, October 1st music event-fundraiser-salute to honor NFCA's "40 Under 40" winners and to benefit the Banja Luka Catholic Diocese. Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011 will be one of the featured Croatian American guests in attendance. Next, the NFCA continues a myriad of projects to help Bosnian Croats within political, diplomatic and humanitarian projects. ruksj@aol.com (Steve Rukavina) Fri, 11 Aug 2017 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10987/1/Ruggiero-Boscovich---Rudjer-Boskovic-1711-1787-has-a-memorial-plaque-in-Milano.html In June 2017, on Piazzale Borromeo in the heart of Milan, a commemoration ceremony and performance took place for Ruðer Bo¹koviæ, native of Dubrovnik and the most distinguished scientist in Croatia'€™s history, outside the Church of Santa Maria Podone, where he was buried on 13 February 1787. A memorial constructed of Dubrovnik Mironja stone was unveiled with the support of renowned lawyer, Cristian Pambianchi, an esteemed friend to Dubrovnik, and realized by the Croatia'€™s Consulate General in Milan. On the photo Ivana Marija Vidoviæ, distinguished Croatian pianist, by the memorial plaque dedicated to Ruggiero Boscovich - Ruðer Bo¹koviæ. ivanamarija.vidovic@gmail.com (Ivana Marija Vidovi�) Wed, 28 Jun 2017 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10958/1/Marko-Veselica-1936-2017-Croatian-economist-and-politician-passed-away---article-by-Ante-Glibota.html Marko Veselica was distinguished Croatian economist and legendary human rights activist who spent 11 years in communist prisons in 1970s and 80s. We provide an article of his close colleague and friend Academician Ante Glibota, vicepresident of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Humanity in Paris, written in Croatian language. We also provide the titles of some of Veselica's relevant books and studies. ante.glibota@wanadoo.fr (Akademik Ante Glibota) Mon, 20 Feb 2017 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10935/1/Tom-Begich-Croatian-American-is-New-State-Senator-in-Alaska.html Tom Begich (left), Croatian American from Alaska, has been elected to the State Senate there and won in the Anchorage downtown “J” district. Tom ran unopposed in the general election after he won the August 16th Democratic primary with 62% of the vote against Ed Wesley. The Senate seat opened up when long time Democratic State Senator Johnny Ellis retired after 24 years. This popular incumbent endorsed Tom in the competitive primary race which was a key endorsement. Tom ran an energetic and issue-oriented campaign to win a strong majority of votes in this crucial party primary. This was Tom’s first campaign for office and he will be sworn in to the Alaska State Senate on January 17, 2017. ruksj@aol.com (Steve Rukavina) Tue, 20 Dec 2016 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10801/1/NFCA-January-2016-Newsletter.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation has released their end-of-the-year 2015 newsletter highlighting many activities promoting Croatian causes within the United States including: Pittsburgh convention, NFCA meeting with U.S. Ambassador Julieta Valls Noyes, NFCA collaboration with Team Croatia at the Special Olympics Summer World Games in Los Angeles and a UN meeting in New York City with Dragan Covic, the Chair of of the Presidency in Bosnia and Herzegovina. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 10 Feb 2016 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10787/1/Esther-Gitmans-interview-2016-about-Archbishop-Alojzije-Stepinac-and-his-role-in-saving-the-Jews-in-Croatia.html Dr Esther Gitman analized about 5000 archival documents kept in various Croatian archives. Especially important among them are 500 signed petitions for the rescue of Jews in Croatia during the WW2. Some of these documents contain as many as 150 names, signed by ordinary people, who risked their lifes in order to save the lifes of their endangered Jewish neighbors and friends. Furthermore, according to Dr Girtman, THOSANDS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE signed these petitions, which is a fact totally unknown in historigraphy (not only Croatian). Similar documents in such abundonce, cannot be found in any other European country, said Dr Gitman. We invite you to see and listen to this extremely interesting and important interview, conducted by the Laudato TV in Zagreb, Croatia. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 07 Jan 2016 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10761/1/The-Story-of-Ilija-Letica-by-distinguished-Croatian-filmmaker-Jakov-Sedlar-.html We present the readers of the CROWN a fascinating documentary by Croatian filmmaker Jakov Sedlar about the life and work of Ilija Letica in the USA, about his very successful LETICA CORPORATION in the USA, with a special emphasis on his ties with Croatia and on his life philosophy. LETICA is a multi-faceted packaging company with diverse talent and technologies to support business on a number of fronts. The company works in multiple technologies such as thermoform, injection mold, paper-forming and sheet extrusion as well as with multiple mediums including paper, rigid and thinwall plastic, reclaimed post-consumer fiber, and other environmentally-friendly materials. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sat, 14 Nov 2015 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10759/1/Andrej-Plenkovic-Croatian-diplomat-and-a-Member-of-the-European-Parliament-speaking-about-Ukraine.html Andrej Plenkoviæ, Croatian diplomat and a Member of the European Parliament, was the Chairman 2nd meeting of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committe held in Kyiv on 4-5 November 2015. "We had two days of very intensive and productive discussions with our friends in the Verkhovna Rada, and very fruitful meetings with President Poroshenko, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and Speaker Groysman. ... The European Parliament stands ready to assist Ukraine's efforts on its European path, against the backdrop of the complex economic, financial and social situation, and of the temporary occupation of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia.", said Mr. Plenkoviæ. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10654/1/President-of-Croatia-Kolinda-Grabar-Kitaroviae-visits-New-York-City.html Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (left) was at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday March 6, 2015 for an event marking International Women's Day and the 20th anniversary since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and she also meet with representatives of the Croatian community in New York. She also attended the "No Ceilings: Full Participation Project", a Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton event, and met with former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 11 Mar 2015 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10646/1/Kolinda-Grabar-Kitarovic-Croatias-first-woman-president-inaugurated-on-15th-February-2015-in-Zagreb.html Mrs. Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was sworn in as Croatia's first female president in history. She was a former foreign minister, ambassador of the Republic of Croatia to Washington and an Assistant Secretary General of NATO for Public Diplomacy. She was the first woman ever to be appointed Assistant Secretary General of NATO. Mrs. Grabar-Kitarovic is at the age of 47, and except her native Croatian, she fluently speaks English, Castillano and Portuguese and can also communicate in French, Italian and German. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 15 Feb 2015 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10582/1/Mark-Begich-US-senator-presented-with-the-Croatian-American-Bar-Association8217s-2013-Vinodol-Code-Award.html At the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on May 20, 2014, the Croatian American Bar Association presented the 2013 Vinodol Code Award to U.S. Senator Mark Begich, in recognition of his distinguished public service career and vigilant attention to international matters affecting the worldwide Croatian community, as specifically exemplified by his insight on matters affecting economic and political progress in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and for his introduction of Senate Resolution 131 on May 8, 2013 in the Senate. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 06 Jul 2014 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10567/1/-Tomislav-Sunic-former-Croatian-diplomat-author-of-the-monograph-Chronique-des-Temps-Modernes-in-2014.html One is surprised when Tomislav Suniæ, a political theorist and former Croatian diplomat, states that Europeans have as much to learn from Americans as Americans, from Europeans. The reason is that far too many European nationalists still define themselves through a hostility and antagonism towards neighboring Europeans. As Sunic argues, in light of our current geopolitical situation, European nationalists cannot afford the luxury of dwelling on historical grievances, no matter how real they might be. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Mon, 26 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10564/1/Glasovanje-u-Generalnom-konzulatu-Republike-Hrvatske-u-New-Yorku.html Podsjeæamo hrvatske dr¾avljane koji su se do 14. svibnja 2014. pismeno prijavili Generalnom konzulatu Republike Hrvatske u New Yorku za glasovanje u izboru èlanova iz Republike Hrvatske u Europski parlament, da mogu u isti Konzulat na adresi: 369 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017, 11 kat pristupiti glasovanju u nedjelju, 25. svibnja 2014. od 7 do 19 sati. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Mon, 19 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10561/1/Vlasta-Zekulic-Croatian-Army-female-officer-trained-Afghan-military-police.html   Croatian female military police officer Vlasta Zekuliæ, PhD in international relations and national security, trained Afghan military police, despite social taboos. In Croatia during her career, she commanded military police platoon and company, and as instructor trained Croatian officers for missions, and then in Afghanistan she trained Afghan military police students on military investigation and work of the provost marshals. She was not afraid of being discriminated against because she is a woman. She completed her education at the Croatian Defense Academy "Petar Zrinski" and at the prestigious Military Academy "The Citadel" in South Carolina in the USA. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 15 May 2014 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10504/1/Dr-Peter-Kuzmic-authority-on-Christian-response-to-Marxism-and-on-Christian-ministry-in-post-Communist-contexts.html Dr. Peter Kuzmic is the foremost evangelical scholar in Eastern Europe and is considered an authority on the subject of Christian response to Marxism and on Christian ministry in post-Communist contexts. He co-founded and directs Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia, the first evangelical theological school in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He also founded Timisoara Theological Institute, a Romanian school affiliated with ETS. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 03 Jan 2014 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10497/1/Zed-Seseljas-maiden-speech-to-the-Australian-Senate.html Video of the speech prepared by newly elected ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja for his maiden speech in Australia's Federal Parliament. He was elected to the Australian Senate in the Australian federal elections held on 7 September 2013. simtam@internode.on.net (Boris Jakovac) Thu, 12 Dec 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10488/1/Its-not-a-Velvet-but-a-Snowflake-Revolution.html Why a Snowflake? Simple. A snowflake is innocent, unique, gentle and clean, just like the vast majority of us. A snowflake is a child's joy just like we all want to be joy and pride for our children because we did something for their future. But a snowflake upon snowflake, though gentle, can become a deep snow and an avalanche. Then they have a power that cannot be ignored. Croatian Hamed Bangoura started a non-violent Snowflake Revolution on Facebook, asking for fundamental change in a Croatian political arena. They expect over 50.000 snowflakes in 48 hours. Democracy by example. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 04 Dec 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10485/1/-Vesna-Drapac-Deconstructing-Yugoslavia---a-Transnational-History-a--monograph-reviewed-by-Dr-Mladen-Ibler.html Deconstructing Yugoslavia would be probably a more appropriate title of this book. The country failed twice as an integrated state – first as a Kingdom and next as a Communist state. Apart from the communist party and the army, which where the repressive organs of a corrupt and self-serving ruling elite after the Second World War, all cross-republican institutions fell well of atracting lasting interest. The idea of Yugoslavia died well before the state finally disapeared at the end of 20th century. The monograph has been written by Vesna Drapac, associate professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia. mladen.ibler@gmail.com (Dr. Mladen Ibler) Sun, 24 Nov 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10464/1/NFCA-Alert-Croat-Bosnian-Census-Requirement-October-1-15-2013.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans alerts all Croat Bosnians living in the United States, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and around the world to register in early October for the first national census in twenty-two years.  It is important for all Croatian Americans with Bosnian dual citizenship and/or Bosnian citizenry to register for the census to ensure that Croats will remain one of the three constituent peoples of BiH - according to the Dayton Peace Accords – and NOT fall into minority status.  stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 25 Sep 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10433/1/Croatia-in-EU-on-July-1st-2013-seen-by-professional-designers.html Croatia has 12 centuries of uninterrupted international legitimicy, much longer than great majority of other members of the EU. As such, Croatia as an international subject is much older than EU itself. Among the most important moments of Croatia's recent past are June 25th 1991, when Croatian Deit (one of the oldest in Europe), as a result of 93,24% majority of votes of Croatian citizens, decided to become a sovereign state, as well as the decision of Badinter's Committee from September 7th 1991 about de facto recognition of Croatia. On the photo is an amusing pair of shoes, designed by Teo Bekavac, professional Croatian designer. The red one represents Croatia, and the blue one the EU. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 30 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10416/1/The-Council-for-Croats-outside-of-Croatia-is-founded.html The council will assist in designing and implementing policies, programs and activities in relation to  Croats who live beyond the borders of our beautiful country. Members of the council are among the most prominent representatives of the Croatian community from around the world, as well as representatives of the most important institutions in the country. All of them will help the Croatian government in designing and implementing policies, programs and activities in relation to the Croats living outside its borders. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Thu, 06 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10397/1/Margaret-Thatcher-1925-2013-It-is-a-great-pleasure-to-speak-to-you-here-in-the-ancient-capital-of-your-beautiful-country.html Margaret Thatcher passed away on 8 April 2013. One of her greatest achievements came when she was no longer Prime Minister. She came out in support of recognising and arming Croatia in 1991 when Serbia had invaded and she did the same for Bosnia-Hercegovina when Belgrade turned its aggression onto that country. In so doing she helped focus international onto who was the aggressor. She played her role in combating the return of genocide to Europe. (Brian Gallagher, London) darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10372/1/Oleh-Hirnyk-translated-Hrvoje-Kacics-monograph-from-Croatian-into-Ukrainian-and-published-in-Kyiv-2013.html   Mr. Oleh Hirnyk translated an important monograph by Dr. Hrvoje Kaèiæ, Serving My Country (U slu¾bi domovine), from Croatian into Ukrainian. The Ukrainian title is Hrvats'ki proriv (Croatian Break Through). The monograph has an extensive preface to the book, written by the translator, revealing many little known details from the history of relations between Croatia and Ukraine. The book has been published in 2013 in Kyiv, and we congratulate Mr. Oleh Hirnyk and the Ukrainian publisher Tempora on great job. The book was previously translated from Croatian into English, Castillian, German, and now into Ukrainian. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Tue, 19 Feb 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10370/1/Profdr-Kresimir-Cosic-Kako-smo-promijenili-tijek-rata-Operacijom-ZIMA-94.html Hrvatski general prof.dr. Kre¹imir Æosiæ opisuje povijesna dogaðanja vezana uz tzv. Prvu bihaæku krizu i njenu povezanost s operacijom “Zima ’94”, koja su gotovo su potpuno nepoznata ¹iroj javnosti. Meðutim, mo¾e se reæi da je Hrvatska vojska upravo tom operacijom neizravno sprijeèila pad Bihaæa i tragediju civilnog puèanstva srebrenièkih razmjera jo¹ u zimi 1994., ... Sjeæanja, èinjenice i izvorni dokumenti svjedoèe o tome kako je Hrvatska vojska jo¹ krajem 1994. braneæi Hrvatsku, u suradnji s 5. korpusom Armije BiH branila i obranila Bosnu i Hercegovinu. Èlanak opisuje i razgovore hrvatskih generala Janka Bobetka i Kre¹imira Æosiæa  u Pentagonu. kresimir.cosic@fer.hr (Prof.dr. Kre�imir �osi�, Croatian general) Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10357/1/Karolina-Vidovic-Kristo-distinguished-Croatian-journalist-on-HTV.html   Karolina Vidoviæ Kri¹to is producing an excellent program for Croatian diaspora, for which she deserves our deep gratitude. She is engaged, among others, in defending human rights of children in Croatia, and promoting deeper ties between Croatia and its diaspora. Her professionalism and honorable engagement ranks her among the leading figures on Croatian Television - Hrvatska televizija (HTV). darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Mon, 31 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10346/1/Jeffrey-Kuhner-The-Washington-Times---Croatia8217s-national-independence-finally-has-been-secured.html Croatia’s national independence finally has been secured. This is the real meaning of the recent ruling by the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague to overturn the conviction of Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina. Gen. Gotovina embodies Croatia’s struggle for independence. Gen. Gotovina’s actions effectively smashed Belgrade’s campaign of mass killings and ethnic cleansing. No one - neither the European Union, the United Nations nor NATO - did more to end the savage fighting in Croatia and Bosnia than Gen. Gotovina. Rather than being a war criminal, he is a great Croatian patriot and hero. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10341/1/Brian-Gallagher-a-historic-day---the-Croatian-diaspora-can-take-pride-in-its-support-of-Croatian-generals.html Brian Gallagher: Certainly there were those outside Croatia who also supported the generals. I will single out here the former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, Robin Harris. He helped raise the profile of the case and was forthright in support. That was quite brave; believing in the innocent of alleged war criminals is not necessarily a very popular thing to do. The Croatian diaspora can take pride in its support. Indeed, Croatian Americans took part in the defence – Luka Misetic and Tom Kuzmanovic. And from Canada was Ana Katalinic, the Gotovina case manager. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10339/1/Petar-Janjic---Tromblon-defendor-of-Vukovar-and-Croatia--in-1991-and-twenty-years-after.html Petar Janjiæ nicknamed Tromblon, was an active participant of the defense of Vukovar in 1991, and survived infamous concentration camps in Serbia. He is speaking about his life and about Croatian defenders in his important and unique autobiographic book about the 1991 Vukovar tragedy, entitled "®edni krvi gladni izdaje" (Those Thirsty of Blood and Hungry of Treason). He is openly and very courageously describing some of the current problems of contemporary Croatia. darko.zubrinic@gmail.com (Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 18 Nov 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10338/1/Ante-Gotovina-and-Mladen-Markach-with-their-families-in--Croatia-after-seven-years-of-grave-injustice-in-the-Hague.html   We are pleased to send our cordial greetings to Mr. Ante Gotovina, Mr. Mladen Markaè, Mr. Slobodan Praljak, Mr. Dario Kordiæ, and their families, in the name of the readers of the CROWN. They are all defenders of European values and true Croatian ambassadors in the EU. Croatian general Mr. Ante Gotovina contributed enormously to the dignity of Europe during the operation STORM in 1995, which according to distinguished Croatian humanist Dr. Slobodan Lang, was the first ever military action that prevented genocide. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10336/1/Kenneth-Merten-is-named-new-US-Ambassador-to-Croatia.html Kenneth Merten, the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, presented his credentials to President Ivo Josipoviæ on October 30, 2012. Kenneth Merten is a career member of the senior Foreign Service; he joined the diplomatic corps in 1987 and most recently served as Ambassador to Haiti. He also served as a Deputy Executive Secretary to U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and earlier to U.S. Secretary of State Rice. He was awarded the 2011 Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy for his extraordinary leadership in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 14 Nov 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10270/1/Christophe-Dolbeau-wrote-a-new-important-book-about-French---Croatian-historical-relations.html The newest book by Christophe Dolbeau is written in French, and its title is  Croatie - France, Une Belle Amitié, i.e. France  - Croatia, a Nice Friendship. It reveals us many new details about various historical contacts between Croatia and France. It has 138 pp, and covers the period since the Middle Ages till the 19th century. This book will be a wonderful gift to anybody wishing to known more about Croatia in the context of European relations throughout centuries, with a special reference to France. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 31 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10241/1/Ljubica-Stefan-1921-2002-Croatian-Righteous-courageous-historian-and-publicist.html With this article we commemorate 10 years since the death of Ljubica ©tefan, distinguished Croatian intellectual, exceptionally courageous historian and publicist, recipient of the medal of Righteous among the Nations from Yad Vashem. On 17 March 2012 the Holy Mass has been served in her memory by Rev. Josip Kuhtiæ in the Zagreb Cathedral, assisted by Mons. Dr. Juraj Batelja. She risked her life living in Belgrade until 1992,  and publishing her books in Zagreb under several pseudonims during the Serbian aggression on Croatia and BiH (Bosnia and Herzegovina). In 1992 she left Belgrade leaving there literally all her property. The Prize of Ljubica ©tefan has been established in her honour in Zagreb in  2009 for exceptional publicist and scientific work. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10232/1/NFCACF-Supports-New-Visa-Waiver-Program-Reform-Legislation-in-US-Congress.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation (NFCACF) has announced it's full support for reform of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) which would include Croatia's participation. In a recent letter to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, NFCACF President Bill Vergot cited full support for S. 2046 as another "crucial milestone for the growing relationship between our two countries.  The 'Visa Waiver Program Enhanced Security and Reform Act of 2012’ would enable Croatia to soon join the VWP. foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10215/1/REFERENDUM-AFTER-THE-FINAL-VERDICT-FOR-CROATIAN-GENERALS.html The Geneva convention states that: ”Nothing in this Protocol shall be invoked for the purpose of affecting the sovereignty of a State or the responsibility of the Government, by all legitimate means, to maintain or re-establish law and order in the State or to defend the national unity and territorial integrity of the State.”! In stark contrast to these proclamations, the EU punished Croatia by abolishing the Phare programme on only the second day of the liberating military operation “Storm”, calling upon false accounts of excessive shelling of Knin. Following on from this logic, the prosecution of the ICTY indicted the Croatian Generals and fabricated the legal norm of a “joint criminal enterprise” so that it would be able to charge the entire Croatian civil and military leadership. ... darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10201/1/VUKOVAR-1991---2011-CRIME-WITHOUT-PUNISHMENT---ZLOEIN-BEZ-KAZNE.html Remember Vukovar! darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10184/1/Law-for-cooperation-with-Croats-outside-of-the-Republic-of-Croatia.html The final draft of the law regarding cooperation with Croats outside of Croatia has been published. This new law is a completely new approach in regulating relations between Croatia and Croats outside Croatia in the fields of culture, education, economics, and sports. This new law has yet to be ratified by the Croatian Sabor and is slated to be voted on in the coming weeks. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Sun, 09 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10178/1/The-EU-Accession-Treaty-for-Croatia-has-been-published.html Polish prime minister Donald Tusk officially delivered Croatia's EU accession treaty text to the head of the Croatian government, prime minister Jadranka Kosor, at a ceremony in Zagreb on September 17 2011. The Croatian government has published the treaty and posted it online. Croatia plans to sign the treaty in December 2011 and it will need to be ratified by the EU members. Croatia would also need to hold a referendum on joining the EU. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10166/1/Badinter-Committee-decided-on-factual-recognition-of-Croatia-on-7-September-1991-.html Robert Badinter is French lawyer, university professor and politician. Badinter’s arbitration commission, established by the European Community, stated that Croatia and Slovenia acquired their sovereignty on 7 September 1991, and from that date Croatia and Slovenia are independent and sovereign states. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10149/1/Visnja-Anics-1991-letters-from-Croatia-to-M-Thatcher-H-D-Genscher-H-Kohl-and-A-Mock.html The letters by Vi¹nja Aniæ, professor of English and German, Zagreb, illustrate some of endeavours of Croatian intellectuals in the defense of Croatia from Serbian aggression that started in 1991. She was then employed at the Foreign Languages School in Zagreb. She is also a talented artist, who introduced the concept of "painting with the sea" with her husband. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10142/1/PRIJEDLOG-ZAKONA-O-ODNOSIMA-REPUBLIKE-HRVATSKE-S-HRVATIMA-IZVAN-REPUBLIKE-HRVATSKE.html Ustavom Republike Hrvatske utvrðena je ustavna obveza Republike Hrvatske da ¹titi prava i interese svojih dr¾avljana koji ¾ive ili borave u inozemstvu i promièe njihove veze s domovinom. Temeljito proèitajte dokument, pro¹irite ga, po¹aljite prijateljima koji imaju ideje i znaju ih napisati. Predugo smo èekali ovakav dokument da bi pro¹ao samo kao jedna od toèaka na Saborskim sjednicama. Dakle, radi se o dokumentu koji æe se pretoèiti u zakon, i tu smo u prilici sugerirati, savjetovati, tra¾iti i obrazlagati sve ¹to nas ti¹ti, ¹to nam nedostaje, ¹to mozemo pobolj¹ati, pojednostaviti te ubrzati procese sjedinjenja dijaspore i matice domovine. Idejni zaèetnik dokumenta je Dr. Ivan Bagariæ. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 15 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10141/1/A-Strong-Voice-for-Croatian-Canadians-The-Legislative-Legacy-of-Borys-Wrzesnewskyj.html Outside of this strong legislative record, Wrzesnewskyj delivered several statements on the floor of the House of Commons including: commemorating the anniversary of Boris Cikovic’s death, drawing attention to the need to lift visitor visas for Croatia, urging the recognition and commemoration of the internment of Croats in Canada from 1914 to 1921, and paying tribute to martyred Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac. Over the years, Wrzesnewskyj attended or addressed several Croatian Canadian gatherings in his capacity as Member of Parliament. These have included the annual business awards ceremonies of the Canadian-Croatian Chamber of Commerce, the summer gatherings of Croatian Fraternal Union Lodges, and the special mass celebrated by Josip Cardinal Bozaniæ in Toronto. stangranic@hotmail.com (Stan Granic) Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10135/1/Dr-Hrvoje-Kacic-The-Hague-Tribunal-omits-establishment-of-the-truth.html Dr. Hrvoje Kaèiæ, distinguished Croatian expert in maritime law, gave two interviews. In the first one he describes the importance of the decision of the Badinter Comission on 7 September 1991 about factual recognition of Croatia. The second interview concludes that the Hague Tribunal does not meet the goals for which it was established. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Mon, 27 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10132/1/The-Croatian-Academy-of-America-Issued-New-Volume-of-the-Journal-of-Croatian-Studies.html The Croatian Academy of America issued volume 44 of the Journal of Croatian Studies, its annual interdisciplinary review. Contributed articles by Darko ®ubriniæ: William Feller (1906-1970) - an outstanding Croatian-American mathematician, Vinko Grubi¹iæ: The three alphabets used in the printing of Croatian Reformation books in Germany, John Felix Clissa: Migration history of the Italo-Croatians of Molise to Western Australia, Jure Kri¹to: Brother's keeper The surveillance of American Croats by FBI during World War II, Stan Granic: Canadian Ethnic Studies (1969-2003) and Polyphony (1977-2000) as sources for the Croatian Ethnological Community stangranic@hotmail.com (Stan Granic) Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10127/1/Homeland-defense-is-a-right-not-a-crime.html  It is time to judge the judges. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10123/1/18th-Annual-Convention-of-the-NFCA-to-Take-Place-in-Pittsburgh-June-4-2011.html  The 18th Annual Convention of the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation (NFCA) will take place in Pittsburgh on June 4, 2011 at the Clarion Hotel in Greentree, located just outside of Pittsburgh.  Delegates from throughout the United States are expected to attend. foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10122/1/US-Senator-Jeff-Sessions-to-Deliver-Keynote-Address-in-Opatija-Croatia-.html The Adriatic Institute for Public Policy will host a regional conference for elected officials and reform proponents at the International Leaders Summit in Opatija, Croatia, June 16-18, 2011. The Adriatic Institute for Public Policy is pleased to announce that United States Senator Jeff Sessions will deliver a keynote address at Adriatic Institute's International Leaders Summit. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10117/1/Mijo-Juric-Wolves-in-Springtime-in-German-with-foreword-by-Dr-Alois-Mock.html Mijo Juriæ's book "Wolves in Springtime" - Life under a Dictatorship, has been published in German with a foreword of dr. Alois Mock, former vice-counceller and minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Austria, while the afterword wrote dr. Hannes Swoboda, distinguished Austrian politician. It is an expanded version of his book "Osamnaesto proljeæe" (Eighteenth Spring) published in Croatian in Zagreb. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sat, 21 May 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10116/1/Vlada-usvojila-Strategiju-odnosa-Republike-Hrvatske-prema-Hrvatima-izvan-Domovine.html Vlada Republike Hrvatske usvojila Strategiju odnosa Republike Hrvatske prema Hrvatima izvan Republike Hrvatske. Predvidjeno je i donosenje Zakona (kao instrumenta provedbe Strategije), Savjeta Vlade i Ureda Vlade za Hrvate izvan RH (operativnog tijela), izvjescuje za CROWN Dr. Ivan Bagariæ (lijevo), Predsjednik Odbora Za Hrvate Izvan Republike Hrvatske. Strategy for the relations between the Republic of Croatia and the Croatians outside the Republic of Croatia. ivan.bagaric@zg.tel.hr (Dr. Ivan Bagaric) Thu, 19 May 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10112/1/Dr-Slobodan-Lang-quotStormquot-was-humanitarian-operation-that-prevented-genocide.html Dr. Slobodan Lang, distinguished Croatian scholar and humanist, gave interview for the readers of the CROWN on 25 April 2011 concerning the 1995 operation "Storm": "... This Court never heared me speaking! It is too strongly afraid of its own shameful history. And that's why it will be a Court of shame! There will be nothing that will be remembered of it, because it did not start from anything. And that's why it is a failure. ..." darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Sun, 01 May 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10107/1/Statement-by-the-Croatian-Conference-of-Bishops-on-The-Hagues-Verdict.html The formulation "joint criminal enterprise" is an unfounded and grave insult to the Croatian people, and to justice in general. This is also how we feel about the verdict against the Croatian state leadership at that time and the generals who led campaigns to liberate territory during the war. We believe that these judgments could provide dangerous and indirect support for new violence, as well as a source of further injustice in the world. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10105/1/Blessed-Easter-to-Mr-Gotovina-Mr-Markac-Mr-Praljak-Mr-Kordic-and-their-families.html  Happy and blessed Easter to Mr. Ante Gotovina, Mr. Mladen Markac, Mr. Slobodan Praljak, Mr. Darijo Kordiæ, and their families from Nenad Bach, Darko ®ubriniæ, CROWN Team and from the readers of the CROWN. Happy and blessed Easter to all the people of good will. darko@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach and Darko �ubrini�) Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10056/1/Vitomir-Miles-Raguz-Who-Saved-Bosnia.html A number of articles in this collection appeared in influential publications in the West, including the largest circulation English language policy daily The Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, European Voice, and The Harvard International Review, as well as in Croatian newspapers and magazines. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sat, 16 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10000/1/Jack-Baric-Croatian-American-filmaker-UN-Should-Be-Trailed.html Jack Baric: "...I wonder who is going to open a court to judge the UN, because in my estimation they were complicit during the war [in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina] in the sense of their inactivity in stopping it..." His film Searching for a Storm deals with Croatian general Ante Gotovina. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sat, 16 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10096/1/The-Hague-Tribunal-does-not-meet-the-obligations-for-which-it-was-established.html Dr. Hrvoje Kaèiæ, writing about omissions of the Hague tribunal and the problem of “artillery logs”: ...there is no word of Vukovar, Vinkovci, Osijek, Sisak, Gospiæ and Dubrovnik (in particular the village of Osojnik), resulting in thousands of victims. The Hague tribunal was silent,... This farce has been going on too long, and the consequences can be worrying and painful. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10095/1/Dr-Slobodan-Lang-Goodness-has-a-right-to-be-recognized-as-a-part-of-truth.html Dr. Slobodan Lang, distinguished Croatian humanist and scientist, learned from Gandhi to treat concrete people with their faith and culture as basic partners in facing and solving problems. He also developed the concept of Postholocaust, meanning that we have to use it as a way to prevent future genocides, concentration camps, hate, as well as promote the universal responsibility of righteous among nations and right to a home. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10072/1/Dr-Kathleen-V-Wilkes-1946-2003-devoted-her-life-to-the-victory-of-Croatia.html Dr. Kathleen Vaughan Wilkes was a distinguished British humanist, professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford, and also taught at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, Croatia. During the Serbian siege of the City in 1991 and 1992, she was spreading the truth about its merciless destruction. Dr. Wilkes wrote on Dec 26, 1991: "Dubrovnik... there is still no water or electricity, scant food, no glass in the windows, temperature at freezing point..." darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Fri, 11 Feb 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10071/1/Dr-Hrvoje-Kacics-book-Serving-My-Country-translated-into-several-languages.html Prof. dr. Hrvoje Kaèiæ is a distinguished Croatian specialist in maritime law.  Since 1990 he was an independent M.P. of the Croatian Parliament, elected chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs during the first mandate. From 1994 to 2001 he was president of the State Commission for Borders of the Republic of Croatia. His book Serving My Country has been published in Croatian, English (three printings), Spanish and German. It will soon appear in Ukrainian and Polish. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10068/1/Dr-Slobodan-Lang-and-his-concept-of-the-Challenge-of-Goodness.html Dr. Slobodan Lang, professor of medical ethics at the University of Zagreb and at Harvard, is best known for his tireless work on humanitarian issues, without precedent in contemporary history. He initiated the concept of „Challenge of Goodness“ and proposed and presented prevention of hate and genocide, protection of hospitals, prisoners of war and refugees, as well as responsibility for goodness by human beings during conflict. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10048/1/James-J-Sadkovichs-monograph-quotTudjman-the-first-political-biographyquot.html James Sadkovich is the author of the monograph Tudjman: prva politicka biografija, his first political biography, in 2010, Zagreb (in Croatian). He is an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Sadkovich completed the initial research for this monograph  while a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. We provide an interview by Julienne Eden Bu¹iæ. julienne-eden.busic@zg.htnet.hr (Julienne Busic) Sat, 11 Dec 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/10038/1/NFCA-Leaders-Meet-With-US-State-Department-and-National-Security-Council.html A delegation of members of the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation (NFCA) met with the White House’s National Security Council staff and several US State Department policy officials earlier this month to discuss the current status of relations between the United States and Croatia and to express their concerns about the ongoing problems faced by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9953/1/Tom-Rukavina-Croatian-American-running-for-Minnesota-governor.html Tom Rukavina, from northern Minnesota is in the running for governor of Minnesota as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He has a reputation as a straight talking, hard working and passionate advocate for what's best for Minnesota. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Mon, 05 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9943/1/Dr-Ante-Cuvalo-Croatia-at-the-crossroads-1990.html The following is an article written in June of 1990 by dr. Ante Èuvalo, distinguished Croatian historian, after the first free elections in Croatia.  It was published in the then émigré publication, Hrvatska revija [Croatian Review], No. 3, September, 1990, pp. 601-605. We provide it as a parallel Croatian and English text. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9937/1/17th-Annual-NFCA-Cultural-Foundation-Convention-to-be-held-May-15-2010.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) Cultural Foundation 2010 Assembly of Delegates will take place in Monroeville, Pennsylvania within the Greater Pittsburgh area, the weekend of May 14-16. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9933/1/Steve-Rukavina-met-Barack-Obama-at-the-White-House.html National Federation of Croatian Americans President Steve Rukavina (left) and his wife Diane met with President Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama at a December holiday party at The White House. The NFCA President was thrilled to meet the President and to extend well wishes from the Croatian American community. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9905/1/Miroslav-Tudjman-kandidat-za-predsjednika-Republike-Hrvatske.html Prof.dr. Miroslav Tuðman: politièki i gospodarski uspje¹na Hrvatska nije moguæa bez zajedni¹tva domovinske i iseljene Hrvatske. Iseljena je Hrvatska zaslu¾na za stvaranje hrvatske dr¾ave, ali je i ¹ansa za na¹ br¾i oporavak i gospodarski razvoj. I sada je priljev sredstava od dijaspore veæi od 3% BDP-a. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9902/1/NFCA-Fall-2009-newsletter-is-now-available.html The Fall issue of the Croatian American Advocate, published by the National Federation of Croatian Americans is now available. Read about NFCA efforts in Washington, D.C. and what you can do to support this organization and their work. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9884/1/Konvoj-Libertas-plovi-prema-hrvatsko-slovenskoj-granici-7-studenog-2009.html Znameniti Konvoj Libertas plovi prema hrvatsko-slovenskoj granici 7. studenog 2009. Prikljuèite se! Kontakt: Zvonimir ©eparoviæ, na e-mail  adresu zvonimir.separovic@zg.t-com.hr (u zaglavlje staviti Konvoj Libertas). Ugro¾eni su hrvatski nacionalni interesi. A famous convoy Libertas sails to the Croatian-Slovenian border on November 7th, 2009. Join! Croatian national interests are in danger. zvonimir.separovic@zg.t-com.hr (Branka �eparovi�) Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9883/1/Davorin-Rudolfs-appeal-to-Croatian-Parliament-to-reject-humiliating-dictates.html Academician Davorin Rudolf's open letter to Croatian Parliament on the new Croatian-Slovenian arbitration agreement dealing with the common state border:  ... We invite and appeal to the representatives of Croatian Parliament to ... unanimously reject the dictates and blackmails that humiliate us ...  davorin_rudolf@yahoo.com (Academician Davorin Rudolf) Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9861/1/NFCA-Delegation-Meets-US-Ambassador-to-Croatia-James-Foley.html A National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) delegation of Steve Rukavina, Zvonko Labas, Joe Foley, and NFCA Fellow Jelena Rudela met with the newly approved U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, James Foley, at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday September 1st. Cathy Westley, the State Department’s Croatian Desk Officer, also met with the NFCA delegation. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9826/1/James-B-Foley-is-new-US-Ambassador-to-Croatia.html US President Barack Obama will nominate James B. Foley (left) as new US ambassador to Croatia. Foley's nomination must be approved by the US Senate. Foley, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, will succeed Robert Bradtke, who is leaving in July. Bradtke has been ambassador since 2006. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9825/1/Julienne-Eden-Busic-Your-Blood-and-Mine-waiting-for-Zvonko-for-32-years.html Julienne Eden Bu¹iæ's speech at the book promotion, "Your Blood and Mine", held in an overcrowded hall of the Mimara Palace in Zagreb, May 21, 2009, in the presence of her husband Zvonko, both on the photo from 1970s. They met each other again in 2008 after 32 years of separation. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9813/1/NFCA-2009-Assembly-of-Delegates-formalize-new-agenda.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) just completed its 16th Annual Assembly of Delegates this past weekend. The delegates came to Washington to discuss and formalize the NFCA's new agenda in this promising era of full NATO membership for the Republic of Croatia and a new political environment for Croatia and the Croatian American community. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9778/1/The-Vukovar-Hospital-1991-important-monograph-about-its-tragedy.html The English edition of the monograph The Vukovar Hospital 1991 has been published in 2008 by the Vukovar Hospital and "Society of the Croatian doctors and volunteers in 1990-1991". Its Organizer council consists of Dr. Vesna Bosanac, Dr. Juraj Njavro, and Dr. ©tefan Biro. Especially important is an article by professor Andrija Hebrang, entitled: Silence of the International humanitarian organizations about the tragedy of the Vukovar Hospital. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9763/1/Croatia-in-NATO-on-April-3-2009-NFCA-newsletter.html Republic of Croatia is scheduled to formally join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) together with Albania at a summit marking the bloc's 60th anniversary during April 3-4. 2009. The NFCA is pleased to have contributed over the years to this great accomplishment for the Old Homeland. May Croatia long enjoy the peace and prosperity that is a by-product of NATO membership. EAAndrus@comcast.net (Edward Andrus) Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9753/1/Brian-Gallagher-interviewed-Croatian-American-filmmaker-Jack-Baric.html Exclusive interview with American Croatian filmmaker Jack Baric, the director of the new film, 'Searching for a Storm', published by Croatian Herald (Australia) 13 March 2009. New documentary about 'Operation Storm' which liberated the occupied parts of Croatia in 1995, and saved the city of Bihaæ in BiH from tragedy. Interviewer: Brian Gallagher, London; Jack Baric on the photo. brigall@yahoo.co.uk (Brian Gallagher) Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9733/1/Pliva-In-Memoriam-ili-Kuda-quotplivaquot-na-Hrvatski-brod.html Povijest Plive zapoèinje otvaranjem vrata dionièarskog dru¹tva i tvornice "Ka¹tel" u Karlovcu 1921.g. Prvi je predsjednik odbora prof. dr. Gustav Janaèek. Ovaj tekst je geneza jedne Hrvatske prièe,  da se  ne bi ponovila. Kuda "pliva" na¹ Hrvatski brod. Mo¾emo li bolje? Odgovor znamo, ali tko ima petlje odraditi to s integritetom,  po¹tenjem i znanjem? Ima nas samo se tek povezujemo. doroteja.kirhmajer@zg.t-com.hr (Doroteja Kirhmajer Vuj�i�, mr. sci.) Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9713/1/Davor-Pavuna-Croatian-Physicist-in-Obama8217s-Science-Team-chosen-by-Steven-Chu.html  Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner and Obama’s energy minister, has named Croatian physicist prof. dr. Davor Pavuna as one of the reviewers of projects at the U.S. Department of Energy. Reviewing projects for the DOE will be an enormous challenge because it will focus on avant-garde research that, among other things, includes new materials, high-temperature superconductivity, so-called green energy and green technologies. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9703/1/Boris-Miksic-considering-run-at-Croatian-presidency.html Boris Miksic has amassed millions from his White Bear Township business Cortec Corp. Now, he said all he wants to do is give back to his country of Croatia - as its president. If he runs for the office in 2009, it won't be the first time. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9688/1/Reflections-on-the-final-report-of-the-Genocide-Prevention-Task-Force.html  “Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers” is an extremely important political and cultural event, not only for the American government but also for the countries and nations which have recently suffered tragic genocidal experiences (Rwanda and Bosnia) or are experiencing them right now (Darfur and Congo). slaven1947@gmail.com (Prof.Dr. Slaven Letica) Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9685/1/U-Hrvatskom-Saboru-utemeljen-Odbor-za-Hrvate-izvan-Republike-Hrvatske.html Sa zadovoljstvom vas obavje¹æujemo da je odnedavno u najvi¹em zakonodavnom i predstavnièkom tijelu Hrvatske, Hrvatskom Saboru, utemeljen Odbor za Hrvate izvan Republike Hrvatske.  Kako biste se mogli bolje upoznati s radom odbora, u prilogu vam ¹aljemo podrobniji prikaz njegovog sastava, ovlasti i uloge. ivan.bagaric@zg.tel.hr (Dr. Ivan Bagaric) Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9662/1/Croatian-village-celebrates-victory-of-US-senator-Mark-Begich.html Mark Begich's victory in the U.S. Senate race in Alaska is being celebrated in a Croatian village where his grandfather once lived. Begich's grandfather left the small village of Podlapaca in central Croatia almost a century ago to seek a better life in America. Croatian Nikola Begic, who says he's the new senator's cousin, was quoted by one paper as saying their extended family had endured poverty and wars in the past, so the senator's victory "may be God's reward now." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9659/1/Mark-Begich-the-first-Croatian-American-US-Senator-Begich-wins-in-Alaska.html Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) increased his lead over convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to 3,724 votes on Tuesday with almost all of the remaining ballots counted, and the Associated Press has now called the race for the Democrat. Smile of relief, so well deserved. Croatians all over the world are celebrating tonight, a historic race. Mark is entering Senate at the right moment in history as a critical democratic Senator. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9638/1/Croatian-Americans-for-Obama-Biden-2008.html "In these uncertain and tough times, Croatian Americans, like all Americans, are looking for a President that provides steady leadership and puts the middle class first," said Representative Peter Visclosky (IN). "Barack Obama will be that President – a President who, by his example, demonstrates that achieving the American dream is still possible." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 18 Oct 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9627/1/Mark-Begich-for-US-Senate-to-be-the-first-Croatian-American-in-the-US-Senate.html I met with Mayor Begich last night in Washington, DC and was very impressed with his wit, intelligence and commitment to bring reform and an energy expertise to the U.S. Senate. He acknowledged how pleased his dad was with all the support he received from Croatian Americans when he was starting his first campaign and did get elected to the U.S. Congress in 1970. It's our time now to help elect for the first time ever - a  Croatian American in the U.S. Senate letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9599/1/Marko-Vuketiae-Burgendland-Croat-Austrian-ambassador-in-Ukraine.html His Excellency Mr. Marko Vuketiæ was recently appointed as Austrian ambassador in Ukraine. He belongs to Croatian branch in Austria known under the name of Burgendland Croats, or Gradi¹æanski Hrvati, living there since the 16th century. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9568/1/NFCA-Needs-Your-Action.html Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-CA) has just introduced H. Res. 1266 congratulating Croatia and Albania on their recent invitation to join NATO.  The NFCA needs you to contact your district U. S. Representative, especially if they are Members of the Croatian Caucus, and request that they support H. Res. 1266 by becoming a cosponsor of the bill. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9553/1/NFCA-to-hold-assembly-of-delegates-in-Gaithersburg-Maryland-June-6-8-2008.html The 15th annual Assembly of Delegates of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) will be held in the Gaithersburg Hilton Hotel from Friday evening, June 6, through Sunday, June 8. foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Tue, 13 May 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9518/1/Croatia-Has-a-NATO-Invitation---A-Historical-Day-for-Croatia-April-2nd-2008.html The fact that an invitation was sent is also a result of a process that began with Croatia’s  hard road to independence via the Croatian War of Independence in which 15,000 people gave their lives. Besides NATO, it is expected that Croatia receives an invitation for the EU soon. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9499/1/US-Senate-Resolution-Regarding-NATO-Member-Invitations.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) commends U.S. Senators Richard Lugar of Indiana and George Voinovich of Ohio for their leadership in introducing S. Res. 459 calling for NATO membership for the Republic of Albania, the Republic of Croatia, and the Republic of Macedonia. foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Fri, 29 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9483/1/Kosovo-Declares-Independence-on-February-17-2008.html Kosovo's parliament declared the disputed territory a nation on Sunday, February 17, 2008, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and European allies. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9480/1/Croatia-and-Japans-Cooperation-Excellent.html "Croatia and Japan have realised excellent cooperation and have no open issues, but unfortunately we have not used the potentials of either country," said Croatian President Stjepan Mesiæ (left), after Koto Shakuhacki Quintet's concert of traditional Japanese music, marking the 15th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Croatia and Japan. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9399/1/The-actual-historic-facts-must-be-recognized-once-and-for-all.html In a recent letter to the International Herald Tribune, Hilda Marija Foley (left) writes "In your article 'EU proposal lays out steps on Kosovo independence' by Dan Bilefsky and Stephen Castle Dec 12, 2007 the commentators make the often quoted but erroneous statement when writing that the early recognition of an independent Croatia accelerated the breakup of Yugoslavia." hmfgsf@juno.com (Hilda Marija Foley) Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9391/1/Sean-Penn-endorses-Croatian-American-presidential-candidate---Its-Kucinich-Time.html   Dennis Kucinich is from the West Side of Cleveland, half Croat, half Irish. He was dirt poor and knew it. He now not only sits in the House of Representatives, with a big fancy office in the Rayburn Building in Washington, D.C., but also believes that he will be elected president in 2008. mspudic@aol.com (Michael Spudi�) Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9382/1/The-West-and-the-UN-were-complicit-in-the-genocide-in-Bosnia.html Marko Attila Hoare (left) writes that the Western powers and the UN were undoubtedly complicit in the genocide in Bosnia, and nothing that they have done since 1995 has delivered justice to the victims. brigall@yahoo.co.uk (Brian Gallagher) Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9310/1/Croatia-Wins-Vote-for-UN-Security-Council-Seat-Political-and-diplomatic-influence.html Should be good news for the further recognition of the region's new political and diplomatic influence on a range of issues where not only Croatia, but Bosnia & Herzegovina could impact a progressive influence. The UN Security Council offers such an opportunity. The influence of Croatia's Diaspora aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9307/1/Croatia-proud-at-becoming-UN-Security-Council-member-on-Jan-1st-2008.html Croatia on Wednesday relished its election into the U.N. Security Council, and officials said it proved that a country considered a trouble spot just 15 years ago could now be accepted as part of the West. President Stipe Mesic said the election was an "exceptional recognition of Croatia and its foreign policy." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9305/1/Croatian-American-Dennis-Kucinich-on-Colbert-Report-TONIGHT-Oct-15-16-2007.html Stephen Colbert talked about Dennis Kucinich on his show - made Dennis sound smart and funny and dedicated, which of course he is. Colbert challenged Dennis to appear on his show. Dennis accepts challenge tonight... I can't wait!  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9282/1/A-Diplomatic-quotHunting-Partyquot---part-2-and-3.html On the plane, Holbrook from the outset began to pressure that we abandon or trade Gorazde. It struck me as rather strange at that time why Holbrooke had placed the emphasis of this conversation on "us" giving up Gorazde, the first hour of a 90 minute conversation. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9266/1/Ante-Simonic-at-the-Universal-Peace-Federation-2007-in-New-York.html   Providing Vision and Leadership at a Time of Global Crisis.  Feature presentations by a number of current and former heads of state, many of whom will be in New York for the United Nations' "Climate Change" conference letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9261/1/A-Diplomatic-quotHunting-Partyquot---facts-never-published-before-by-Ms-Hartmann---part-1.html     Muhamed Sacirbey, Florence Hartmann and Sylvie Matton speak out. Ms. Hartmann makes damning revelations about the betrayal of justice in her new book "Peace & Punishment.". Were the Big Powers in complicity to ethnic cleansing? Twist of fiction and reality. Film "The Hunting Party" with Richard Gere talks about the same subject in the same manner...as fiction. The book "Peace and Punishment" talks about the same subject in the same manner...as reality with documents. And they came out at the same time. Coincidence, hard reality or historical materialism ? Hartmann, Matton and Sacirbey speak of the evidence and the consequences  for BiH, Croatia, the region and the victims. CROWN reports, you decide. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Sun, 16 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9257/1/Croatian-President-Croatia-needs-highly-moral-people-that-will-solve-problems.html People who will keep saying everything is alright must not be in key positions, so that existing problems cannot be solved. Croatia needs people who will solve problems and enable faster development. Experts and highly moral people need to run the country. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9253/1/Betrayal-of-Justice---Will-New-Revelations-from-Within-The-ICTY-Bring-Consequences.html   Will the Region receive a new opportunity at unfiltered justice? Will Officials from the Leading Powers be held to Account for their Complicity with Milosevic and Betrayal of our Western Values? Are we that boring or just inept at protecting our rights and interests? ...in discussion with Ambassador Mo Sacirbey letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9213/1/Muhamed-Sacirbey-Civilization-where-religion-is-no-longer-denigrated.html   Defending the rights and access of the faithful, as well as the institutions of faith and spiritualism, is the obligation of all Bosnians and Herzegovinians, indeed the shared responsibility of civilization where religion is no longer denigrated, whether it is yours or your neighbors. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9191/1/Diaspora-Disenfranchised---The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-the-8220Diaspora-Entity8221.html   Diaspora is called upon to invest or just spend and send money for BiH, the Government of BiH and the Office of the High Representative have exhibited no priority in addressing the needs and rights of the Diaspora community. By Prof. Ramic, Ing. Vrljicak & Ambassador Sacirbey aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9181/1/Stolen-Croatian-Lipizzaner-horses-starving-in-Serbia.html   In October 1991, the largest Lipizzaner horse-farm in Croatia, situated near the town of Lipik, was bombed with napalm bombs. Out of 117 horses 27 of them were killed, and more than 80 taken away to Serbia, where they are also today. Believe it or not, the Serbs are trying to SELL stolen Croatian Lipizzaners to Croatia! From reliable sources we know that some of them have been already sold in Italy. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9176/1/Who-wants-to-close-the-Embassy-of-Bosnia-Herzegovina-in-Buenos-Aires-.html   About the Bosnia-Herzegovina Embassy in Buenos Aires. A news item published in the Banja Luka Nezavisne Novine states that the Bosnia-Herzegovina embassies in Argentina and South Africa, as well as the general consulate in Bonn are going to be closed... a note by Joza Vrljicak. joza.vrljicak@gmail.com (Joza Vrlji�ak) Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9174/1/Kosovo-needs-a-conclusion-not-a-new-beginning.html    foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9162/1/Mottaki-stresses-expansion-of-Iran---Croatia-ties.html Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here Monday that expansion of all -out ties with Croatia enjoys priority in Iran's foreign diplomacy.   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 01 Aug 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9161/1/Croatia-demands-10-billion-dollars-from-Serbia-just-for-military-assets-of-YU.html     letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 29 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9154/1/Croatian-Foreign-Minister-Meets-US-Congress-Delegates.html  Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration  Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (left) received the delegates of the U.S. Congress led by Congresswoman Melissa Bean on Monday. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 24 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9146/1/BiH-Croatia-and-Iran-according-to-Ambassador-Sacirbey.html     aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9145/1/Petition-for-the-Embassy-of-BiH-in-Buenos-Aires-to-remain-open.html Molimo da se ne zatvori Ambasada BiH u Buenos Airesu. We petition for the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Buenos Aires to remain open. Pedimos que no se cierre la Embajada de Bosnia y Herzegovina en Buenos Aires. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sat, 21 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9139/1/Congressman-Chris-Smith-history-of-sincere-support-for-victims--BiH.html  Congressman Chris Smith (left) has been consistent in his efforts on behalf of justice and a genuine peace and multi ethnic society in Bosnia & Herzegovina. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9130/1/OSCE-Chairman-says-he-supports-closing-mission-to-Croatia-by-the-end-of-the-year.html OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos (left), said yesterday he favours closing the OSCE Mission to Croatia by the end of 2007.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9127/1/Europes-New-Southis.html  NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (left), recently gave a speech at the Croatia Summit, regarding the region and its future. Click to read more. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9119/1/Dr-Joyce-Neu-Pursuing-Justice-in-the-Midst-of-War----Institute-of-Peace--invites-you.html   How do international tribunals operating during war to secure justice affect the work of peacemakers?   Do they help bring parties to the peace table, or do they hinder the prospects for peace?   Please join us as Senior Fellow Joyce Neu discusses her research. Thursday, July 5, 2007. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9118/1/Mo-Sacirbey-A-Convenient-Genocide-in-a-fishbowl.html   They preach but do not confess. They demand forgetfulness but ask for no forgiveness. Perhaps they believe that by preaching to the victims, they will then avoid accountability for their own failings. Their sermons cannot go unchallenged. These are efforts at rewriting history. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9102/1/Croatia-Leaps-Past-Turkey-on-Road-to-EU-Membership.html  Croatia leapt past Turkey on the road to European Union membership, opening negotiations in six EU policy areas and staying on course to join as soon as the end of the decade. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9095/1/Putin-in-Croatia---A-confirmation-of-Croatias-international-authority.html   Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Croatian capital city of Zagreb to attend the Southeast European country's Energy Summit. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9088/1/Michael-Kaufman-Power-Values-and-Reform-Through-the-EU-Accession-Process.html   The EU's efforts to promote democratic development are at odds with the incentives created by the accession process itself, where the EU gives priority to efficiency over legitimacy, which leads to questions about the potential of the EU to export its own democratic deficit...with a specific reference to Croatia. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9082/1/Croatia-Today---May-2007.html     : presscro@yahoo.com (Josip Babi�) Wed, 20 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9073/1/NFCA-Press-Release--14th-Annual-Delegates-Assembly.html The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) completed a very successful 2007 Annual Assembly of Delegates held in Philadelphia at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel.   foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9068/1/Croatian---American-Dennis-Kucinich-runs-to-be-the-USA-president-in-2008.html   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9037/1/91-Of-Croatian-Citizens-Say-Croatia-Should-Sue-Serbia.html Hina Centre for the market research conducted a survey on the representative sample of 1000 citizens about their attitudes regarding the war damage and genocide. On the question should Croatia sue Serbia for the genocide 91 percent of citizens answered it should. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 01 May 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9035/1/Shimon-Peres-visits-Croatia-Croatia-And-Israel-Will-Enter-A-New-Age.html The vice president of the Israeli government, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Shimon Peres (pictured, right), ended his two day visit to Croatia, on Friday, with a visit to Split and a lecture.   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 28 Apr 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9029/1/NATO-Bill-Signed-into-Law---NFCA-press-release---Croatia-in-2008.html   NFCA congratulates the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on passage of the most recent bill, S. 494, in support of full membership - at the earliest opportunity - for the Republic of Croatia. This piece of legislation continues the Congressional and Executive Branch support for the next expansion of NATO in 2008. foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8716/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Umjesto-zakljueka.html Èovjek industrijaliziranog dru¹tva postaje na ¾alost sve pohlepniji potro¹aè. Stvari koje zgrèe najèe¹æe ne slu¾e usavr¹avanju ljudi veæ postajemo robovi tih stvari, bilo da ih proizvodimo ili kupujemo.   ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8984/1/NFCA-Press-Release-The-NATO-Freedom-Consolidation-Act-of-2007.html     foleycoinc@earthlink.net (Joe Foley) Mon, 12 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8955/1/How-The-UN-Violated-Human-Rights-In-Bosnia-And-Herzegovina.html How the UN violated human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and why nothing has been done to correct it. A series of reports compiled by CROWN's Brian Gallagher.   brigall@yahoo.co.uk (Brian Gallagher) Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8715/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Uvjet-da-bi-se-bilo-intelektualcem-nije-samo-biti-struenjakom.html ...intelektualci èine duhovnu elitu koja znaèajno utjeèe na svekoliko ozraèje odreðenog doba i prostora. Ali, uvjet da bi se bilo intelektualcem nije samo biti struènjakom. ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Wed, 21 Feb 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8714/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Promicanje-tradicije-kulture-i-vjere.html Dr¾eæi da tradicija, kultura, umjetnost i vjera nisu ni¹ta manje va¾ni od gospodarstva, politike, trgovine, tehnike, znanosti, sigurnosti, novca...   ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8897/1/January-15th-Croatia8217s-International-Day-of-Recognition.html   The new Baska Tablet was introduced on the set of a special edition of HRT on January 15, 1992 for the day that Croatia was internationally recognized by 30 countries in Europe and the world. boris@studio-international.com (Boris Ljubi�i�, Akademski Slikar) Sun, 14 Jan 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8713/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-O-promicanju-zdravlja-i-populacijske-politike.html  Mnogi su nezadovoljni zdravstvenim sustavom u RH. Od pacijenata do medicinskih sestara i lijeènika, od pronalazaèa, proizvoðaèa i trgovaca lijekovima, preko financijera i osiguravajuæih institucija do lokalnih i dr¾avnih zdravstvenih vlasti.   ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Tue, 09 Jan 2007 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8717/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-O-promicanju-odgoja-obrazovanja-znanosti-i-tehnologije.html   Preduvjet kvalitetnom razvoju svakog pojedinca su dobar odgoj i dobra edukacija koji omoguæavaju njegovu sustavnu izgradnju, te mu u pravom trenutku na adekvatan naèin nude optimalne sadr¾aje. ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Wed, 20 Dec 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8849/1/Brian-Gallagher-analyzes-The-Trial-of-Domagoj-Margetic.html     brigall@yahoo.co.uk (Brian Gallagher) Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8847/1/Croatian-World-Congress-Invites-You-to-Participate-at-the-UN-COMMISSION-ON-STATUS-OF-WOMEN.html The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will hold its 51st session from 26 February to 9 March 2007, at United Nations Headquarters, New York. The Commission will focus on the thematic issue entitled The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child.   MViscovich@aol.com (Prof. Dr. Mario Viscovich) Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8846/1/Poziv-na-sudjelovanje-pri-UN-Komisiji-o-polozaju-zena-Rok-prijave-22-prosinca-2006.html     MViscovich@aol.com (Prof. Dr. Mario Viscovich) Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8712/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Borba-protiv-zagadenja-i-upravljanje-krizom-te-odrivi-razvoj.html   Porast znanja i poveæanje tehnièke moæi Homo sapiensa, mno¹tvu ljudi ne donosi oèekivani boljitak... stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 29 Nov 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8821/1/DR-TOMISLAV-SUNIAE---The-Political-Cesspool-travels-to-Croatia--Live-Radio-Nov-17th-2006.html     tomislav.sunic@zg.t-com.hr (Prof.Dr. Tomislav Suni�) Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8711/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Rastronost-budi-nemir.html  U dana¹nje doba su evidentne fascinantne moguænosti proizvodnje, relativno velika plate¾na moæ kupaca u razvijenim zemljama, visoko organizirana dostupnost raznovrsnih proizvoda, uèinkovita marketin¹ka aktivnost, svjetonazor koji potièe tro¹enje...   stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 08 Nov 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8776/1/Tony-Peraica-in-race-for-Cook-County-Board-president-Who-is-Tony-Peraica.html   Born 49 years ago in Croatia, Tony came to America at the age of 13, after losing both of his parents, unable to speak a word of English. Despite his circumstances, Tony persevered and went on to earn his B.A. in Political Science form the University of Illinois at Chicago and J.D. from The John Marshall Law School. Tony was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1984. Over the ensuing 20 years, Tony built a thriving law practice. www.votetony06.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 31 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8789/1/Connor-Vlakancic-running-to-be-first-Croatian-American-US-Senator.html Connor Vlakancic has consistently been working to change federal politics since 1994.  He constantly travels to WDC as an active motivator of Croatian-American issues.  As author of California Constitutional Initiatives, Connor Vlakancic has developed and documented the only comprehensive solution to America's 'illegal immigrant' problem which is critical in California.  He is the non-partisan Independent candidate.  www.connorvlakancic.com   elect@connorvlakancic.com (Connor Vlakancic) Mon, 30 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8772/1/Prime-Minister-on-Visit-to-Washington.html   President Bush Gives Sanader Firm Date of 2008 for NATO Membership. "It's a historic day in the bilateral relationship of the United States and Croatia," Sanader told well over 200 guests on October 17 assembled for evening reception held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel vmiocic@croatianchronicle.com (Visnja Mio�i�) Mon, 30 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8767/1/NFCA-Newsletter-October-20th-2006.html   PM Sanader had met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the day before, and had a meeting with President George Bush and Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that afternoon. He was also scheduled to meet with Vice-President Cheney on Wednesday EAAndrus@comcast.net (Edward Andrus) Sat, 28 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8761/1/Treba-hitro-energieno-jasno-nedvosmisleno-i-glasno-argumentirano-i-nesvadalaeki-pokrenuti-iroku-akciju-za-proglaenje-gospodarskog-pojasa.html Podrazumijevamo neprihvatljivim, bilo kakvo trgovanje nacionalanim teritorijem ili mlitavo (ne)branjenje dr¾avnih granica, te rasprodaju vitalnih nacionalnih bogatstava ili njihovo ne¹tiæenje. U Europu (i druge asocijacije) se ulazi glavom (i argumentima koji ¹tite interse RH) a ne na koljenima dodvornièki. ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8710/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Poljoprivreda-te-genetski-modificirana-hrana.html   Kako se ne prisjetiti izjave velikana hrvatske agronomije prof. Frange¹a iz 1930. da je poljoprivreda "vremenski prvo, a po va¾nosti najodliènije zanimanje tj. podloga svih drugih zanimanja, podloga kulture i civilizacije." ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8732/1/GORBACHEV-IN-PRIMOSTEN.html   Croatian President Stipe Mesic, right, looks at former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev as he speaks at a conference marking his 75th birthday and 20th anniversary of his Perestroika reforms in Primosten, Croatia, Saturday Sept. 30, 2006. dalmatinac99@vip.hr (Ante Katalinic) Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8709/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-HSS-slavi-euva-i-potiee-rad-i--stvaralatvo.html    ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Wed, 04 Oct 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8708/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Politika-i-borba-za-opaee-dobro.html   Ostvarenje emancipacije èesto oznaèava dobivanje onoga ¹to mislimo da smo ¾eljeli. Voljeli bi da to ne znaèi da smo se oslobodili od onoga ¹to nismo ¾eljeli kako bismo postali robovi stvari do kojih nam je stalo.   stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8705/1/Don-Zuboviae-Vas-poziva-na-sastanak-s-Predsjednikom-Mesiaeem-i-Premierom-Sanaderom.html POZIVAM VAS  NA SUSRET S PREDSJEDNIKOM STJEPANOM MESIÆEM I PREMIEROM IVOM SANADEROM U ÈETVRTAK 21. RUJNA U 5:15 pm U ©KOLSKOM AUDITORIUMU (SCHOOL AUDITORIUM) U ASTORIJI, NEW YORK   DON ROBERT ZUBOVIC CONTACT: RZubovic@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8704/1/A-talk-by-Dr-Ivo-Sanader-Prime-Minister-of-the-Republic-of-Croatia-followed-by-a-question-and-answer-session-with-the-audience.html You are invited to attend Columbia University's World Leaders Forum program: Wednesday, September 20, 2006, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Low Memorial Library at Columbia University, 116th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, New York City "Croatia and Euro-Atlantic Integration in Southeastern Europe" A talk by Dr. Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, followed by a question and answer session with the audience.   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8671/1/State-Councilor-Tang-meets-Croatian-leaders-on-ties.html Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan held talks in Zagreb with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader separately, with both sides pledging to further boost bilateral ties. stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8658/1/ProfDr-Ante-Simoniae-Mudrost-iskustva-hrabrost-mladosti-promiljenost-obrazovanih.html ...mudrost iskustva, hrabrost mladosti, promi¹ljenost obrazovanih, domoljublje, tradicija, po¹tenje i radi¹nost poduzetnih... politièka vizija prof.dr. Ante Simoniæa i HSSa. U 12 nastavaka   ante@medri.hr (Prof.Dr. Ante Simoni�) Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8672/1/Croatia-China-seek-to-Boost-Economic-Ties.html Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec, seen here in May 2005, said officials from Croatia and China held talks on boosting economic ties between the two countries and signed a deal on agricultural cooperation.   stecak@sbcglobal.net (Marko Pulji�) Sat, 02 Sep 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8629/1/Maltas-Prime-Minister-Lawrence-Gonzi-on-his-official-visit-to-Croatia.html  VALLETTA, Malta (di-ve news) August 25, 2006. Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has on Wednesday met his Croatian counterpart Ivo Sander as part of his official visit to Croatia. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 25 Aug 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8564/1/E-The-Swearing-in-Ceremony-for-Robert-A-Bradtke-at-the-US-State-Department.html The Swearing-in Ceremony of the new United States Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, Robert A. Bradtke, at the US State Department   Dear Crown readers,I want to share with you that this past Monday, July 3, the NFCA was honored to attend the Swearing-in Ceremony of the new United States Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia, Robert A. Bradtke, at the US State Department. Steve Rukavina, Zvonko Labas, and I were invited by Mr. Bradtke himself, whom we had met with just last month to discuss the role of the NFCA in US-Croatia relations. Notably, officiating at this ceremony was US Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, who was very positive about her trust in the new Ambassador. Also in attendance were Croatian Ambassador to the United States, Neven Jurica, and several key members of his staff.While Mr. Bradtke's wife was not able to attend due to her own official US duties, his family did accompany him, including his 93 year-old father who was proud to hold the Bible on which his son took the oath of office. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Bradtke took time to address Ambassador Jurica in the Croatian language, one of several which he speaks. The ceremony took place in the Treaty Room adjacent to Secretary Rice's office. The limited number of  invited guests were then able to join a receiving line to congratulate Mr. Bradtke and wish him well in his new assignment.Ambassador Bradtke reaffirmed to us the important role he sees the NFCA and the Croatian American community performing on behalf of Croatia as she proceeds in joining Trans-Atlantic institutions. This was a historic event during our own American Independence celebration period and the three of us were pleased to represent all of you at this special time.Sincerely, Ed Andrus, President/NFCA   www.nfcaonline.com EAAndrus@comcast.net (Edward Andrus) Thu, 13 Jul 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8563/1/E-Scheffer-Says-Croatia-Makes-Great-Progress-On-Path-To-NATO.html Scheffer Says Croatia Makes Great Progress On Path To NATO 2006-07-07 16:32:18 Croatia has made great progress on the path to NATO membership and for that it deserves a high assessment and it can hope to receive positive signals at a summit in Riga, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in Zagreb on Thursday after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. Joining NATO is based on efficiency and not on a summit or an invitation, Scheffer said. When it comes to efficiency Croatia can only be positively assessed, Scheffer stressed. The summit in Riga at the end of November will not be about enlargement nor will invitations be distributed to new countries, but I am certain that NATO member-countries will give Croatia and the region a positive signal regarding membership of the alliance, Scheffer said. He added there was still work that needed to be done, primarily in the strengthening of Croatia's public support regarding the country's joining NATO and the continuation of reforms and fight against corruption. PM Sanader reiterated that Croatia's two priorities in foreign policy were joining NATO and the EU. "For us, NATO represents a community that defends the same values as the EU. That is the community of countries that Croatia wants to and must be in," Sanader said. He said talks with Scheffer were very open, adding that later today the NATO secretary general would inform him of the content of the coming NATO summit in Riga. "We are aware that the summit will not be about enlargement and that invitations will not be distributed, but the meeting is very important for us because we will able to see from the declaration text how is NATO sending a message to Croatia and other countries," the Croatian PM said. Sanader informed Scheffer of efforts Croatia was making to advance cooperation in the region, notably through the transformation of CEFTA and its presidency of the SEECP, as well as the country's participation in NATO's trust fund for the reintegration of defence personnel in Bosnia-Herzegovina into civil society. He also announced a conference on security issues that will be held at the beginning of next week in the southern Adriatic town of Dubrovnik. The conference will be attended by Sheffer's deputy. NATO Secretary general said the alliance highly appreciated Croatia's leading role in the region, stressing that Croatia also gave its contribution to security by participating the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Mission in Afghanistan. Commenting on a reporter's question, Scheffer said it was entirely untrue that NATO could ask new candidate countries to increase the number of soldiers in NATO missions in return for membership. Asked to comment on information that there would be no NATO enlargement in 2008 wither, Scheffer said he also read that, adding that one should not believe such reports. The Croatian PM told reporters that the reason for a lower public support to Croatia's membership of NATO was the fact that the alliance was equated with the intervention in Iraq. It is primarily the duty of the government, as well as of all political leaders in the country to explain to the public that this is not the case and to inform them of the importance of NATO membership, Sanader said. He expressed conviction Croatia would achieve this goal, stressing that a positive signal from Riga was necessary. Source: Hina www.seeurope.net http://www.seeurope.net/en/Story.php?StoryID=61569&LangID=1 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 08 Jul 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8562/1/E-NFCA-Meets-With-American-Officials-To-Discuss-Issues.html NFCA Meets With American Officials To Discuss IssuesS NFCANational Federation of Croatian Americans2401 Research Blvd, Suite 115Rockville, MD 20850----------------------------------Tel: (301) 208-6650Fax: (301) 208-6659 NFCA MEETS WITH AMERICAN GOVERNMENTAL OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS ISSUES AFFECTINGTHE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA For Immediate Release (Washington, DC - May 31, 2006) On Monday, May 22, 2006, Mr. Ed Andrus, thePresident of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA), led adelegation of NFCA officers in meetings with Mr. Bert Braun, the Directorfor Southern European Affairs for the National Security Council at the WhiteHouse, Mr. Kurt Volker, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Statefor European and Eurasian Affairs, and Mr. Daniel Sainz, Principal DeputyDirector of the Office of South Central European Affairs at the StateDepartment. The meetings were held as part of the NFCA's long-standing efforts to buildsupport for Croatia's entry into NATO and other Western institutions withMembers of the Bush Administration as well as with Members of Congress. In addition to Mr. Andrus, the delegation consisted of Mr. Steve Rukavina,the Vice President of the NFCA, Mr. Zvonko Labas, the Treasurer of the NFCA,Mr. John Kraljic, the Past President of the NFCA, and Mr. Joseph Foley, theNFCA's Government and Public Relations Director. Mr. Andrus opened both meetings with a brief statement to position thediscussions. He noted that Croatia has met all hurdles that had been placedon its path toward NATO membership. He pointed to the continuingdevelopment of democratic institutions and the partnership agreementsCroatia has made with its neighbors, which have allowed it to become theleader in the region. Other members of the delegation reinforced Mr. Andrus' statements through anengaging and constructive interchange. It was noted, among other pluses,that the addition of Croatia to NATO will bring stability to Bosnia andHerzegovina. Emphasis was also placed on the positive contributions thatCroatia will make to the Alliance as a full NATO member. Mr. Andrus stated that the meetings with Mr. Braun and Mr. Volker generallywere very positive. "In the fifteen years that we and our members have beenengaged in lobbying in Washington, these meetings represented two of themost positive we have had with Executive branch policy officials," Mr.Andrus noted. "Of course," Mr. Andrus continued, "Croatia is close to NATO membership, buta number of obstacles remain. Some of these are of a technical naturedealing with the further professionalization of the Croatian Army. However,what we uniformly heard was a concern expressed with popular opinion polls that show that Croatians currently have a relatively low level ofsupport for NATO membership. We noted that such poll numbers cannot beviewed as being determinative. Practically all political parties in Croatia- whether on the left, right, or center - support NATO membership as one ofthe most important foreign policy goals of Croatia. Moreover, such pollnumbers are reflective of the negative policies adopted by the United Statesand the EU towards Croatia over the past 5 years when, despite havingsatisfied 626 of the 627 demands of the ICTY, Croatia continued to beunfairly labeled for not cooperating with the ICTY as a result of onefugitive who was not even in the country." Mr. Andrus further recognizes that some of the anti-NATO sentiment inCroatia may be tied to a general concern with current American foreignpolicies, especially in Iraq which is unpopular with many Europeans. "It isimportant to remember that NATO was not involved in the invasion of Iraq,though of course certain NATO members were. NATO is involved in therebuilding efforts in Afghanistan, but certainly most Croatians canappreciate that the war in Afghanistan was targeted at a nest of terroristbent on worldwide destruction. It is also worth noting that NATO belongs tothe countries of the Alliance, most of whom are European, and that allmembers have enjoyed peace and prosperity for over sixty years under theprotection of NATO. I believe that when these facts are presented to theCroatian people by their political leaders, the poll numbers will almostcertainly show a dramatic positive change." The NFCA delegation did not limit its discussions to NATO. Issues were alsoraised regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina and the NFCA's concern with respectto the status of the Croatian community there; the appointment of Mr.Robert Bradtke as the new U. S. Ambassador to the Republic of Croatia; VicePresident Cheney's recent trip to Dubrovnik where he underlined U.S. supportfor Croatia; and, support for the defense of General Gotovina and otherindicted Croatian military and political officials at the ICTY. Mr. Andrus stated following the meetings that issues related to NATO andother matters of concern to Croatian Americans will continue to be the focusof the NFCA's efforts. "In addition to our meetings with Administrationofficials, we will work with our friends in the Congressional CroatianCaucus to build further support for all initiatives which will be beneficialto Croatia and Croats." These issues will no doubt be further explored at the NFCA's Annual Assemblyof Delegates to be held on June 3, 2006 in Kansas City, Missouri, whererepresentatives from throughout the United States will participate. The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian American groupsthat collectively represents approximately 130,000 members. For additionalpublic affairs information or information concerning the Annual Assembly ofDelegates, please call Mr. Joe Foley, NFCA Government and Public AffairsDirector, at 301-294-0937, or Mr. Ed Andrus, NFCA President, at the NFCAHeadquarters at (301) 208-6650, or by email at NFCAhdq@verizon.net. For recent NFCA newsletters, important NFCA membership and chapterinformation, and other Croatian-American news please visit the NFCA's website at www.nfcaonline.com. EAAndrus@comcast.net (Edward Andrus) Fri, 02 Jun 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7179/1/E-Interview-with-an-American-Ambassador-Okun.html ÂInterview with American Ambassador OkunÂInterview by Jadranka Juresko-Kero in the Vecernji List, Zagreb April 15, 2006translated from Vecernji List by Hilda M. FoleyAmerican Ambassador Herbert S. Okun speaks about Milosevic, Tudjman, the war, the negotiations ...Ambassador Herbert S. Okun has spent a full thirty six years in the service of the State Department and American diplomacy. Born in New York 76 years ago to a immigrant Russian Jewish family, he did not continue his father's successful tradition in the food supply branch, the manufacture and distribution of food, but instead received his education at the prestigious American universities Stanford and Harvard and from his 25th year on devoted his life completely to diplomacy. He spent his first time in Croatia in 1957 as a tourist. He was immediately impressed by the beauty of Hvar and Dubrovnik. He returned to Croatia in 1990, first as the executive director of a nonprofit financial group that offered help in the establishment of a free market in the post-communist countries of the eastern block. Soon after, he exchanged his voluntary role with one of official duty as the deputy of Cyrus Vance, the special emissary of the United Nations' Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali., actively spending time in the areas of former Yugoslavia from 1991-1993. Today he lectures international relations at Yale and John Hopkins. Interviewer: Once you commented that you already realized during the first meeting with Milosevic that one is dealing with a man of bad character, capable of anything!- Yes, I met Milosevic in Belgrade on Dec. 12, 1990. I arrived with a group of business people and Cyrus Vance and I had a private meeting with Milosevic. Observing how he talked and acted I could not come to any other conclusion than Milosevic being a common gangster. You know, those types from Mafia movies with cigars in their mouths, who try to express themselves very theatrically but in reality are selling fog. The American ambassador at that time in Belgrade, Warren Zimmerman, spoke of Milosevic as a charming person. I was shocked. I said to him: "Don't you see that he is a gangster?" Unfortunately I was right, because it was soon apparent that the war and all the crimes were initiated by Milosevic, that he was a liar and a politician who did not honor agreements nor his signature. Interviewer: You were the vice-chairman of the International Conference for former Yugoslavia in the negotiations regarding the arrival of UNPROFOR in Croatia. Could the war had been prevented in Croatia if the West had intervened in time? - When I was in Belgrade in 1990 I asked everyone - from Milosevic to ordinary people, taxi drivers, waiters - do they think it will come to war, they all answered, can you imagine, that this is not possible. My experience told me that this was not correct, that war was coming because I did not trust Milosevic. I asked him for instance on the eve of elections in Serbia if the JNA (Yugoslav National Army) has a considerable role in the country. He answered that it does not. "Mr. Okun", he said, "we are building democracy". The next day a saw his picture with the JNA generals in the Politika (newspaper).I warned that one cannot trust him. But Milosevic knew how to manipulate the foreign media and politicians. He constantly kept repeating that "Croatians are making necklaces from fingers of Serb children". Just imagine such statements! The West tried to stop the war more than is known or deduced in public, but Milosevic did not want it. Lord Carrington and Cyrus Vance offered a plan for the so-called peaceful separation of all sides in Yugoslavia, but while Croats accepted discourse plans, were signing everything and showing that they want peace, in Belgrade everything was the opposite. Interviewer: What were your impressions of President Tudjman?- I can say openly that I liked Tudjman because he was a serious politician who kept his word. True, he had a rigid style of behavior which many falsely interpreted, especially western journalists, but all my experiences with Tudjman are positive. After all, Tudjman, who led his country in war, with an imposed arms embargo, could not act like Gandhi. He was cooperative, wanted peace and actively participated in negotiations in the Haag, Geneva and Zagreb. They resented that he changed street names from the communist times and while he was doing that, Milosevic was killing Croatians in eastern Slavonia. I was with Tudjman when the exodus of Croatians from Ilok began. He said to me: "Mr. Ambassador,do something, it is terrible what my people are experiencing". then Vance called Milosevic but he answered that he does not know what he is talking about, that he has nothing to do with Ilok. That man never spoke the truth. Tudjman was intelligent, he knew history, and speaking openly, with his leadership Croatians through Operation Storm and other military actions saved Bosnia Herzegovina. At a meeting in Sarajevo in 1991 Izetbegovic told me that he will demand of the JNA to leave BiH and I asked him: "Where is your army, who will defend you if the JNA does not comply?" I quickly realized that in Bosnia only the Croats offered organized defense and saved it from downfall, something often kept quiet by the media as well as politicians. Interviewer: You created the Vance plan which stopped the war in Croatia. Did you have difficulties in the realization of the plan? - After some fifteen armistices pronounced by the EC which no one honored, we turned to a different logic, and that was that the armistice is not declared by us but by the opposing sides. At that time the Serbs were already prepared for the Bosnia campaign and had therefore relatively quickly accepted the armistice. When I presented the contents of the plan to Tudjman, he immediately asked several questions, such as the status of the police which had warned about the vulnerability in the plan. Later on, these questions were shown to be correct, as the Serb side used it to evade their obligations. Interviewer: How much do Americans know about Croatia and why don't they invest more into the economy?- Let us be realistic. Croatia is for Americans far away, but it is more and more attractive for tourism. It is important for Croatia to have an economy office in Washington, a strong diplomacy which will keep good ties with Condoleezza Rice. Holding international conferences in Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, to which are invited American and world leaders is the right way, because once someone is acquainted with Croatia it is not easily forgotten. Croatia needs to develop its economy, needs to keep its people in the country, that they don't emigrate worldwide. Be patient, because with the blossoming of the economy come jobs and a better life. Croatia is a very beautiful country, don't forget that its geographical position is strategically important and you have the Adriatic coast, outlet to the sea - and what a sea, one of the most beautiful in the world.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 17 May 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7182/1/E-The-Death-of-Slobodan-Milosevic---15-years-too-late.html THE DEATH OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - 15 YEARS TOO LATEBy John Peter KraljicThe death of Slobodan Milosevic brought the expected platitudes concerning his trial. Though the amateurishness of the ICTY and its prosecutor dwarfs anything we saw in the O.J. Simpson trial, we heard many lament about how Milosevic's trial ended so close to a verdict. Carla del Ponte herself pontificated about how the proceedings would have ended within the next few months. Most reporters accepted her claim at face value.But such acceptance is inexcusable in light of del Ponte's lack of credibility. This is the same person who claimed that General Ante Gotovina had been hiding in Croatian monasteries and had been assisted by the Vatican, claims proved false once Spanish authorities arrested the General and discovered his passport. Del Ponte has also continuously predicted at various times that the turn over of Karadzic and Mladic to the ICTY was imminent, prognostications which have always proven wrong.May be the bookmakers in Las Vegas will start taking bets on whether a prediction made by del Ponte will prove to be right. The odds would definitely favor the house.We should not mourn the fact that Milosevic had not been subject to a verdict. What would should mourn is the fact that he died 15 years too late.Even in jail Milosevic continued to be a dangerous man. As we saw in the expressions of sympathy emanating from Belgrade prior to and during his funeral, Milosevic remained a lightning rod for the same forces which supported his rise to power, forces which continue to publicly call for the annexation of Croatian and Bosnian territories into a Greater Serbia.With Milosevic off the stage, these forces will not disappear, just as they did not disappear with the defeat of the Chetniks and Draza Mihailovic at the end of World War II. However, without a living martyr in The Hague, modern-day Chetniks can only rely on fast fading memories of their hero rather than on a stream of statements, accusations and lies that would have come from Milosevic's jail cell.A number of victims of Milosevic's military campaigns appeared on our TV screens bemoaning Milosevic's early death and the lack of a verdict. I certainly understand such need for some people. Had Milosevic suddenly died a decade ago, I would have shared the same sentiment.However, the ICTY has taught us that the outcomes of its proceedings are completely irrelevant. Indeed, while Croatian journalists reported on the Milosevic trial, it remained, for the most part, not front page news. This has proven to be the case not just with Milosevic but with every other Serb indictee.An analysis made by Vitomir Miles Raguz in his recent book, Da nije bilo Oluje - Who Saved Bosnia, offers some insight as to why the ICTY's proceedings have been so anti-climatic for Croats and probably for Bosniaks and Albanians as well. Raguz writes that the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been structured in such a manner as to result in the alienation of Croats from that state and its future.A similar analysis can be applied to the ICTY. Proceedings at the ICTY are exclusively controlled by persons who have no "stake" in the outcome of any trial, other than as a means to advance their own professional careers. The Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians play no visible role at the ICTY other than as witnesses (and sometimes as defendants and defense counsel).Moreover, the ICTY has had little visible effect on the main perpetrators of the crimes, the Serbs. To the contrary, Greater Serbian nationalism remains politically potent.If Milosevic's demise proves anything, it is that the ICTY is a bankrupt institution. Whatever importance the small caste of international bureaucrats attach to its proceedings, the ICTY has neither provided a sense of justice to victims nor assisted in the de-Chetnikization of Serbian society.Serbia today is a defeated nation but it has not suffered the defeat and renaissance of post-World War II Germany, Italy and Japan. Instead, the Serbia of today is akin to the defeated Germany after World War I, Weimer Germany. The extreme right in Serbia, as in Weimer Germany, remains strong. The death of the "Butcher of the Balkans" will hopefully strengthen those forces in Serbia which seek to live in peace with their neighbors at the expense of those wanting more war. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 22 Mar 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7183/1/E-Croatia-at-odds-with-EU-over-fishing-policy.html ÂCroatia at odds with Brussels over fishing policy Â21/03/2006Croatia's plan to modernise its fishing fleet has run afoul of EU officials, who say it conflicts with rules governing fishing in the Adriatic.By Kristina Cuk for Southeast European Times in Zagreb-- 21/03/06The Croatian government is planning to build 26 fishing boats to help the struggling fishing industry. However, the idea has run afoul of EU officials, who say it is a bid to compete with neighbouring Italy, which currently enjoys a near-monopoly over fishing in the Adriatic. With its vast fleet, Italy now catches around 90 per cent of fish in the area, while Croatia catches around 7 per cent. Mutual fishing policy bars an increase in the Croatian fleet. Money from the EU budget assigned for the fishing industry is to be used solely for education and modernisation -- or for converting fishing boats into vessels for tourism. However, Zagreb argues that the building of new boats amounts to reconstruction and modernisation of its antiquated fleet, not an addition per se. Moreoever, Croatian officials say, the ships would be used for fishing of small bluefish, which are not endangered in the Adriatic, and thus the project does not conflict with the EU's environmental criteria. Strengthening Croatian fishing is a part of the Sanader administration's stated goal of strengthening the maritime component of the country's economy. At the same time, however, the government has made a pledge to observe EU principles. Once it becomes an EU member, Croatian fishermen will be subject to regulations from Brussels that stipulate the type and quantity of fish they may catch. The main thrust of the EU's policy is to protect the fishing industry from depletion, especially in the North Sea. Some 270,000 families on EU territory make a living from fishing, and vanishing stocks threaten their livelihood, as well as endangering biodiversity. However, the policy has repeatedly come under fire by conservationists and other opponents -- who say it continues to set unsustainable quotas and is used by some countries to protect their interests at the expense of others. Objections to the EU policy have been voiced in Croatia, with some saying it puts the country's fishing sector in a poor position. However, a working group tasked with studying the problem concluded that the country could move ahead with modernising its fleet up until the time of its entry into the bloc. http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2006/03/21/feature-03 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7181/1/E-The-Future-of-Bosnia-and-Herzegovina-Conference-Declaration.html ÂThe Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina Conference Declaration letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7180/1/H-Upucen-poziv-za-povlacenje-potpisa-sa-Daytona.html ÂCHICAGO-Sa skupa hrvatske i bošnjačke zajednice u AmericiUpućen poziv za povlačenje potpisa saDaytonaNa prvoj zajedničkoj skupštini održanoj poslije 1992. godine,predstavnici hrvatske i bošnjačke dijaspore u Americi i Kanadi zauzeli su stavda je Daytonski ustav neadekvatan za moderno europsko uređenje BiH, te daga treba ukinuti i zamijeniti novimPiše Rudi TomićU hotelu Crowne Plaza, Chicago održana je 4. ožujka zajedničkaSkupštinapredstavnika hrvatske i bošnjačke zajednice u Americi i Kanadi, nakojem su bilinazočni čelnici gotovo svih vjerskih i društvenihorganizacija. OrganizatoriSkupa bili su Bećir Tanović, predsjednik bošnjačkogameričkog koordinacionogodbora i dr. Ante Čuvalo, predsjednik Saveza Hrvata BiH u Americi iKanadi. Na prvoj zajedničkoj skupštini poslije 1992. godine, predstavnicihrvatske ibošnjačke dijaspore u Americi i Kanadi zauzeli su stav da jeDaytonski ustavneadekvatan za moderno europsko uređenje BiH, te da ga treba ukinuti izamijeniti novim. Čuli su se i zahtjevi za ukidanje entiteta jer onipredstavljaju glavnu kočnicu za preustroj ove zemlje i njenokonačno prerastanjeu funkcionalnu europsku državu. Skup su na početku pozdravili vjerski dostojanstvenici Fra MarkoPuljić,kustos Hrvatske franjevačke kustodije za SAD i Kanadu, te dr.Senad ef. Agić,imam Islamskog centra za Chicago i okolicu, s prikladnim uvodnimriječima odanašnjoj situaciji u Bosni i Hercegovini, gdje se tamošnjim narodimaponovonameće Daytonski koncept demokracije. Pročitane sučestitke i podrške političkihi vjerskih predstavnika iz domovine i dijaspore. Iako pozvani,dužnosnici StateDepartmenta nisu se pojavili na konferenciji. Na skupu je pročitano pismo asistenticepomoćnice državnog tajnika.Ipak, organizatori konferencije pozvani su u američko Državnotajništvo narazgovore o ustavnim promjenama u BiH. Također je važno naglasitida je na ovomSkupu bila otvorena mogućnost i predstavnicima trećeg entiteta- Srbima, da ioni uzmu učešće na sastanku, ali se nisu odazvali pozivu. No,organizatori sunaglasili kako im je ostavljena otvorena mogućnost za sudjelovanjena budućimsastancima sličnih sadržaja.Tijekom održavanja skupa razvila se živa i zanimljiva diskusija, gdje susudionici uskladili nacionalna i vjerska stajališta, uz potpuno poštivanjeposebnosti svakog naroda. Da je tome tako najbolje potvrđuječinjenica da sudelegati jednoglasno usvojili obe Rezolucije, koje su bile predstavljeneSkupu.Uz neke tehničke ili gramatičke ispravke, postignuta jesuglasnost, te su ta dva,najznačajnija dokumenta, usvojena i potpisana. U sljedećihtjedan dana,organizatori planiraju poslati pročišćeni tekst konsenzusom usvojenih dviju rezolucija na adresu StateDepartmenta, ali iu sjedište UN-a i Europskoj uniji. U rezolucijama se traži ukidanjeDaytonskogustava i entitetske podjele BiH na tri dijela, uključujući Brčko distrikt. Rezolucija ćetakođer biti uručena ipredstavnicima međunarodnih institucija i ustanova, koje su na bilokoji načinvezane uz sudbinu naroda koji žive u Bosni i Hercegovini.S pouzdanjem je očekivati da će ove Rezolucije rasvijetlitineka pitanja koja sudugo bila potiskivana, s nakanom kako bi se zadržao sadašnji oblikvladavine uzneke manje nužne izmjene. Međutim, svi oni koji budu zaduženi zaoblikovanjemoderne i demokratski uređene države Bosne i Hercegovine, nećemoći zaobićiiznesene činjenice, koje su naglašene u ovim dokumentima i koje suizrazslobodne volje predstavnika dvaju naroda u dijaspori, kao što su biliizraženi ureferendumu 1. ožujka 1992. godine.U Chicagu je dogovoreno, između ostaloga, da će predstavniciBošnjaka i Hrvatautemeljiti jedno koordinacijsko tijelo, kao savjetodavnu udrugu, koja bivodilaračuna da se među ovdašnjim zajednicama promiče idejameđusobnog prihvaćanja isuradnje, što bi imalo stanoviti utjecaj i na dužnosnike u BiH. Potrebnoje,nakon toliko godina rata i nedaća, da se politika usmjeri premabudućnosti, a neustrajno potenciranje prošlosti, koja je imala tragične posljediceza sve narodena tim prostorima, rečeno je. Na ovoj konferenciji u Chicagu je sudjelovao i bivši ministar vanjskihposlovaBiH i njen prvi veleposlanik u UN-u Muhamed Šaćirbej, koji je tomprilikomizjavio da želi povući svoj potpis sa Daytonskog mirovnog sporazumajer gaposlije toliko godina počinje osjećati kao moralno ipolitičko breme: "Pozivam iostale potpisnike iz BiH, Harisa Silajdžića, Ivu Komšića, MiruLazovića, tepotpisnike iz Hrvatske, Srbije i ostalih zemalja koji su stavili svojepotpisena Daytonski sporazum, da razmisle o tome", poručio jeŠaćirbej. Sudionici Skupa:Bošnjačke udruge: Bosnian-American Cultural Association, SDAChicago USA forB&H, Bosnian American Information Center, I.A.B.N.A., IslamicCultural Center ofGreater Chicago, ICC Women's Group, BACA Women's Group, Congress ofBosniaks ofNorth America, Bosnian Islamic Cultural Center. Hrvatske udruge: Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, CroatianFranciscan Custody in USA and Canada, Croatian Fraternal Union of America,Croatian Catholic Union of USA, Croatian Academy of America CroatianAmericanAssociation, National Federation of Croatian Americans, Association forCroatianStudies, Croatian Cultural Association "Napredak". letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 19 Mar 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7184/1/E-W-Balkans-countries-to-join-CEFTA-Croatia-won-its-case.html ÂW. Balkans countries to join CEFTA, Croatia won its caseÂ09/03/2006(Brussels, DTT-NET.COM)-The dispute between Croatia and the EU is expected to be resolved soon as all countries of the Western Balkans region are expected to join Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), a European body charged for regional cooperation said on Thursday.Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe ( SP for SEE), said in a statement today that authorities of Western Balkan countries and Moldova together with existing members of CEFTA and Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania are to meet in April and give a political boost to the new upgraded CEFTA agreement.“On 6 April, one of the Stability Pact’s long-standing objectives the creation of a single FTA in South Eastern Europe (SEE) –will receive a strong political boost. The Prime Ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and representatives of UNMIK (representing Kosovo) will meet in Bucharest at the invitation of the Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu and the Special The Special Co-ordinator of the SP for SEE Erhard Busek to politically launch the negotiations to achieve the single FTA through the simultaneous enlargement and amendment of CEFTA, “ a statement of SP for SEE said.European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, will also attend the meeting.The interest shown by other countries of the region to join CEFTA followed strong lobbing of Croatia in the regional capitals, amid Zagreb refusal in January to the European Commission suggestion that Western Balkan countries should establish a new free trade zone, and incorporate 31 bilateral agreements into single one. Croatia rejected the call of EC and argues that countries should join existing free trade agreement of CEFTA and avoid creating a new one.The strong rejections by Croatia have made the EU’s executive body and some of its member states to show flexibility and consider the CEFTA as an option for Western Balkan nations.EU officials have said that the 25 nation bloc has nothing against Western Balkans countries joining the CEFTA, but called for membership criteria to be softened as countries from the region are not members of World Trade Organisation. Croatian government (which chairs the CEFTA currently) has also called on Ukraine and Moldova to join the organisation and both countries have positively responded to Zagreb’s offer.Macedonia signed the membership agreement on 27 February.CEFTA is a multilateral agreement for creation of a free - trade zone by a gradual removal of duties for industrial goods, liberalization of trade for agricultural products, and free competition on the territories of the countries - members.As Bulgaria and Romania are to join the EU in January next year or at latest in January 2008, they are to walk out of the trade network with Balkan region and also from CEFTA.Earlier members of the organisation: Poland; Czech Republic, Slovakia; Hungary and Slovenia left as they joined the EU in May 2004.Current discussions between EC, SP for SEE and countries are focused on the changes necessary to be made at CEFTA related to accession of W. Balkans countries.“CEFTA membership originally stipulated that a member of CEFTA has to be a member of the World Trade Organisation and that it must have institutionalised relations with the EU. This would have ruled out several SEE countries/territories. This issue was resolved following the CEFTA meeting of Prime Ministers in November last year. Membership criteria are now inclusive but still demand high standards of trade policy.” reads the statement of SP for SEE.It also said that the procedures required to accede to CEFTA must be changed (simplify the procedures) so that there could be a simultaneous group enlargement and immediate amendment of the text in the course of 2006 (to meet the ministerial request). http://www.dtt-net.com/en/index.php?page=view-article&article=1192&CMSSESSID=d04c2671108e0dcdf120f15107a3912a letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 08 Mar 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7185/1/E-Connor-Vlakancic-launched-campaign-for-the-US-Senator.html ÂConnor Vlakancic, launched campaignÂwww.connorvlakancic.comÂwww.connorvlakancic.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 13 Feb 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7188/1/E-Almost-Joint-Declaration-Signed-on-Adriatic-Euroregion-Launch.html ÂCroatia: Almost Joint Declaration Signed on Adriatic Euroregion Launch 14:54 - 07 February 2006 - Representatives of local authorities from six Adriatic countries signed in Venice a declaration on the launching of the Adriatic Euroregion aiming to strengthen economic development, security, social cohesion, and environmental protection in a region populated by 22 million people, Hina News Line agency reports. Representatives from Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and Albania attended the conference. The Adriatic Euroregion will be formally launched after the six states' regional representatives adopt the Euroregion's statute estimated the procedure to be finalised in July. Ivan Jakovcic, head of the northern Croatian Adriatic County of Istria, was elected president of the Euroregion, which will be based in Pula, Croatia, but will also have an office in Brussels. Speaking of the significance of the declaration, Council of Europe Secretary-General Terry Davis said the Adriatic was rich in terms of history, culture, and natural resources, but had been burdened with wars throughout history adding that this was the reason it was necessary to draw lessons from that and build a better and safer future, notably through interregional cooperation. Jakovcic stated that without the Adriatic's east coast there was no real or integral Europe. Slovenia did not sign the declaration because authorized representatives of its maritime municipalities did not attend the conference. The Adriatic Euroregion's objectives include preservation of the stability of its regions, strengthening of social and economic cohesion, sustainable development, the advancement of agriculture, fisheries and tourism, and environmental protection. The Adriatic Euroregion will unite seven Italian regions, three Slovene maritime municipalities, seven Croatian counties, Bosnia's Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Montenegro, and seven Albanian provinces. http://www.reporter.gr/fulltext_eng.cfm?id=60207145420  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 12 Feb 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7186/1/E-Croatia-needs-thousands-of-immigrants-daily-says.html ÂCroatia needs thousands of immigrants, daily says. Â(Op-ed: Is that so? How come that Croatian Diaspora is not aware of it? NB)Â04.02.2006 Croatia needs 15,000 immigrants annually to preserve the present number of its population and the government is working hard on its plans to attract citizens of Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgarian newspaper Sega reports. The front page article entitled "Croatia Seeks Immigrants from Bulgaria" says that immigrants Croatia is interested in, should be aged below 40 and be well educated, referring to Yakov Gelo, member of the Croatian government’s Demographic Policy Council. The average salary in the country is 700 dollars, the newspaper adds.Source: AXIS INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS (AIA) http://www.southeasteurope.org/subpage.php?sub_site=2&id=16291&head=hl  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 06 Feb 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7187/1/E-Croatia-Delivers-Protest-Note-Over-Assault-On-Diplomats-In-Belgrade.html ÂCroatia Delivers Protest Note Over Assault On Diplomats In Belgrade Croatia delivered a protest note to Serbia and Montenegro on Thursday over a physical assault on two of its diplomats in Belgrade last night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said in a press release.Assistant Minister Damir Kusen handed the note to Ambassador Radivoje Cveticanin in which the Croatian side harshly protested against the assault and demanded a complete report on what was being done.Croatia said in the note it expected the perpetrators to be found and punished as soon as possible and wanted guarantees for the safety of the Croatian Embassy staff in Belgrade.Cveticanin expressed regret over the incident, voicing conviction that everything would be done to find and punish the culprits.The two diplomats were physically assaulted on Wednesday evening in the Senjak neighbourhood, where the residences of a number of diplomats are located, Serbian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Dragana Kajganic told Hina today.Deputy Ambassador Branislav Loncar and first secretary Boris Herceg were attacked as they were sitting in a car with diplomatic licence plates. Four persons lunged at the vehicle, with one of them smashing a window and hitting Herceg, who was in the driver's seat and sustained light injuries.Police arrived shortly after the incident but the attackers had fled, said Kajganic, adding that an intensive search for them was under way.Speaking to the press in Budapest after a session of the Croatian and Hungarian governments, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said he assumed this was an isolated incident which had no other political implications.Friday , 27 January 2006http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=25157  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 27 Jan 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7189/1/H-Postavite-pitanje-odvjetniku-Ivanovicu.html ÂGostovanje M. Ivanovica odvjetnikaÂAnte Gotovine na www.hrvati-amac.comÂhttp://p078.ezboard.com/fhrvatiamacforumfrm51.showMessage?topicID=538.topicgdje mozete postavljati pitanja. darko.belovic@inet.hr letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 01 Jan 2006 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7190/1/E-NFCA-Press-Release-on-H-Res-529.html ÂNational Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) in Final Stage of H. Res. 529 CampaignPress Release December 9, 2005, Washington, DC:The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) is pressing forward with what will hopefully be the final stage of its campaign for approval of H. Res. 529. This Resolution is a âSense of Congressâ€? Resolution commending the Republic of Croatia for the progress it has made since the end of its victorious war for independence ten years ago, and the Resolution recommends she be given full membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the earliest possible date. H. Res. 529 was introduced by Congressman Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats. It is co-sponsored by 34 Members of the House of Representatives, including Congressional Croatian Caucus Co-Chairs Representatives George Radanovich (R-CA) and Peter Visclosky (D-IN). Caucus Co-Chairs Radanovich and Visclosky were prime co-sponsors of H. Res. 529.Having been approved by unanimous consent in the House International Relations Committee (HIRC) on November 16, 2005, H. Res. 529 was moved to the House floor and had been tentatively scheduled for a vote this week, but it was deferred to next week due to scheduling considerations. In the interim, Croatian General Ante Gotovina was found in the Canary Islands by Spanish agents. This event necessitates a change in some of the language in H. Res. 529, and those amendments are currently being worked on in the Congress. In addition, the NFCA has been told that the U.S. State Department has informed the HIRC that it is dropping its opposition to H. Res. 529 due to the apprehension of the General.NFCA President Ed Andrus said today: "The finding of General Gotovina inSpain confirms the credibility of the Croatian government regarding theirpersistent assertions that he was not in the Republic of Croatia. The NFCAhas in the past and will continue to strongly question the factual and legalbasis for the indictment against him. We urge the entire Croatian andCroatian American communities to continue to work together to support hisdefense."The NFCAâs Andrus continued and noted that âafter complying with 626 demands of the International Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Republic of Croatia deserves better treatment from the world community including the United States. The strong support for Croatia expressed by the U.S. Congress within H. Res. 529 should be just the beginning. NATO will find an excellent partner for peace and stability in South East Europe with the Republic of Croatia as a full member. She has shown great leadership among her neighbors in this potentially volatile region through her implementation of individual freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law.â€?The next order of business is to get H. Res. 529 approved by the full U.S. House of Representatives. It is expected to be scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday, December 14, 2005. âThe NFCA, which has been at the forefront of this bill since its inception, must now pull out all the stops and re-energize our members and the entire Croatian American community to support this Resolution.â€? Andrus further requested: âAll Croatian Americans should continue to help build the momentum that the NFCA has helped create on this Resolution. Please have your friends and families make contact with your Representatives in the Congress and let them know how much we want them to support this all-important H. Res. 529. We need all Congressional Members on board for a big win next week!â€?NFCA Headquarters: 1329 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036. Telephone: 202-331-2830. Web page address: www.nfcaonline.com . NFCA Government Relations Director Joe Foley can be contacted on 301-294-0937. NFCA Development Director Erik Milman can be reached at the NFCA Washington Office and via email:nfcahdq@verizon.net .  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 22 Dec 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7191/1/E-Zagreb-to-Host-EU-Enlargement-Conference.html ÂUniversity of Zagreb to host EU Enlargement ConferenceThe Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb,Croatia, will host a conference on EU enlargement fromMonday to Wednesday, Sept. 5-7. 2005The conference titled “The European Union: Past andFuture Enlargements” is being organized by theUniversity Association for Contemporary EuropeanStudies, based in the United Kingdom.A pre-conference day trip and welcome reception willbe held on Sunday, Sept. 4.A sizable portion of the conference will focus onCroatia’s and the rest of Southeastern Europe’s EUaspirations.Featured speakers include Erhard Busek (SpecialCoordinator, Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe);Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (Croatian Minister of ForeignAffairs and European Integration); Samuel Issacharoff(Columbia Law School); and Boris Vujcic (CroatianNational Bank, Zagreb).For more information, visit www.uaces.org/zagreb.htm .  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7192/1/E-Connor-Vlakancic-Candidate-for-US-Senat.html ÂConnor Vlakancic Candidate for US Senatwww.ConnorVlakancic.com Greetings to Croatian-Americans,Since my previous communications, I have gathered solid achievements in forwarding my deliverable to be elected the first Croatian-American US Senator. And from California too, as this is very appropriate given the many similar characteristics between The Republic of Croatia and the Republic of California. There is now an introduction to my campaign at:www.connorvlakancic.com .The singular imperative is now to emphasize that my election is attainable, and that my election will be achieved with the resultant focused recognition for Croatian objectives. For those people who would think such an accomplishment, to unseat the current Senator Diane Feinstein is impossible, here is a progress report of many of my activities and achievements, with the implications, to validate the conclusion of my elect-ability. The content is of such length so as to include the many Croatian-American events that I have attended, as I desire to confirm my appreciation for such considerable support as has been shown to me. However, perhaps you will just desire to only read those paragraphs that are most relevant to your own conclusion that I can and will achieve election as the first Croatian-American US Senator.I am now a Trustee at the Committee for Economic Developmentwww.ced.org . CED is the highly regarded non-partisan U.S. national policy think-tank (located in WDC). I was installed on 13 May in New York during the annual CED event. A part of my agenda is to forward an official relationship with an appropriate national policy think-tank in Croatia. I also have my own specific agenda to closely network together the 24 CED Trustees in California to establish a business purpose compatible media news distribution channel in support of my controversial California initiative-proposition for Licensed Alcoholic Beverages.During this mid May visit to New York, I developed a close personal relationship with Nenad Bach who has earned considerable Croatian recognition. Nenad attended the CED event as a reporter to all Croatian media outlets. We are now collaborating to communicate my U.S. campaign directly to the Croatian community through his CROWN web site www.croatianworld.net or www.croatia.org , and effectively express Croatian issues to the general media as my campaign activities are implemented.Additionally during May, I visited at length with Consul General Marica Matkovic in Chicago and Consul General Petar Ljubicic in New York. Also Vedran Matosic from the Tourist Board of Split and Nena Komarica from the Croatian National Tourist Office. In each meeting establishing a personal level of rapport and support for news distribution of my candidacy throughout the Croatian American community. I also met with Jeanne Oliver of Lonely Planet who produced the Croatia Traveler Guide Book at her promotion event in New York where there was keen media attention for Croatia.I subsequently flew to attend the Young Americaâs Foundation (YAF)www.freedomfest.com youth leadership training event in Las Vegas, NE. I meet with Ron Robinson, President of YAF and the many youth leaders that continually refresh the President Ronald Reagan conservative legacy to all Americans. President Reagan and I were both born in conservative Northern Illinois, within fifty miles of each other (different year). I was invited to encourage Croatian-American youth to seek attendance to the West Coast Leadership Conference in Santa Barbara, CA in November 2005. (See 1994 details at:http://www.yaf.org/conferences/regional/conference.asp )I also enjoyed the Las Vegas Croatian-American picnic. Zoran Sova described my introduction to the picnic revelers in a Croatian Chronicle newspaper story. I won a bottle of Maraska Slivovica in the raffle whereupon the only logical action was to open it and share it all around with much lively âZiviliâ€?.Returning to New York in late June, I visited the new office of The Croatian Chronicle newspaper and enjoyed a meeting with Visnja Miocic and Vanessa Lucin that resulted in a comprehensive profile in the June issue. While the story says: âhopes to become â Senatorâ€?, âhopeâ€? is not in my vocabulary. I am determined to achieve this result and I have now (on 11 July) captured the California infrastructure support to assure my position on Californiaâs November 2006 General Election ballot.Following my CC interview, I spent a week in WDC meeting with CED and other strategic organizations and with 15 congressional members and Chief of Staff on Capital Hill. While it was a challenge to explain to the entrenched career-politician mindset how a controversial, but thoroughly logical, California initiative-proposition will capture the independent minded rancor of Californiaâs electorate to accomplish my election, I did in fact accomplish this objective. This fact was demonstrated by serious questions and many genuine requests for follow-up details.Also, as a new National Federation of Croatian Americans Delegate, nominated by Ed Andrus, President, I had several personal conversations with Croatian Ambassador Jurica in Omaha, NE during this annual meeting of NFCA Delegates on 5 June 2005. Ambassador Jurica requested my attendance to the Croatian Independence celebration on 22 June at the embassy. This event was an outrageously excellent reception, with Chef Ivo Svircic in command of the repast such that you could believe you were at a party in Zagreb.Ambassador Jurica and I solidified our relationship and specific goals in support for my election campaign that I subsequently discussed at length with Marijan Gubic, Deputy Chief of Mission. I previously had the pleasure of meeting Marijan in Varazdin on 5 October 2002 when he coordinated a conference with The Institute of World Politics that included the honorable Thomas Patrick Melady, (previous U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican).I had also just previously attended the Croatian Independence celebration on 16 June in Los Angeles that was organized by Consul General Sanja Juraga. Sanja introduced me to the audience as the future first Croatian-American US Senator. This being particularly valuable as this was an entirely California event. Then on the following Sunday was the annual St. Anthony Festival Picnic on Fatherâs Day, with delightful weather, in the Sierra Madre foothills. Now on Sunday 10 July, I attended the Dalmatian-American Club picnic in San Pedro. Responding in a loud cheer to my question: Anybody here live in California?, I explained the significance of my California initiative, they all âgot itâ€?.I should note that during most of these multiple Croatian community functions and picnics, that wherever Ambassador Jurica could not attend himself, his most splendid second and his charming wife (the same person), Dunja Jurica, was in attendance and fully engaging with everyone. She is truly an Ambassador in her own right.Now of utmost consequence, on 11 July, in meetings in Los Angeles, I established the definitive support required to achieve my critical campaign objective of being on the November 2006 General Election ballot as the new Independent candidate for US Senator from California to replace Senator Diane Feinstein. I have joined âCalifornians for Fair Redistrictingâ€? in united actions with Bill Mundell (Chief Mission Director) as he has dramatically accomplished qualifying the initiative-proposition (with 951,766 voter signatures) that provides a new redistricting process of Californiaâs 53 U.S. Congressional, 40 State Senator and 80 State Assembly Districts by an impartial panel of retired judges. This legislation will terminate the entrenched career politicianâs power to create gerrymandered districts that isolates themselves from electorate reprimand. I will immediately take an active role in promoting ongoing Northern California media attention to the developing political issues.Bill and his team have the proven expertise, the financial lure and the effective infrastructure to gather the 156,000 (even times ten) voter signatures to qualify my position on the November 2006 ballot based on Californianâs popular acclaim of my controversial initiative-proposition which will therefore also be on the November 2006 ballot. Furthermore, I met with Douglas Johnson, Fellow, at The Rose Institute (Claremont McKenna College) that has also been driving Californiaâs reapportionment effort for over twelve years. I am attending a graduate level political leadership program at the Rose Institute during this coming September. The president of Claremont McKenna College, Pamela Gann, is also an active Trustee of CED. Such positive implications abound with many of the CED Trustees located in California.My controversial California initiative-proposition for Licensed Alcoholic Beverages will create a formal education program of all sociological, physiological and legal issues of alcoholic beverage consumption. Graduates of this training and certification will be awarded legal authorization to consume licensed beverages in California in public. A stellar value in this program will be their substantial youth mentor competencies to reduce to elimination âPower Hourâ€? alcohol consumption amongst the âjust turned 21â€? population and new sources of tuition funding to students who have graduated with certification in recognition of their demonstrable risk reduction. Additionally, this legislation will eliminate the current California statutes that presume it a crime for parents to share alcoholic beverages, often of ethnic character, with their children at home. (In San Pedro, they all âgot itâ€?). Seewww.generation18-20.com for a brief description of a proposed wine beverage college course syllabus.The current campaign imperative is to further expand distribution of news of my candidacy. Your willingness to inform your substantial network of contacts will be significant in building recognition for the election of the first Croatian-American US Senator. Lastly, but of a critical imperative, my business is importing and distributing Zigante Tartufi (truffle infused olive oil) from Istria, Croatia. I request your introduction of 5 STAR Truffle Affair product availability to the gourmet restaurants of Croatian owners/chefs (however they may be disguised in name) in support of a lively sales distribution that finances all objectives and activities. In the world of politics, such Croatian gourmet food and fine wines, are in themselves also a valuable election campaign tool to my becoming theÂfirst Croatian-American US Senator.Thanking you in advance for your interest and support, Sincerely,Connor Vlakancicconnorv@gmail.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 22 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7193/1/E-Ivo-Sanader-at-the-Council-on-Foreign-Relations-in-Washington.html ÂDr. Ivo Sanader in Washington DCÂCroatia's Prime Minister Ivo Sanader speaks to the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Wednesday, July 20, 2005. Sanader spoke about Croatia and the new Euro-Atlantic integration agenda. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7195/1/E-Mediterranean-Quarterly-Croatia-in-the-New-Millennium.html ÂCroatia in the New Millennium:Toward EU and NATO MembershipPrime Minister Dr. Ivo SanaderMediterranean Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, Winter 2005Croatia has come a long way since independence in advancing social, democratic, institutional, and economic reforms at home and pursuing the goal of joining the Euro-Atlantic community. The strategic objectives of our foreign policy are to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Croatian government is working diligently on preparing Croatia for the challenges of membership by adopting key policy measures aimed at improving the business environment and attracting foreign investment and know-how. Croatia is also working toward reforming its judiciary and public administration and protecting the environment to preserve Croatiaâs natural assets so that generations to come can enjoy the splendor and the azure calm of the Adriatic Sea and the magic of its thousand islands.I was privileged to be in Dublin on 1 May 2004 to witness the historic enlargement of the EU. It was one of those rare moments when one genuinely senses an irrevocable, historic step forward, a long-time dream of many generations becoming a reality. As the prime minister of Croatia, being present at the expansion of the EU from fifteen to twenty-five members reinforced my commitment to ensure that Croatia is part of the next wave of enlargement and that we, too, take our place at the heart of a growing union.I believe that this historic enlargement process has a continuous, inclusive, and irreversible character. The EU stands for economic prosperity and cooperation; it means stability and security. Above all it is the shared values of the members that stand out so strongly. The new enlargement has inspired a common vision of a better tomorrow stemming from the same values, the same principles, and the same dedication to European integration. I believe no European nation that shares and is committed to this vision and the fundamental values of parliamentary democracy, the free market economy, the rule of law, and human rights should be left behind. Croatia is also convinced that enlargement contributes directly to the strengthening of the EU. The frontiers of Europeâs values are expanding, and each new country adds to united Europeâs capacity to fulfill its global role. Believing that the true potential of the European project will not be realized until the countries of southeastern Europe join the EU, I warmly welcomed the EU decisions in spring 2003 in Thessalonica to open real EU perspectives for all the countries of this part of Europe.Croatia has worked hard to move closer toward membership in the EU. A major step forward in achieving this important strategic objective was taken on 18 June 2004, when our country was officially granted the status of a candidate country, thus joining Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey in this select club. The accession negotiations are expected to commence in early 2005, and I have no doubt in their successful outcome. Croatia has already demonstrated its reform-making and decision-taking capabilities through the fulfillment of the Copenhagen Criteria required for candidate status. This achievement is a milestone in Croatiaâs integration process into Europe. The start of accession negotiations will enhance future reforms and economic policies conducive to advancing structural reforms in the legal, regulatory, and judicial areas and will achieve harmonization with the EU.Croatians harbor no illusions about the challenges that candidate and associated countries face along the long and demanding road to accession to the EU. In Croatia, support for European integration has been consistently high. Our citizens are aware of the benefits and the costs of entering the EU. My government and I are also acutely aware that integration in the EU will not be an easy process for some segments of the population, and that we have to do everything in our power to mitigate negative aspects of integration. That is why we have embarked on a number of reformsâno matter how painfulâthat will prepare the country for the challenges and opportunities of membership. It is abundantly clear that postponing reforms only makes their implementation more difficult in the future. I have no doubt that the Croatian government and people have the strength, knowledge, and determination to bring about positive change. After all, the hard work and reform-oriented policy are the best possible investments in a countryâs future.To succeed abroad, we have to do our work at home. Achieving the central pillars of our reforms hinges on improving social and economic conditions as well as on strengthening our institution-building capacity. Croatiaâs economic policy rests on measures aimed at improving competitiveness, raising exports, and enhancing the business environment for domestic and direct foreign investment. Croatia is also establishing a transparent business environment aimed at reducing the bureaucratic barriers to investment, fighting corruption, and improving the legal framework.A key factor of Croatiaâs economic policy is to encourage the development of the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises that will spur job creation and increase exports. In recent years, Croatia has worked intensively to implement key reforms, harmonizing numerous laws, regulations, and practices with the acquis communautaire in order to achieve full compatibility with EU standards. And now we are prepared and deter mined to embark on this process with full commitmentânot only the government but also the citizens and the public in general.Croatia is preparing a nine-point program to spur economic growth and job creation that will increase the countryâs competitiveness and boost exports. This economic plan aims to bolster small and medium-sized enterprises and attract greenfield and brownfield investments. The program encompasses the following measures:1. improving the business climate,2. restructuring and rehabilitating public enterprises,3. accelerating privatization,4. removing administrative barriers and red tape,5. ensuring legal security and acceleration of procedures,6. introducing tax reforms,7. reducing the gray economy,8. introducing fiscal discipline, and9. supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.In addition, the Croatian government has taken steps to create a new agency to facilitate inward investment through a one-stop-shop approachâthe CROATIAINVEST initiative. The economy has been robust: Croatia has a record of solid growth and low inflation over the past decade and real gross domestic product growth has averaged about 4.5 percent, with inflation in the low single digits. In this context, Croatiaâs performance is comparable to many of the EU members.Croatia is fully committed to sparing no effort to strengthen democratic values and principles, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the development of an adequate framework for the full enjoyment of these rights and values by all its citizens. The Croatian government has clearly proven in practice its unequivocal commitment to protect the rights of all individuals belonging to national minorities. The validity of this policy is confirmed by the support of the representatives of national minorities that my government enjoys in the parliament.Furthermore, the Croatian government has also made an important contribution to the creation of adequate conditions for and has undertaken necessary measuresâincluding the allocation of significant financial resourcesâin support of a process for the return of refugees, restitution of property rights, and the reconstruction of property damaged as a result of the war. All these steps have had an impact on the creation of a climate of tolerance, confidence, and prosperity throughout the country. Along with paying tribute to the tremendous dedication and persistence demonstrated by the Croatian people during the difficult war years, the Croatian government wishes to turn a new page, look toward the future, and offer all Croatian citizens a better life, unburdened of the national disputes and wrangling of the past.Croatia is fully committed to continuing its full cooperation with the Inter national Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This cooperation has evolved significantly and has been positively assessed by the inter national community, including the tribunal itself and the chief prosecutor. In addition, Croatia is prosecuting war crimes cases through its own judicial system and stands ready to take over some of the cases from the ICTY.Croatiaâs relations with neighboring countries are based on the principles that regional and crossborder cooperation are indispensable components of regional security, democratic stability, prosperity, and economic development. Croatia today as a candidate country for membership in the EU stands ready to assume another important responsibilityâto serve as a model country in southeastern Europe, encouraging and assisting its eastern neighbors to achieve their Euro-Atlantic ambitions. The prospect of EU membership has proved to be the best incentive for countries in Central and southeastern Europe to implement comprehensive political, economic, institutional, and democratic reforms. This formula, which has worked well so far, needs to be applied throughout southeastern Europe.The progress that Croatia has made with respect to achieving candidate status for membership in the EU represents an incentive rather than a barrier to others in the region as the affirmation of a clear European perspective for all. Our first-hand experience can well serve those who are following us along the difficult path we are traveling toward Brussels.Croatiaâs determination to be part of the EU is inseparable from friend ship and partnership with the United States. We firmly believe in the enduring values, principles, and interests that bind the transatlantic community. Croatia is committed to joining Euro-Atlantic institutions not only because of the economic, security, and democratic benefits but also because there is no alternative to a robust European and American relationship. The Atlantic bridges Europe and America rather than divides them. Croatia refuses to choose between the EU and the United States; it is in the strategic interest of Croatia to be part of the former and to be as reliable a partner as possible with the latter.In terms of national security, membership in NATO is Croatiaâs main objective. In a rapidly changing and increasingly turbulent and unpredictable global environment, we believe that our security will be best served collectively within NATO. In addition, membership in NATO will enable Croatia to assume a more active role within a community of nations that share the same values, principles, and interests.The threats we face today are profoundly different from the very visible and powerful adversary of yesterday. They are unpredictable and difficult to detect, but two of them clearly stand outâterrorism and weapons of mass destruction. If synergized they could bring upon mankind devastation on an unforeseeable scale. A regional crisis, if neglected and mishandled, can also grow into a major threat to global security. In order to adequately prepare for all these threats, NATO is transforming and modernizing itself. It has accepted new members that provide Europe and the world with more stability. No country can do it alone, no matter how big and powerful it is. For that reason, good bilateral relations, crossborder and regional cooperation, constructive multilateralism, and Euro-Atlantic integration remain the bedrock of Croatiaâs foreign policy.NATO is arguably the most successful political and military alliance in history and it is quickly adapting to new challenges in an ever-changing and complex world. Through its elaborated structures and effective missions, NATO has become a key player in shaping cooperative security in the postâ Cold War Europe. The admission of seven new members represents a historic moment for the alliance and marks the end of the division of Europe in more ways than one. However, the epic process of unifying Europe and making it whole, free, and stable is still not complete, and the NATO enlargement process, as much as the EUâs similar process, must continue with the same momentum.Croatia has actively worked as a partner with NATO allies through the Partnership for Peace and will seek out opportunities to further contribute to the evolution and efficiency of the alliance. We presented our first Annual National Program shortly after the November 2002 Prague summit as a key precondition to joining NATO. Having completed the second Membership Action Plan cycle, Croatia made an important additional step toward full membership and has proven to be a stable and fully functioning democracy with a vibrant market economy. To achieve full membership in NATO, Croatia has embarked on key reforms, including efforts in the judiciary and defense, that are designed to prepare the country for future tasks as a member of the alliance. My country is no longer a consumer of security but rather has become a major generator of stability in the wider region. We are already contributing to various NATO missions and expect to be invited as a full member at the next enlargement summit.Though Croatia has been a recipient of international security operations by hosting a number of United Nations peacekeeping missions on its territory, it is now a net provider of security. Croatian officers and soldiers are presently active in seven UN peacekeeping operations throughout the world as well as in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. Croatia recently signed a joint agreement with Germany on sending civilian administrators to Afghanistan to help that country rebuild its civil infrastructure, accordingly expanding the scope and substance of its activities in this immensely important mission.Croatia has worked intensively with its partners on forging security in the region of southeastern Europe through the US-Adriatic Charter of Partner ship. This initiative brings to the same table the United States, Croatia, Albania, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It sends a powerful message of our commitment to regional cooperation and promotes the core values of the Euro-Atlantic partnership: freedom, peace, good neighborly relations, stability, and prosperity. Through the US-Adriatic Charter, we are working with our partners to ensure that the region builds strong democracies, both working individually and sharing best practices on reforming economic, military, and political institutions. Croatia appreciates and values the support the United States has provided us under the auspices of the US- Adriatic Charter. It certainly represents another milestone toward the goal of a Europe whole and free, stretching from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea, from the North Sea all the way to the Black.Croatia in the twenty-first century sees itself firmly anchored in the Euro- Atlantic community. Our determination to be part of united Europe is inseparable from our commitment to forge a long-lasting partnership and close cooperation with the United States. Our membership in the EU and NATO will undoubtedly bring benefits to the citizens of Croatia, but this is not the only inspiration that guides us. We believe that Croatiaâs geographic position at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Balkans represents a unique added value both to the EU and NATO. On the way for ward in this process of our integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions, Croatia wants to be judged on its own merits and ability to contribute to the collective interest, security, and shared values. I know that we can do what has to be done. And I remain convinced that for Croatia the best is yet to come. http://www.croatiaemb.org/in%20the%20spotlight/Mediterranean%20Quarterly%20Essay.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 18 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7194/1/E-Yushchenko-meets-with-the-president-of-Croatia.html ÂYushchenko meets with the president of Croatia ÂThe meeting of presidents of Ukraine and Croatia, Victor Yushchenko and Stjepan Mesić, is held in Kiev.ÂThe Ukrainian side is represented by the state secretary Alexander Zinchenko, the minister for foreign affairs Boris Tarasyuk, the minister of defence Anatoly Gritsenko, the ambassador of Ukraine to Croatia Victor Kirik and other officials.After the tÃte-Ã-tÃte meeting the presidents intend to join the official delegations and to continue negotiations. It is planned to sign bilateral Ukrainian-Croatian documents, in particular, joint presidentsâ communiquÃ, agreement between Ukraineâs Cabinet and Croatiaâs Government about mutual protection of secret information, memorandum about mutual understanding between the open joint-stock company "State export-import bank of Ukraine" and "Croatia bank of reconstruction and development."Having signed the documents the presidents will hold a press-conference for Ukrainian and Croatian Mass-Medias. Later on Mesić will visit the Glory Square and lay flowers on a grave of Unknown Soldier.Mesić's agenda also includes a lunch with the prime minister of Ukraine Julia Timoshenko and a meeting with the deputy chairman of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Adam Martinyuk.Mesić will also visit the National historical and cultural reserve "Sofia Kievskaya" and will conduct the meeting with representatives of Ukraineâs and Croatiaâs business circles. http://en.for-ua.com/news/?id=1372  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 15 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7196/1/E-Israeli-PM-Sharon-Met-with-Croatian-PM-Sanader.html ÂÂIsraeli PM Sharon Met with Croatian PM SanaderPM Sharon Met with Croatian PM Sanader 06:48 Jun 29, '05 / 22 Sivan 5765(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday evening met with visiting Croatian Prime Minister Dr. Ivo Sanader. At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Sharon said that: âRelations between Israel and Croatia are improving and I am certain that the prime ministerâs visit here will help advance bilateral relations,â€?Croatian Prime Minister Sanader said that: âI am pleased to be here and meet with Prime Minister Sharon. As Prime Minister Sharon has emphasized, I am certain that my visit to Israel will be an important stage in the development of bilateral relations and I am certain that we will discuss issues that are important to both of our countries and which will enhance bilateral cooperation.â€?Croatian Prime Minister Sanader expressed the Croatian peopleâs sympathy for the war against terrorism and the aspiration for security: âWe in Croatia agree with Israelâs position that security is the most important thing.â€?The Croatian Prime Minister expressed his support for the disengagement plan, commended Prime Minister Sharonâs determination and said that the latter was the only leader who could carry out such brave steps.The two leaders agreed that the volume of bilateral trade was small and should be enlarged.Croatian Prime Minister Sanader invited Prime Minister Sharon to visit Croatia.http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=84801  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 05 Jul 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7198/1/E-CAAs-16th-Annual-Croatian-Days-on-the-Hill-in-Washington-DC.html ÂCAA’s 16th Annual Croatian Days on the Hill in Washington, D.C.ÂCroatian American Association2000 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Box 287Washington, DC 20006Telephone: 202-429-5543FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: www.caausa.orgCAA’s 16th Annual Croatian Days on the Hill in Washington, D.C.At the 16th Annual Croatian Days on the Hill lobbying campaign in Washington, D.C. from April 30- May 3, 2005, the CAA Board of Directors unanimously passed the following policy positions and presented them to both houses of the United States Congress - the Senate and House of Representatives - including the Administration:1. CAA supports the Senate confirmation of John Bolton as a major step toward United Nations reform which includes UN accountability and a better effectiveness in dealing with future global conflicts.2. CAA strongly believes that the Government of Croatia should move as quickly as possible toremove the Article 98 barrier to NATO membership.3. CAA supports the International Commission’s final Balkans report titled “The Balkans in Europe’s Future” stating that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should move away from its “focus on specific individuals” and allow domestic judicial systems to deal with war crimes.4. CAA urges members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House InternationalRelations Committee to help secure funding for minority resettlement in Bosnia-Herzegovina.5. CAA asks Congress and the State Department to follow the International Commission’srecommendations on the Balkans report, and to begin the process of leading to the end of the Bonn Powers and Paddy Ashdown’s removal.During CAA’s briefing with the National Security Council, a U.S. official retracted statements made by Ambassador Warren Miller during a White House ceremony in February 2005. Ambassador Miller accused Croatia of committing state-sanctioned genocide twice in the twentieth century. The CAA was assured by the Administration that Miller’s comments are not the position of the U.S. Government. The CAA is pleased by the reception that our issues received on Capitol Hill and with the Administration. We look forward to working with our elected representatives in achieving all our stated goals, reaffirm our commitment to promote the interests of Croatian Americans, and continue to be the voice of Croatian Americans in Washington, D.C. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 09 May 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7197/1/E-Denis-Macshane-gone-in-the-cabinet-reshuffle.html ÂDenis Macshane gone in the cabinet reshuffleTony Blair has sacked Denis Macshane in the cabinetreshuffle. He is out of government altogether.Douglas Alexander is his replacement as Minister forEurope. MacShane was one of only two casualties of thereshuffle, clearly demonstrating the low regard he washeld in. This was no secret, yet Zagreb thought he wassomeone important!Whether this changes policy remains to be seen.BrianMore about the Labour campaign | Special report:election 2005 Blunkett back to take on pensions reform Hewitt goes to health, Reid switches to defense andHoon dropped to leader of the house Michael White, political editorSaturday May 7, 2005The Guardian David Blunkett last night returned to the cabinettable with one of the hardest jobs Tony Blair couldoffer him, as a reforming works and pensions secretarywho must tackle the thorny problems of invalidity andprovision for old age.Four months after resigning as home secretary afterhis affair with the publisher Kimberly Quinn, MrBlunkett's appointment came in a reshuffle which sawthe newly re-elected prime minister struggling to makehis plans fit the colleagues he has at his disposal. In a signal which may put him at odds with theTreasury, Mr Blunkett said he would consult and listenbefore taking decisions, but that "nothing is offlimits". That amounts to a potential rebuff for Gordon Brown'sformidable lieutenant, the newly elected backbench MPEd Balls, who said during the election campaign thatthere would be no compulsory extra pensions savings. In other moves - more sweeping than expected - thecombative John Reid moves from health to defense andis replaced by Patricia Hewitt. Her post at trade andindustry will be filled by Alan Johnson, a formertrade union leader, after less than a year tacklingwhat is now to be Mr Blunkett's postbag. But Mr Johnson's department will be revamped, yetagain, as the Department of Productivity, Energy andIndustry, with the stress firmly on raisingproductivity, where Britain's position has slippedsince 1997. Geoff Hoon, whose term at defence was dominated by thepolitical fallout from the Iraq war - notably thedeath of the weapons scientist David Kelly - survivesin the low-profile role as leader of the Commons. He replaces Peter Hain, who now combines the Welsh andNorthern Ireland secretaryships. Officials refused to say whether Paul Murphy, aveteran minister in Belfast, had resigned or beenpushed. The only other casualty was Denis MacShane,the multilingual Europe minister, who is beingreplaced ahead of the promised EU referendum byDouglas Alexander, a Brown ally. The Whitehall rumour machine had suggested that MrBlair initially hoped to give his old ally, MrBlunkett, part of John Prescott's sprawling empire -the politically sensitive issues of housing and localgovernment renewal. But he was fought off by the deputy prime minister, atalmost 67 still an indispensable figure in the NewLabour coalition, a crucial link between No 10 and No11. Mr Prescott told the Guardian this week that he haddecided he needed a departmental base to remain a bigplayer and No 10's statement last night stressed hiscontinuing role chairing cabinet committees, promotingcross departmental issues, the North and overseasinterests. Many MPs fear it is too much. In a limited shake-up which saw Mr Brown, Jack Strawand Charles Clarke retain the three great departmentsof state - the Treasury, and Foreign and Home offices- Mr Blair also promoted Des Browne, the immigrationminister. In an unexpected move he becomes Mr Brown's deputy,chief secretary to the Treasury. John Hutton, No 2 athealth and long-tipped for cabinet rank, becomeschancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - his friend,Alan Milburn's job until yesterday - in charge ofbetter regulation and driving forward public servicereform. The other cabinet newcomer is David Miliband, thehigh-flying Blairite who will now work with MrPrescott, in effect as his equivalent of chiefsecretary, a deputy who has cabinet rank. Mr Blair concluded that it would have beeninappropriate for such a senior figure as Mr Blunkett.Though Mr Blair is committed to more collegiateconduct - and discussed his appointments with Mr Brownand Mr Prescott - the changes will be seen by Labourministers and MPs as a sign of his long-termintentions, both personal and ideological. Who gets junior ministerial posts this weekend mayreinforce the impression which Blairites are keen tofoster that the prime minister will soon bounce backfrom the drubbing he got on Thursday night and driveforward his reformist agenda. He is in no mood to fall out with Mr Brown, asentiment likely to be reciprocated after the two menpatched up their well-advertised differences duringthe election. Mr Brown duly spoke out in support of greatercompetition in the provision of public services likehealth and education. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 09 May 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7199/1/E-Croatia-Japan-discuss-UN-reform-EU-membership.html Croatia, Japan discuss U.N. reform, Zagreb's future EU membershipÂMonday April 11, 5:08 PM(Kyodo) _ Visiting Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and her Japanese counterpart Nobutaka Machimura discussed United Nations reform Monday, though Croatia has yet to express support for Japan's bid for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat, Grabar-Kitarovic said. Machimura conveyed Japan's support for Croatia's future membership in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, she added. On the United Nations, the Croatian minister told Kyodo News in an interview soon after meeting Machimura that the two sides "discussed some of the aspects of the reform" but that Japan's bid for a permanent seat remains an issue for continued discussion and that Zagreb has yet to announce an official stance. Turning to Croatia's EU accession talks, scheduled for March 17 but shelved by the EU citing Zagreb's failure to hand over a war crimes suspect, Grabar-Kitarovic said, "We are hoping to reopen negotiations as soon as possible. We believe we are doing whatever we can and we hope that the EU will come to this conclusion." EU foreign ministers have refused to start membership talks with Croatia, citing its failure to help find war crimes fugitive Gen. Ante Gotovina. He is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the alleged murder of ethnic Serbs at the end of the 1991-1995 Serbo-Croatian war. Croatia insists it has done all it can to find Gotovina, but U.N. tribunal prosecutor Carla del Ponte accuses it of not having tried seriously to arrest him. "We are very much determined to fulfill all the criteria for (EU) membership, including this criteria of cooperation with the ICTY and we would really like all the countries in the EU to reach this consensus," said Grabar-Kitarovic. Meanwhile, Croatia is expecting to get an invitation to join NATO in late 2006, together with Macedonia and Albania. As for bilateral relations with Japan, the Croatian minister said she and Machimura agreed there are no open issues between the two countries and that they both would like to expand cooperation especially in trade and multilateral initiatives. "We believe we can greatly contribute towards global stability --we both have experience in the past which taught us certain lessons that we can share with others and find more mutual understanding," she said. Grabar-Kitarovic arrived in Japan Sunday together with Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. They are scheduled to attend the Croatian National Day at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture on Tuesday before wrapping up their visit the following day. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050411/kyodo/d89d3t2g0.html  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 17 Apr 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7200/1/E-Another-run-in-Croatia-Miksic-to-try-for-mayor-of-Zagreb.html ÂAnother run in Croatia Miksic to try for mayor of ZagrebÂBY MARY BAUERPioneer PressPosted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005 Imagine if, after losing the presidency by a hair's breadth, Al Gore had run for the mayor of New York. A consolation prize for sure, but being mayor of the nation's largest city would keep him in the public eye.Which is what Boris Miksic of North Oaks is banking on as he seeks the mayor's office in Zagreb, Croatia."I'm going to shake them up one more time really good," said Miksic last week from his White Bear Township-based business, Cortec.The political bug has bitten Miksic hard. A few months ago, he swore that his campaign for the Croatian presidency was his last run for public office in his homeland. Miksic, who has citizenship in the United States and Croatia, also has sought a seat in the nation's parliament.But the heady course of the January presidential election — he lost a place in the runoff by 2 percentage points — has galvanized him, and it's on to Zagreb.And it turns out that "Mayor Miksic" might not be as far-fetched as "President Miksic.""He stands a very good chance because his charisma did win over some of the people in Zagreb," said Steve Zakic, external affairs director with the Croatian American Association in Chicago.Zagreb was one of Miksic's strongholds in the presidential election, and his close call gained him notoriety, said Ante Cuvalo, a professor at Joliet Junior College in Illinois who has written extensively about Croatian politics."If he didn't get so many votes in the national election, he wouldn't be running at all," Cuvalo said.Other factors weigh in Miksic's favor. Now he has the name recognition he lacked before, and he'll get more free media coverage this time around, Zakic said.Voters have had time to sort through negative post-presidential news reports, in which Croatian media pounced on his personal life and business claims. Cuvalo said that from the letters to the editor in Croatian newspapers, people assume the major parties orchestrated a smear campaign."They were surprised he did so well, so in a sense he became a threat."The fact that Miksic is an independent still weighs in his favor. That attracted voters in the national level, Cuvalo said, not just as a protest vote, but for more concrete reasons.Under the Croatian political system, people vote for an entire slate of candidates at one time, called a party's list.The system, Cuvalo said, robs voters of a connection to their elected officials. When they vote, they have no idea who their local officials will be. Miksic puts a dynamic face to the elections, he said."He was a breath of fresh air precisely because of party politics," Cuvalo said. "They don't vote for individuals, they vote for parties."That's why Miksic decided against forming a party and will run in the territorial election as the leader of an independent group.He has gathered about 20 independents aligned with his economic and political reform goals who are willing to take up positions if he wins.And if he wins, he'll take the job as Zagreb's mayor and assign allies to key offices in territorial and city offices all over the country. That will position him for another run at the presidency in 2010."He's using this as a springboard, which would help him enormously," Zakic said.And as Croatia's capital and largest city, being the mayor of Zagreb is not exactly a comedown, Zakic and Cuvalo said."He'll become a household word," Zakic said, "because every time the mayor does something, it's in the papers."Miksic still faces an uphill battle. Cuvalo predicted another spew of bad press, perhaps worse than before."He will have a tough time," Cuvalo said. "(The parties) are going to do anything they can to marginalize him."That doesn't bother Miksic. He's ready for whatever his opponents throw at him. He feels vindicated by reports from an independent election-monitoring group, GONG, which found that while the elections were largely fair, there were serious problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina.He said he couldn't turn his back on the voters, whom he said he stirred from "a state of political apathy."That makes another run at office a goal in and of itself. "People have nothing to look forward to," he said.He likes the idea of returning to his birthplace — he would be the first mayor of Zagreb who was born there since the country's independence. But largely, he sees the mayor's office as a doorway to national office. He wants to stop the sell-off of national resources and banks to outsiders and to curb political corruption."If we continue this way," he said, "we don't have control of our destiny."--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mary Bauer can be reached at mbauer@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5311. http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/11330006.htm  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Apr 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7201/1/E-To-make-sure-that-the-judgement-is-not-up-to-one-single-person.html ÂHouse of Cards crumbling. Who will judge Carla del Ponte? What will be her sentence?How do you punish people who abuse their position of power?How about all of the sentences together !ÂAs below. This is potentially devastating for DelPonte. Not only does the Slovak PM apparently say heis not convinced by her, this commission will make itsown mind up - and not rely on her info. Regardless ofoutcome, this in itself damaging to Del Ponte'scredibility. Let alone if it decides against her.BrianSlovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurindasaid he was personally not convinced by theprevious reports of the chief ICTY prosecutor Carladel Ponte, adding that to his view, she sounded as ifshe was "punishing Croatia".ÂÂÂEU to send monitoring team to Croatia23.03.2005 - 17:18 CET | By Lucia Kubosova EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS â In a bid to keep an eye onCroatia's progress themselves, EU leaders have decidedto set up a special taskforce to monitor Zagreb'sco-operation with the UN tribunal in The Hague.The move comes after member states on 16 March decidedto postpone opening EU membership talks with Croatiaafter a majority of governments felt themselvesunconvinced as to whether the country was fullyco-operating with the International Criminal Tribunalfor the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).The new team will take on board officials from thecurrent and future EU presidency countries âLuxembourg, the UK and Austria - as well as theEuropean Commission and the EU foreign policy chief,Javier Solana.The Luxembourg Presidency is supposed to work outdetails of the concrete tasks of the working group,which is expected to release its evaluation reportabout Zagrebâs progress in May.Reacting to the proposal, Croat Prime Minister IvoSanader welcomed the move saying "it is good for mycountry to exploit the momentum." He added "We will provide all which is required fromus to prove we are ready to co-operate with theTribunal".Not a precedentThe monitoring team is to make its own judgment onCroatiaâs dealings with the UN tribunal.EU foreign ministers will then study the conclusionsof the document and act accordingly â should there bea positive outcome, member states could decide tolaunch the negotiations with Croatia even before thenext scheduled summit of the European leaders in June.Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg Prime Minister,pointed out that the member states are not trying toundermine the Commission and its role in monitoring EUhopefuls and their readiness to start the EU talks."This particular case should not be viewed as aprecedent model for the future enlargements," MrJuncker told journalists after the European Council onWednesday 23 March.Challenging The Hague?The decision on future developments between the EU andCroatia was not originally on the EU spring summitâsagenda.However, Austria and Slovakia were supported by someother leaders in their initiative to put on the tablea draft for a new instrument to evaluate Zagrebâsaction towards the Hague."The crucial added value of the taskforce is that themember states themselves will be finally involved injudging to what extent Croatia is actuallyco-operating with the Tribunal," said Slovak PrimeMinister Mikulas Dzurinda.He said he was personally not convinced by theprevious reports of the chief ICTY prosecutor Carladel Ponte, adding that to his view, she sounded as ifshe was "punishing Croatia"."Our initiative is not some kind of oath of loyaltytowards Croatia, but an attempt to clarify the vaguedefinitions of what it really means to prove 'fullco-operation' with the Tribunal, and mainly to makecertain that the judgment is not up to one singleperson," pointed out Mr Dzurinda.According to diplomatic sources, an increasing numberof member states showed clear support for a morepro-active EU approach towards Zagreb during thetwo-day summit. Also, it has been suggested that some countries â suchas the UK â will be under more pressure to share theinformation to which they had previously referred whensuggesting that Croatia was not co-operatingsufficiently.The plan to set up an EU monitoring team for Croatiais in line with similar proposals by MEPs. TheEuropean Parliament's foreign committee recently senta letter to the Luxembourg presidency supporting sucha move.But while MEPs also asked for negotiations to start inthe meantime and be halted if proof of lack ofco-operation is found by the EU monitoring group,member states were apparently reluctant to move sofast. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 24 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7204/1/E-Croatia-goes-on-with-no-reason-to-be-mistaken-about-itself.html ÂSanader: "Croatia goes on"Racan: "If Brussels is mistaken aboutCroatia, Croatia has no reason to be mistaken about itself"In Short:"Croatia goes on and there is no reason for sadness or disappointment," said Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in reaction to the EU's decision to delay entry talks.RELATEDEU-Croatia relationsBrief News:Reacting to the EU foreign ministers' 16 March decision to put off accession talks with Zagreb, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that while "of course [he] can't be glad", he was satisfied with the EU's adoption of a negotiating framework for his country. In Sanader's view, the foreign ministers did not conclude that "Croatia has not done its utmost [to capture war crimes suspect General Ante Gotovina], but there was no consensus on the matter". Sanader said that seven countries voted in support of Croatia, four or five were against, and the rest remained neutral.Sanader also said that Zagreb will not intensify its efforts to resolve the Gotovina issue, "because we are already fully co-operating with the Hague tribunal".President Stjepan Mesic commented that the Croats "should not be desperate, we should meet the requirements".The leaders of the country's parliamentary parties agreed that Zagreb should continue with its preparations for EU entry. "If Brussels is mistaken about Croatia, Croatia has no reason to be mistaken about itself," declared Ivica Racan, the head of the strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP).http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-136909-16&type=News  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 21 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7203/1/E-Trial-Chamber-to-reject-indictment-against-Gotovina.html Trial Chamber to reject indictment against Gotovina ÂPukanic Nacional 15.03.05POLITICAL REPORT On Tuesday, 8 March, the three-member Trial Chamberreturned the indictment against Generals Cermak andMarkaCto the Prosecution for revision: they criticizedthe syntax of 'criminal operation', which is the keyelement in the Gotovina indictment Though there is no explicit mention of Gotovinaanywhere in the Trial Chamber ruling, all rulings inthe Cermak and MarkaCcases regarding the “criminaloperations” will automatically be applied in his caseas well Tuesday, 8 March could be one of the most importantdays for Croatia as a state and its indicted generalsbefore the Hague Tribunal. On that day, the threemember Trial Chamber under presiding Justice CarmelAgius and with Jean Claude Antonetti and Kevin Parker,returned the indictment against indicted Generals IvanCermak and Mladen MarkaCfor revision. This ruling wasa great victory for Miroslav Separovic and CedoProdanovic, attorneys of the indicted generals, as theindictments against them could be significantlychanged. This in the end could most benefit GeneralAnte Gotovina. The ruling by the Trial Chamber relatedprimarily to the Prosecutor’s syntax of the “criminaloperation” which described Operation Storm, and liststhe main executors as Franjo Tudjman, Ante Gotovinaand “others”, among whom are Cermak and MarkaC.The Hague Prosecution has been given a deadline ofthee weeks to explain its case and to support it withfurther evidence, as in the case placed before thecourt, there were no elements to support such anindictment. In the next two weeks before her responseis due, Carla Del Ponte will have a difficult time inoffering arguments to support that portion of herindictment, and therefore it is logical to expect thatportion of the charges to be removed. This wouldsignificantly ease the position of Cermak and MarkaC,and for Gotovina, the conditions would be in place tothrow out the charges against him. Though there is noexplicit mention of Gotovina anywhere in the TrialChamber ruling, all rulings in the Cermak andMarkaCcases regarding the “criminal operations” willautomatically be applied in his case as well. And itis this “criminal operation” which Gotovina is accusedof. This indictment, regardless of what Carla DelPonte and her fans in Croatia and part of the EUbelieve, is on very shaky legs, and according to legalexperts, this in the end will have to be thrown out.In order to amend the indictment or throw it out, itis not necessary for the accused to also be a prisonerin the Scheveningen prison, even though many “wellacquainted” with the ICTY regulations claim this isso. According to Articles 50 and 51 of the Statute ofthe Hague Tribunal, the accused does not need to be inprison for the indictment against him to be discussed,amended or rejected. This is confirmed by precedent,the best known of which is the case against SerbianGeneral Zec. While he was a fugitive, due to newinformation and documents obtained, the Trial Chamberthrew out the case against him, despite the fact thathe never appeared before the Hague Tribunal.Therefore, Gotovina does not need to be in the Haguefor the case against him to be amended or rejected.This has happened once before, when the HagueProsecutor amended the indictment against him one yearago, even though he was a fugitive.Carmel Agius, chairman of the three-member TrialChamber, and Chamber members Jean Claude Antonetti andKevin Parker described in detail which sections of theindictment against Cermak and MarkaCneeded to besupplemented and explained by the prosecution. In theintroduction to the Chamber ruling, they stated thatCermak and MarkaCwere accused of persecution,deportation, violent eviction and other inhumane actswhich according to Article 5 of the ICTY Statute aredescribed as being crimes against humanity, inaddition to murder, looting and destruction of townsand villages.The Trial Chamber stated that the indictment requiresthe precisely described facts and crimes chargedagainst the men. The Prosecution in particular has toexplain upon what basis they claimed that theindictees planned, stimulated or ordered the acts theyare accused of. The Trial Chamber requested that theprosecution also secure special evidence for thosesections of the indictment in which the men wereaccused of personally committed the acts they wereaccused of.The Trial Chamber also requested that the prosecutionexplain those sections of the indictments based on thethesis of a joint criminal operation. The prosecutionwas asked to explain the nature and purpose of thecriminal action, when it occurred and over whatperiod, the identity of those persons involved, andthe nature of the participation of Cermak and MarkaC.Where the indictment is based on the responsibility ofthe accused men as superiors to the perpetrators, theaccused according to the Trial Chamber have to knownot only which conduct the Prosecution based thethesis of their responsibility, but also which conductby those persons inferior to them are accused of.In the cases where MarkaCand Cermak are accused by theProsecution on the basis of command responsibility,the indictment had to be supplemented with the missingfacts which prove that these two men were in factsuperior to those persons who directly committed thecrimes in question, facts which prove that they infact had effective control over their inferiors,especially in the sense of the direct prevention orpenalization of criminal conduct, and facts describingwhich criminal conduct Cermak and MarkaCare accusedof.Judging by the ruling of the Trial Chamber, theProsecution failed to provide sufficient evidence inthe existing version of the indictment to prove thatCermak and MarkaCknew of the criminal acts they areaccused of. The prosecution must also secure the factswhich will confirm that these two men knew that theirinferiors had committed criminal acts. The TrialChamber claims that it is aware that informationcannot always be precise, but ordered the prosecutionto secure the information it can obtain. TheProsecution also needs to submit those facts whichsupport the claims that the indicted men failed totake the necessary and reasonable measures in order toprevent criminal acts by their inferiors, and thatthey failed to punish those responsible.Where the indictment stated that the indicted men wereaware of the criminal acts they are accused of, theTrial Chamber ordered the Prosecution to describe thatstate of awareness as a material fact, or to secureevidence upon what basis this thesis of the state ofawareness of the accused was made. The Trial Chamberwarned the Prosecution that they cannot simply assumethat in this case the legal assumptions forincrimination of the accused is achieved. The TrialChamber stated in its ruling that in general, each ofthese facts should be stated quickly and openly, eventhough in certain situation, they can be additionallydescribed with the necessary implications.The Trial Chamber rejected the remarks by Defensecouncil in the sections where they claim that theProsecutor incompletely and irregularly stated anddescribed the fact context in which the crimes werecommitted and which Cermak and MarkaCare accused of,and as such the entire indictment is irregular. Thesetwo men in particular responded to the fact that theindictment treats Operation Storm as a criminaloperation. In its response, the Prosecution claimedthat it is not dealing with the legality of OperationStorm, but only with the crimes committed while theOperation was ongoing.The Trial Chamber stated that the facts which theaccused are accused on only in some cases can be basedon the description of events in which, among others,Storm is treated as a criminal operation, and theso-called Republic of Srpska Krajina is placedalongside Croatia as a state. The Trial Chamber statedthat the facts burdening the accused must beaccompanied with the necessary specificity, however,the lack of specificity in the description of eventsin this case is insufficient to grow into a formalirregularity of the indictment.The Trial Chamber set out that the questionable claimson the description of actions in Storm must be provenby entering evidence into the proceedings, and it isin general considered that the way of presenting Stormwithin the indictment is not relevant for the contentof incrimination against Cermak and MarkaC.The Trial Chamber rejected the comments by councilthat the identity of the victims and the destructionof property are not precisely stated, particularly inthe section claiming that Generals Cermak andMarkaCmust have known that the crimes would becommitted or that they had been committed by theirinferiors. The Trial Chamber holds that the indictmentin that section requires stronger argumentation andevident to support it. On the contrary, the indictmentwill have to rely on those sections which state thatthe representatives of the international communitywarned the accused that the crimes had been committed.Paragraph 18 of the indictment, according to theinterpretation of the Court, is not clear in itsintent. In the first part of the paragraph, it claimsthat the accused had authority to prevent the crimesor to punish the perpetrators. The contents ofparagraph 17 and 18 of the indictment state that theywere authorized to prevent or punish the crimesentrusted to those forces who were inferior to theaccused. Therefore, the Trial Chamber requested thatthe Prosecution precisely determine the forces thatwere under the command of accused General Cermak. Andhere the situation is very clear. Under Cermak’scommand were about 30 people concerned with logisticsand the functioning of Knin: garbage removal, sewage,hospitals, supplies and removing dead animals. The Prosecution was asked to identify all the facts bywhich the accused Cermak and MarkaCcould be tied tothe claims that they knew they crimes would becommitted or had already been committed by theirinferior units. In terms of the nature and intent ofthe criminal organization, the Trial Chamber wassatisfied by the general interpretation by theProsecution that a criminal organization is two ormore individuals with a common plan to commit acriminal act according to the ICTY Statute. The TrialChamber was also satisfied by the explained timeperiod in which the Prosecution claims that the crimeswere committed – from 4 August to 15 November 1995.However, the Trial Chamber also accepted the claim byDefense council that the Prosecution had failed tooffer sufficient evidence in the identification of allthe members of this criminal organization. If theyfail to do so, the Prosecution will have to state inthe indictment that not all the participants of thealleged criminal organization can be identified. Also,the Prosecution will have to explain the nature ofparticipation of each participant in the criminalorganization. Furthermore, in paragraph 22, the Prosecution definesthe category of participants of the criminalorganization as members of the Croatian forces. Ifthis was the intent of the Prosecution, this is notexactly clear. Paragraph 11 of the indictment namesonly two suspects, General Ante Gotovina and the latePresident Franjo Tudjman as members of the criminalgroup. Other members were not identified, they wereinstead only mentioned as ‘others’. The Trial Chamberconsiders that this could, in the material sense ofproving the indictment, result in the failure of theProsecution. The Trial Chamber requested that theProsecution provide a clear position on whether itbelieves the intents and objectives of the criminalorganization were carried out by Croatian forces underreal command of the members of that organization, suchthat the defense council could be informed.Furthermore, the Trial Council requested that theProsecution explain its claims in the case of GeneralMarkaCas to how the accused was aware of the criminalactivities and how he consciously agreed to his role.All in all, not an easy task for the Prosecution,which will have to be completed in the only threeweeks.The situation is not identical for MarkaCand Cermak.They are both most burdened by the “Grubori case”, acrime committed on 26 August 1995 in which Serbiancivilians were killed and which to date has not beenprosecuted. The fact that this case was neverprosecuted is one of the greatest points of shame forthe Croatian justice system, as the perpetrators inthis horrible crime are known. In recent days inZagreb, members of the special units who participatedin this ‘cleansing’ action have been giving theirstatements to ICTY investigators. It is known whocommanded that unit of special forces, as it is alsoknown that General Cermak as a civil officialresponsible for Knin, had nothing to do with thiscase. Nacional has learned that yet another indictment,announced against a Croat, will be raised for the“Grubori” case, against the direct commander of thespecial forces unit. In 95% of crimes which arosefollowing military action during Storm, criminalcharges have been laid and the majority of those casesprosecuted. Mladen Bajic, then the military prosecutorresponsible for Gotovina’s South Sector, sent indocumentation on more than 4000 criminal chargesagainst known and unknown perpetrators of crimesduring and after Operation Storm. Bajic sent in thelast CD with his final report to the Hague two monthsago.It is not completely clear that the majority of theindictment based on the “criminal operations” isfounded on the famous “Brijuni transcripts” of 31 July1995 during the final discussion between PresidentTudjman and his military commanders. If it can beproven that this document is not credible, and that itis a forgery, then the entire thesis by theProsecution of a criminal operation no longer stands.In order to prove a “criminal operation”, this willhave to be made more concrete as to who was who inthis criminal operation and what each participant inthe operation did. They will also have to answer onwhat basis they claim that there was a criminal plan.The third item that will need to be more preciselydescribed is which units committed which crimes, andthey precisely state who the commander was of thoseunits, and who will then be held accountable for“command responsibility”. Here Carla Del Ponte is inbig trouble. She used the concept of a “criminaloperation” in order to avoid concretely listing thecriminal acts, as not a single act can be directlyattributed to Gotovina, either in commanding or tryingto cover up a crime. It is for these reasons that theHague Prosecutor decided to use the syntax of the“criminal operation” which is much more favourable foraccusations, as it only has to proven who the membersof the operations were, and then each member is asresponsible as the next for crimes committed, eventhough one may have had no knowledge of what the otherwas doing. One Hague attorney described the situation as followsfor Nacional. “For example, I agree with a friend torob a bank. I’ll drive the car and he’ll rob the back.He’s to enter the back, pass a piece of paper with athreat to the teller if he won’t give the money out ofthe safe. I agree in advance with him that there willbe no use of force and that he will not be armed. Butwithout my knowledge, he takes a gun, fires in rageand kills five bank employees. I have no idea whathe’s done, as I’m sitting in the care, and I drive himaway. According to the concept of a ‘criminaloperation’, I can also be tried for five-time murder,because I knew that we had the criminal intent to roba bank, and I should have known that there were manypossible outcomes, including that my friend might killpeople, even though we agreed to otherwise. Accordingto that, by the concept of a ‘criminal operation’, Iam as responsible as the man who killed five people. Iwould likely only receive a somewhat smaller sentencebecause he was the actual executor.”Carla Del Ponte has begun with the thesis thatGotovina was part of this criminal operation, and thathe must be held accountable for any possible mistakesby Tudjman, SuÂak, Cermak, MarkaCand perhaps evenJarnjak, as well as the remaining unnamed people fromthe Brijuni meeting. However, the indictment mustcontain some kind of an agreement on the criminaloperation and crimes committed personally by Gotovina.According to the Prosecution, this agreement was madein Brijuni on 31 July 1995, when Gotovina ‘knew’ ofTudjman’s intent to “hit the Serbs so hard theydisappear”. Knowing this, Gotovina participated in a“criminal operation” by carrying out Storm. Accordingto Carla Del Ponte, he knew that Tudjman’s intent wasto scare the Serbs into leaving, even though no crimewas committed during the military-police action thatended on 9 August 1995 when Gotovina commanded an“active defense”, thereby halting all offensiveactions and he sent the military units on vacation. Hethen went to BiH. However, the Prosecution claims thatGotovina “knew or should have known” that aftercarrying out Storm that various criminal acts would becommitted, including those by civil persons. Accordingto that, he is responsible according to the accusationfor all that happened after Storm because he knew ofTudjman’s intentions. He executed Operation Storm andshould have known all that would follow.In the current indictment against Gotovina, there isnothing concrete and the indictment is based on theproblematic transcript. If the Prosecution is unableto prove their claims on the “criminal operation”following the ruling by the Trial Council, nothingwill remain in Gotovina’s indictment. Therefore, thecontents of the new indictment to be submitted byCarla Del Ponte in two weeks’ time will be veryimportant, as within it will be very difficult to tieGotovina and his soldiers to any crime. If thathappens, the Prosecution will be unable to defend itsthesis of a “criminal operation”, and with that, theindictment against Gotovina will be rejected. Thequestion this raises is for whom this performace hasbeen carried on for the past few years, which hasdestabilized the country and put enormous pressures onthe Croatian state, and who will be held responsible. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 21 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7202/1/E-Sir-Braithwaite-I-am-ashamed-of-the-British-politics-toward-Croatia.html ÂSir Roger Braithwaite: "I am ashamed of the British politics towardCroatia and BiH"Sir Roger Braithwaite Vjesnik interviewtranslation by Hilda M. FoleyMarch 19, 2005MediaVjesnik, March 16, 2005Antun Kresimir ButerinOn the Eve of March 17: Sir Roger Braithwaite, foreign policy advisor of former British Prime Minister Major: "I am ashamed of the British politics toward Croatia and BiHIf Europe would have had wiser leaders in the beginning of the 1990's we certainly would have acted better at the beginning of the war in former Yugoslavia. Sir Roger Braithwaite is a respected British diplomat with a rich experience. During the Cold War he served in Warsaw, Jakarta, Rome, Bruxelles and Washington. From 1988 to 1992 he served as Ambassador in the USSR, afterwards the Russian Federation, and after his return to London became the foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister John Major as well as becoming president of the joint intelligence council, having served previously in the military intelligence. In the Vjesnik interview, Braithwaite critically assessed the stand taken at that time by Great Britain and the world regarding Serbian aggression in the nineties.Croatians, and they are not the only ones', view very critically Britain's role in the war in former Yugoslavia. How did you experience Yugoslavia's bloody collapse?- It was a painful time for all of us. We all comprehended the horror which was occurring, but no one knew what to do about it. We tried to come up with a thoughtful answer, but it did not exist. At that time, a number of problems emerged in the world: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first Gulf War ... we were all tired, so that the problem of Yugoslavia just crept in somehow. Since we did not believe in getting the support of the British population for a larger military intervention, we sent units to deliver humanitarian aid to at least help some people to survive. But what about the embargo on arms which was of direct help to the Serbs? Whom did you want to help with this? - Look, there was a general opinion -( I know what you will say to that) - that the Serbs were not the only ones guilty of the war. I am aware that we are reproached for this, but the British did not at that time support the Serbs. If nothing else, this at least did not exist in the narrow circle of people around Prime Minister Major. We reasoned, if there were more arms in the area, there will be more innocent victims. That is why we installed the embargo. It was not an easy decision and I understand the Croatians' view that it was not a fair one, but our motive was good and honest. Perhaps the British were wrong for lacking understanding of the situation, but we were not pro-Serb oriented.Many in Croatia still have the same impression even today.- I know, but believe me, I was there and never heard such a thing. We were almost convinced that the Serbs were the most responsible for the war, to be precise Milosevic, but we also believed that the politics of the Croatians were bad. We did not believe your president Tudjman, we knew about the plans to divide Bosnia, and Izetbegovic also lied to us. The general consideration was therefore that they all lied, that they are all more or less guilty and that the real victims are the ordinary people, Croatians, Serbs and Muslims. In the end, during Oluja Serbs were expelled in the greatest numbers. But, this was Milosevic's fault, I cannot deny it, but the fact is that they all experienced tragedy. We wanted with our policy to limit such a tragedy happening to ordinary people.But it seems you are forgetting again that the war was conducted exclusively on the territory of Croatia and Bosnia and that is the base of everything, the beginning and the end of the story.- Yes, you are right, I agree with you. I repeat, today I am not at all proud of our policy, it was shameful and inefficient. I am convinced - that if the Europeans, or at least the British and the French, had acted in 1991 or 1992, we would have with quick intervention stopped the war in the very beginning. If there would only have been enough political will and an adequate yet not too large a military force. If Europe had at that time stronger politicians, wiser leaders, things would certainly have been better, and we would have carried it out better. Instead, the war finally ended in 1995.Yes, and this thanks to the Croatian action "Oluja". - There were more facts that led to the ending of the war. First, the Bosnian Serbs got tired and out of breath, and the Croats and Bosniaks succeeded to arm themselves after all. The pivotal move of it all was Srebrenica. After that no one could sit any longer with crossed arms.A similar situation occurred in Vukovar, but back in 1991.!- Eh, in Vukovar... You know, I have Serbs in my family, my son is married to a Serb. In her family a young man deserted the Serb army exactly at Vukovar, because he did not approve of the attacks. I repeat, I am not proud of our politics at that time. Even though we had instruments at our disposal, it was inefficient, but not pro-Serb. Would Europe have been able to agree politically and use the instruments? I don't know, and I am now skeptical. For the sake of truth, we have not even tried, and that is shameful! Srebrenica was the cup that spilled over. Croatia is apprehensive because of the uncertain beginning of the negotiations with the EU, during which Great Britain again with great obstinacy, practically to the point of intolerance, insists on the extradition of General Gotovina. Why Great Britain again?- There are many factors. First, we all think that the EU is the solution for the Yugoslav problem - for the Croats, the Serbs and the Slovenes, when they finally come to their senses. Second, if we already hunt for Karadzic and Mladic, then we also have to hunt Croats and Bosniaks. Otherwise, it will and already has led to great resistance by the Serbs.Why did you not fear resistance by the Germans in 1945?-I we shall discuss history, the Serbs will never find peace within themselves until they forget about the Kosovo Field, until they reconcile with their history. In contrast Croatia has already done this to some extent. We have a similar experience with Ireland. As soon as Great Britain and Ireland joined the EU we were able to confer mutually. It took us 35 years, but now it is a reality. The EU gives the countries of former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in general, the chance to stop thinking of the past . And that is in the interest of Europe and all Europeans.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 21 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7205/1/E-Iranian-President-Mohammad-Khatami-visits-Zagreb.html ÂÂIranian President Mohammad Khatami (L) and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic (R) pass an honor guard in Zagreb on March 7, 2005. Khatami is on a two day official visit to Croatia. REUTERS/ Nikola Solic Reuters - Mar 07 4:21 AMÂIranian President Mohammad Khatami (L) and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic (R) listen to national anthems during their meeting in Zagreb on March 7, 2005. Khatami is on a two-day official visit to Croatia. REUTERS/ Nikola Solic Reuters - Mar 07 4:36 AMÂIranian President Mohammad Khatami smiles during his meeting with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in Zagreb March 7, 2005. Khatami is on a two-day official visit to Croatia. REUTERS/ Nikola Solic Reuters - Mar 07 4:41 AM letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 08 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7207/1/E-Croatia-attacked-by-Independent---response-required.html ÂCroatia has not yet shown it merits a place in the EUÂ(op-ed Nenad Bach) or vice versaÂThe Independent, which once used to be pro-Croatia hasrun this scathing editorial on Croatia. I urge all toreply - politely and briefly - , giving postaladdress and telephone number, toletters@independent.co.uk You need to give postaladdress and telephone number.BrianÂCroatia needs time to develop its own merit, that could be higher then European standards, especially of the last century. We can, and we will build better society then anybody is expecting from us. Just give people a chance to show their talent. Step aside with long list of legal obstacles and let the sheer Croatian talent fly. ÂOn the subject of war crimes and the titles that appeared in many newspapers as "war criminal" accused yet innocent, unless proven guilty... the whole thing should be dismissed. Let's not give a chance for another History Remodeling as it happened in 1945. What an interpretation of truth, one can easily call a lie, as far as someone can imagine, became quotable for the next generation. Time is NOW to step forward and say loud what needs to be told. Croatia defended it's sovereignty and freedom of it's citizens with our own blood and tears. Even in case that the general wasn't a war hero, he just became one. In my eyes.ÂJa placam chekom a ne u "gotovini"ÂNenad BachThe Independent 4 March 2005Croatia has not yet shown it merits a place in the EUEUROPE SHOULD be marking a significant event on 17March. Croatia, the former Yugoslav republic that 10 years ago was beingtorn apart by civil war, is to open formal membership negotiations withthe European Union. The mood has soured, however, and EU leaders arepoised to call off the talks over Zagreb's failure to arrest an armygeneral who has been indicted for war crimes.Croatia's Prime Minister, Stjepan Mesic, travelled toBrussels this week protesting that Zagreb is powerless to complywith the demands of the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Haguefor the arrest of General Ante Gotovina. Mr Mesic contends that thegeneral has fled Croatia and, moreover, that EU pressure on the issue isdamaging his public's support for the EU.Europe's leaders would be unwise to listen to thesehollow protestations. Croatia may have undergone an economic transformationsince the death of its former president Franjo Tudjman in 1999. Butits political transformation has not kept pace, and this issymbolised by the refusal to force individual war criminals to acceptresponsibility for their alleged deeds. An essential part of any nation'scoming to terms with its wartime past is to ensure that justice isadministered to those responsible for atrocities. General Gotovina isnumber three on the UN's "most wanted" list for his role in thekillings of Croatian Serbs in 1995. But one of the reasons he hasnot been arrested yet is that so many Croats still regard himas a war hero.The EU would also be setting a dangerous precedent inits dealings with the rest of the former Yugoslavia if it allowedCroatia to enter talks at this stage. The two most notorious indictees,the Bosnian Serbs Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are still at large.Although he claims to be powerless, Mr Mesic could atleast order General Gotovina's cronies to be arrested or placedunder surveillance. Officials at The Hague believe the general is still inhiding in "the region". Such steps might go some way towardsconvincing the world that Croatia is serious about purging its legacy ofviolent nationalism and is ready to begin the process of admission toEurope's family of democracies. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7206/1/E-Italy-and-WII-atrocities-in-Slovenia-and-Croatia.html ÂSlovenia & Italy: Moving On? ÂTransitions Online www.tol.czby Andrej Brstovsek2 March 2005An Italian movie revisiting the fate of Italians killed or expelled by partisans courts controversy in Slovenia. LJUBLJANA, Slovenia--A massively publicized Italian movie about the killings of Italian civilians at the end of World War II in what was then Yugoslavia has angered many in Slovenia and strained relations between the two countries. Il Cuore nel Pozzo (The Heart in the Pit) has been widely condemned in Slovenia for portraying Yugoslav partisans as evildoers while neglecting the circumstances in which the crimes occurred.The debate sparked by the movie shows that the two countries have never achieved true reconciliation and cannot even agree on what exactly happened before, during, and after World War II.“I wanted to make a simple story. The aim was not to make it political,” says Italian Alberto Negrin, the director. The movie shows pictures of families put before firing squads of Italian and Yugoslav partisans, Italian children screaming after being taken away from their mothers, and murdered civilians being thrown into the Karst pits of Slovenia and Croatia, the fojbe or foibe.The movie is silent about the crimes of the Fascists in those areas. A NEW ROMAN HOLIDAYIf Negrin wanted to make a non-political movie, its effect has been anything but. In Italy, the movie received the outspoken support of the National Alliance, a party in the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that traces its roots to Mussolini’s Fascists. “We must pull from the abyss of lies a truth hidden by the imposition of a cultural bias,” Italian Communications Minister Maurizio Gasparri, a member of the National Alliance, was quoted by Reuters as saying.The two-part movie premiered on Italian state television just before 10 February, a new national holiday to commemorate the victims of the fojbe. Millions of Italians watched--and a good number of Slovenes tuned in as well.The political backlash from Italy’s eastern neighbors was fast and furious. Among the first to respond were World War II veterans from Slovenia and Croatia, who accused director Negrin of being biased and trying to portray Italy as the victim when in fact it was the aggressor. “The occupying Italian forces killed and raped, which caused reprisals. Revenge has always been blind,” said Janez Stanovnik, president of the Slovenian World War II veterans’ association. He said it was “a huge lie” to claim that Italians were killed just because they were Italians. Even without the movie, the new Italian holiday would have raised some eyebrows in Slovenia. There is a good chance that the Slovenian parliament will respond by proclaiming a new Slovenian holiday, celebrating the incorporation of the coastal Primorje region, which was once Italian, into Slovenia. It is an uncontroversial historical fact that many Italians were killed in Slovenia and Croatia after the war--estimates of their number range from 1,700 to 10,000. Many Italians also fled the territory fearing reprisals or because they didn’t want to live in a communist state. But both veterans and historians said that while it was important to acknowledge the killings and expulsions, one also had to consider the circumstances in which they took place. Even before World War II, Italy pursued an aggressive policy in Istria (now shared by Croatia and Slovenia) and Dalmatia (part of today’s Croatia) and then occupied most of the territory during the war. Several postwar agreements between Italy and Yugoslavia tackled the problem of Italian citizens who fled at the end of the war. The agreements obliged the Italian government to pay compensation for the property they left behind in Yugoslavia; those payments were in turn considered as Italian compensation for war damage in Yugoslavia. But despite the legal settlement, the issue never came to rest politically. In the face of an Italian threat to veto the beginning of Slovenian negotiations on EU membership in the mid-1990s, Slovenia had to sign a special agreement with the EU in which it opened up its real-estate market to Italians who had fled.At the same time, both Yugoslavia and Slovenia (which became independent in 1991) tried to take care of the Italian minority that remained on its soil. One of the 90 seats in the Slovenian parliament is reserved for a representative of the Italian minority (another one is reserved for a representative of the Hungarian minority), and Italian is an official language in the areas where the Italian minority lives.JANSA IN AN AWKWARD POSITIONBut the matter goes beyond minority rights or compensation for past injustice and the loss of real estate, though all of these have been raised by the families of those who were killed or fled. This is also an issue of setting the historical record straight--and of being able to move on.While the current center-right Italian government, which supported the making of the movie, is likely to reap benefits from revisiting the past, the new center-right government coalition in Slovenia finds itself in an uncomfortable situation. This is no longer just a bilateral question but also one of domestic politics. Critics accuse the Slovenian government of having been slow to react because its anti-communist stance made it awkward to defend the communist partisans. A number of public figures put pressure on Prime Minister Janez Jansa and Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel to respond to the movie. The leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Borut Pahor, suggested sending a diplomatic note to Rome. The government at first said a movie shouldn’t be a basis for discussing bilateral relations but reversed course after Slovenian television decided to air the movie--and then reported record ratings. The government issued a statement voicing the expectation that Italy would deal with its past in a critical manner, and reaffirming that the government rejected all biased and politically motivated interpretations of recent history. This could also be seen as criticism of Yugoslavia’s communist regime and its version of events.The conciliatory tone seems to have had some impact. An undersecretary in the Italian Foreign Ministry mentioned the possibility that representatives of the three countries could mark a “symbolic reconciliation,” presumably during a planned summit between Berlusconi, Slovenian President Drnovsek, and Croatian President Stipe Mesic.On the other hand, as Stanovnik of the Slovenian veterans’ association said, reconciliation is a matter of personal conscience. And if that conscience hasn’t been examined in the last sixty years, it is doubtful it will be now.Andrej Brstovsek is a journalist with the Ljubljana daily "Dnevnik."Copyright  2005 Transitions Online. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 04 Mar 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7208/1/E-CONGRESSIONAL-CROATIAN-CAUCUS.html ÂNFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS SPEARHEADS DRIVE TO FORM CONGRESSIONAL CROATIAN CAUCUSÂWashington, D.C. (February 3, 2005). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) welcomed the official establishment of the Congressional Croatian Caucus which was formally announced at a reception hosted by theNFCA at the Rayburn Congressional Office Building on Capitol Hill last Tuesday evening. Approximately 150 invited guests attended the reception which featured an assortment of Croatia's finest wines and excellent Croatian cuisine created by Chef Ivo Svircic and provided by the Croatian Embassy. TheNFCA reception was funded in part by special donations from Mike Grgich, Jure Sola, Tony Peraica, Janet Robert and Jamie Coleman.The bipartisan Co-Chairs of this new Caucus, Rep. George P. Radanovich (R-CA) and Rep. Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN), welcomed all those present and discussed their long-standing desire to establish this important association of Members of Congress interested in promoting Croatian-American relations. That both Co-Chairs are of Croatian descent gives even further emphasis to this historic event for the Croatian American community.Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA) also addressed those present, noting that he too has a personal connection to Croatia through his daughter-in-law, a native of Split. Congressman Gallegly in particular noted his deep appreciation of Croatia's beauty which he experienced first hand when his son and daughter-in-law recently renewed their marriage vows there. Rep. Gallegly will chair the Europe Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee in the 109th Congress.Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) gave a short but powerful speech in which he spoke about his personal involvement in Croatia's struggle to gain independence and freedom for its people. He said he admired the strength and resolve of the Croatian people during this difficult period.The Croatian Ambassador to the United States, Neven Jurica, said a few words about Croatia's determination to join Euro-Atlantic institutions and viewed the creation of the new Caucus as a step toward fulfilling that goal. Ambassador Jurica also welcomed a number of honored guests from Croatia, including Bozo Biskupic, the Minister of Culture, and Dr. Mario Zubovic, a member of the Croatian Parliament.NFCA President Edward A. Andrus gave remarks on behalf of the Croatian American community thanking the bipartisan Co-Chairs and Founding Members while pledging to support the Caucus as it engages on important matters relevent to the community and the Republic of Croatia. He noted that the structuring of the Caucus was a government relations task which demanded much effort and many resources, not only from the NFCA but from other individuals and organizations. Mr. Andrus specifically mentioned the assistance provided by the Croatian Fraternal Union, Dr. Frank Brozovich, the former President of the Croatian American Association (CAA) and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Croatia, and Cook County Commissioner Anthony J. Peraica, a former board member of theNFCA and President of theCAA's Illinois Chapter. Mr. Andrus also recognized in the audience the presence of Dr. Jasenka Piljac from Zagreb, who coauthored an English language book on the Croatian origins of the Zinfandel grape which the NFCA will be presenting to all 41 of the Founding Members of the Caucus as an expression of its appreciation for their efforts on Croatia's behalf. (A copy of the "Zinfandel" book can be ordered fromNFCA Headquarters for $ 35.)In addition to the four Congressmen who spoke, thirteen other Congressmen, both members and non-members of the Croatian Caucus made an appearance at the reception: Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Rep. Judy Biggert (R- IL), Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), Rep. Phil English (R- PA), Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep. Rick Larsen (R-WA), Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Nick Joe Rahall (D-WV), Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), and Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). The event was also attended by scores of Congressional officials and staff members, representatives from the State Department, leaders of the Croatian-American community from throughout the United States, a number of prominent Croatian-Americans in the Washington, D.C. area and Dr. Thomas P. Melady, former US Ambassador to the Vatican and Senior Dipolmat in Residence at the Institute of World Politics. Tony Butala of "The Lettermen" singing group and members of the press were also present.Speaking after the event, NFCA President Edward Andrus reiterated the importance of the establishment of the Caucus and the NFCA's role in same. "There had been talk for some time about the need to establish a Caucus. The NFCA had a number of discussions concerning the idea with Congressmen Radanovich and Visclosky and their staffs. They all expressed their enthusiasm and we worked closely with their staffs in order to contact members of Congress to encourage them to join the Caucus as Founding Members. In this regard, not only did we rely on our own members but we teamed with non-members as well to have them reach out to their Congressional contacts. After all, while theNFCA played the key role in moving this concept forward, the Caucus itself is not a creature of theNFCA but is something from which the entire Croatian-American community and the Republic of Croatia will benefit."In further discussing how the NFCA will work with the Croatian Caucus, Mr. Andrus said that theNFCA now has the enhanced ability to communicate with a group of Congressmen who have expressed a keen interest in issues related to Croatia. "Up until now, doing effective lobbying in Congress has been hampered without the Caucus. We had to concentrate on approaching individual Congressmen when we had some ideas or issues related to improving Croatian-American relations and the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Vojvodina. Now we have a group which on its first day of existence consists of almost 10% of all members of Congress. This will, we hope, allow the NFCA and the Croatian-American community as a whole the ability to more effectively present their views to Congress and have Congress as a whole take those views under serious consideration."Mr. Andrus noted that the establishment of the Caucus will now actually require the NFCA and Croatian Americans to "step up to the plate" in a more consistent manner. "We now have this most efficient means to have Congress listen to our concerns, and there are many of them. Croatia's entry into NATO and other Euro-Atlantic institutions continues to encounter difficult obstacles which our elected Representatives can help to remove. Our community must become more engaged to make use of this opportunity and in that regard I urge all Croatian Americans to join us in further building on what I believe to be one of the greatest successes the NFCA has had to date."The 41Founding Members of the Congressional Croatian Caucus are as follows:Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) - Co-Chair, Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN) - Co-Chair, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY, Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL), Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL), Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), Rep. John Duncan (R-TN), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Rep. Phil English (R-PA), Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ), Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (R-IL), Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), Rep. Melissa Hart (D-PA), Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY) Rep. Tim Holden (D-PA), Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), Rep. Rick Larsen (R-WA), Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA), Rep. Dennis Moore (D-KS), Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ), Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), Rep. Lynn Woosley (D-CA), Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), and Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA).The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian-American groups which collectively have approximately 130,000 members.For more information, please call Joe Foley, (NFCA) Government Relations Director, at 301-294-0937 or Erik Milman, theNFCA's Director of Development, at the NFCA's headquarters in Washington at 202-331-2830 or by email at NFCAhdq@aol.com.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 08 Feb 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7211/1/E-OSCE-had-established-Council-of-the-prominent-political-figures.html ÂOSCE had established Council of the prominent political figuresÂ02.02 / 19:08 Kazakhstan enters the Council of the leading political figures Astana. February 2. KAZINFORM. OSCE had established Council of the prominent political figures, such a decision was taken by the OSCE incumbent chairman, Foreign minister of Slovenia Dimitri Rupel at the session of the OSCE Preparatory committee held on Monday in the capital of Austria, Vienna.The Council is called to attach new impulse to the political dialogue between the OSCE member states and introduce conceptual viewing of the organization activity within new geopolitical terms. The council is to elaborate proposals aimed at perfection of the OSCE efficiency.The Council consists of famous political and public figures of the seven OSCE member states –Germany, Russia, the USA, the Netherlands, Norway, Croatia and Kazakhstan. Chairman of the committee of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, resigned Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador Kuanysh Sultanov has been elected as the Council member. http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=109949 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 07 Feb 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7210/1/E-Laffingly-Serious---Flat-Tax.html ÂÂLaffingly SeriousFebruary 2, 2005 COMMENTARY By VITOMIR MILES RAGUZ February 2, 2005Poor cousins from the East they may be, yet the politicians from New Europe can be quite rich in policy ideas. So enticing in fact that Brussels may be about to take up one of their recipes as a way to revive the lackluster economies of Old Europe. And this may happen quickly if the new Commission president has his way.Today in Strasbourg, Josà Manuel Barroso is expected to tell the 732 lawmakers in the European Parliament that the way to economic rejuvenation and job-creation in Europe lies primarily with intra-border competition, technological innovation, less rigid labor regulations and more stringent welfare programs. As a way to promote competition within the borders of the Union, Mr. Barroso is also expected to step away from a strict interpretation of single market principles. He will likely oppose calls for tax harmonization, including the controversial issue of minimum corporate tax rates.What may be music to the ears of leaders in new members states out East will be a sour note to Gerhard SchrÃder, Nicolas Sarkozy and others. The German chancellor recently called moves to cut corporate tax rates in New Europe dangerous "tax-dumping." Mr. Sarkozy said this was unfair competition and suggested cutting EU transfers to states practicing it.While the issue of lower tax rates is accepted wisdom in the U.S., made famous in the 1970s by Arthur Laffer, it's still counter-intuitive in Europe. Mr. Laffer argued convincingly that lower tax rates, at some optimum level, will promote risk-taking and investment, thereby increasing production and government revenue.Apart from Ireland, newcomers Slovakia and Lithuania are the Union's only real-life laboratories for Mr. Laffer's ideas. Their overall tax burdens on corporate profits are below 15%, compared to tax rates in Old Europe states that can be twice as high. Despite lower rates, these countries collect more corporate tax receipts than those with higher rates. Ireland's inflows are at 3.3% of GDP, Slovakia's at 2.2%, while Germany's, for instance, linger at 0.7%.Slovakia reduced tax rates last year, and went a step further by making them flat. It now has the same 19% rate on corporate profits, personal income and sales tax. The fact that the government was able to bring in two new major car production lines has made the country the Detroit of Eastern Europe -- and a bellwether state for economic policy. U.S. President George W. Bush will stop over in Bratislava later this month, due to in no small part to this development.Meanwhile, Poland's leading opposition party, the conservative Civic Platform, has suggested that Warsaw should introduce a flat tax four points below Slovakia's. Similarly, Romania just this year reduced its corporate and personal income taxes from 25% to a flat 16% rate, while keeping VAT at 19%. Serbia seems to want to outdo them all with its recent corporate rate cut to 10%, to be followed by additional tax reductions in June. Even the spend-happy Czech Republic has now commenced a process to reduce its corporate rate to the low-20s from the high-20s over a period of a few years.To be fair, New Europe states are not doing this only because they believe Mr. Laffer. Rather, they fret that they're becoming less attractive to foreign investors due to rising wages. Not only are the wages in the region now relatively higher, but payroll taxes supporting the Communist-era social programs remain extravagant. Thus, to lower the burden of doing business in their countries, they look to lower corporate taxes. Hungary, for instance, has seen close to 10 foreign investors, such as IBM and Philips, move some or all of their Hungarian operations to cheaper pastures further east and south.* * *But New Europe is no policy nirvana. While a number of Central Eastern European states are now in the vanguard on tax policy, many are still laggards on fiscal policy. They can use the advice of Mr. Barroso in this respect. His support for lower taxes should also be seen as a de facto petition for smaller governments, especially in the East, where they are particularly bloated, slow and nontransparent. They're the major obstacles to a new phase of robust economic expansion needed to catch up quickly with Western levels of prosperity. Countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia have been most profligate in recent years, running budget deficits in the 5-13% range, compared to the 0-3% levels elsewhere in Europe. This is largely due to a lack of political will to break away from Socialist-era welfare comfort and vote-buying dependency.As a consequence, Prague, for instance, may have more single mothers than any other city in the world. Of course, almost all wear matrimonial bands but are officially single to be able to collect hefty handouts. Croatia, meanwhile, has yet to grasp what economic policy means beyond IMF stability packages. It muddles along only thanks to its resilient private sector, tourism earnings and Ãmigrà transfers. And Hungary, once a favorite among international investors, is now seen as a weakling in the region due to its long-running twin deficits, which put constant pressure on inflation and the exchange rate.The health care, judiciary, pensions, subsidies and entitlement schemes need a major overhaul in the East. The last three are also a problem in the West. Health sector reform can begin with cost-participations, which is anyway already part of the system in the form of routine bribes of doctors and key personnel. The judiciary can be improved by transferring commercial disputes to special arbitration courts. But most of all, public sector wages in the East ought to be brought in line with Western standards. They cannot be higher than the private sector earnings as is now often the case.Lower taxes in new member states prevent capital flight to cheaper Asian markets. If combined with reforms, that'll increase the wealth and buying power there. After all, the region still accounts for only 5% of the Union's output or demand. It isn't a threat to Western Europe. As new Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu pointed out during a visit to Brussels last week, the region can produce more consumers with deeper pockets for the EU.While Europe's backyard has taken the lead on taxes, Brussels should embrace these benefits for the front yard as well. Moreover, it should insist on fiscal responsibility across the Continent, all the more so because the old leaders of economic policy in Europe, Berlin and Paris, have lost credibility on both taxes and fiscal policy.Thankfully, Mr. Barroso seems to have the courage to lead. He doesn't sound worried about offending the old guard. He's confident enough to side with the upstarts out East when they're right. Now if only everyone, whether New or Old Europe, followed his advice.Mr. Raguz, a former Bosnian-Herzegovene ambassador to the E.U. and NATO, is a banker in Vienna.Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 07 Feb 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7209/1/E-Is-Croatia-the-new-California.html ÂIs Croatia the new California?Nenad, We made the Sunday Wash. Post Style section and this was a very,very successful event. Sve najbolje, Steve Rukavina The Reliable Source -- The Style SectionBy Richard LeibyThe Washington PostSunday, February 6, 2005; Page D03 ÂThis Wine Has Croatians Proud Enough to Pop • Is Croatia the new California? Well, we don't expect to see the next wine-region movie set there (à la "Sideways"), but Croatian officials are finding an appreciative audience for their grape products on Capitol Hill. Croatian red zinfandel and other wines flowed last week when the Congressional Croatian Caucus was launched with 40 representatives and two senators signing on as bipartisan members. At a Hill reception hosted by the Croatian Embassy, the buzz, so to speak, concerned a newly discovered link between California and Croatian zinfandel grapes -- specifically, the Croatian varietal called crljenak kastelanski. The embassy's deputy chief, Marijan Gubic, tells us this "zinfandel mystery" took 35 years of genetic sleuthing across two continents to solve. (Clearly, some topics besides joining the European Union warrant keen attention.) The caucus is co-chaired by Reps. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and George Radanovich (R-Calif.). Radanovich also co-chairs the popular 250-member Congressional Wine Caucus, whose Web site quotes Robert Louis Stevenson: "Wine is bottled poetry." The Croats have enlisted nine other Californians, as well as Sens. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). "They're not all Croatian, but they support Croatia," said Gubic, adding, "We're not known yet in America as a wine-producing country, but increasingly we hope to be." Given its thirst to understand international affairs, Congress seems a good place to start. ÂWith Chris Richards  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 07 Feb 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7212/1/E-The-Congressional-Croatian-Caucus-on-Capitol-Hill.html NFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS The Congressional Croatian CaucusÂwhich the NFCA has long been working in support of becomes officialÂtoday, January 26, 2005. The bipartisan Co-Chairs of the Croatian Caucus, Congressman George P. Radanovich (R-CA) and Congressman Peter J. Visclosky (D-IN),Âhave sent letters to all of their Colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives informing them of the formal Caucus launch andÂnotifying themÂthat to become founding Members, they must respond by today. The NFCA is sponsoring a kickoff celebration with a Capitol Hill reception on Tuesday, February 1, 2005 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM in the Energy and Commerce Committee Room 2322, at the Rayburn House Office Building on Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street in Washington, DC, in support of the Co-Chairs who established the Caucus.ÂÂThe NFCA will be serving fine Croatian wine and food to celebrate this special occasion. Members of Congress interested in the Caucus as well as invited members and friends of the NFCA will be in attendance. The Croatian Caucus will be a powerful resource in forging a strong working relationship between the U.S. and the Republic of Croatia and in helping toÂpromote mutual interests. Among other relevent matters, the Caucus will support the endeavors of Croatia asÂit works toward full membership in NATO and strives to establish itself as a regional leader in Southcentral Europe. Members of the NFCA should be delighted and feel gratified that the Congressional Croatian Caucus has finally come to fruition. Ed Andrus President NFCAÂContact: NFCAhdq@aol.com ÂÂÂÂWebsite: www.croatianworld.net/NFCA/  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 26 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7213/1/E-Croatias-President-Stjepan-Mesic-celebrates-his-victory.html ÂPresident Stjepan Mesic celebrates his victory in 2005ÂÂCroatia's President Stjepan Mesic celebrates his victory in the presidential elections, after hearing some preliminary results, at his party headquarters in Zagreb January 16, 2005. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 19 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7214/1/E-Croatia-Elects-New-President-on-Jan-16-2005.html ÂVOTECroatia Elects new president on Jan 16, 2005ÂÂPresidential candidate Jadranka Kosor, left, and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader greet their supporters at a pre-election rally in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005. Kosor will challenge Croatian President Stipe Mesic, who is running for his second term in office in the second round of elections on Sunday. (AP Photo/Filip Horvat) ÂÂPresidential candidate Jadranka Kosor gestures during her speech at a pre-election rally in Zagreb, Croatia, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005. Kosor will challenge Croatian President Stipe Mesic, who is running for his second term in office in the second round of elections on Sunday. (AP Photo/Filip Horvat) ÂÂÂCroatian President Stipe Mesic hands out roses as he campaigns at the market in Zagreb, Croatia on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2005. Mesic, who is running for his second term in office, will face Jadranka Kosor of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union in the second round of presidential election on Jan. 16. (AP Photo/Filip Horvat) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 14 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7215/1/E-Croatian-court-rejects-Miksics-appeal.html ÂCroatian court rejects Miksic's appeal ÂIvo Scepanovic, Special To The Star Tribune January 6, 2005 CROA0106 SPLIT, CROATIA -- The Croatian Constitutional Court on Wednesday turned down the election appeal of Minnesota businessman and Croatian presidential candidate Boris Miksic.The court concluded that Miksic's claims that he was cheated in Sunday's election were groundless."Boris Miksic did not present evidence for his claim that there were irregularities during the presidential elections," the court said, rejecting his request for a recount.The court in Zagreb, the capital, also rejected Miksic's appeal on the fact that his observers were not allowed to be present as the State Election Commission tabulated votes on Sunday.The court accepted the commission's explanation that the law requires the admittance only of representatives of political parties, nongovernment organizations and foreign observers during the counting of votes. Such a right has not been anticipated for representatives of independent candidates, such as Miksic, unless they do it via nongovernment organizations.Speaking at a news conference in Split before the court released its ruling, Miksic said he would abide by the decision. Miksic, who lives in North Oaks and holds U.S. and Croatian citizenship, also told his supporters something they wanted to hear: "I'll definitely stay in politics."He said he will participate in local elections scheduled for April and pledged to provide more details at a public rally he has scheduled for Friday in Zagreb.Miksic finished third in Sunday's election with 17.8 percent of the vote, barely missing out on a spot in a Jan. 16 runoff election with the first-place finisher, President Stipe Mesic.Miksic cited the absentee vote as evidence of fraud. In voting abroad, including the United States, Miksic got only 9.9 percent of the vote."It is hard to understand that my percentage of votes was much better here in Croatia than, for example, in the United States," said Miksic, who left the Balkan region in 1973.http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/5171369.html  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 06 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7217/1/E-Boris-Miksic-finished-third-with-178-per-cent-of-the-vote.html ÂIncumbent, woman to vie for Croatian presidencyCroatia's incumbent President Stipe Mesic has overwhelmingly won the first round of elections taking 49 per cent of the vote, according to official results.However, he now faces a run-off to win a second five-year term to lead the country as it seeks to join the European Union.Mr Mesic will face conservative Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, who received 20.18 per cent of Sunday's vote, in the January 16 run-off.ÂWealthy Croatian-US businessman Boris Miksic finished third with 17.8 per cent of the vote, the electoral commission said. A jubilant Mr Mesic has urged voters to turn out in big numbers for the run-off, following a low turnout of 51 per cent on Sunday. "Croatia must be a modern, European and democratic country with satisfied citizens," he said."It will be possible only if we change many things. We will decide where Croatia is heading, to the 21st Century or back in time. I offer the 21st Century."Ms Kosor says Croatia is ready for a woman president."I am very happy that for the first time we have two candidates of which one is a woman," she said."This shows the maturity of voters since the most frequent question during the campaign was whether Croatia was mature enough to have a woman for a president."Mr Mesic, 70, was heavily favored to win the vote to lead the former war-torn Yugoslav republic, with exit polls released immediately after voting stations closed showing he might win the 50 per cent needed to avoid the run-off. - AFPhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275661.htm  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 02 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7216/1/E-Silent-Mother-Speaks-Volumes.html ÂReflection: As another tumultuous year ends, amen to all that By ROGER COHENLast Updated: Dec. 25, 2004The end of the year is near, a time for reflection. So in search of understanding, I recently visited my grandmother, who is 104. She was 14 when the shot was fired in Sarajevo that sparked World War I. As the stones of the old city have been smoothed by countless footsteps, so have her memories been honed by time. Honed to silence, or so it seems. She was loquacious on her 100th birthday, but has gone quiet these last few years. Her eyes are now closed much of the time. In her touch, there is recognition, but her eyes, when they open, are impenetrable as pools.But some things never return. Marriages, great loves, gone and sundered as completely as the empires and nations that have disappeared in her lifetime. Austria-Hungary, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union, East Germany, Yugoslavia - all vanished as a single life has been lived.The birthing of countries has been more hectic in her time than the dying. An independent Croatia was reborn after more than eight centuries: The loops of history can be circuitous. Indonesia came into being, as did Israel, Uzbekistan, myriad independent African states and North Korea.Some states moved. Poland journeyed westward. Hungary shrank. Some borders did a vanishing act, like those within the European Union. Political ideologies came and went, taking tens of millions of lives. So it goes. States are living beings. They shift, they wed and divorce, they wither and perish, as one woman lives her life.I considered my grandmother’s skin: fissured as parched earth, yet soft as a newborn. I considered her silence. It seemed more sage than vacant. We do not like riddles or silence; we prefer pronouncements. Journalism is the day-after-yesterday craft. We need to say where things are going, what they mean.But the living of 104 years speaks for caution. Such longevity is itself unexpected and, scientific advances notwithstanding, unforeseeable. She was 21 when the British installed a monarchy in the modern Iraq carved from the defunct Ottoman Empire. Eighty-three years later, the country’s statehood still seems tenuous.It is tenuous because different currents in history, different epochs almost, are clashing there, as they do now throughout the world. It used to be that we could ignore our differences. No longer. Asian nationalism, European post-nationalism, American expansionism vie for influence.In Iraq, at the very least, we see the following forces: the apocalyptic fundamentalism of Islamic jihadists; a classic guerrilla struggle against an occupying army; the national aspirations of the Kurdish people; the battle between Shiite and Sunni strains of Islam; an old-fashioned fight for resources; and the zeal of the United States, a country at or near the zenith of its historical power, to fashion more of the world in its image by delivering the freedom that President Bush believes is God’s design for humanity.Where all this will lead, I do not know. I did not ask my grandmother; she would have responded with the wisdom of silence. It is possible that the borders of Iraq will not withstand these forces and the country will break up, as Yugoslavia did in the 1990s after its release from despotic rule. But I doubt it, for the simple reason that agreement on the shape of the broken-up parts would be impossible.I do know that American forces will leave Iraq one day and that it is possible but not inevitable that the young American lives lost in Iraq, more than 1,280 already, will have been lost in vain. I also know that Iraq in 2004 stands at what the Germans in 1945 called Stunde null or zero hour.It is quiet in my grandmother’s Johannesburg apartment in South Africa. There is no television; she lives without news. It is possible to live without news, of Iraq or American elections. So she did not hear the good news of 2004: the Chilean army’s extraordinary apology for the killing and torture after the 1973 coup and the Bosnian Serbs’ apology for the slaughter at Srebrenica in 1995.Truth, it seems, is gaining a global toehold. For much of her life, it was not so: The lies that exalt and kill were the stuff of political discourse. There are grounds for guarded optimism. When she was born, the city of Johannesburg, founded in 1884, was a mere teenager. Her father came penniless from Lithuania. Her daughter went to England. Four of her great-grandchildren live in the United States.Over 104 years, a lot happens. Although she has seen a lot of it, she never liked change much. “The things you see when you don’t have a gun” was a favorite expression, delivered on encountering any novelty or irritant.Her husband died a few years back at the age of 98; they were married 75 years. She loved him deeply, and I think she may have forgotten him entirely - proof, if needed, that in the great scheme of things, three-quarters of a century is the blink of an eye.Occasionally, the silence is broken. My grandmother speaks: “On earth as it is in heaven, forgive us our trespasses.”Fragments of the Lord’s Prayer, summoned from somewhere. She is Jewish but attended a convent school long ago. Perhaps her last lesson is ecumenism. Or love. She will not release my hand. I try to ease it away but she clings with surprising force. In her silence, there is indeed knowledge.A nurse confides: “She’s talking to the people on the other side.” To whomever she is speaking, she has a last word, pronounced slowly: “Aaaa-men.”Perhaps we can all agree on that.Roger Cohen writes for The International Herald Tribune. This article first appeared in The New York Times.Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Dec. 26, 2004.http://www.jsonline.com/news/editorials/dec04/286781.asp  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 02 Jan 2005 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7218/1/E-EC-Chief-Expresses-Hope-Croatia-Will-Join-EU-by-2009.html ÂNew EC Chief Expresses Hope Croatia Will Join EU by End of 2009Â19/11/2004ZAGREB, Croatia – Newly appointed European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday (18 November) that he hopes Croatia would be able to join the EU by the end of 2009. Zagreb expects to be given a date for starting accession talks in early 2005 and join the Union as soon as possible, possibly in 2007 with Bulgaria and Romania. Most observers find that timeframe unlikely.Also Thursday, a crowd of 10,000 people gathered in Vukovar to commemorate the city's fall to Serb forces in 1991. Church bells rang across the country, while in Vukovar, mourners gathered at the hospital where more than 250 people were executed. (Vjesnik - 19/11/04; HINA, HRT, AFP - 18/11/04http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newssummary/setimes/newsbriefs/2004/11/19/nb-07 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 20 Nov 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7219/1/E-We-swore-wed-always-rememberno-retreat-and-no-surrender.html   CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO  We have produced this special video -- only available online -- highlighting the important themes of our campaign. Please forward this email to 10 friends.  Dear Nenad, During this campaign I have asked you for so much -- your time, your energy, and your financial support. Today, I ask you for one final thing -- your vote. Tomorrow, Americans will face a choice. How will we find our way forward? How will we keep America safe, and keep the American dream alive? I believe we begin by giving this country we love a fresh start. This morning, I would like to give you as a plainly as I can the summary of my case on how -- together -- we can change America. I believe we begin by moving our economy, our government, and our society back in line with our best values. I believe we do whatever it takes to lead our troops to success and bring them home safe. And when they do come home, I believe we begin by rebuilding an America with a strong middle class where everyone has the chance to work and the opportunity to get ahead. Tomorrow, you can choose a fresh start. You can choose a president who will defend America and fight for the middle-class. You can choose between four more years of George Bush's policy to ship jobs overseas and give tax breaks to the companies that do it -- or a president who will reward the companies that create and keep good jobs here in the United States of America. Tomorrow you will face a choice between four more years of George Bush's giveaways to the big drug companies and the big HMOs -- or a president who will finally make health care a right, and not a privilege, for every American. This election is a choice between four more years of tax giveaways for millionaires along with a higher tax burden for you -- or a president who will cut middle-class taxes, raise the minimum wage, and make sure we guarantee women an equal day's pay for an equal day's work. Tomorrow, America faces a choice between four more years of an energy policy for big oil, of big oil, and by big oil -- or a president who finally makes America independent of Mideast oil in ten years. A choice between George Bush's policy that just yesterday showed record profits for oil companies and record gas prices for American consumers. I believe that America should rely on our own ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi Royal family. Tomorrow this campaign will end. The election will be in your hands. If you believe we need a fresh start in Iraq; if you believe we can create and keep good jobs here in America; if you believe we need to get health care costs under control; if you believe in the promise of stem cell research; if you believe our deficits are too high and we're too dependent on Mideast oil then I ask you to join me and together we'll change America. I ask for your vote and I ask for your help. When you go to the polls bring your friends, your family, your neighbors. No one can afford to stand on the sidelines or sit this one out. And in return for your hard work, you have my commitment to always fight for you, to always be on your side. In the words of Bruce Springsteen that have become the theme of this campaign. "We've made a promise we swore we'd always remember...no retreat and no surrender." Tomorrow we will change America and with your help I will always keep that promise to you. Thank you, John Kerry  Paid for by Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.  Kerry-Edwards 2004, P.O. Box 34640, Washington DC, 20043, U.S.A.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 01 Nov 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7227/1/E-Dont-vote-for-our-cousin-beacuse-blood-is-thinner-than-oil.html ÂBeacuse blood is thinner than oil - don't vote for our cousin!"Bush Relatives for Kerry" grew out of a series of conversations that took place between a group of people that have two things in common: they are all related to George Walker Bush, and they are all voting for John Kerry. As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!http://www.bushrelativesforkerry.com/pages/1/index.htm ÂBushRelativesForKerry.com urges visitors: "Please, don't vote for our cousin."The Bush relatives said they've never met the president but disagree with his policies ranging from the war in Iraq to the environment. Bush second cousin and co-creator Sheila House said she doesn't believe the effort is a betrayal. The people behind the Web site are all grandchildren of Mary Bush House, the sister of Prescott Bush, who was the father and grandfather of the two Bush presidents. That makes them second cousins of the president. The Bush campaign hasn't commented.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7226/1/E-Eyewitness-to-a-failure-in-Iraq---PGALBRAITH.html Eyewitness to a failure in IraqBy Peter W. Galbraith | October 27, 2004IN 2003 I went to tell Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz what I had seen in Baghdad in the days following Saddam Hussein's overthrow. For nearly an hour, I described the catastrophic aftermath of the invasion -- the unchecked looting of every public institution in Baghdad, the devastation of Iraq's cultural heritage, the anger of ordinary Iraqis who couldn't understand why the world's only superpower was letting this happen.I also described two particularly disturbing incidents -- one I had witnessed and the other I had heard about. On April 16, 2003, a mob attacked and looted the Iraqi equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control, taking live HIV and black fever virus among other potentially lethal materials. US troops were stationed across the street but did not intervene because they didn't know the building was important.When he found out, the young American lieutenant was devastated. He shook his head and said, "I hope I am not responsible for Armageddon." About the same time, looters entered the warehouses at Iraq's sprawling nuclear facilities at Tuwaitha on Baghdad's outskirts. They took barrels of yellowcake (raw uranium), apparently dumping the uranium and using the barrels to hold water. US troops were at Tuwaitha but did not interfere.There was nothing secret about the Disease Center or the Tuwaitha warehouses. Inspectors had repeatedly visited the center looking for evidence of a biological weapons program. The Tuwaitha warehouses included materials from Iraq's nuclear program, which had been dismantled after the 1991 Gulf War. The United Nations had sealed the materials, and they remained untouched until the US troops arrived.The looting that I observed was spontaneous. Quite likely the looters had no idea they were stealing deadly biological agents or radioactive materials or that they were putting themselves in danger. As I pointed out to Wolfowitz, as long as these sites remained unprotected, their deadly materials could end up not with ill-educated slum dwellers but with those who knew exactly what they were doing.This is apparently what happened. According to an International Atomic Energy Agency report issued earlier this month, there was "widespread and apparently systematic dismantlement that has taken place at sites previously relevant to Iraq's nuclear program." This includes nearly 380 tons of high explosives suitable for detonating nuclear weapons or killing American troops. Some of the looting continued for many months -- possibly into 2004. Using heavy machinery, organized gangs took apart, according to the IAEA, "entire buildings that housed high-precision equipment."This equipment could be anywhere. But one good bet is Iran, which has had allies and agents in Iraq since shortly after the US-led forces arrived.This was a preventable disaster. Iraq's nuclear weapons-related materials were stored in only a few locations, and these were known before the war began. As even L. Paul Bremer III, the US administrator in Iraq, now admits, the United States had far too few troops to secure the country following the fall of Saddam Hussein. But even with the troops we had, the United States could have protected the known nuclear sites. It appears that troops did not receive relevant intelligence about Iraq's WMD facilities, nor was there any plan to secure them. Even after my briefing, the Pentagon leaders did nothing to safeguard Iraq's nuclear sites.I supported President Bush's decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein. At Wolfowitz's request, I helped advance the case for war, drawing on my work in previous years in documenting Saddam's atrocities, including the use of chemical weapons on the Kurds. In spite of the chaos that followed the war, I am sure that Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein.It is my own country that is worse off -- 1,100 dead soldiers, billions added to the deficit, and the enmity of much of the world. Someone out there has nuclear bomb-making equipment, and they may not be well disposed toward the United States. Much of this could have been avoided with a competent postwar strategy. But without having planned or provided enough troops, we would be a lot safer if we hadn't gone to war.Peter W. Galbraith, a former US ambassador to Croatia, is a fellow at the Center For Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. In the 1980s, he documented Iraqi atrocities against the Kurds for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7225/1/E-George-Voinovich-runing-for-US-Senate-Seat.html ÂGeorge Voinovich's grandparents immigrated from CroatiaState Lawmaker Challenges Voinovich For US Senate Seat ÂVoinovich's grandparents immigrated from CroatiaVoinovich (R) | Fingerhut (D)(WCPO/WCPO.com) Reported by: A.P.Web produced by: Neil RelyeaPhotographed by: 9News10/24/04 11:09:51 PM A senator with millions of dollars and a well-known name is being challenged November 2 by a state lawmaker whose campaign included a walk across Ohio. Democrat Eric Fingerhut acknowledges that he's at a disadvantage against Republican George Voinovich, a former two-term governor and mayor of Cleveland who raised $9.5 million for the race. "I understand what we're up against," he said. Fingerhut, a state senator from the Cleveland area who has accrued just $1.1 million, says the election is about whether voters want the status quo or a change. "In some respects, Senator Voinovich and I agree about what this election is about. It's about jobs. What we disagree about is that Senator Voinovich thinks that things are heading in the right direction, and I don't," Fingerhut said in an interview with The Associated Press. To Voinovich, the race is about the economy and protecting America from terrorism. He says the national economy is improving, as recent data indicate, and Ohio needs his experience to get back on track. "What I am doing is bringing new thoughts to these areas. I understand what needs to be done," Voinovich told the AP. "I'm the change agent." America's payrolls continued to increase in September, with the economy adding 96,000 jobs, but the nation is still down 821,000 jobs since President Bush took office in 2001. Ohio's unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in August, compared to a national rate of 5.4 percent the last two months. In the Senate, Voinovich has supported a clean air bill that won't put power companies out of business, a highways bill he says would create jobs in Ohio and a new federal office focusing on manufacturing. He was among four senators to oppose Bush's plan to enact a tax cut larger than $350 billion over 10 years, unless spending could be reduced to pay for it. Voinovich says the lower tax cut has helped to foster some economic recovery and is an example of his fiscal discipline. Critics said the final package relied on budget gimmickry and really was larger than Voinovich had pledged to allow. Fingerhut has criticized Voinovich for supporting any size of tax cut, saying it has added to the country's deficit. He says Ohio's economy isn't on solid ground yet. Voinovich acknowledged the lagging state economy but said it would be worse without the tax cut. "We've seen some really significant growth in our economy," he said. "A lot of Ohioans still don't feel too good about things, but in terms of most of Americans, we have come a long way." Fingerhut's economic plan includes giving tax relief to recent college graduates and people who invest in startup businesses, continuing a tax credit for research and development and increasing government funding for higher education.Though he has less campaign money, Fingerhut says he has widespread support because of several grass-roots tactics, such as walking 335 miles across the state and working for a couple of hours at the Original Sub Shop & Deli in Toledo. His campaign also got a lift when trash talk show host Jerry Springer decided last year against running, guaranteeing an easy primary and drawing early attention to the contest. Both candidates know what it's like for working-class families to make ends meet. Fingerhut, 45, is the grandson of immigrants from Hungary and Eastern Russia and son of an insurance agent and a secretary. After his father died, he used his Social Security survivor benefits to become the first in his family to attend college. As a lawyer he worked with Cleveland's welfare program and legal aid clinic. Fingerhut won his first election to the state Senate in 1991 and a seat in the U.S. House the following year, at age 33. He lost re-election two years later to Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette. Fingerhut attributes the loss to several controversial votes, including one on an assault weapons ban that expired this year. He also cast a pivotal vote to help pass President Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction bill, which included some unpopular tax increases. "There's no shame in losing an election when you did the right thing," Fingerhut said. Voinovich's grandparents immigrated from Croatia, and he grew up in a big family. He was elected to the Ohio House in 1966, at age 30, and to the U.S. Senate in 1998. A win would make Voinovich the second Republican senator re-elected in Ohio since the 1950s. Sen. Mike DeWine was the first, in 2000. Voinovich, 68, wouldn't say whether this will be his last race for public office. Meanwhile, Fingerhut has brushed off questions about whether the race is about building name recognition and an organization to run for governor or attorney general in 2006. "I'm flattered, but I'll be busy in 2006 because I'll be Ohio's newest U.S. senator," he said. http://www.wcpo.com/news/2004/local/10/24/fingerhut.html  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7222/1/E-People-who-support-Bush.html ÂCanadian Ambassador James Bissett: Bush a better choiceSeptembar 29, 2004Former Canadian Ambassador to Yugoslavia in 1992, James Bissett. Ambassador says charges against Milosevic 'pure Fantasy' Canadian Ambassador James Bissett: Bush a better choiceAn Interview with the former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia, Mr. James Bissett Ottawa - Oct. 22, 2004 "…From a Serb point of view a Kerry's victory is the worst that might happen for them, their interests and the Balkans." ÂGlasajte za Busha: Preporucuje udruzenje Srpsko-Americkih biraca u AmericiOktobar 14, 2004With American Serbs comprising a little over million votes in what appears to be another closely-contested US presidential election, Serbian American Voters' League has launched a number of initiatives as part of its public education campaign -- Serbs for Bush -- to empower American Serbs to become part of the democratic process and vote for Bush. To understand why a Republican or Bush's foreign policy would be better for the Serbs then that of Democrat candidate John Kerry, we are joined by Mr. James Bissett, former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia and one of the leading experts on the Balkans affairs. What has been the American foreign policy like in the Balkans since 1992? Bissett: You can sum it up in a few words. American foreign policy in the Balkans has been disastrous, particularly for the Serbian people. The initial signs of the early break-up of Yugoslavia were ignored by the USA. That country was preoccupied with other things, such as the collapse of the USSR and the first Iraq war. At the last moment- the eleventh hour- they tried to keep Yugoslavia together. It was a halfhearted attempt. Secretary of States, James Baker was dispatched to Belgrade to try and convince the leaders of the various Republics to stay together, but his mission failed. The Americans then pretty well gave up on the idea of the united Yugoslavia and later yielded to Germany's insistence that early recognition be given to the independence of Croatia and Slovenia. 1) Holbrooke flatly asserts that the Serbs were not "rational people with whom one could argue, negotiate, compromise, and agree... they respected only force or an unambiguous and credible threat to use it" http://news.suc.org/bydate/2001/Aug_02/4.html ÂCleveland Plain Dealer endorsementby kos Sat Oct 23rd, 2004 at 21:43:02 GMT- letters@plaind.com - Send your commentsHere's the scoop.The Cleveland Plain Dealer is published by Alex Machaskee, a Serb who considers Richard Holbrook an architect of the bombing of Belgrade (during the Kosovo War). Word leaked that the Kerry campaign planned on sending Richard Holbrook to meet with the Plain Dealer's editorial board and try to win Kerry's endorsement. Word was sent to the Kerry campaign through several channels to keep Holbrook the heck away from Machaskee. The Kerry campaign knew. And they still sent Holbrook to meet with the Plain Dealer.Word has it that after Holbrook met with the editorial board and left the room, Machaskee looked around the room, crinckled up his nose, and said, "Now we're gonna have to fumigate this place."No big surprise, then, that the rumor is Malchov has overruled his own editorial board and ordered the paper to endorse Bush.Update: to be clear, no endorsement has been made yet. The rumor is that Machaskee has ordered the editorial board to make the endorsement. I assume there will be negotiations of some sort to resolve the impasse. http://www.dailykos.com/main/2 ÂOp-ed:These are the people who support Bush ! Besides presidents of Iran and North Korea. www.serbsforbush.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7221/1/H-Hrvatska-i-Hrvati-u-BiH.html ÂHrvatska i HrvatiuBiHNeki kritičari, politici vlade premijera Sanadera zamjeraju kako u ispunjavanju obveza prema EU ne poklanja dovoljno pozornosti pitanjima koja se odnose na porast životnog standarda. Također, prema njima i briga o Hrvatima u BiH je u drugom planu. Ja ne mislim tako. Sanader slijedi svoj put. Na tom se putu susreće sa brojnim (već postojećim) poteškoćama. Njegov pristup problemu je aktivan: ne dopušta da mu problemi zasjene cilj kojem se približava. Poznato mu je kako su gospodarski zaostale zemlje, ulaskom u EU ostvarile znatan porast životnog standarda i unaprijedile socijalnu sigurnost. Ustavna je obveza Hrvatske praćenje stanja i pomoć Hrvatima ma gdje se u svijetu nalazi. To podrazumijeva i pomoć Hrvatima u BiH kako bi ostvarili punu jednakopravnost s druga dva naroda. Hrvatska na svom putu u Europu lobira za to - kao i za dobrobit BiH u cijelosti. Nemoguće je odjeliti prostor koji se kao lego kocka uklapa u Europu. Istovremeno, svjedoci smo žive diplomatske i svake druge aktivnosti hrvatskih predstavnika vlasti prema BiH. U proteklih mjesec dana posjetili su nas: Hebrang, Primorac i Šeks. Potpredsjednik vlade Andrija Hebrang otvorio je radove na KB Mostar, obišao sveučilište, dao potporu Aluminiju - najuspješnijem poduzeću u BiH koje može biti dobar primjer gospodarske suradnje Hrvatske i BiH. Ministar znanosti obrazovanja i športa Dragan Primorac se u Sarajevu susreo sa Federalnim ministrom obrazovanja Halilovićem kako bi podupro ostvarenje jednakopravnosti Hrvata na svoj jezik; obišao je Mostarsko sveučilište te dao potporu jedinom sveučilištu na službenom hrvatskom jeziku. Prošlotjedna posjeta predsjednika Sabora Vladimira Šeksa je od osobite važnosti. Sa Šeksom su u delegaciji osim saborskih zastupnika (Ćosić i Bagarić) bili nazočni i potpredsjednici Sabora Luka Bebić i Mato Arlović. Delegacija Hrvatskog Sabora je u dva dana posjetila Parlament, Vladu i Predsjedništvo BiH, kardinala Puljića, provincijala Miju Džolana, hrvatske kulturne institucije Maticu Hrvatsku i Napredak, gradsku upravu Mostara, Aluminij, Mostarsko sveučilište, Kliničku bolnicu i biskupski ordinarijat. Šeks je vodio razgovore o svim pitanjima važnim za obje zemlje. Ostvarenje jednakopravnosti Hrvatskog naroda je pitanje svih pitanja. Nitko ne može kršiti ustavna prava Hrvata u BiH a sa druge strane očekivati ustupke Hrvatske. Kako se ponekad odnosimo (vlast BiH) prema Hrvatskoj najbolje govore neka iskustva na polju privatizacije javnih poduzeća u BiH. Ostaje dilema radi li se samo o tržišnoj utakmici ili netko priječi ulaz hrvatskog kapitla u BiH? Mi u BiH kažemo kako luka Ploče ne bi imala smisla da nije na usluzi gospodarstvu BiH, isto tako vrijedi: što bi bilo sa gospodarstvom BiH da nije luke Ploče? Zbog svih ovih i drugih pitanja potrebno je voditi dijalog. Hrvatska pokazuje otvorenost za svaku vrst razgovora a osobito za ostvarenje prava Hrvata u BiH - koja moraju biti «ni manja ni veća» od druga dva naroda. Diplomatska aktivnost Hrvatske, novčana pomoć Hrvatske vlade Hrvatskim institucijama u BiH te skoro potpisivanja međudržavnog sporazuma o sudjelovanju Hrvatske u zbrinjavanju stradalnika HVO su sustavna i očita potpora opstanku Hrvata na prostoru BiH. Ova potpora sama po sebi nije dovoljna, ona mora biti u službi poticaja u usklađenom naporu kojeg mi u BiH svakodnevno ulažemo. Za vrijeme posjete provincijalu Miji Džolanu ostala mi je u ušima zvoniti njegova poruka: «radimo sve što možemo i radimo na najbolji način». ÂDr Ivan Bagarić letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7220/1/E-A-Croatian-missing-in-Iraq.html ÂA Croatian missing in IraqDevelopments concerning Iraq By Associated Press, 10/26/2004 12:24Developments concerning Iraq on Tuesday. Iraqi kidnappers released Jordanian businessman ZiadJabr Abu Irfai, two weeks after his abduction,following the payment of a ransom, his brother toldThe Associated Press. Irfai's brother, Mahmoud, didnot say how much was paid. The abductors had demanded$150,000. A Croat truck driver is missing in Iraq after aweekend attack on a convoy in which he was driving,his colleagues and family said in Croatia. Dalibor Burazovic, one of the seven Croat drivers inthe convoy, failed to turn up at Turkey's border aftergunmen opened fire on mostly Turkish trucks in thecenter of Mosul, another driver identified only asMladen told the Vecernji List daily. Officials in Iraqsaid two drivers one Turkish and one Yugoslav werekilled, while two others were wounded. Burazovic's sister told state-run Croatian radio shehas not heard from him since last week. In central Baqouba, a government official was gunneddown on his way to work while a roadside bomb attackleft one policeman dead and 10 others hurt, Iraqiofficials said. Two sets of car bombs exploded in northern Mosul, withone targeting a U.S. patrol, although no Americancasualties were reported, the U.S. military said. Twocivilians were injured, hospital officials said.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7224/1/E-Jadranka-Kosor-candidate-for-president.html ÂJadranka KosorCroatia's Ruling Party Nominates Candidate for PresidentÂ18/10/2004ZAGREB, Croatia -- The Croatian Democratic Union on Sunday (17 October) nominated Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, 51, as its candidate for president. The far-right Croatian Bloc announced Saturday that it has chosen Ivic Pasalic, a close associate of the late Franjo Tudjman. Miroslav "Ciro" Blazevic, who led Croatia's soccer team to third place in the 1998 World Cup, will run as an independent. Incumbent Stipe Mesic has not yet announced his intentions, but observers believe he will seek one more term. The election is scheduled for 21 December. (Vecernji List - 18/10/04; AFP, HINA, HRT - 17/10/04)http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2004/10/18/nb-04KOSOR, JADRANKA Rodena je 1.7.1953. u Pakracu. Hrvatica. Završila Pravni fakultet u Zagrebu; dipl.iur. Potpredsjednica je Odbora za pravosude i clanica Odbora za zakonodavstvo, Odbora za informiranje, informatizaciju i medije te Odbora za ravnopravnost spolova. Telefon: 01/4569-429; Telefax: 01/4569-321. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7223/1/E-Nader-ex-running-mate-endorses-Kerry.html ÂNader ex-running mate endorses Kerry Â- WASHINGTON (AFP) via News.Designerz.com Sunday October 17, 2004AFP/FileRalph Nader's running mate in two past presidential elections said she plans to cast her ballot in November for Democrat John Kerry."I'm voting my conscience on November 2 -- I'm voting for John Kerry," Native American activist Winona LaDuke wrote in comments published this past week in the Minneapolis Star Tribune."John Kerry provides promise for Native America and for America," said LaDuke, who lives on White Earth Reservation in the northern prairie state of Minnesota."His policy proposals involve vision -- like alternative energy, more accessible health care, and finding all those children who have been left behind by the (George W.) Bush administration."She said the Massachusetts senator's support of Native American communities demonstrates shows that "we are on his radar."LaDuke was most recently Nader's running mate during the controversial 2000 presidential election that saw Bush squeak out a razor-thin victory over Democratic candidate Al Gore -- with Nader's votes providing what many irate Democrats felt was the margin of victory for Bush.Nader, America's most famous consumer activist, is again running for president in 2004, but this time his running mate Peter Camejo, a California-based environmental activist.http://breaking-news.news.designerz.com/nader-ex-running-mate-endorses-kerry.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 24 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7229/1/E-Balkan-justice-joust-by-Jeff-Kuhner-of-The-Washington-Times.html ÂBalkan justice joustThe Washington TimesCommentaryOctober 24, 2004By Jeffrey T. KuhnerThe Bush administration is now demanding that the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte, bring her prosecutions to an end. Washington is insisting that war crimes cases relating to the Balkan wars of the 1990s be tried either in domestic courts or be given an amnesty. This shift not only marks a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward the ICTY, but more importantly, it is a fatal blow to the power and credibility of Mrs. Del PonteMrs. Del Ponte. In a recent interview, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton told me Washington is deeply concerned that the ICTY, rather than fostering ethnic reconciliation, has emerged as a threat to regional stability. "There is a very real risk that the ICTY prosecutions will not resolve the situation in the Balkans," Mr. Bolton said, "but will create new animosities that lead to tensions in the future." He emphasized the Bush administration is demanding war crimes cases at The Hague be sent back to national domestic courts. Mr. Bolton and other senior State Department officials are finally realizing what Mrs. Del Ponte and her fellow left-wing globalists have refused to acknowledge: The ICTY has degenerated into a politicized tribunal that has failed to live up to its original mandate. The irony is that the Clinton administration was largely responsible for creating the ICTY. Washington, however, now realizes that it has unleashed a Frankenstein monster. Instead of being an impartial body that seeks to punish those who committed or ordered war crimes, the tribunal has become a vehicle by which Mrs. Del Ponte has sought to rewrite the history of the Balkan wars. She has abused her office by issuing deeply flawed and weak indictments. The most obvious example is the bogus indictment against fugitive Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina, the commander of a 1995 military operation that effectively ended the Croatian-Serbian conflict. As Mr. Bolton notes, the problem with the ICTY is that it has no democratic accountability. Hence, there are no checks or balances against the misuse of power. Therefore, the Bush administration has concluded the only solution is to kick war crimes cases back to national domestic courts. "That is why our strategy with respect to the ICTY is to bring these prosecutions to an end and to return responsibility to Serbia, Croatia and to the other nations," Mr. Bolton said, "because, after all, many of the alleged crimes were carried out in their name and they need to confront that reality. They need to make the decisions whether to prosecute or not to prosecute Serbs or Croats respectively." The senior Bush administration official emphasized that "responsibility" for trying alleged war crimes "should rest on the shoulders of the people who have to live with the decisions they make." Ultimately, the United States rightly believes that the ICTY has become not only an undemocratic institution, but a direct threat to the development of democracy throughout the former Yugoslavia. Its greatest flaw is that, by virtue of being an international tribunal with little accountability, it is retarding the growth of independent judicial bodies and the rule of law within Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. For viable democracies to take root in the stony soil of the Balkans, it is imperative to cultivate fully functioning legal institutions. "One of the downsides of any distant court is that it takes away responsibility, and I don't think that is conducive to the political maturation of societies that we hope will become democratic and realize that they have to confront actions that their prior governments took," Mr. Bolton said. "So that is why our approach to the ICTY and with the Rwanda tribunal is to make and create institutions in the respective countries and to turn that authority back over to them." The record is now clear: The ICTY has been a dismal failure. The trial of the former Serbian strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, continues to drag on with no end in sight. Notorious Bosnian Serb leaders Gen. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic remain at large. The Gotovina indictment threatens to destabilize Croatia. Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians feel they will never receive justice. Serbs perceive the tribunal as being biased against them. Mrs. Del Ponte has managed to accomplish what no other person has before: Temporarily unite the warring peoples of the former Yugoslavia in their opposition to her. She is the Lady Macbeth of the Balkans, an unscrupulous political climber with delusions of grandeur. And like Lady Macbeth, Mrs. Del Ponte's lust for power has led to her downfall. Washington is right to yank her off the stage. Jeffrey T. Kuhner is editor of the Ripon Forum magazine and communications director at the Ripon Society, a Republican think tank. http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20041023-105636-4172r.htm  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7228/1/E-Kerry-for-Catholics-Who-Believe-in-the-Constitution.html ÂKerry the Candidate for Catholics Who Believe in the ConstitutionBy Shawn M. O'Donnell and Drucilla Badurina It seems clear to informed and discerning Roman Catholics that John Kerry's public positions prove that he should elected the next President of the United States. He should be the new leader of the United States, a secular nation that enshrines in its Constitution one of its founding principles, freedom of religion. John Kerry is not running for president because he and some of his advisors and supporters think he was chosen by God to do so. Nor does Kerry want to govern a country where separation of church and state becomes hazy and religion is dictated by the state or the state is dictated by religion.Kerry's public policy positions and senatorial voting record are much more closely aligned with our church's social and economic justice issues including health care, jobs and the environment. His belief in the importance of separation of church and state is not merely lip service. As he has stated, "I fully intend to practice my religion separately from what I do with my public life and that's the way it ought to be in America." It seems that ultraconservative Catholics and many on the Christian right are working to create a theocratic, oligarchic, plutocratic Christian government in the United States. They believe that this administration, with a president selected by God, leads a holy war against good and evil. Bush's public statements and private ones made public buttress that belief. According to one well known theologian, this administration and many of its Christian right supporters project an "American messianic nationalism."Unfortunately, recent statements by a number of Catholic bishops appear to suggest that, their protestations to the contrary, they might look with favor on just such a theocratic government. They might as well be upfront and open about it and ask the United States Council of Catholic Bishops to lobby for a constitutional amendment to establish Roman Catholicism as the state religion!The hypocrisy and secrecy of many of the U.S. Catholic Church's hierarchy in the sexual abuse scandal and the "manipulation" of the lay National Review Board investigating the scandal by some of the bishops have an eerie parallel to the hypocrisy and secrecy of the Bush administration. Pay, pray, obey, shut up and just trust us seems to be the rallying cry for both.History shows us the wisdom of the founding fathers in writing our Constitution. They knew from experience that separation of church and state was vitally important in this democratic republic and remains so to this day. Subsequent additional constitutional amendments that were inclusive of the people endured while those exclusive of the people failed and disappeared. One critic of the Bush administration's arrogant incompetence regarding its unprecedented, unilateral, pre-emptive war against and occupation of Iraq observed that perhaps the Iraqis should borrow our Constitution because Bush's administration isn't using it or abiding by it.John Kerry's campaign has said that religion should not be an issue in U. S. politics. A Kerry spokesman made this statement: "The decisions he [Kerry] will make as president will be guided by his obligation to all the people of our country and to the Constitution of the United States. Every American---whether they be Jewish, Catholic, Protestant or any other faith---must believe their president is representing them."In order to keep its tax-exempt status, the Catholic Church in the United States is prohibited from interposing or participating in political campaigns for or against any candidate. Even without that barrier, it is inappropriate for bishops, priests or religious to publicly endorse either political party or candidate. However, if they truly believe in the Constitution and freedom of religion, they should personally and privately support John Kerry's candidacy.Let us hope, for the good of this nation, the world and Catholics everywhere, the Democratic Party's candidate, John Kerry, will be elected the 44th President of the United States. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7232/1/E-Croatians-of-Vojvodina.html ÂCroatians of VojvodinaNFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANSNational Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) Instrumental in Amending 'Sense of Congress' Resolution on Serbian Elections in U.S. House of Representatives"Washington, D.C. ( October 12, 2004) - As the U.S. Congress hurried toward its elections adjournment, the Europe Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee marked up and passed H. Res. 726 on October 5th. The Resolution commended the people of Serbia for conducting free, fair, and democratic Presidential and municipal elections on June 27, 2004. It encouraged newly elected President Boris Tadic to further pursue democratic reforms, cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and continue down the path toward regional cooperation.The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) was instrumental in encouraging changes in the Resolution which noted additional steps the government of Serbia and Montenegro can take to protect the rights of minorities currently living in the Vojvodina Province of Serbia. Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the defenseless Croats of Vojvodina suffered as a result of ethnic cleansing actions carried out by indicted war criminal Vojislaw Seselj, were forced out of their homes in 1992, and fell victim to further upsurges in ethnic attacks in 1995. Recent violence against Croats and other minorities residing in the Province has been attributed to the resurgence of support for the extremist Serbian Radical Party. Many of these issues were first brought to the attention of the U.S. Congress by NFCA Treasurer Zvonko Labas when he appeared before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus panel with representatives from the Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations earlier in July.NFCA officials, together with NFCA lobbyist Joe Foley of Foley Government and Public Affairs Inc., provided a number of suggested amendments to the Resolution that were included in the final version by the Europe Subcommittee. At markup, Chairwoman Jo Ann Davis (R-VA) offered the new language for the Resolution which passed unanimously. The NFCA suggested changes that were accepted as part of the passed bill are illustrated with appropriate quotations markings in the following paragraphs.In the Preamble: Whereas Serbia and the Serbian people "are encouraged" to remain committed to democratic reforms and regional cooperation, "respect for the rights of all minorities, including in Vojvodina," and integration into Europe and Europe-Atlantic institutions, including NATO and the EU.In the Resolved clause a new paragraph on the third page: That the House of Representatives (4) "reaffirms the importance of establishing security and stability by respecting and protecting the human rights of all people, including all minority groups throughout Serbia and Montenegro."During the debate on the Resolution prior to its passage, Chairwoman Davis noted that the legislation "reaffirms the importance of respecting and protecting the economic, social, cultural, and religious rights of all minorities throughout Serbia including those Hungarian and Croat people, and others, who live in the Vojvodina region as well as those Serbs who live in Kosovo. The Serb people and government must understand that if they are to demand respect for the Serb minority in Kosovo, they themselves must respect the rights of other minorities living in Serbia."Due to the unique ending nature of this Congress, longtime Europe Subcommittee Staff Director Vince Morelli indicated that H. Res. 726 may see further action in the 'Lame Duck' session now scheduled to begin sometime the week of November 15th. However, Mr. Morelli noted that this is just a possibility due to the many scheduling intangibles on Capitol Hill at this time. NFCA President Ed Andrus noted on hearing of the passage of the Resolution: "We appreciate the fine work of Chairwoman Jo Ann Davis and her perceptive Subcommittee staff members on these important personal security issues facing Croats and other minorities in the Vojvodina Province. The current situation remains a major concern to the Croatian American community. We are hopeful that the amended language will help the Croats of Vojvodina. Their status has been an issue that has been overlooked by many human rights activists for a long time. This should at least bring this issue to the forefront in America's dealings with Belgrade." Mr. Andrus also cited the important contributions of Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), Ranking Minority Member of the Subcommittee, and Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA), as well as their talented staffs, on the success to date for this Resolution.For further information or a copy of amended H. Res. 726, please contact Mr. Foley via www.foleycoinc.com or Mr. Erik Milman at the NFCAWashington Office on 202-331-2830.The NFCA is a national umbrella group of Croatian Americans whose member organizations collectively represent approximately 120,000 members.ÂNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 Connecticut Ave, NW - Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 331-2830 Fax: (202) 331-0050  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7230/1/E-Why-Will-Croatian-Americans-vote-for-John-Kerry.html ÂÂWhy Croatian Americans will vote for John KerryÂDear Nenad:I'm Drucilla Badurina, President of Badurina & Associates. We are an advisory firm dealing with Euro-Atlantic international relations, business and economic issues. From 1998-2001, our main focus was United States-Croatia relations. Perhaps you might remember me. Many Croatians, Croatian Americans and Croatians worldwide are aware of us because of our work during that period. (Web site: http://badurina.com)Since that time, we have worked on other projects, but Croatia will always be a special area of interest. In fact, I'm working on a book about US-Croatia relations.However, the focal point of our current project, the most critical work of our lifetime, is helping to elect John Kerry and John Edwards. You wrote an excellent personal reminiscence op-ed piece for John Kerry a true Croatian Friend that preceded Kerry's statement in remembrance of Croatia's Statehood Day (Politics-21 Sep-04).I don't believe that some Croatian Americans realize the dreadful consequences another Bush-Cheney term will have on their lives here in the United States (e.g. their children and grandchildren having to pay off Bush's projected deficit of $2.33 TRILLION) but also the extremely negative impact it will have on Croatia and US-Croatia relations.To enlighten and inform them, I have written an article, "Why Croatian-Americans Who Care About Croatia Should Vote for John Kerry and John Edwards" and am submitting it to CROWN for posting.Thanks. Good to see that CROWN keeps on rolling.Regards,Drucilla BadurinaEmail: badurina@aol.com Phone: 540.372.4512ÂÂWHY CROATIAN AMERICANS WHO CARE ABOUT CROATIA SHOULD VOTE FOR JOHN KERRY AND JOHN EDWARDSÂByDrucilla BadurinaPresident, Badurina & AssociatesHere in the United States, the first Tuesday of November will mark the most important election in our lifetime. It's a choice between George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and a continuation of lies, hypocrisy and the erosion of our democratic rights, values and ideals OR John Kerry and John Edwards and truth, integrity and upholding those democratic rights, values and ideals.It's a choice between Bush-Cheney and four more years of government of, by and for corporate cronies like Enron and Halliburton OR Kerry-Edwards and government of the people, by the people and for the people. But Croatian Americans who care about Croatia should also vote to replace Bush-Cheney because of the imperial hubris of their relations with the Republic of Croatia and other nations that has made the United States less respected throughout the world. Seeking to deflect from their horrible failure and the increasing quagmire of Bush's war in Iraq, Bush constantly refers to the coalition of the willing in Iraq, frequently mentioning Poland (less frequently mentioning those other military giants: Palau, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, etc.) as if that makes his preemptive war more palatable. However, unlike Bush's assertions that the US is joined in this war by a coalition that wanted to liberate Iraq, find WMD's or any of the other 24 ever changing reasons he has used to defend the indefensible, Poland's Foreign Minister was brutally honest about why Poland was part of the coalition. It was not for liberation or democracy but for a share of Iraq's oil fields---to the victors belongthe important spoils. So, 13 Polish soldiers died for oil. (Now, the US is upset by Poland's defense minister's recent statement announcing the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq beginning in early 2005.) Fortunately, Croatia's government didn't attach itself to the coalition of the coerced and greedy, although pressure to provide even a token force was probably applied. So, unlike Poland and Italy for example, which lost troops, Croatia was spared the agony of its soldiers returning in "transfer tubes" (aka body bags) or without arms and legs.No matter how one feels about the International Criminal Court (ICC-not to be confused with the ICTY----the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), George W. Bush reached the heights of hypocrisy and bullying about this issue. In 2002, Bush formally renounced his predecessor's signature on the Rome Statue of the ICC. Last year, the Bush administration cut off military aid to 35 friendly countries, which included Croatia, because of their support of the ICC and refusal to exempt US soldiers from ICC jurisdiction.However, after the Abu Ghraib scandal and abuse of Guantanamo held prisoners became front page news worldwide, the Bush administration, in its usual flip-flop method, withdrew a U.N. Security Council resolution to exempt American soldiers from prosecution overseas and renounced the ratification process ofthe ICC. Croatians will remember how, in 2003, Bush's administration attempted, through a legal challenge at the WTO, to browbeat the European Union into lifting its moratorium on the sale of genetically modified (GM) seeds and foods in Europe. Croatians, like most Europeans, are concerned about possible harmful healthconsequences of GM food. Also, unlike some American corporate fast food mind sets, every European country, including Croatia, has its own cuisine which is an integral part of its culture.Acting like a cheerleader for American agribusiness and chemical corporations, Bush bullied Europe by fraudulently equating their refusal to grow GM crops for export to creating millions of starving people in less developed countries. (Actually, the hunger problem is more a result of how farmland is used rather than having any basis in the availability of GM food.)Then the Bush administration tried persuasion by invoking cost savings which was another lie. GM seeds are more expensive because they are patented. That means that farmers cannot save new seeds for another growing season because they belong to the seed company! (There is already a ludicrous lawsuit filed by a large agribusiness company against a farmer whose fields sprouted plants from wind blown seeds of neighboring farms.) Forced to buy new seeds every year would not help but further hurt subsistence farmers.However, Bush and his administration refuse to accept the reality of any issue, so their policies and plans, or lack thereof, result in terrible consequences for the United States and the rest of the world. ÂCroatian Americans need to face the fact that another four years of Bush's policies could seriously cripple United States-Croatia relations. If you care about strong future US-Croatia relations, a US relationship with Croatia that is enlightened, practical and respectful of Croatia's sovereignty, vote for John Kerry and John Edwards on November 2. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7233/1/E-Blaskic-Judgement-Overturned-due-to-Judge-Jordas-Errors.html ÂBlaskic Judgement OverturnedThis is the original English version of an articlethat appeared in issue 753 of Globus, 15.10.04Blaskic Judgement Overturned due to Judge Jorda'sErrorsBrian GallagherThe quashing of the majority of General Blaskicâsconvictions did not rely on new evidence. He waslargely exonerated because of errors the TrialChamber judges made and the prosecution not havingproved its case in the first place. Croatianpoliticians should request an independent UN inquiryinto the Tribunal, to determine how UN prosecutors andjudges convicted Blaskic in the first place.Contrary to popular belief, the issue of new evidencewas not as critical to the success of Blaskicâs appealso much as errors made by the original Trial Chamber. Indeed, many international media reports primarilyreferred to the criticism of the Trial Chamber by theAppeals Chamber. Londonâs The Times pointed out theAppeals Chamber had âsaid the court had misinterpretedthe law and punished Blaskic unfairlyâ€?. It alsoconsidered there may be implications for the Milosevictrial, âIf the tribunal cannot prove a serving generalhad command responsibility for forces in histerritory, it is likely to be more difficult toestablish it for a political leaderâ€?. The New York Times considered the decision a â strongreprimand of the work of the lower court, inparticular of the senior justice who presided over it,Judge Claude Jorda of France.â€? The Independent didnâtbother mentioning the new evidence at all, statingthat âThe ruling dealt a blow to prosecutors involvedin other cases concerning some of the worst ethnicviolence of the Balkan wars in the 1990s, in which twomore Bosnian Croat commanders, Dario Kordic and MarioCerkez, are contesting their charges.â€?Such reports were based on what the Appeals Chamberhad actually stated in their judgement. The Appeals Chamber re-affirmed findings made in theearlier Kupreskic appeal - which was also amiscarriage of justice concerning Ahmici - presidedover by American Judge Patricia Wald. Essentially,where the Trial Chamber had made a conviction thatcould not have been accepted by any tribunal or wherethe evaluation of evidence was âwholly erroneousâ€? itshould be overturned. The Trial Chamber was criticised on this basis; forexample in blaming Blaskic for Ahmici. The AppealsChamber stated that the original trial evidence didnot support the Trial Chamberâs finding that theBosnian Army was not preparing for combat in theAhmici area; the additional evidence simply confirmedthat. In other words, the Trial Chamber got it wrongin the first place. In relation to Blaskicâs order to attack Ahmici, theTrial Chamberâs assessed it as an order to attackmuslim civilians. This was found to be âwhollyerroneousâ€? and that âno reasonable trier of factâ€?could have reached that conclusion on the basis of the evidence before the Trial Chamber. This is veryserious criticism indeed. Furthermore, the Trial Chamber made errors of law,which the Appeals Chamber corrected, especially inregard to âcommand responsibilityâ. The Trial Chamber had considered that commandresponsibility meant that any person who orders anact, knowing that there is a risk of crimes beingcommitted is guilty of any such crimes. The Appealshad a different view: âThe knowledge of any kind ofrisk, however low, does not suffice for the impositionof criminal responsibility for serious violations ofinternational humanitarian law.â€? They pointed outthat the Trial Chamber seemed to think any militarycommander who gave an order was criminally liable, asthere is always a chance crimes could occur.The Appeals Chambers considered that âcommandresponsibilityâ should be applied only when a personorders an act or omission with the awareness thatthere is a substantial likelihood that a crime wouldbe committed in the execution of that order. This isa quite major finding, which will have implicationsfar beyond the Blaskic case, as the western press hasalready noted. For Blaskic, it meant that he was notfound responsible for ordering the crimes in Ahmici.The Appeals Chamber in fact expressed concern thathaving found Blaskic guilty of ordering crimes theTrial Chamber also found him guilty of not preventingor punishing those crimes. Blaskic it seems wasguilty of not preventing himself from committingcrimes and then not punishing himself for them. Little wonder the Appeals Chamber threw this lunacyout. It was also confirmed that the Prosecutors hadbreached Tribunal rules by not providing the defencewith documents they were entitled to have. This wasrectified during the appeal, but it points to anethical problem in the Prosecutorâs office, showingthey are not quite the moral force they portraythemselves as. One wonders how often they withholdevidence.In light of the severe rebuke the Appeals Chamber hasgiven to the Trial Chamber, it is hard to believe thatBlaskicâs original conviction was some kind ofaccident. The Croatian government is now in an excellentposition to press forward their case in theinternational community. The Blaskic acquittal givescredibility to the concerns regarding the case againstthe Bosnian Croats recently sent to the Hague and therole of Croatia that it alleges. Zagreb should do the same over the indictments ofGenerals Gotovina, Cermak and Markac for the Americancontrolled Operation Storm. Like the Blaskic case,its fairly clear - from evidence in the public domain- that these men are innocent. Those indictments should be dropped now; must we waityears for an Appeals Chamber to overturn theirinevitable guilty verdicts? Further, Zagreb should request an independent UNinvestigation into the entire performance of thetribunal during the Blaskic affair. As part of such arequest, all Court documents in the case not madepublic should be made public, so that the public has acomplete picture.If Croatia can investigate why documents were nothanded over, than surely the UN can investigate itsown far greater role. It was the UN that indicted,prosecuted and wrongly sentenced General Blaskic to 45years for crimes he did not commit. Judges did notapply the law correctly and came to conclusions thatthe evidence they had did not support. They bear theresponsibility for this shocking miscarriage ofjustice - not Croatia - and the individualsresponsible at The Hague should be held fullyaccountable by the international community.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 20 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7231/1/H-Obveze---Saborski-Zastupnik-Dr-Ivan-Bagaric.html ÂObvezeÂHrvati bi morali nadići svoj anakroni nacionalizam kazao je ministar talijanske vlade Giovanardi. Ta konstatacija i ne bi bila toliko čudna da je upućena nekim drugim povodom. Ali njome Giovanardi tako brani izvjesnog Finija koji je izjavio da su Istra i Dalmacija talijanske zemlje. Oni to pravo temelje na činjenici kako su tamo živjeli (i sada žive) Talijani. Slovenija računa na dio hrvatskog teritorijalnog mora a kao adut za ostvarenje tog Âprava drži svoju vojsku u Hrvatskoj - na Svetoj Geri. Valjda kako bi u danom trenutku trgovala: vama vaÅe a nama (opet) vaÅe. Milorad Pupavac misli da su Hrvati iz BiH u Hrvatskoj povlaÅtena klasa. Govori o prognanicima koji su već godinama nastanjeni u Hrvatskoj, a sada ih hrvatska vlada pokuÅava trajno zbrinuti. Ovi ljudi su prethodno prognani sa svojih ognjiÅta pa joÅ jednom - temeljem prava drugih na svoju imovinu iz privremeno zaposjednutog smjeÅtaja, i na koncu treće sreće â Hrvatske, ni tamo nemaju mira.Hrvatska je prihvatila obveze prema međunarodnim institucijama, prema susjedima, prema Srbima povratnicima itd. Nabrojane obveze su odraz političke volje i koliko god bile dodatno opterećenje za proračun provode se. Istovremeno, nekima su Hrvati iz BiH obveza (i viÅak) koja im prelijeva čaÅu strpljenja. Međunarodna zajednica čini sve kako bi Hrvatskoj pomogla ostvariti pristup Europskoj Uniji. To je proÅlog utorka u Saboru jasno kazao Povjerenik za proÅirenje Unije gospodin Gunter Verheugen. Na mene je ostavio dojam vrlo iskrenog čovjeka. Čovjeka koji hoće pomoći i čovjeka koji je svjestan da je Hrvatska (kao i BiH) oduvijek pripadala zapadnom svijetu. Međutim, to ne ide lako. Carla Del Ponte kaže da je Ante Gotovina viđen u Brelima. Istina, i ja sam vidio Gotovinu. Međutim, davno za vrijeme rata u kome su Srbi pokuÅali doći ne samo u Brela nego sve do Karlobaga. Hoće ljudi na more - ali na svoj način. U međuvremenu (ili za svaki slučaj), odnekud se pojavio joÅ jedan transkript s kojim Tuđman žestoko prijeti. Pročitao sam da je i ovaj iz Predsjednikova arhiva. Izgleda da su se neki ljudi osposobili za dodatne poslove i to za vrijeme obnaÅanja osnovne dužnosti. Budući će uskoro predsjednički izbori, bilo bi dobro da im narod omogući baviti se onim za Åto su pokazali najveću sklonost. Recimo, povijesnom građom i arhivom.Dr Ivan Bagarić letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 19 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7236/1/E-EU-sets-stricter-criteria-for-Croatia-joining.html ÂEU sets stricter criteria for Croatia joining ISN SECURITY WATCH (07/10/04) - The EU is changing its language and setting stricter membership criteria for newcomers from Southeastern Europe. European Commission reports released on Wednesday give green lights to Bulgaria and Romania for EU entry in 2007, but under a proposed "safeguard clause", warning that the two countries' membership could be delayed by a year if they faltered in their reform efforts. But in the case of Croatia, which was promised membership talks beginning early next year, the EC report's wording was surprisingly strict. According to the new tone adopted by the EU executive body, candidate countries will be driven by real reforms on the ground, rather than simply on paper, which may take much longer to prove. The report said that the EU reserved the right to suspend negotiations in case of what the EC called "a serious and persistent breach of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law". Croatia, which became an official EU candidate in June, was hoping to join the EU in 2007, together with Bulgaria and Romania, but EC officials are now skeptical of that date. EC officials told ISN Security Watch that Croatia's membership could be put off until 2009. Zagreb's hopes were dealt another blow on Wednesday, when the EC report stopped short of recommending a start date for membership talks. Instead, Zagreb was advised to continue to improve its democratic and human rights standards if it wanted to move towards membership talks. Brussels has already made it clear that full cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is a key condition for Croatia's EU membership. In particular, Brussels is concerned about the authorities' failure to turn over fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina, a former French Legionnaire indicted by the tribunal for crimes against Serb civilians during the 1992-1995 war in the Krajina region. Other requirements include advancing the refugee returns process and judicial reform. Despite the setback, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on Wednesday welcomed the EC's recommendation that the EU should start membership negotiations with his country in early 2005, without offering an exact date. "I would like to welcome the decision by the European Commission, which is another important step in the process of Croatia approaching the European Union," Sanader told journalists. It will be up to EU country leaders to decide at during a December summit whether to accept the commission's recommendations. In other news, support for EU membership has fallen dramatically in Croatia, just a few months since gaining candidate-member status. According to a poll by the Institutit Puls agency conducted in September, just under half (49 per cent) of those surveyed backed accession, while 41 per cent were opposed to joining the EU, compared to January when more than 70 per cent of Croatian voters supported joining the European bloc. (By Ekrem Krasniqi in Brussels)http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=9880 v letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 07 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7235/1/E-Former-Croatia-coach-Blazevic-to-run-for-president.html ÂFormer Croatia coach Blazevic to run for presidentWed Oct 6, 5:54 AM ET ZAGREB (AFP) - Former Croatia coach Miroslav Blazevic, who led the Balkan country to third place at the 1998 World Cup, is planning to run for president in elections due by February. "Certain people have convinced me to run for the presidency, since they believe I could win," Blazevic -- nicknamed 'Ciro' -- told the Jutarnji List daily on Wednesday. "They told me that I was the only one who can beat (President) Stipe Mesic." The date for the elections is not yet fixed but they are due to be held by February, when Mesic's five-year term expires. Mesic has said he would run for a second term. Blazevic claimed he could get the 10,000 signatures required to list as an independent candidate "in 24 hours". "I only need an announcer at the Zagreb stadium to say that Ciro needs 10,000 signatures," he said. The 68-year-old, who recently recovered from prostate surgery, is currently coaching Croatian first division side Varteks Varazdin. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041006/sp_soccer_afp/fbl_cro_blazevic_041006095438  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 06 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7234/1/H-Boris-Miksic-Prvi-Iseljenicki-Kandidat-za-Predsjednika.html ÂDODJITE I UPOZNAJTE PRVOG ISELJENICKOG KANDIDATA ZA PREDSJEDNIKA HRVATSKE KOJI SE BORI ZA INTERESE HRVATSKOG ISELJENISTVAÂSubota 9. Listopada 2004. New YorkBoris Miksic ce se susresti sa Hrvatima u popularnim hrvatskim okupljalistima (Albona, Luna, Scorpio)12.30 p.m.Susret sa mladima u Valentinu5.00 p.m. Fairview N. J. - susret sa Hrvatima New Jerseya7.00 p.m. ISTRA KLUB- Banket (Ulaz slobodan)Nedjelja 10. Listopada 2004.10.45 a.m. Misa u Most Precious Blood Crkvi- AstoriaSusret sa zajednicom nakon Svete Mise.1. p.m. - Zakuska u RUDAR KLUBU3. p.m. ? HRVATSKI CENTAR na ManhattanuBoris ce prisustvovati Lickom banketu za izgradnju Crkve u Udbini.U organizaciji prijatelja Borisa MiksicaZa sve informacije telefon 1 - 888 94 BORISwww.borismiksic.net letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 06 Oct 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7238/1/E-Ljiljanna-Ravlich-First-woman-born-in-a-non-English.html ÂLjiljanna RavlichLjiljanna Ravlich First woman born in a non-English speaking country to be appointed a minister in the State Government. Ms Ravlich is also the first Croatian-born woman ever elected to a parliament outside Croatia.ÂMinister flies migrant flag Ljiljanna Ravlich notched up a record for migrant West Australians yesterday, becoming the first woman born in a non-English speaking country to be appointed a minister in the State Government.After a brief caucus meeting yesterday, Ms Ravlich, 46, was elevated to Cabinet, taking up the ministerial responsibilities left by the resignation last week of Local Government Minister Tom Stephens, who will now run as the Labor candidate in the Federal seat of Kalgoorlie.Ms Ravlich dismissed claims her factional status as one of Labor's powerbrokers in the Centre faction had won her the job rather than her parliamentary work."I see myself as being a meritorious candidate and nothing will convince me otherwise," Ms Ravlich said. "I'm over the moon about being the next minister elected to the Cabinet."As the first woman born in a non-English speaking country to be elected to the WA Parliament, I am very honoured and I know that I represent the aspirations of hundreds of thousands of migrant West Australians."Born in Split, Croatia, Ms Ravlich is also the first Croatian-born woman ever elected to a parliament outside Croatia.http://www.thewest.com.au/20040922/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto129389.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 28 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7240/1/E-Anton-Srdanovics-Cruise-to-Victory.html “Cruise to Victory”Anton SrdanovicÂThe honorable James Ortenzioand theNew York Republican County Committeeinvite you to a special event for US Congressional CandidateAnton Srdanovic“Cruise to Victory”Wednesday, October 6th, 6:00 pmTo be a passenger, there is a minimum suggested donation of $125Please rsvp as soon as possible since space is limited!If you are interested in helping to sponsor or need more information, please contact us at: Info@AntonForCongress.com or call 212 / 831 – 6774WWW site: http://www.AntonForCongress.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7239/1/E-John-Kerrys-letter-to-the-Croatian-Fraternal-Union.html ÂÂJohn Kerry's letter to the Croatian Fraternal UnionSeptember 23, 2004Dear Mr. Bernard Luketich:I would like to offer my greetings and best wishes to you and the Croatian Fraternal Union Federation on your 110th Anniversary. I would very much like to be here with all of you to help celebrate your achievements over more than a century of service to the Croatian American community, but the fight to take back the White House continues to take me far and wide across our great land.For over a hundred years, Croatians have contributed to the rich diversity of immigrants that have made America what it is today. Our nation owes much to you and your families who sought to better their fortunes here, and who have contributed so much to our culture, our freedom, and our prosperity. Today, Croatia continues to stand with America in meeting our greatest challenges; with forces fighting in Afghanistan and Croatian doctors treating injured Iraqi children in Zagreb. For all of this, America is grateful. America and the world is safer and stronger when we act with our allies. This administration has walked away from more than a hundred years of American leadership in the world and embraced a new and dangerously ineffective American disregard for the world. Time and again, this administration has confused leadership with going it alone and engagement with compromise of principle - they fail to understand that real leadership means standing by your principles and rallying others to join you. As president, I will rebuild America's leadership in the world through strength and cooperation with its friends and allies. My administration will seek to expand relations between the U.S. and Croatia through greater dialogue and discussion at the highest levels of government as well as from the input and experience of Croatian-American groups such as the Croatian Fraternal Union. Croatian Americans have contributed so much to make our country great. I will work to make certain that the United States and Croatia not only remain allies, but that we become even closer partners on issues of security, trade and investment, and culture. And I intend to work with our European allies to see that Croatia is able to take its place as a law-abiding member of the key institutions that helped to win the Cold War, including NATO and the European Union. Sincerely Yours, John Kerry letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7237/1/E-Dr-Ivo-Sanader-addresses-the-UN-General-Assembly.html ÂCroatia's prime minister Ivo Sanader addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New YorkÂCroatia's prime minister Ivo Sanader addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York, September 22, 2004. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 23 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7241/1/E-John-Kerry-a-TRUE-Croatian-friend.html ÂJohn Kerry a true Croatian FriendÂOp-edJohn Kerry is not saying this just before election. I witnessed his comments in 1991 - 1995, when it was the most difficult for us. Recently, few weeks ago while cleaning my basement, I found a note saying "Send thank you notes to Senator John Kerry and Joseph Biden, for their support". I remember when I wrote those notes, and that was at the time when George Bush senior, Lawrence Eagleburger and the rest of the administration supported embargo on "Yugoslavia", which in reality meant, let the aggressor (Serbs) win. They had arms, more than they could use it and we Croatians had NONE. We still won, in part, thanks to people like John Kerry and many other friends that we had in America.ÂNenad BachEditor in Chief, CROWN Croatia.orgÂDemocratic presidential candidate John Kerry issued the following statement Sunday in remembrance of Croatia's Statehood Day:"Today I join the people of Croatia and Croatian descent as they celebrate Croatia's Statehood Day. Over a decade has passed since Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in the early 90's. Independence has not always been easy, but in joining the Adriatic Charter in 2002, Croatia has taken positive steps toward securing its own peace and becoming integrated into a Europe whole and free. I congratulate Croatia on the progress it has made and urge Croatians to continue working for peace, justice and democracy in their country. For over a hundred years, Croatians also have contributed to the rich diversity of immigrants that have made America what it is today. Our nation owes much to those hard-working men and women who sought to better their fortunes here, and who have contributed so much to our culture, our freedom, and our prosperity. Croatians around the world have earned the right to celebrate their independence on this day."www.johnkerry.comFor Immediate Release May 30, 2004Contact: George Kivork, 202-712-3000 Photographer: Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc. from Sharon Farmer letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 21 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7242/1/E-Dr-Ivo-Sanader-Prime-Minister-of-Croatia-in-New-York.html Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson with Dr. Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of Croatia ÂSwedish Prime Minister Goran Persson (L), recipient of the Appeal of Conscience World Statesman Award, shakes hands with Dr. Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister of Croatia (R), and Rabbi Arthur Schneier (C), Appeal of Conscience president, at an awards banquet in New York, September 20, 2004. REUTERS/Chip East  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 20 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7243/1/E-Cyprus-backs-Croatias-EU-efforts.html ÂCyprus backs Croatia's EU efforts10 September 2004 Cyprus is supporting Croatia's aspirations to join the European Union and is ready to help the Balkans country in accession talks through its own experiences, Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou said here on Friday. "Cyprus has supported Croatia's aspiration to join the (European) Union and it has supported the commencement of negotations," with the 25-nation-bloc, Iacovou told journalists. Iacovou, who spoke after meeting his Croatian counterpart Mimior Zuzul, offered to share with Zagreb his country's experiences in accession talks. "Croatia is a Mediterranean country like ourselves and it is in our own interest that the expansion of the European Union also goes to the south and Mediterranean countries." Croatia was recently granted official EU candidate status and is to start accession talks early next year. It hopes to join the bloc in 2007, along with Bulgaria and Romania. The divided island of Cyprus, represented by its internationally recognized Greek Cypriot side, joined the EU on May 1 along with nine other countries. Cyprus has been split since 1974 when Turkey occupied the north in response to a Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece. A last-ditch effort to reunify Cyprus' Greek and Turkish communities before EU accession failed in April when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan that Turkish Cypriots endorsed. "We will not turn our backs to the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the (Cyprus) problem and hope that this will be soon rather than later," Iacovou said on Friday. Iacovou, on a one-day visit to Zagreb, also met President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040910133828.pn1hrs2u  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 09 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7246/1/E-Macedonia-and-Croatia-agree-to-cooperate-on-EU-accession.html ÂMacedonia and Croatia agree to cooperate on EU accession06 September 2004 Croatia and Macedonia signed a cooperation accord Monday to help each other join the European Union as Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader visited Macedonia for meetings with top officials. The signing ceremony followed talks between Sanader and Macedonian Prime Minister Hari Kostov. "The region needs peace and development after a crisis of many years," Sanader said after the meeting, referring to the wars which tore the former Yugoslav federation apart in the 1990s. He said the "project of a united Europe cannot be realised without the countries of southeastern Europe". The EU recently granted Croatia official candidate status while Macedonia lodged its formal request to join the bloc earlier this year. http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040906135745.i7am5s6a letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 08 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7245/1/E-Balkans-pact-chief-says-Croatia-important-for-Balkan-stability.html ÂBalkans pact chief says Croatia important for Balkan stability08 September 2004 Croatia's efforts to join the European Union are important for Balkan stability, a senior EU official, Erhard Busek, said Wednesday. Busek is coordinator of the Stability Pact for southeastern Europe, launched in 1999 to promote democratisation, economic reconstruction and security throughout the Balkans where a series of wars erupted in the 1990s. "We are prepared to assist Croatia in every way possible to reach this aim (EU membership) because it is of a great importance for the whole Stability Pact and the situation in the region," Busek said after meeting Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul. Croatia was recently granted official EU candidate status and is to start accession talks early next year. It hopes to join the bloc in 2007, along with Bulgaria and Romania. Busek is also expected to meet Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040908120950.eriihzu4  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 08 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7244/1/E-Britain-ratifies-Croatias-EU-association-agreement.html ÂBritain ratifies Croatia's EU association agreement03 September 2004 Britain on Friday ratified an EU association agreement with Croatia that it had previously refused to sign owing to concerns about Zagreb's alleged lack of cooperation with the UN war crimes court at The Hague, the British embassy said."Croatia's future is in the EU and Croatia will have our full support as it tackles the next step in its journey towards full membership," an embassy statement quoted British Minister for Europe Denis MacShane as saying. "I hope that Croatia's success will encourage others in the region to tackle the necessary reforms." Britain's concerns about cooperation with The Hague centered on one of the tribunal's most wanted fugitives, retired Croatian general Ante Gotovina. Zagreb claims the 48-year-old Gotovina, wanted for war crimes against Serbs during Croatia's 1991-95 independence war, has problabely fled abroad. He has been on the run since mid-2001 when the UN court charged him. MacShane said "it is vital that Ante Gotovina appears before the tribunal in The Hague as soon as possible." Croatia received EU candidate status in June and is to start accession talks early next year. It hopes to join the bloc in 2007, along with Bulgaria and Romania. Copyright  2004 AFP. http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040903134327.vcywn60h  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 04 Sep 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7247/1/E-Vanessa-Redgrave-on-Goli-Otok-and-Guantanamo.html Goli OtokVanessa Redgrave: Guantanamo's torture regime is a shameful disgraceThe British intelligence services and the Foreign Office appear complicit in the torture23 August 2004The IndependentI have just returned from a theatre workshop inCroatia, with women who survived Tito's concentrationcamp for political prisoners on the island of GoliOtok. Officially this was a "work site" or "labourcamp", and was opened by the Yugoslav State SecurityService in 1948, when Tito split from Stalin.The women prisoners were suspected of beingpro-Stalin. They were never formally charged with acrime, and were never tried or given access to lawyersor a chance to defend themselves. On the island theywere subjected to hideous beatings, forced to standover urine buckets or against a wall for hours on endin "stress-positions"; they were deprived of sleep,denied food and drinking water as punishment andlocked away in isolation. They were prohibited fromwashing even in the sea, and had to endure repeatedinterrogations and "self-criticism". They were called"bandits", "scum", "traitors", "enemies of the state".In effect, Stalin's methods were being used by theState Security Service against those suspected ofbeing "pro-Stalin". No one knows how many went mad,how many died, or how many attempted suicide. InTito's time, this was a "State Secret".All the survivors of Goli Otok (the island had a campfor men as well) agree that under prolonged conditionsof torture, they would do anything, say anything,write anything and sign anything that was demanded ofthem in the hope of being released.I have also just finished reading the 115-pagedocument Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Baycompiled by Birnberg Pierce & Partners, lawyers forthe three British citizens released from GuantanamoBay without charge in March. Their accounts ofdetention are horrifyingly similar to the conditionsin Goli Otok. In both cases, the denial of a trial,and a specified date of release added to the physicaltorture the three endured.Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed werecaptured in northern Afghanistan in November 2001. Allthree state that they were physically tortured inSherbagan, Kandahar, before being consigned to thepsychological and physical hell of Guantanamo Bay. InMarch this year they were sent back to England andreleased without charges.Asif and Shafiq say they were interrogated by an SASofficer in Kandahar before they were flown toGuantanamo. Rhuhel states that he was questioned inKandahar by MI5 and separately by someone from theForeign Office. He was in a terrible state fromprolonged sleep deprivation, starvation anddehydration. The MI5 officer told him he would be senthome if he agreed to "admit to everything" that wasput to him. "I just said 'OK' to everything they saidto me. I agreed with everything, whether it was trueor not. I just wanted to get out of there." Duringtheir two years of incarceration in Guantanamo M15officers and a representative of the British embassyin Washington made six or seven visits/interrogations.All three men made complaints about the conditionsunder which they were being held; and about theinterrogations by US military intelligence and otherUS agencies. The British intelligence services and theForeign Office appear therefore to be complicit in theconditions of psychological and physical torture inAfghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.The document depicts a Kafkaesque nightmare combinedwith a barbaric system of punishments, including"short-shackling" for hours on end. Any decent person,British or American, could only feel the utmost shameand revulsion that such methods should be used.It is clear from the accounts of the three Britishdetainees that many prisoners have gone mad and manyhave attempted suicide. The Foreign Office has evadedthe requests of family lawyers to allow independentdoctors to see the British citizens and UK residentswho still remain in Guantanamo.Torture is morally repugnant, degrading both thetortured and the torturers. It is also whollydestructive of security, which in part depends onintelligence. Torture produces dysfunctionalintelligence since the suspect is being forced to giveonly the answers the interrogators want.Article 2 of the UN Convention on Torture, 1984,states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever,whether a war or a threat of war, internal politicalinstability or any other public emergency, may beinvoked as a justification of torture." Both the UKand the US signed and ratified this convention. Yetour Appeal Court has upheld our Government's case foraccepting evidence extracted under torture.In the name of security, our Government is destroyingthe principles and the laws which are the foundationsof the security of all citizens; these principles wereproclaimed by the American Patriots in theirDeclaration of Independence and after the war, intheir constitution which also prohibits cruel anddegrading treatment. It is a spine-chilling disgracethat the Blair government has supported the Guantanamotorture regime, and agreed to the pre-tribunalhearings that have been repudiated by US civil rightslawyers and human-rights NGOs.Âhttp://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=554088 info@guantanamo.chr.org 23 August 2004 02:35 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 23 Aug 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7248/1/E-Dropping-the-genocide-charges-is-currently-not-an-option.html ÂCroatia confident on genocide caseZAGREB -- Monday – International law expert, Ivo Josipolic, said that Croatia would not have filed charges of genocide against Serbia-Montenegro if they did not feel that they had a valid and strong case. Radoslav Stojanovic, who is in charge of coordinating Serbia-Montenegro’s defense case, recently said that the charges would not hold up in court. Croatian Justice Minister ,Vesna Skare Ozbolt, would not comment on Stojanovic’s claims, but said that dropping the charges is currently not an option. http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=29506&order=priority&style=headlines  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 16 Aug 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7250/1/E-Catholics-and-voting-in-2004-USA-Elections.html ÂCatholics and voting in 2004 USA ElectionsSOURCE: Gallup Poll News ServiceCONTACT INFORMATION: Media Relations 1-202-715-3030Subscriber Relations 1-888-274-5447World Headquarters901 F StreetWashington, DC 20004August 10, 2004Catholic Vote Split Based on Level of Religious CommitmentPracticing Catholics more likely to support Bushby Jeffrey M. JonesGALLUP NEWS SERVICEPRINCETON, NJ -- Historically a solid Democratic voting group, in the past three decades Catholics have become a key swing voting group in American presidential elections. Catholics broke with their historical voting pattern to support victorious Republican candidates in 1972, 1980, and 1984, according to Gallup final pre-election poll estimates. Aside from the 1988 election, Catholics have supported the candidate who won the popular vote in every election since 1972.Catholics, who comprise a substantial amount (about 25%) of the population, are of special interest this year since Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is the first Catholic major-party nominee since 1960. Recent polling has shown Catholics with a slight preference for Kerry over President George W. Bush. However, among practicing Catholics -- those who attend church on a weekly basis -- Bush leads Kerry. Catholics who attend church infrequently support Kerry by a wide margin. The Overall Catholic VoteThe last five Gallup surveys have shown Kerry with at least a slight lead over Bush among Catholic registered voters. In the most recent poll, Catholic registered voters favored Kerry by a 51% to 45% margin. Before mid-May, Bush had at least a slight lead among Catholics in every poll. It is unclear why the shift occurred in mid-May; especially when the national vote among registered voters has remained fairly stable since it became clear Kerry would be the Democratic nominee. One possibility is that as voters learned more about Kerry, they became aware of his Catholic faith. Kerry's faith has been an election-year issue, as well. Some Catholic bishops have argued that Catholic politicians, like Kerry, whose policy positions on matters such as abortion rights are not consistent with church teachings, should be denied Communion when attending church. The Catholic DivideWhile the overall Catholic vote would still appear to be very much up-for-grabs, but presently leaning toward Kerry, a closer look at the data reveal that Catholics themselves are divided in their support, according to their frequency of attending church. Combined data from Gallup's two most recent polls, conducted July 19-21 and July 30-Aug. 1, show that Catholic registered voters who attend church weekly support Bush over Kerry by a 52% to 42% margin. This group represents about one-third of all Catholic registered voters. Among Catholic registered voters who attend church on a semi-regular basis -- that is, nearly every week or monthly -- Kerry leads Bush by 50% to 45%. This group represents slightly more than one-quarter of all Catholic registered voters, 27%. Among Catholic registered voters who attend church on an infrequent basis -- that is, "seldom" or "never" -- Kerry has a large 57% to 39% lead. This is the largest group of Catholics, representing just under 40% of all U.S. Catholic registered voters (38%). As such, Kerry tends to appeal to non-practicing Catholics, while Bush appeals more to practicing Catholics. Bush's policy stands on abortion, stem-cell research, and same-sex marriage appear to be more consistent with Catholic teachings than Kerry's. In general, Gallup Poll data show that practicing Catholics are much more likely to share the stances on policies espoused by the church than are non-practicing Catholics. Last week, Bush, who is a Methodist, made a direct appeal to Catholic voters in a speech at a large Catholic gathering in Dallas. Hispanic CatholicsPart of Kerry's appeal to Catholics could be because he appeals to Hispanic voters, who are overwhelmingly Catholic (62%, according to Gallup's June Minority Relations poll). But recent Gallup data suggest that Hispanic Catholics are only slightly more likely to support Kerry than are white Catholics, although there is not as strong a relationship between Hispanic Catholics' church attendance and support for Bush as there is among Catholics overall. Among Hispanic Catholic registered voters, Kerry led 58% to 36% in the June Minority Relations poll, and his lead among white Catholic registered voters in that poll was similar, at 55% to 43%. Kerry led Bush 54% to 41% among all Catholic registered voters in that poll.Though the sample sizes are too limited to draw firm conclusions, the data suggest that Hispanic registered voters who attend church weekly give less support to Kerry than Hispanics who attend church on a less frequent basis. Still, it appears Kerry would maintain a lead over Bush in both groups. Survey MethodsThese results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 545 Catholic registered voters, aged 18 and older, from polls conducted July 19-21 and July 30-Aug. 1. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±5 percentage points. Data for Hispanics are based on interviews with 503 Hispanics, aged 18 and older, conducted June 9-30, 2004. The sample of 166 Hispanic Catholic registered voters has a margin of sampling error of ±14 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.Larry CirignanoLarryvote@aol.com www.CatholicVote.org 120 Riverwood Ave.PO Box 118Far Hills, NJ 07931609-781-0090908-234-1978 faxLarry Cirignano617-755-7668 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 13 Aug 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7249/1/E-Otto-von-Habsburg-champions-Croatia-as-a-typical-European-country.html ÂOtto von Habsburg champions Croatia as a typical European countrySaturday, August 14, 2004Austro-Hungarian dynasty heir sees a broader Europe By Katinka Mezei, Agence France-Presse VIENNA-Otto von Habsburg, heir to the illustrious imperial Austro-Hungarian dynasty, is at 92 a tireless champion of an EU enlargement he hopes will soon reach out to southeast Europe too. Oldest son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor, whose dynasty once ruled much of southern and eastern Europe, the veteran conservative envisages a bloc stretching from Ukraine via Albania to Iceland. On a recent visit to Vienna, he hailed the May 1 entry of 10 mostly eastern European countries into the European Union as the culmination of a "gigantic process . . . that was blocked first by fascism and then communism." Habsburg was in the Austrian capital ahead of the commemoration of the 1914 assassination in Sarajevo of his ancestor, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand-an event that triggered World War I and, ultimately, the demise of the Austro-Hungarian empire. "The enlargement was even more satisfying for me in that several of the new members are more European than the old ones," he said. He rejoiced "particularly about the reuniting of Hungary and Austria under one roof." Tall and elegantly dressed, bespectacled and sporting a moustache, Habsburg now lives in Germany. He gave up his claim to the throne in 1961 and makes no claims for the restitution of family property. Although he was forced into exile at the age of six when his father Karl I abdicated at the end of World War I, he has been a tireless advocate for the countries the Habsburg family once ruled. An outspoken opponent of Austria's incorporation into Nazi Germany in 1938, he was forced to flee to the United States when the Nazi regime accused him of treason. After exile in Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, France and the United States, he settled in Germany after World War II, where he was elected to the European Parliament in 1979 for the conservative Christian Socialist Union. He served in the parliament until 1999 where for a while he was head of the conservative bloc. But while he favors EU enlargement, it is on the basis of a shared set of Christian values. "We shouldn't waste time because there are still very important countries which should become part of a united Europe, notably Croatia which is a typical European country," he said. Croatia was granted candidate status in June and is due to open accession talks next year. http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/14/yehey/opinion/20040814opi8.html  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 13 Aug 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7251/1/E-UNs-Empire-Building-by-Dr-Jerry-Blaskovich.html ÂUN’s Empire BuildingTHE NEW GENERATION -A Hrvatski vjesnik Englishsupplement 23 July 2004POLITICAL COMMENTARY By Dr. Jerry BlaskovichUN’s Empire Building. . . or shades of ‘Rule Britannia’While the war on terrorism focuses on Iraq andAfghanistan, Bosnia, a hotbed of fundamentalism, hasbeen largely ignored. Apparently the Bush administration accepted UnitedNations High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina[OHR], Paddy Ashdown's, unsupported assurances that:"steps were taken to ensure that Bosnia-Herzegovinacould not in any way be used as a platform forterrorist attacks of any sort" and "tightly controlledenough to thwart even the most secretive terroristcells". The realities, however, belie Ashdown's self servinggrandiosities. Fundamentalists have been overtly operating in Bosniasince the early 1990s. According to intelligencesources and Marcia Christoff Kurop [former editorDefense News]: "Bosnia was a major recruitment andtraining center of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaidanetwork". Bin Laden visited Bosnia at least three times duringthat period. Al-Qaeda's maneuverability was helpedlargely by the Bosnian Muslim government. Manyal-Qaeda captured in Afghanistan carried legitimateBosnian passports. Lionel Dumont, aka Hamzo, who was recently arrestedfor organizing al-Qaeda cells in Japan, as well asseveral suspects of the train attack in Spain, trainedin Bosnia’s terrorists camps. Ashdown's contention: 'Bosnia-Herzegovina is not abreeding ground for Islamic fundamentalism" would belaughable if the consequences weren‘t so serious.Ashdown’s deputy, US Ambassador Donald Hays, is anadherent of Clinton's failed Bosnian policy, a policythat supported sponsors of terrorism in the region.The OHR’s energies have ignored the encroachment ofMuslim fundamentalists since its energies focused onsuppressing Croatian Catholics rights. The OHR has turned over control of at least 15 townsto the Muhajdins and are now essentially off-limits tonon-Muslims. Despite the OHR’s head in the sand policyNATO forces are aware that fundamentalists areoperating in the region. Col. Stephan Thomas, a commander of NATO‘s contingencyforce diplomatically described Bosnia as a "transitcountry and possible refuge" for Islamic extremists.The US Department of Treasury bypassed the OHR when itand the Saudi government asked the UN SanctionsCommittee on 22 December 2003 to designate Vazir aterrorist organization and representatives asal-Qaeda. This is not the first time this non-governmentalBosnian Muslim institution was accused of havingterrorist ties. Previously they operated asAl-Haramain until designated a terrorist organizationin March 2002; thereafter they changed names. Vazir isonly the tip of the iceberg to similar entities inBosnia. Prior to 1990 fundamentalism was a non-issue inBosnia; the majority identified with Turkish culturerather than religion. After Western governments turneda blind eye to the Serb induced wholesale slaughter,the Bosnians realized the West's concern for theirwell being was mere verbiage. As the West shamelessly refused to protect the largestMuslim community in Europe, the Muhajdins filled thevoid and provided money, arms, personal, but mostimportantly -- moral support to their demoralizedbrethren.In the process they transformed the most secularizedMuslims in the world into mirror images of themselves.They financed an intensive mosque building campaignand established madrasas (Muslim schools). Madrasas are hotbeds for Wahhbism teachings thatpromote violent Jihad and intolerance towardChristianity, Judaism, and Muslims who don't fit theirmold. Parenthetically, eighty percent of the mosquesin the United States are controlled by Wahhbism.Most Westerners define Jihad simplistically. Jihad hasramifications far more serious than imaginable. OnceJihad succeeds, the vanquished have three choices.Conversion. If that is not acceptable, the survivorsmust submit to second class status with no possibilityof equality. Death is the third option.From Islam's first military incursions outside ofArabia these tenets were inexorably followed. However,when Islam was eclipsed by Western civilization'sascendancy, Islamic countries became back water statesor colonies for Western interests. While the three cornerstones of theological lawremained in force in the Muslim world, they were inabeyance in Bosnia under Austrian and Serbian rule.During that period and until the war of the nineties,Catholics of Bosnia enjoyed equality with Muslims forthe first time in centuries. Now that Bosnia, with the exception of areas underSerb control, de facto has become a Muslim state, theMuslims are forcing its will. For the moment it isn'tpolitically expedient to impose the second or thirdchoice; instead they coerce the Catholics to acceptdomination. The Western powers were either not aware that AlijaIzetbegovic, their darling, had written "The IslamicDeclaration" or ‘conveniently‘ forgotten. Althoughwritten in 1970 it's chillingly reminiscent ofAl-Qaeda's manifesto of the 1990s. His key pointsabout the incompatibility of Islam and non-Islamicsystems: "There can be no peace or coexistence betweenthe 'Islam faith' and non-Islamic societies andpolitical institutions . . . Islam clearly excludesthe right and possibility of activity of any strangeideology on its own turf. . . Islamic renewal cannotbe initiated without a religious [revolution], andcannot be successfully continued and concluded withouta political revolution" are being implemented -- allwith OHR's tacit approval. The Imams ultimate goal is to revert to Muslim moresof five hundred years ago. Faruk Rizvanbegovic,Bosnia's Minister for Culture, publicly echoedIzetbegovic's sentiments. After Catholics erected a Cross on a hill in Croatianterritory to celebrate Christ's 2000th Jubilee itprovoked controversy, especially from Seid ef.Smajkic, leader of the Muslim community. The American ambassador, Thomas Miller, reinforcedSmajkic's arguments, by saying: "Crosses on the hillsand other symbols of religious intolerance will not betolerated". Interestingly, his condemnation was only directedtoward Catholic symbols. He has not chastised Muslimsfor their numerous newly built mosques, even in areasof Christian majority. Clearly the ambassador is not aware the importanceMuslims place on imposing architectonic signs on ahostile environment. These external signs of Islamsend a loud and clear political message. While the OHR has almost dictatorial power and governsBosnia as a protectorate, it has down everything inits power to accommodate the Muslims but will provedisastrous for Western security. According to aStrategic Studies Association report more than 50percent of the Muslim forces in Bosnia were believedto be affiliated with radical Islamist mujahedingroups.What's happening in Bosnia is a microcosm of Islamicvalues being imposed on western secularism. Thanks tothe West's indifference to the Muslim suffering inBosnia, the Trojan horse of terrorism is being builton the very doorstep of Europe. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 31 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7259/1/E-Croatian-Gen-Tihomir-Blaskics-Conviction-Dismissed.html ÂBosnian Croat Conviction DismissedÂOp-edIt is time to celebrate only on personal level (wife, friends etc). On the government level it's time to protest heavily. How can that happen? Most likely Blaskic was in prison for 8.5 years more than he should. Priority in this case as well in most of such cases is: WHO WILL PAY for this? Who will pay for WAR REPARATIONS to Croatia? If someone has been charged with so-called "command responsibility''... where is the command responsibility in Hague? Are the prosecutors who imprisoned an innocent man responsible for this... and what is the punishment? Promotion? And how much is worth someone's imprisonment for 8.5 years, plus humiliation. I would say A LOT. If I was president of Croatia, this would be my first priority, how to get WAR REPARATIONS and how to create civil society where value is placed on law and not just public perception, that is so easily manipulated. Everywhere.ÂNenad BachThe Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - An appeals panel at the U.N. war crimes tribunal on Thursday dismissed the conviction of a Bosnian Croat for crimes against Muslims in 1993 and reduced his sentence to nine years from 45 years.Gen. Tihomir Blaskic, 43, has spent more than eight years in prison for ordering an ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslim villages in central Bosnia that left hundreds dead and forced tens of thousands more to flee.Blaskic voluntarily surrendered to the U.N. court on April 1, 1996. At the time, his sentence was the harshest in the tribunal's history.In a sweeping rejection of the lower court's conclusions, the five-member appeals panel said the court had misinterpreted the law and punished Blaskic unfairly for the crimes of forces under his authority. It quashed both the earlier ruling and sentence.The panel did find him guilty of lesser crimes of illegal detainment and inhumane treatment of prisoners.The defendant will be released after serving the remaining few months of the nine-year sentence. He can also apply for early release.In a two-hour reading at the Yugoslav tribunal, presiding judge Fausto Pocar of Italy dismissed 16 of 19 counts in Blaskic's initial indictment.In March 2000, Blaskic was found guilty of so-called ``command responsibility'' at the peak of the 1992-1992 Bosnian war, including crimes against humanity and grave breeches of the Geneva Convention. But those convictions were thrown out on Thursday.Among the most severe crimes dropped against Blaskic were a series of massacres in the village of Ahmici in April 1993 that killed dozens.``The appeals chamber considered that the trial chamber's assessment was wholly erroneous'' and that it had not been ``proven beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant is responsible for ordering the crimes in Ahmici and neighboring villages on April 16, 1993.''It upheld three counts of grave breeches of the Geneva Convention related to the imprisonment of Muslims at a series of camps in Bosnia where detainees were forced to dig trenches, build fences and used as human shields during shelling by enemy forces.Outside the court, Blaskic's wife, Ratka, and his children said they were overjoyed.The appeals chamber said that in setting a new sentence it had taken into account Blaskic good behavior, clear prior record, poor health, voluntary surrender and his young children. Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7258/1/E-NATIONAL-FEDERATION-OF-CROATIAN-AMERICANS-PRESS-RELEASE.html NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS CRITICIZES TESTIMONY OF DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE ROBERT A. BRADTKEWashington, D.C. (July 8, 2004). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) today released the text of a letter written by its President, Edward A. Andrus, responding to the June 16, 2004 testimony of Robert A. Bradtke, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, given before the House of Representative's International Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Europe.In his testimony, Deputy Assistant Secretary Bradtke discussed Croatia's prospects for NATO membership. Bradtke said that Croatia needed to show further "progress" on the case of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, pending before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as a condition to NATO membership. Bradtke further placed the ICTY indictment against Croatian General Ante Gotovina on par with the indictments brought against Serbian General Ratko Mladic and Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic. Bradtke also discussed the "successes" NATO had had with respect to its peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Mr. Andrus initially pointed out that the indictments against General Gotovina cannot be compared with those against Mladic and Karadzic. He noted that unlike the indictment against General Gotovina, both Mladic and Karadzic have been charged with the crime of genocide. Mr. Andrus emphasized that "Mladic and Karadzic are unquestionably responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo. Historical facts show that they directed and commanded Serbian forces to engage in systematic killings, rapes and destruction." In comparison, the indictment against General Gotovina "is solely grounded in the claim that he did not take adequate actions to prevent criminal acts by soldiers under his command following the liberation of Serbian occupied territory. Allegedly, no more than 100 to 400 civilians were killed as a result. There is no evidence that General Gotovina directed such killings. In any event, the magnitude of those allegations is a far cry from those crimes alleged against Karadzic and Mladic," he noted. Mr. Andrus further questioned the reasons behind tying "progress" on the General Gotovina case with Croatia's prospects to join NATO. "Surely, there is no precedent that one can point to where the arrest of a fugitive, whose whereabouts are unknown, forms a stumbling block to greater integration into Western institutions." Mr. Andrus argued that such a policy is especially troublesome in connection with Croatia. Mr. Andrus noted that even President Clinton admitted in his recently published memoirs that Croatia "acted as America's proxy in the region in re-establishing a balance of power in Southeastern Europe. It was military actions undertaken by such men as General Gotovina which achieved this balance. These military successes led directly to the foundation for the Dayton Peace Accord."Mr. Andrus emphasized that Croatia allowed NATO use of its airspace during NATO's 1999 war against Serbia and has played an active role in the war on terrorism, including sending a military police contingent to Afghanistan and assisting U.S. efforts in monitoring Al Qaeda activities in neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Andrus wrote that "Croatia's cooperation with NATO and the United States in these matters is an out growth of its status as one of the most stable, democratic, and prosperous nation-states in Southeastern Europe."Mr. Andrus further took issue with NATO's claimed successes in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to noting that NATO's greatest failure in its mission has been its inability to capture Karadzic and Mladic despite being in control of the country for almost 10 years, Mr. Andrus stressed that the peace which NATO has secured in Bosnia and Herzegovina "has come at the expense of establishing a functioning democratic state which respects the rights of minorities. Croats are the smallest of the three constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their rights to cultural autonomy and religious freedom have been increasingly trampled on . . . . This bodes ill for the future stability of that country and the ultimate success of the NATO mission there."Mr. Andrus concluded his letter by noting that the "Croatian community in the United States fully supports" the entry of Croatia into NATO and that of Bosnia and Herzegovina into the Partnerships for Peace. Mr. Andrus called on the United States to "move energetically" to secure the rights of all of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to peace, democracy, and security. With respect to Croatia, Mr. Andrus wrote that the NFCA believes that the Republic Of Croatia "has shown that it has more than adequately met the criteria for membership in NATO. We urge that the United States support Croatia's entry into NATO at the earliest opportunity."The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian-American groups which collectively have approximately 130,000 members.For more convention information, please call Joe Foley, Government Relations Director, at 301-294-0937 or Erik Milman, the NFCA's Director of Development, at the NFCA's headquarters at 202-331-2830 or by email atNFCAhdq@aol.com. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7257/1/E-NFCA-DELEGATION-ATTENDS-WORLD-SUMMIT-IN-CLEVELAND.html NFCA DELEGATION ATTENDS WORLD SUMMIT OF CROATIAN BUSINESS LEADERS IN CLEVELAND, OHIOWashington, DC (June 29, 2004) NFCA President Ed Andrus and Eastern Region Vice President Steve Rukavina led a delegation of NFCA past and current Board members and key NFCA activists that participated in the World Summit Of Croatian Business Leaders at the Group 100 meeting that was held on June 25-27. The gathering was sponsored by the American Croatian Business Association and held at the Croatian Hall in Eastlake, Ohio. There were over 250 business leaders from the global Croatian diaspora who gathered to discuss ways to invest in Croatia and to boost development of Croatia's economy. The participants heard from high level Croatian government officials including the Ministers of the Economy, Agriculture, Tourism and Finance regarding structural changes taking place which will create opportunities for investment. The Group 100 meeting concluded with the election of Executive Committee members who will be responsible on an on-going basis to promote investments and business development in Croatia.NFCA participants included current Board Members Zvonko Labas, Dr. Judy Vogelsang, Joe Rukavina, Tom Steich, Tony Dizdar ,and past board members Miro Koletic, Mijo Radocaj, Nenad Bach, Michael Benz, Niko Hazdovac, Milan Vukovic, and Marko Rudela. Because of their expertise, Dr. Judy Vogelsang and Nenad Bach were selected to chair panel discussions on biotech-medicine and the media. They were both asked to give presentations in their respective fields before the entire audience. NFCA President Ed Andrus also helped lead a breakout session on information technology and was impressed by the number and capabilities of small businesses that have been created within Croatia despite the trying times they've been through. He stated "We were honored that the Summit Leaders recognized the talents of NFCA members and selected them to play a leadership role in this historic event by asking them to chair panel discussions."Steve Rukavina, Ed Andrus, Zvonko Labas, and Miro Koletic joined Mark Van Fleet of Capstone International at a private meeting with Croatian Minister of the Economy, Branko Vukelic, to discuss the NFCA's efforts at supporting an innovative new program between the Capstone International-US Chamber of Commerce and its Croatian counterpart that will create working relationships between Croatian businesses and U.S. companies. Croatian Finance Minister Ivan Suker, State-Secretary in the central state office for development strategy Dr. Ante Babic, and Assistant Foreign Minister David Sopta participated in the discussions.On Sunday, June 27, Steve Rukavina was asked by the organizers of Group 100 to moderate and chair the elections for members of the Executive Committee. He was subsequently elected the Eastern USA Vice President of Group 100. Former NFCA board member Miro Koletic was elected Western USA Vice President, and former NFCA president Mijo Radocaj was elected the Group 100 Deputy Treasurer. Marko Rudela and Nenad Bach were also elected to serve on the Board of Directors as well as the Group 100 Advisory Committee.Steve Rukavina concluded upon his departure from Cleveland that "I am very excited about the planned and proposed development of Group 100 and the growing overall commitment of so many Croatians globally to extend their time, talent, and dollars in the international organizational efforts to invest in Croatia. I have never seen so much Croatian business synergy and Croatian diaspora talent all in one room at the same time."The NFCA is a national umbrella group of major Croatian-American organizations which collectively have 120,000 members. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7255/1/E-Vojvodina---Where-Catholic-Hungarians-and-Croats-make-up-the-majority.html ÂWhere Catholic Hungarians and Croatians make up the majorityinteresting article here, from awebsite(www.balkanalysis.com) not known forcriticising serbs.BrianSerbia & Montenegro: Vojvodina: A Hungarian ViewPosted on Wednesday, July 28 @ 12:00:00 EDT by CDelisoWith this article from László Szentesi Zöldi, aHungarian journalist and foreign affairs adviser inBudapest, our readers are treated to the Hungarianview on current relations with Serbia. Formerly areporter for Hungarian Television and Duna Television,László is presently editor of Budapest's Magyar Nemzetnewspaper.Vojvodina, the northern province of Serbia, is one ofthe most multi-ethnic regions in Europe. It is a landthat has been home to more than twenty differentethnic groups for centuries. Vojvodina could becomethe symbol of tolerance and fellowship of men, but atpresent it is rather a sort of time bomb, havingramifications for the whole region.In September 1990, Serbia stripped Vojvodina of itsautonomy. Previously, it was an autonomous provincewith considerable self-government authorities.Starting in 2003, tension between some Serbian groupsand individuals of other ethnicities sharplyincreased, which has led to some violent incidents. Atthe moment some 300,000 Hungarians are living inVojvodina, mostly in the northern part of theprovince. This means that they make up almost 15percent of Vojvodina's two million-strong population.Over the past few years, Hungarians have been targetedby extremist Serbian nationalists.The story began in the early 1990s when up to 300,000Serb refugees came from Bosnia, Croatia, and thenKosovo. The main problem is that these refugees do notbelieve in peaceful solutions between the localcommunities. Outside analysts have also noted theeffect of such unhappy immigrants on the “HungarianKosovo.” The incidents in question have included actsof vandalism against cemeteries, graffiti on Hungarianchurches and schools, and death threats againstindividuals. Slogans like “death to Hungarians” and“Hungarians go to Hungary” cover walls in many townsof Vojvodina. In March, vandals desecrated a Catholiccemetery in Subotica, where Catholic Hungarians andCroats make up the majority.However the problem goes far beyond slogans. Manypoliticians have received threatening phone calls,including József Kasza, leader of the VMSZ (Federationof Hungarians in Vojvodina). Physical incidents haveincreased dramatically. Young Serbs have beaten upyoung Hungarian kids in many places. Minority girlshave been publicly sexually molested by Serbs. Thelatter have provoked fights, in which minorityyoungsters in many instances have required hospitalcare. Some of these cases were reviewed in a recentarticle in the Budapest Sun by American researcherAndrew Ludanyi.On the other hand, in June five Hungarian young menseverely beat a Serb in the town of Temerin. TheSerbian press used this attack as the first sign ofHungarian anger against the Serbs, but failed tomention the previous attacks carried out against localHungarians.The crisis has reached a point where the twogovernments had to begin talks about the situation.Hungarian foreign minister László Kovács phonedSerbian PM Vojislav Kostunica in April to call onBelgrade to “take a firm stance with respect toviolent incidents against the Hungarian minority inVojvodina.” Then Hungarian interior minister, Mónika Lamperth saidon 18 June during her visit to Subotica that theHungarian government is concerned about the attacksagainst local Hungarians. “If the Serbia & Montenegroauthorities put an end to attacks on the members ofminorities and enable them to live a peaceful and safelife, Hungary will do everything in its power to helpSerbia & Montenegro prepare well and quickly forEuropean integration processes. Otherwise, we willhave to seek the protection of the Hungarian minoritythrough the Council of Europe,” she added.At the same time, two major Hungarian-Americanlobbying groups in the US have begun to focus theattention of American policy-makers on the situationin Vojvodina.The Belgrade response is not clear. “We do not want tounderestimate these incidents in any way but it is amistake to give them an importance they do not have,”Rasim Ljajic, human and minority rights minister ofSerbia and Montenegro, recently told Reuters. SerbianPM Vojislav Kostunica has responded by saying thatthese racially motivated attacks were “notcharacteristic of Serbian society.” After talks with minority leaders, Mr. Kostunica hasproposed that a multiethnic police unit be establishedin Vojvodina “in the very near future.” LocalHungarian leader József Kasza told the Novi Sad dailyDnevnik that this new unit would be deployed inmulti-ethnic areas of the province to preventinter-ethnic problems and incidents such as hadoccurred over the past seven months. The Belgradedaily Politika responded by warning Kasza that he was“playing with fire.”In response, the Hungarian newspaper Nepszabadsagcarried an editorial by Gabor Miklos, that posed therhetorical question, “who is playing with fire?” andthreatened that new EU member Hungary could make lifedifficult for the Serbs:“…Serbia's European integration is out of the questionas long as such incidents happen. The roads will beclosed, there will be no talks about a visa-waiversystem, investors will not come, and the pressure willnot decrease.”  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7254/1/H-Zuzul-putuje-na-demokratsku-konvenciju-u-Boston.html ÂZuzul putuje na demokratsku konvenciju u BostonSrijeda, 28. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/MINISTAR vanjskih poslova Miomir Zuzul u srijedu putuje u Sjedinjene Drzave kako bi nazocio zavrsnim danima nacionalne konvencije demokratske stranke u Bostonu, priopcilo je Ministarstvo vanjskih poslova. Zuzul na konvenciju odlazi na poziv americkog nacionalnog demokratskog instituta i bivse drzavne tajnice Madeleine Albright. Demokratska konvencija je pocela u ponedjeljak, a zavrsava u cetvrtak, kada ce John Kerry biti i sluzbeno nominiran demokratskim kandidatom na americkim predsjednickim izborima u studenome. HinaMinistar vanskih poslova RH dr. Miomir Zuzul na Konvenciji demokrata u BostonuMVPRH - http://www.mvp.hr/Zagreb, 28. srpnja 2004. - Ministar vanjskih poslova Republike Hrvatske dr. Miomir Zuzul putuje danas, 28. srpnja 2004 u Sjedinjene Americke Drzave na poziv Nacionalnog demokratskog instituta i Madeleine Albright ranije Drzavne tajnice Sjedinjenih Americkih Drzava. Ministar Zuzul ce u Bostonu kao gost, uz ostale pozvane ugledne svjetske politicare, prisustvovati Nacionalnoj konvenciji demokratske stranke koja je zapocela 25. srpnja, a zavrsava 29. srpnja 2004. Ocekuje se da ce na Konvenciji posljednjeg dana biti nominiran demokratski predsjednicki kandidat za predstojece predsjednicke izbore koji se odrzavaju pocetkom studenoga ove godine. U pratnji ministra dr. Zuzula Konvenciji americkih demokrata prisustvovat ce i hrvatski veleposlanik u Sjedinjenim Americkim Drzavama Neven Jurica.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7253/1/H-Blaskic-u-ponedjeljak-na-slobodi.html ÂBlaskic u ponedjeljak na slobodiSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/PREDSJEDNIK Haskoga suda Theodor Meron odobrio je u Den Haagu zahtjev obrane da se bivsi zapovjednik Operativne zone Sredisnja Bosna Tihomir Blaskic pusti na slobodu prije odsluzenja cjelokupne kazne. Meron je upravi Haskog pritvora nalozio da osigura Blaskicevo pustanje na slobodu u ponedjeljak, 2. kolovoza.Blaskic je pravomocno osudjen na kaznu od devet godina zatvora, a u pritvoru je proveo osam godina i cetiri mjeseca. Americki branitelj generala Tihomira Blaskica Rusell Hayman odmah je nakon sto je Blaskicu izrecena jedinstvena kazna od devet godina zatvora podnio sudu zahtjev za uvjetnim otpustom bivseg zapovjednika Operativne zone Sredisnja Bosna. Vidno zadovoljan obratom u zalbenom dijelu postupka Hayman je kazao kako je odluka Zalbenog vijeca Haskog suda "hrabar korak za sud koji ce podici njegov ugled".Prvostupanjsko vijece Haskog suda prije cetiri godine proglasilo je generala Blaskica odgovornim i osudilo ga na 45 godina zatvora za zlocine pocinjene u Lasvanskoj dolini tijekom rata u BiH, od kojih je najtezi bio zlocin u Ahmicima kada je 16. travnja 1993. ubijeno vise od stotinu muslimanskih civila. Blaskicu je ukinut najveci dio presude, ukljucivsi onaj u kojem se teretio za zlocin u Ahmicima. Proglasen je krivim za zlocin pocinjen okrutnim postupanjem prema zatocenicima, sto je ukljucilo i njihovo upucivanje na kopanje rovova i koristenje kao zivi stit.U presudi je utvrdjeno da Blaskic nije imao nadzor nad jedinicama koje su pocinile zlocin u Ahmicima, kao i da je postojala dvostruka linija zapovjedanja kojom su drugi kontrolirali snage HVO-a, a ne Blaskic. U presudi je zalbeno vijece zakljucilo da je u Srednjoj Bosni bilo legitimnih vojnih ciljeva, te da je u slucaju Ahmica, za koje je prvostupanjsko vijece tvrdilo da je iskljucivo civilni cilj, zalitelj imao opravdanja za izdavanje zapovijedi za napad.Zalbeno vijece utvrdilo je da je prvostupanjsko vijece doslo do pogresnih zakljucaka u presudi primjenom pogresnih pravnih standarda, te je primjenom ispravnih standarda oslobodilo Blaskica za najveci dio presude. Na galeriji na kojoj su bili clanovi obitelji generala Blaskica izbila je erupcija odusevljenja nakon sto je predsjednik zalbenog vijeca procitao da je Blaskic osudjen na devet godina zatvora.Sam Blaskic je, kao i tijekom citava sudjenja, ozbiljna lica slusao gotovo dvosatno obrazlozenje presude i radio zabiljeske, a njegova supruga Ratka i stariji sin slusali su talijanskog suca drzeci se za ruke. Sudac Pocar objavio je kako ce Blaskic ostati u pritvoru dok se ne uredi njegovo prebacivanje u neku zemlju u kojoj bi trebao odsluziti kaznu do kraja.Maratonsko sudjenjePresudu je Blaskic docekao s pritvorskim stazom od osam godina i cetiri mjeseca, sto je tek u hrvatskoj javnosti povremeno poticalo rasprave o pravednosti presude nakon tako dugotrajnog sudjenja, koje se protegnulo na vise od sedam godina. Novi dokazi obrane, koje je Zalbeno vijece prihvatilo, potjecali su iz tri izvora - arhiva HVO-a koji su lezali nedostupni obrani u HIS-u do smjene vlasti u Hrvatskoj 2000. godine, zatim iz Ureda predsjednika RH, te iz haskog tuziteljstva koje ih je pronaslo u arhivu Armije BiH.U prosincu prosle godine na zalbenoj raspravi Blaskicev branitelj Rusell Hayman je, suprotstavljajuci nove dokaze i iskaze novih sest svjedoka obrane zakljuccima presude donesene u ozujku 2000. godine argumentirao zasto je prvostupanjsko vijece doslo do pogresnih zakljucaka na temelju kojih je Blaskicu izrecena jedinstvena kazna zatvora od 45 godina.Bivsi zapovjednik Operativne zone Sredisnje Bosne izrazio je na kraju zalbene rasprave zaljenje zbog svih zrtava rata u Srednjoj Bosni, te porucio sucima kako mu je savjest potpuno mirna, jer svim srcem vjeruje da je ucinio sve da sprijeci zlocine, a da se o pocinjenima provede istraga.Sudjenje ce novinari, koji su proveli mjesece sjedeci svakodnevno na sudskoj galeriji pamtiti ponajvise po potresnim svjedocenjima ahmickih zrtava, kompleksnosti odnosa tri naroda u BiH koji su dugo u sudjenje i dalje zbunjivali suce, Blaskicevom pedantnom svakodnevnom vodjenju biljeski i jos minucioznijem svjedocenju u kojem je danima opisivao kako su mu sat po sat tekli dani u Lasvanskoj dolini. Nedugo nakon sto je Blaskic stigao u Haag rodio mu se drugi sin. Zahvaljujuci pravilima haskog pritvora, koja dozvoljavaju privatne posjete supruga, Blaskiceva se obitelj uvecala za jos jednog clana. Dugotrajni pritvor ostavio je traga na Blaskicevu zdravlju i posljednjih godinu dana bio je cesto na lijecenju. Blaskic se u pritvoru nalazi od 1. travnja 1996. godine kada se dobrovoljno predao.Ratka Blaskic: Presretna sam i ne znam sto bih drugo reklaSupruga generala Tihomira Blaskica sa suzama i neizmjernim veseljem docekala je u cetvrtak u Den Haagu vijest da ce se njezin suprug uskoro vratiti u krug obitelji. "Sretna sam sto cemo nastaviti zivjeti zajedno, i zbog djece i zbog sebe. Ako sam ja sada uopce bitna, presretna sam i ne znam sto bih drugo rekla. Sretna sam", kazala je Ratka Blaskic ispred zgrade Haskog suda nakon odluke Zalbenog vijeca kojom je Blaskicu smanjena kazna sa 45 na devet godina zatvora. Hina----------------------------------------Sanader - Zadovoljstvo odlukom Haaskog suda - Razloge za veselje ima i cijela HrvatskaSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/Predsjednik Vlade Ivo Sanader izjavio je danas u Visu kako u ime Vlade izrazava zadovoljstvo odlukom Zalbenog vijeca Haskog suda koje je kaznu zatvora bivsem zapovjedniku Operativne zone Sredisnja Bosna Tihomiru Blaskicu s 45 smanjilo na devet godina te da razloge za veselje osim Blaskica i njegove obitelji danas ima i cijela Hrvatska. "Prije svega izrazavam zadovoljstvo presudom kojom je onih strasnih 45 godina prakticki preinaceno na devet godina i mislim da danas svi mozemo osjetiti onaj pravi smisao narodne poslovice 'pao mi je kamen sa srca' ", kazao je premijer Sanader. "Sigurno je da general Blaskic i njegova obitelj danas imaju posebne razloge za veselje, ali smatram da razloge za to ima i cijela Hrvatska", rekao je premijer. Osim toga, izjavio je, "tom je presudom general Blaskic pobio mnoge tvrdnje iz prvotne presude, stoga je to putokaz i drugima kako se treba ponasati."Zakljucio je kako se konacna ocjena o znacenju te odluke ne moze donijeti prije nego se dobije uvid u tekst presude. Medjutim, vec je sada jasno, nastavio je premijer, osim samog znacenja te odluke za sudbinu generala Blaskica, ovo je, takodjer, dokaz da se na haskom sudu moze dokazati istina, odnosno da se moze dokazati sto je bilo u Domovinskom ratu i u Hrvatskoj i u BiH to je najvaznije saznanje. Hrvatska danas moze reci da je suradnja s Haskim sudom takva da se nasa zemlja uvazava i da ona zna obraniti svoje interese, a tako cemo se ponasati i ubuduce, rekao je premijer, dodajuci kako je na pocetku svojega mandata Vlada kazala kako ce suradnju s politicke svesti na pravnu razinu. "To i cinimo, a takva vrsta suradnje, ocito je, daje rezultate, pa uskoro ocekujemo i odluku da se generali Cermak i Markac puste da se brane sa slobode i pripremaju za postupak. Na upit da komentira izjave Blaskicevih odvjetnika da su za smanjenje presude umnogome pomogli dokumenti HIS-a i iz Ureda predsjednika koje je bivsa Vlada predala Haagu, a HDZ-ova Vlada nije, premijer Sanader kazao je kako on Vlade ne bi nazivao ni HDZ-ovim ni ovim ili onim, nego je rijec o hrvatskim Vladama."Danasnja Vlada i prethodna i one prije nje, imaju dvije zadace: braniti nacionalne interese i suradnju, u punom smislu rijeci, s Medjunarodnim sudom u Hagu, a to znaci da se daju i dokumenti, kazao je premijer. Kako je rekao, jedan od prvih poteza njegove Vlade bilo je davanje dokumenata za obranu generala Gotovine, sto je prethodna Vlada otezala mjesecima, a nikakvih problema s Hagom zbog toga nije bilo."Svakom haskom osumnjiceniku treba biti dostupna sva dokumentacija koja mu je potrebna u obrani, rekao je Sanader. Moja ce se Vlada tako ponasati i ponasa se vec u slucaju najaktualnijih optuznica protiv generala Markaca i Cermaka i sestorice Hrvata optuzenih za sukob u BiH",izjavio je. Na pitanje nije li vrijeme da se izadje s konkretnim imenima onih koji su ranije takve dokumente zadrzavali, premijer je odgovorio da on o tome ne moze nista reci, jer, kako je rekao, "nema saznanja, niti informacija", ali sigurno ce se ako postoje indikacije, istraziti cijeli slucaj i povuci odredjene konzekvence". Nije zelio kazati kakve, porucujuci "kad istrazimo cijeli slucaj onda cemo s tim izaci pred javnost". (Hina) xdstr yvkn----------------------------------------Hrvati BiH odusevljeni presudom BlaskicuSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/Pobijedila je pravda, ocjena je vecine Hrvata u BiH, odusevljenih odlukom Zalbenog vijeca Medjunarodnog suda za ratne zlocine u Den Haagu kojom je Tihomiru Blaskicu preinacena kazna sa 45 na 9 godina zatvora. Radijska postaja Herceg-Bosna iz Mostara prekinula je u cetvrtak prije podne program da bi izvijestila o odluci Zalbenog vijeca. Hrvatski clan Predsjednistva BiH Dragan Covic izjavio je da je vijest iz Haaga "iznenadjujuca i izvanredna". "Sama cinjenica da je kazna pet puta smanjena govori o cestitosti i nevinosti generala Blaskica, a s druge strane da je prvostupanjski proces pogresno vodjen. Svi smo znali da je osudjen i bio u zatvoru za ono sto nije pocinio", rekao je Covic.Covic je takodjer rekao da presuda predstavlja satisfakciju za Hrvate u BiH , napose Hrvate srednje Bosne koje se "kolektivno kriminaliziralo". Izrazio je ocekivanje da ce ova presuda pomoci u dokazivanju nevinosti drugih Hrvata iz srednje Bosne. HDZ BiH istaknuo je kako su vjerovali u Blaskicevu nevinost. "Bili smo uvijek uvjereni u nevinost generala Blaskica. Zato smo vjerovali da ce Haski sud donijeti oslobadjajucu presudu. Ocito je da su trazili nacin kako da opravdaju to sto je nevin covjek osam godina u Haagu. Danas smo uistinu sretni i dijelimo radost s obitelji Blaskic i njima odajemo priznanje sto su hrabro i dostojanstvo podnijeli krizni put. Tihomiru zelimo skori povratak obitelji i hrvatskom narodu", rekao je glasnogovornik HDZ-a BiH Pero PavlovicHrvatska narodna zajednica (HNZ) takodjer je u priopcenju pozdravila odluku Zalbenog vijeca kojom je Haski sud, kako se navodi, "pojacao svoj kredibilitet". HNZ ukazuje na vaznost cinjenica iz obrazlozenja presude o "dvostrukoj liniji zapovijedanja" , po kojoj su drugi a ne Blaskic imali stvarnu kontrolu nad snagama HVO-a. (Hina)xzkre ybs----------------------------------------Ahmic: Vrijeme je da se otkriju pravi pocinitelji masakra u nasem seluSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/"JA SAM ovo ocekivao puno ranije. Ne moze nevin covjek lezati u zatvoru 45 godina. Slomio sam se ziv uvjeravajuci ljude u Haagu i u Ahmicima da Blaskic s pokoljem nema veze" prva je reakcija na konacnu presudu Zalbenog vijeca Haskog suda kojom se Blaskicu smanjuje zatvorska kazna, a koju je Pincom.info dobio od Mehmeda Ahmica, najvatrenijeg zagovornika teze da je general Blaskic nevin, zbog cega je dozivio masu verbalnih neugodnosti od strane susjeda bosnjacke nacionalnosti."Vrijeme je da se otkriju pravi pocinitelji maskara u nasem selu i kad bi sad proveli anonimnu anketu kod mjestana bosnjacke i hrvatske nacionalnosti uvjeren sam da bi 90 posto njih odgovorilo da je Blaskic nevin i da se istraga u cilju pronalaska pravih pocinitelja treba ponovno pokrenuti" - dodao je Mehmed Ahmic koji je od strane radikalnog dijela bosnjackog stanovnistva u Ahmicima optuzen za kohabitaciju s Hrvatima. Iako se ocekivalo da ce se pravomocna presuda Suda u Haagu u slucaju Blaskic u Ahmicima pratiti s pozornoscu, vecina Bosnjaka u ovom srednjobosanskom selu uopce nije imalo pojma o cemu se zapravo radi.Zaokupljeni rutiniranom svakodnevnicom, vecinu starije populacije Bosnjaka, vise je zanimalo hoce li Vlada Federacije BiH ispuniti obecanje o povecanju mirovina za najavljenih cetiri postom, nego hoce li general Blaskic dobiti 45 ili devet godina zatvora. Mladi su se rasprsili po lokalnim kupalistima, dok su oni imucniji zauzeli neku od turistickih destinacija na Jadranu, gdje svoj gnjev umjesto na postrojbe HVO-a najvjerojatnije fokusiraju na losu poslugu i visoke cijene pizze, cevapa u preskupim restoranima, pise Pincom.info. "To ti je stvarnost" istice Ahmic - "ljudi naprosto ne znaju sto se dogadja. Upijaju ono sto im se servira kroz medije. Da je nekoga od Bosnjaka 1993 godine bilo pitati tko je Zapovjednik HVO-a Srednje Bosne, je li to general Blaskic 99 posto bi ih reklo da je to Dario Kordic. Kordic je nastupao u medijima, a za Blaskica sve dok nije otisao u Haag nitko ziv nije nikad cuo-istice nas sugovornik. Za razliku od ravnodusnog ozracja u Ahmicima, par kilometara dalje u Vitezu presuda generalu Blaskicu docekana je s opcim odusevljenjem. Iz vecine ugostiteljskih objekata odzvanjale su domoljubne pjesme. Odluka Haaskog suda depresivnu i socijalno neizvjesnu svakodnevnicu u Vitezu, Busovaci, Kiseljaku barem je na jedan dan pretvorila u osjecaj optimizma, samopouzdanja.Od optuzbi oslobodjeni Zoran Kupreskic koji je pravdu ovog suda osjetio na svojoj kozi, nije skrivao emocije nakon pravomocne presude Suda u Haagu. "Odluka o devet godina zatvora za Tihu donesena je samo da on o njegovi odvjetnici ne bi tuzili Sud u Haagu za gresku koju su nanijeli njemu i njegov obitelji. Sve je dobro Tiho ce biti uskoro na slobodi" - rekako je Kupreskic za Pincom.info. Za skori izlazak generala Blaskica iz pritvora u Schevennigenu kako doznaje Pincom.info sprema se prava proslava na kojoj ce veci broj Blaskicevih prijatelja na simbolican nacin odati Blaskicu pocast za sve ono sto je on u pritvoru prozivio. Hina----------------------------------------Sudjenja za ratne zlocine pred sudom BiH pocinju iduce godineSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/VIJECE ministara Bosne i Hercegovine usvojilo je u cetvrtak prijedlog paketa zakona koji bi trebali osigurati pocetak sudjenja za ratne zlocine pred drzavnim sudom te zemlje vec pocetkom naredne godine. Ministar pravde BiH Slobodan Kovac kazao je novinarima u Sarajevu kako zakoni koje treba usvojiti Parlament BiH preciziraju nacin izbora sudaca i tuzitelja te utvrdjuju pravila po kojima ce se predmeti preuzimati od Medjunarodnog kaznenog suda za bivsu Jugoslaviju (ICTY). Posebnim sporazumom izmedju Vijeca ministara BiH i Ureda Visokog predstavnika (OHR) ovlasti za imenovanje medjunarodnih sudaca koji ce suditi za ratne zlocine prenose se na Visokog predstavnika dok ce Ured registraran pri Odjelu za ratne zlocine, organizirani kriminal, gospodarski kriminal i korupciju Suda BiH imenovati domace suce.Isti mehanizam vrijedit ce i pri imenovanju tuzitelja. Posebnim ce se zakonom urediti status i uloga zasticenih svjedoka na sudjenjima za ratne zlocine. Ministar Kovac je izjavio da se ocekuje da sva sudjenja za ratne zlocine pred Sudom BiH budu okoncana u razdoblju od pet godina. Hina----------------------------------------Ministarstvo pravosudja pozdravilo odluku zalbenog vijeca Haskog sudaSrijeda, 29. srpnja 2004. http://www.index.hr/MINISTARSTVO pravosudja pozdravilo je danasnju odluku zalbenog vijeca Haskog suda (ICTY) koje je bivsem zapovjedniku Operativne zone HVO-a u Sredisnjoj Bosni Tihomiru Blaskicu smanjilo kaznu s 45 na devet godina zatvora. Ministarstvo pravosudja pozdravlja odluku zalbenog vijeca haskog Tribunala, pod predsjedanjem suca Fausta Pocara, u predmetu generala Blaskica, stoji u priopcenju Ministarstva. Ta je odluka donesena nakon svestranog ispitivanja svih cinjenica i dokaza u tom predmetu i svakako ce biti povijesni prilog utvrdjivanju istine o sukobima u sredisnjoj Bosni, kaze se u priopcenju Ministarstva pravosudja.Prvostupanjsko vijece Haskog suda prije cetiri godine proglasilo je generala Blaskica odgovornim i osudilo ga na 45 godina zatvora za zlocine pocinjene u Lasvanskoj dolini tijekom rata u BiH, od kojih je najtezi bio zlocin u Ahmicima kada je 16. travnja 1993. ubijeno vise od stotinu muslimanskih civila. Blaskicu je danas ukinut najveci dio presude, ukljucivsi onaj u kojem se teretio za zlocin u Ahmicima. Proglasen je krivim za zlocin pocinjen okrutnim postupanjem prema zatocenicima, sto je ukljucilo i njihovo upucivanje na kopanje rovova i koristenje kao zivi stit. Blaskic je u pritvoru osam godina i cetiri mjeseca i njegovi branitelji su odmah nakon sjednice na kojoj je procitana presuda poceli sastavljati zahtjev za uvjetni otpust. HinaCroatian World Congress H.S.K. NGO Member of the United Nationshttp://www.crowc.org/ letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7252/1/E-CAPITOL-HILL-BRIEFING---STATUS-OF-CROATS-IN-VOJVODINA.html (H) CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING CONCERNING STATUS OF CROATS IN VOJVODINA , July 30, 2004 }-->h2 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; page-break-after:avoid; punctuation-wrap:simple; text-autospace:none; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; margin-left:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-top:0in}ÂNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS TESTIFIES AT CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING CONCERNING STATUS OF CROATS IN VOJVODINA(Washington, D.C., July 15, 2004). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) presented a statement at a briefing on Capitol Hill on July 14, 2004 concerning the status of Croats in Vojvodina, a province of Serbia. The briefing was co-sponsored by the House of Representatives' Human Rights Caucus and Hungarian American Caucus.In addition to the NFCA, presentations at the briefing were given by Mr. Charles English, the Director of South Central Europe at the U.S. State Department, Mr. Ivan Vujacic, the Ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro to the United States, Mr. Nenad Canak, President of the Vojvodina Parliment, and Mr. Sandor Nagy, President of the Center for Hungarian American Congressional Relations. Treasurer Zvonko Labas presented the statement on the NFCA's behalf. Mr. Labas noted that the centuries' old Croat community in Vojvodina has been subjected to relentless Serbianization pressures. This can best be seen by the drop in the number of Croats in the Province from approximately 138,000 in 1961 to less than 75,000 in 1991.Mr. Labas noted that the following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the defenseless Croats of Vojvodina suffered as a result of a number of ethnic cleansing actions carried out by, among others, indicted war criminal Vojislav Seselj. The most well-known of these attacks occurred in the village of Hrtkovci where approximately 350 Croat families were forced out of their homes in 1992. A further upsurge of violence against Croats in the Province occurred in 1995. The tragic results of these campaigns condoned and encouraged by the Serbian government can be seen in the census figures for 2002 which show that only 56,637 Croats remain in Vojvodina, 25% less than the previous decade. Mr. Labas pointed out that observers have noted that many villages which had previously had Croatian majorities have since become purely or majority Serb villages.Unfortunately, Croats and other minorities in Vojvodina have recently once again been the victims of renewed attacks coinciding with the recent rise in political fortunes of Seselj's Serbian Radical Party. Mr. Labas listed a number of "incidents" which have occurred since December 2003 alone, including attacks against the Croatian Home in Somobor, the toppling of a bust of Matija Gubec (a 16th century Croatian peasant leader) in the Croatian-populated village of Tavankut, anonymous death threats made to consular authorities of the Republic of Croatia in Subotica and the staff of the Croatian-language weekly Hrvatski rijec, the desecration of Catholic graves in a cemetery in Subotica and in Backa Monostor, and the breaking of windows of the Franciscan monastery in Subotica. Mr. Labas noted that just earlier this month, during the night of July 2-3, 2004, the Catholic cemetery in Somobor was hit, with 20 Hungarian, Croat, and other graves damaged.Mr. Labas argued that "these incidents are tied to the resurgence of support for the extremist Serbian Radical Party. The SRP unabashedly calls for the creation of a Greater Serbia, at the expense of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina . . . . Since its members cannot conceivably turn their violence against internationally recognized sovereign states, they can only do so against [unarmed] minority groups within their borders." While Mr. Labas noted with approval that the Croats of Vojvodina had recently won the right to educate their children in the Croatian language, he expressed concern that the growth in power of such openly racist parties as the Serbian Radical Party presents a threat to the continued stability of the region and to the "day to day lives of Croats and other minorities living in Vojvodina."In addition to Mr. Labas, Erik Milman, the NFCA's Director of Development, and Joseph Foley, the NFCA's Government Relations Director, attended the briefing.Mr. Edward Andrus, the President of the NFCA, commented afterwards that he was very pleased that the NFCA was able to bring to the attention of American elected officials an issue which has been clearly overlooked by many human rights organizations. "The Croats of Vojvodina have been subjected to an unprecedented level of ethnic cleansing in the past decade. Western institutions, agencies, and governments have brought pressure to bear on other players in the region to reverse the effects of ethnic cleansing, and they need to now step-up pressure on Belgrade with respect to Vojvodina. Clearly, this has also become an issue of concern to America's Hungarian community and it should become one of concern to American Slovaks as well, as both their minority counterparts have recently experienced increased harassment in Vojvodina. Hopefully, our contribution in this matter will serve as a catalyst to initiate needed changes in the Province."The NFCA is a national umbrella organization of Croatian-American groups which collectively have approximately 130,000 members.For more convention information, please call Joe Foley, Government Relations Director, at 301-294-0937 or Erik Milman, the NFCA's Director of Development, at the NFCA's headquarters in Washington at 202-331-2830 or by email at NFCAhdq@aol.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7256/1/E-The-Bridge-over-the-River-Neretva.html The Bridge over the River Neretva The opening of the reconstructed Old Bridge in Mostar was, of course, always going to be accompanied by much official hoopla. Top regional and international officials flocked to the city on 23 July for what was essentially an elaborate photo opportunity at a bridge that will, it is hoped, become a symbol of a better future for Mostar, Bosnia and the region. Messages of goodwill poured into the city from all over the world. Bosnians at home and abroad rejoiced, many of whom glued to TV sets that evening.It was also a day that perhaps radiated more positive energy than the present-day Mostar and Bosnia can absorb in one go. This may be true in particular of the exaggerations about the Old Bridge's historic and possible future meaning. Unsurprisingly, the exaggeration favored by foreign dignitaries was that the bridge has the real and metaphorical power to connect and reconcile not only the divided local communities, but also the Islamic and Christian worlds.A SYMBOL STRETCHED TO BREAKING POINTStrictly speaking, the Old Bridge never fitted the bill. Sulekiman the Magnificent, on whose orders the bridge was built in the 16th century, may have sought to demonstrate the power and refinement of the Ottoman Empire. But rather than connecting two worlds, the bridge was primarily built to serve the much more mundane purpose of connecting the two banks of the River Neretva, both of which were deep inside the Ottoman Empire. Since then, the region of Herzegovina, of which Mostar is the biggest urban settlement, has been part of many different states, all of which spanned both banks of the Neretva.While some historical figures may have toyed with the notion of the Neretva as a border between states or even civilizations, the idea was first acted upon in 1992 when Serb nationalists proposed to their Croat counterparts that the river become the border between their own future states. When the Croats refused, the two sides fought a brief war in the river valley, with the Croats, aided by the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), prevailing with surprising speed. That coincided with the equally effortless capture by the Serbs of the northern region of Posavina, an area with a Croat majority. Suspicion of a secret trade-off was born.When the Croats and the Bosniaks turned against each other toward the end of 1992, neither saw the Neretva as the desirable future border, but the winding river did become the frontline in a number of places in Mostar and its outskirts. The Old Bridge area, however, was not one of them, as the Bosniak forces controlled both ends of the bridge and the surrounding areas. Those former frontlines, not the bridge, are today's invisible, but powerful dividing lines that separate the Bosniak and the Croat parts of the city.That the reconstructed Old Bridge, which connects two Bosniak parts of the city, attracted so much international attention was always going to irritate some Croat nationalists, whose army destroyed it in November 1993. "It's a Muslim bridge, nothing to do with us," said one.Local Bosniaks poured scorn on the international obsession with the bridge's alleged wider meaning, such as the one voiced by the international community's high representative, Paddy Ashdown, who said that the bridge is a cornerstone of the reconstruction of Bosnia as a multiethnic society. As if that was not enough, according to Ashdown, Bosnia could become a symbolic bridge between Islamic countries and Europe, helping the two worlds overcome misguided and stereotyped views of each other. Apart from any other consideration, Ashdown ought to have learned by now that not all Bosniaks are necessarily thrilled to be viewed as representatives of the Islamic world. "That may be too much reconciliation for one bridge," said a local Bosniak.TRUTHS AND SYMBOLSBut while the locals' occasional frustration with the international hijacking of the cause of the Old Bridge does deserve to be noted, it is largely beside the point. Even though it may never have served the lofty purpose of being a crossroads of civilizations, the Old Bridge's beauty and architectural brilliance meant it belonged to the world. The UNESCO-listed bridge was perhaps the single most important historical monument in the whole of the former Yugoslavia. While the many atrocities involving the loss of human life were obviously the most tragic moments in the war, the deliberate destruction of the Old Bridge, filmed by a local Bosniak fighter, became the defining image of the senselessness and futility of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Accordingly, for the outside world its reconstruction was always going to acquire an equally strong meaning of restored reason, reconciliation, and purposefulness.The reconstruction project itself was an impressive goodwill exercise, bringing donations and assistance from many international organizations and governments, including those of Croatia and Turkey. The end result is a perfect copy of the bridge and its surroundings.The spectacular and largely tasteful opening ceremony looked like a reconciliation fairytale. Performers from many parts of Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia took part, rubbing shoulders with dozens of international dignitaries, including an impressive collection of Balkan and European presidents, foreign ministers and royals, complete with the British heir to the throne, Prince Charles. Most importantly, no Balkan leader failed to stress that a new era of reconciliation and cooperation has dawned. And while the political pasts and current profiles of some of them leave room for skepticism, there is no obvious reason why their words should not be taken at face value.The truth is that, in the uppermost echelons of political power in the Balkans today, even former extremists profess and often practice moderation. Reconciliation is actually happening to a very great extent at the top. As far as their governments are concerned, Serbia and Croatia are today two friendly neighbors. The same can be said of Sarajevo's relations with both Zagreb and Belgrade, or of those between Skopje and Tirana. All the governments in the region--and nearly all the major parties--are committed to peaceful and active cooperation. That their mutual affairs are not always sorted out in the most efficient of manners is more often caused by a lack of skill than of will.The question is how much of this newfound positive energy trickles down to local level, especially in multiethnic places such as Mostar that are burdened with a bad recent history. While the consequences of the war are often still tangible and some are perhaps permanent, changes do happen locally as well, even though locals themselves may be reluctant to acknowledge them. The absence of any incident before, during, and after the Old Bridge opening ceremony in a city that has seen some of the most vicious examples of communal violence during and after the war testifies to this. Yes, the two communities viewed the bridge project in different ways. To be sure, there was a lot of Croat recalcitrance and Bosniak exultation to be found, but very little of it was displayed in public. Local Bosniak and Croat officials and their media for once behaved responsibly, for the most part steering clear of stereotypes and strong words. It could, then, perhaps be concluded that the two communities were shamed into behaving themselves by the enormous regional and international attention that the bridge attracted.But it could also be the case that significant reserves of positive energy do exist locally, only they need a lot of external encouragement to show. Even though the new Old Bridge is unlikely to bridge all the differences between the two largest communities in Mostar, maybe the attention, goodwill and orderliness surrounding the opening ceremony will reawaken many to the truth that it doesn't hurt to be civilized with one another. Although the opening of the reconstructed Old Bridge is a big event by any measure, maybe the true value of such gatherings is exactly in encouraging small steps at local level. "The Bridge over the River Neretva"http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=74&NrSection=2&NrArticle=12472 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 28 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7260/1/E-FOOTBALL-CRAZY-BY-BRIAN-GALLAGHER.html ÂFOOTBALL CRAZY BY BRIAN GALLAGHERÂCroatian Herald No 1021 2 July 2004Viewpoint from LondonBy Brian GallagherCroatia was all over the UK press recently. All dueto the England v Croatia clash. Most of the coveagewas good, some of it bad. Your humble correspondenteven gave his opinions on who would win on television.As most know the England V Croatia match on 21 Junedetermined who would go through to the next stage ofthe tournament; England won but was promptly knockedout by Portugal.Like many countries, England is obsessed by football.And so, Croat opinions were much in demand by themedia. They turned to the Croatian Students and YoungProfessionals Network, the UK's leading Croatianorganisation of which I am Vice-President, no less. Marko Krznaric, the President of CSYPN handled much ofthe press, handing out quotes like a professional. Hedid it very well - a real credit to Croatia. The day before the match we arranged a lunch inSpago's restaurant, Croatian flag on the wall, inSouth Kensington. Sky Sports News TV filmed ourdebate on the forthcoming match. The Times and TheIndependent also stopped by to obtain views. CSYPN had booked a room at the Cadogan Arm's inLondon's Chelsea. Much of the press erroneouslythought that it was a Croatian pub! One TV morningprogramme wanted to film Croats in the pub at, er,5.30AM on the day. Quite apart from anything else,pubs in England are not known to open at such hours.More realistically, a crew from London Tonight - animportant London news programme - interviewed a groupof us live shortly before the match. I informed all ofLondon that Croatia would win.Much of the press were intrigued by the 'UpstairsDownstairs' aspect of things. The Croats were in theroom upstairs, the England fans downstairs. The presswere there during the match. The Croats were cheering,singing and roaring throughout the game, even whenEngland were ahead- contrary to one report which saidthe Croats went quiet. Amusingly, the press picked upon the booing when Victoria 'Posh' Beckham appeared onscreen. Little could be heard from downstairs,despite the fact England won. The whole of Chelseacould hear the Croats. Most of the press reporting of the fans at the pub wasfair, with BBC Online easily producing the bestreport. Press reporting in general was not too bad -that is for an opposing team. Some allegations about'racist' Croatia fans - echoing similar complaintspreviously about Slovaks - did appear in the media. Some English fans made clear to me this was a bit much- as if racism has not been present in Englishfootball in the past or indeed now. Other reports,such as in the News of the World, concentrated ondifferences in the Croatian team. Crowatia - geddit?However, this kind of thing is to be expected againstany team playing England. Just wait until the nextEngland v Germany game…Whatever the merits of press coverage, at least itconcentrated on football - you can't expect theEnglish media not to support their team. However, theIndependent was an exception. It ran a page,containing a reasonable article based on theaforementioned lunch but also "Ten things you alwayswanted to know about Croatia". Amongst these thing,we were informed about Croatian concentration camps -but not about wartime Serbian crimes in Croatia. We were also informed that "former yugoslavians" donot like Croat player's chequerboard shirts becausethey remind them of Ustasha uniforms. We were notinformed why they had no problem with the chequerboardwhen it denoted Croatia during the communist Yugoslavera. Strange people, these "former yugoslavians". This was nasty and hideously inappropriate material,from a supposedly 'liberal' newspaper. This is thesort of newspaper to look down its nose at anti-Germancomments by other papers.It was interesting to see that most sports/generalreporters were not interested in such drivel, incontrast those that cover Croatia politically. Therewere some erroneously reports that an England fan wasmurdered by a Croat - but these were quicklycorrected. One interesting thing about Euro 2004 is thenationalism, lets it call it that, of the English andits media - now transferred to the Tennis. The crossof St. George is everywhere. This is mostly apositive phenomenon. Only a few years ago it wasrarely seen. The lesson for Croats is not to take anynonsense from anyone about their 'nationalism' - justpoint to the English. Those few Croats who claimthat flying the flag etc is not the done thing intoday's world are merely displaying their ownignorance and unworldliness.All in all, the media coverage of Croatia was good. The main reason is not that that it was all positive -it wasn't of course. No, it was because Croatia wasall over the press as an accepted country in its ownright. It would be unthinkable twenty years ago toconsider such a thing. There are no doubt those whowere grinding their teeth at Croatian symbols soprominently displayed in the press. They belong toyesterday - and they know it. Its become a bit of cliché to say Croatia's sports menand women are Croatia's best ambassador's. But, asthe Croatian football team - and their tennis players- have recently showed, it's as true as ever.(c) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7261/1/E-ITALY-CROATIA-MARTINO-MEETS-RONCEVIC.html ÂITALY-CROATIA:MARTINO MEETS DEFENCE MINISTER RONCEVIC(AGI) - Rome, Italy, July 6 Defence Minister Antonio Martino, met in Rome today his Croatian counterpart, Berislav Roncevic, on an official visit in Italy. During the talk they reviewed the main themes of security and common defence and the state of bilateral relations. The two ministers expressed their agreement on the positive evolution of the security situation in Bosnia Herzegovina and they said that they agreed on the conclusion at the end of 2004 of the "Sfor" mission and the beginning of the Eufor mission by the EU. The two then examined, with reciprocal satisfaction, the state of bilateral relations in the defence sector. They went into the details of the agreement signed in Ancona in 2000 and ratified with law 20 March 2003, n. 75. Of particular interest for Roncevic, was the Croatian participation in the MLF (Multinational Land Force), the multinational brigade level formation with Italy, Slovenia and Hungary which was born at the end of the 90s. It is a force oriented towards the execution of EU missions in the context of the Petersberg declaration. Regarding this, Minister Martino confirmed the support of Italy for a policy of openness towards the offerse from Croatia (participating as an observer nation) for its future, progressive participation in the initiative. Finally, Minister Roncevic, with reference to the aspirations of Croatia of joining EU and euro-atlantic political and security institutions, expressed words of gratitude for the constant and strong support given by Italy. Minister Martino, on his part, repeated the importance of Croatia in the context of international community policies for the stabilisation of the Balkan area. (AGI) . 062045 LUG 04 COPYRIGHTS 2002-2003 AGI S.p.A. http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200407062045-1219-RT1-CRO-0-NF82&page=0&id=agionline-eng.italyonline letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 06 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7262/1/E-Wheres-Radovan-Carla.html ÂWhere's Radovan, Carla?Earlier this month Carla Del Ponte told us thatKaradzic would be in the Hague by June 29. Sherepeated it at the UN. So where is he? Herspokeswoman is now ludicrously claiming that DelPonte's comments were distorted. Precisely why thiscomplaint about distorted comments was not airedpreviously has not been revealed. Below, in order,are the relevant press reports.Again, when complaining about the Hague, Del Ponte'smisleading comments to the world public should beaired.Brian GallagherDel Ponte confident on Karadzic arrest | 21:44 June 12| ReutersTHE HAGUE -- Saturday -- The chief war crimesprosecutor for the Balkans says she is confident topBosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic willbe arrested by the end of the month, the Swiss newsagency ATS reported."We have good reasons to believe that Radovan Karadzicwill be extradited by June 29," Carla del Ponte toldATS in Switzerland late on Friday, withoutelaborating.The Bosnian Serb wartime leader has been at largesince 1996, evading a United Nations trial forgenocide for his role in Bosnia's 1992-95 war thatkilled 200,000 people.The Bosnian Serb Republic is under Western pressureover poor cooperation with the U.N. war crimes courtin The Hague and has pledged to step up efforts todetain suspects.It hopes to join NATO's Partnership for Peaceprogramme for non-members next month.Expressing discontent with Belgrade's poorcooperation, Del Ponte said the arrest of Karadzic'smilitary commander Ratko Mladic depended on theSerbian authorities.Del Ponte said she would submit a formal complaintagainst Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica tothe UN Security Council by the end of the month,adding that the tribunal was still missing importantdocuments needed to continue the inquiry.Karadzic arrest 'imminent'Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Posted: 8:13 PM EDT (0013 GMT) UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Chief U.N. war crimesprosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, Carla Del Ponte,says she is optimistic that former Bosnian Serb leaderRadovan Karadzic will be in custody by the end of theday Wednesday.Asked why she thought they would be in custody soon,Del Ponte said Tuesday, "I cannot tell it now publicly-- let's obtain the arrest of Karadzic and afterwardwe will talk about what we have done, what we havelearned."For years, Karadzic was said to be at large somewherein the Republika Srpska -- the Serb part ofBosnia-Hercegovina. There has been renewed pressure onBosnia to hand over Karadzic.Aides to Del Ponte say there have been new pressuresplaced on Serb officials in Bosnia who were recentlyconvinced to give fresh evidence on mass graves for areport on the massacres in Srebrenica in July 1995.Bosnia also is hoping to join NATO's Partnership forPeace -- a cooperative defense program with NATO. At the recent NATO summit in Istanbul, Bosnia wasreminded that it had not lived up to its obligation tocooperate with the war crimes tribunal -- a conditionfor joining NATO's Partnership for Peace.Del Ponte has been saying in various forums over thepast year that she was hopeful Karadzic would bearrested by the end of the year, and recently toldjournalists she was confident he would be arrested bythe end of June 2004.The International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,and another U.N. Tribunal for War Crimes in Rwanda,are now under mandate from the U.N. Security Councilto wrap up their work. While there is no particular deadline for arrests tobe made, investigations must be completed by the endof 2004 and trials must be completed by the end of2008.Del Ponte told the U.N. Security Council Tuesday thatthe tribunal was in a "dire budgetary and financialsituation." She also said the deadlines imposed by the councilmeant that "fugitives and their protective networksare trying to buy time until 2008 in hopes of evadingjustice, as they believe the time to be tried in TheHague will soon expire."Karadzic is wanted for his role in Bosnia's war -- hehas been twice indicted by the United Nations warcrimes tribunal in The Hague. Karadzic as well as another top war crimes suspect,former Bosnian Serb military leader General RatkoMladic, are alleged to be directly responsible for theatrocities committed against the Bosnian Muslimpopulation in Srebrenica.Both Karadzic and Mladic are also charged withgenocide and crimes against humanity for crimesperpetrated against the civilian population throughoutBosnia-and-Herzegovina, for the sniping campaignagainst civilians in Sarajevo, and for the taking ofU.N.-peacekeepers as hostages and their use as humanshields.Del Ponte says there are a total of 20 fugitives fromthe war crimes tribunal including Karadzic, and 15 ofthe fugitives are thought to be in Serbia andMontenegro.Next year will mark the 10th year that both Karadzicand Mladic have been on the run from the court.Del Ponte told the council, "How long will it betolerated that these leaders escape justice? How longwill it be tolerated that they make a parody of bothjustice and the repeated commitment of the SecurityCouncil to have them arrested and tried?"The Associated PressWednesday, June 30, 2004Karadzic eludes U.N. war crimes tribunalBy ANTHONY DEUTSCHASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERTHE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 30 (AP) --Serbia-Montenegro's presidentsaid Wednesday his country is ready to extraditefugitives to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the Balkans, and the topinternational administrator for Bosnia fired dozens of officialsbelieved to be hampering the court's work.The key developments for the U.N. court in the Hague came as itsmost-wanted suspect, Radovan Karadzic, was still at large, despitepredictions by Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte thathis arrest would happen before the end of June.Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader during the wars ofthe 1990s that broke apart Yugoslavia, has eluded justice for nearly nine years.The tribunal has stepped up pressure on Serbian leaders in recentmonths by reporting their failure to cooperate withthe courtto the U.N. Security Council, which can impose economic sanctions.Also, the change of position by Serbia-Montenegro came after the weekendelection of a pro-Western leader in Serbia, the dominant country in thetwo-republic union that replaced Yugoslavia. ReformerBoris Tadic won in a runoff poll against a hard-line nationalist allyof former autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, who fueled ethnic wars in Croatia,Bosnia-Herzegovina and the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.Karadzic was indicted for genocide in 1995 - alongwith his top general, Ratko Mladic - for the massacre of thousands ofBosnian Muslims from the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica. They are among 20fugitives still sought by the tribunal for crimes allegedly committed duringthe Balkan wars.Comments by Del Ponte on Tuesday in New York, aftershe addressed the U.N. Security Council, had left the impression thatKaradzic's hand-over was imminent. Some media even reported he had beencaught.Asked about Karadzic's arrest, Del Ponte had said: "Of course I have(information). But you all understand that I cannot tell it now publicly.Let's obtain the arrest of Karadzic, and after we will speak aboutwhat we have done."Responding to a question about her earlier comment that Karadzic wouldbe arrested before June 30, he said: "I'm still expecting (it), yes. But let's see."But the following day her spokeswoman, Florence Hartmann, soughtto tone down the prosecutor's comments, which she said had been"completely twisted" out of context."She expects, she hopes, and we will not give up,"Hartmann said. "Just when it will be, we don't know."Karadzic has eluded a massive manhunt, escapingregular raids by NATO peacekeepers at the homes of his family, hisformer political headquarters, and businesses of his former associates.Some believe he has long fled the Balkans, possibly toRussia, where Milosevic's wife, Mira Markovic - also a war crimesfugitive - is believed to be hiding.Del Ponte's optimistic comments may have been provoked by the pendingdismissals of 60 Bosnian Serb officials that Bosnia-Herzegovina'sinternational administrator, Paddy Ashdown, announced Wednesday.Among those fired for stonewalling Karadzic's capturewere Bosnian Serb Parliament Speaker Dragan Kalinic and Zoran Djeric,the interior minister in charge of police in the Serb half of Bosnia.Others dismissed were senior politicians of the partyfounded by Karadzic, along with lower party officials, heads ofstate companies and some local police chiefs.Ashdown said the dismissals were part of a 10-pointpackage "designed to reduce the influence of those who ... obstruct thiscountry's progress toward stability and the rule of law." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 03 Jul 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7264/1/E-Clinton-on-Operation-Storm-I-was-rooting-for-the-Croatians.html Clinton on Operation Storm: "I was rooting for the Croatians"Below is some info posted on Justwatch by MikeBaresic. It regards Bill Clinton's comments onOperation Storm in his autobiography and it wouldappear to be of great significance.BrianMike Baresic GRABOVCAN@AOL.COM Bill Clinton's autobiography, out in bookstores today,contains several pages about the conflict in Croatiaand Bosnia. Interesting excerpts include Clinton'sconfirmation that the US authorized MPRI to go to Croatia to trainthe Croatian army and make it a counterbalance to the Serbarmy. He also states that the US looked the other way toarms shipments that violated the UN arms embargo. Clintondeclares that Operation Storm was of great importance todefeating Milosevic and that he was "rooting for the Croatians"to take back the Krajina.Although he doesn't explicitly state that he was the"godfather of Operation Storm" (to borrow Florence Hartmann'sphrase), he comes awfully close.Mike letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 23 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7263/1/E-Croatia-is-named-candidate-for-EU.html ÂCroatia is named candidate for EUCroatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader wants to enter EU in 2007 Talks for Croatia to join the European Union will start next year. EU leaders at a two-day summit in Brussels announced Croatia's new status as an official candidate country. The European Commission's President Romano Prodi said: "We are very satisfied because Croatia is going with us into Europe." Croatia hopes to join the EU in 2007, together with Bulgaria and Romania. Ten countries joined the EU in May, taking the total to 25. EU leaders used the summit to reiterate that they want Romania and Bulgaria to join the union together in 2007. The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the rotating presidency, said there were no plans to separate the two countries' entry, provided they both met membership criteria. Earlier this week Bulgaria completed negotiations on its accession, and correspondents say there has been speculation that it may join the EU before Romania, which is hoping to complete talks on its accession by the end of this year. Regarding Croatia, the 25 leaders agreed that it had met the criteria necessary to get the official status of applicant. UN co-operationIn April, the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, said Croatia should get formal candidate status after its political and economic reforms were judged successful. It also praised its readiness to co-operate with the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's conservative government has facilitated the surrender of eight war crimes suspects to the tribunal. The EU leaders reiterated that, to meet membership criteria, Croatia needed to maintain full co-operation with the tribunal, improve minority rights and speed up the return of ethnic Serb refugees who fled the country during the wars of the 1990s. Croatia would be the second former Yugoslav state to join the EU. Slovenia was among the 10 states who joined on 1 May. Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey are already candidates for membership. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is attending the summit, has also said entry talks may begin for Turkey as early as March 2005. EU leaders are due to decide in December whether Turkey has made enough progress on human rights and political freedoms to begin the negotiations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3818485.stm  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 19 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7267/1/E-RESETTLING-CROATS-IN-POSAVINA-by-Brian-Gallagher.html ÂVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON RESETTLING CROATS IN POSAVINAby Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1018 - 11.06.04Croat refugee return in Bosnia-Herzegovina has beenunsuccessful. However, whilst in Sarajevo I learnt ofan important project to help resettle Croat refugeesto the Posavina area of BiH on a sustainable basis. Concerns were expressed to me in Sarajevo that AnnexVII of the Dayton Accords - which deal with refugeereturn - may be declared to be fully realised. Thiswould mean declaring that the refugee problem iseffectively over, and no funds will remain for Croatswho want to go home. This possibility is givencredence by Paddy Ashdown's continued declarations onthe success of refugee returns - conveniently notmentioning the failure of Croat returns. Unlike theSerbs and Bosniaks, Croats only started returningafter 2000 rather than in 1995 - when the war ended. The seriousness of the situation is demonstrated byfigures from the Franciscan Bosna Srebrena Provincial.In the areas they administer there were 158,246 Croatsin 2003 as opposed to 295,060 in 1991. However, this does not mean the situation is hopeless.A new project funded by the Croatian AmericanAssociation may help in returning Croats to theirhomes in BiH. The CAA project is taking place in Plehan, in thePosavina region of northern BiH, which bordersCroatia. Plehan falls within the Serb controlled partof BiH. Historically, Posavina has a large Croatpopulation. During the war, the Serbs ethicallycleansed the region of Croats. They also destroyed theSt. Marko Monastery. The United Nations Development Programme, which hasbeen involved in attempting to return Croats to thearea, has written an unusually sympathetic report. Itpoints out the great significance Posavina has forCroats in BiH, Croatia and the Croatian Diaspora,referring to the "continuing breathing" betweenpopulations across the border. However, refugee BiH Croats who fled to Croatia havelittle incentive to return. The conditions - economic,health care, education etc - are much better inCroatia than BiH. There are few employmentpossibilities in Posavina, never mind the implicationsof living in Republika Srpska; it is only relativelyrecently that Croats have been able to return safely. Few have actually done so. In 1991, Plehan itself had6,000 Croats; in 2003 it just had 161. The CAA project in Plehan is geared to the micro level- a grass roots approach. A local who returned fromCroatia is receiving CAA funds to build a store.Currently, there is no such store and locals have tobe ferried to nearby towns for their supplies. Some ofthe profits will go into a community fund to expandthe scheme. A local, integrated approach - homes, churches,schools and employment are all needed for sustainablereturn. This is recognised by bodies such as UNDP. TheCAA project is working on the same lines. If it works,then it can create an ongoing success. In so doing, itcan bring attention to the Croat refugee returnproblem and put off any notion of stating that AnnexVII has been realised.© Brian GallagherMy 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7266/1/H-Istina-je.html ÂISTINA JE!ISTINA JE da Hrvatska, kao i sve ostale clanice Ujedinjenih naroda, ima obvezu suradnje s Medunarodnim kaznenim sudom za teška kršenja medunarodnog humanitarnog prava pocinjena na podrucju bivše Jugoslavije (MKS).ISTINA JE da je Sabor u travnju 1996. donio Ustavni zakon o suradnji RH s MKS-om.ISTINA JE da je u rujnu 2001. godine 50 saborskih zastupnika Ustavnom sudu podnijelo Zahtjev za ocjenu ustavnosti Ustavnog zakona o suradnji RH s MKS-om.ISTINA JE da najpriznatiji hrvatski ustavno-pravni strucnjaci, Smiljko Sokol i Branko Smerdl, u svojoj knjizi Ustavno pravo izricito navode da i ustavni zakoni moraju biti u skladu s Ustavom. Iz toga jasno proizlazi da je Ustavni sud nadležan za ocjenu ustavnosti Ustavnog zakona o suradnji RH s MKS-om.ISTINA JE da su podnositelji u Zahtjevu naglasili da se ne zalažu za prekid suradnje s MKS-om.ISTINA je da su podnositelji u Zahtjevu zatražili stavljanje izvan snage pojedinih zakonskih odredbi koje ne zadovoljavaju ustavne standarde zaštite ljudskih prava. ISTINA JE da su podnositelji u okviru Zahtjeva predložili i donošenje odluke o privremenom obustavljanju izrucenja okrivljenika MKS-u. ISTINA JE da je spomenutih 50 saborskih zastupnika opisanim pravnim sredstvima legalno i legitimno pokušalo zaštititi generala Antu Gotovinu od progona MKS-a.ISTINA JE da je Ustavni sud, sukladno Ustavnom zakonu o Ustavnom sudu, svaki zahtjev za ocjenu ustavnosti obvezan riješiti «u pravilu u roku od najviše godinu dana».ISTINA JE da se Ustavni sud još uvijek nije ocitovao o Zahtjevu za ocjenu ustavnosti Ustavnog zakona o suradnji RH sa MKS-om, a od njegovog podnošenja prošle su gotovo tri godine!ISTINA JE da je Vlada premijera Ivice Racana u listopadu 2002., vezano uz optužnicu protiv generala Janka Bobetka, uputila Ustavnom sudu Inicijativu za davanje mišljenja o pojedinim ustavnopravnim aspektima oslobodilackih akcija Domovinskog rata i s njima povezanim ovlastima i dužnostima oružanih snaga Republike Hrvatske.ISTINA JE da je Ustavni sud na Inicijativu Vlade premijera Racana odgovorio nakon mjesec dana - u studenome 2002. godine.ISTINA JE da neki od 50 saborskih zastupnika koji su u rujnu 2001. od Ustavnog suda zatražili ocjenu ustavnosti Ustavnog zakona o suradnji RH s MKS-om i privremenu obustavu izrucenja okrivljenika Haaškom sudu, danas obnašaju najistaknutije državne funkcije. To su: IVO SANADER, predsjednik Vlade; VLADIMIR ŠEKS, predsjednik Sabora; JADRANKA KOSOR, potpredsjednica Vlade; LUKA BEBIC, potpredsjednik Sabora; VESNA ŠKARE - OŽBOLT, ministrica pravosuda; IVAN ŠUKER, ministar financija; BOŽIDAR KALMETA, ministar mora, turizma, prometa i razvitka; MARINA MATULOVIC - DROPULIC, ministrica zaštite okoliša, prostornog uredenja i graditeljstva; IVAN JARNJAK, predsjednik saborskog Odbora za unutarnju politiku i nacionalnu sigurnost; BRANIMIR GLAVAŠ, predsjednik saborskog Odbora za izbor, imenovanje i upravne poslove; itd.ISTINA JE da o zastupnickoj inicijativi iz rujna 2001. ne šuti samo Ustavni sud. O tome šuti i Vlada, šuti Sabor, šuti vlast, šuti oporba, šute mediji… ISTINA JE da ovo nije placeni novinski oglas kojim se pokušava utjecati na Ustavni sud da donese «ovakvu» ili «onakvu» odluku. Na takvo nešto nitko nema pravo.ISTINA JE da je ovo poticaj Ustavnom sudu da se konacno ocituje o Zahtjevu za ocjenu ustavnosti Ustavnog zakona o suradnji RH s MKS-om. Taj poticaj nije samo pravo, nego i svojevrsna moralna obveza jednog od pedesetorice potpisnika jedne znakovito zaboravljene inicijative.P.S. Prvi je dan lipnja. Utorak. Istjece rok za predaju još jedne kolumne. Prelistavajuci novine pokušavam se otresti asocijacija na Cervantesa i Shakespearea; Don Quihotea i Hamleta; vjetrenjace i trulu državu - naravno «Dansku». Sutra nam ponovno dolazi Carla Del Ponte. Njen domacin biti ce ministrica pravosuda, što je na tragu politike nove vlade za koju «suradnja s Haaškim sudom predstavlja iskljucivo pravosudni, a ne politicki problem». Iskreno, ovaj citat je uvjerljivo najgluplja fraza koju sam cuo u životu. Jutarnji javlja da ce Carla Del Ponte vecerati s Ivom Sanaderom, Jadrankom Kosor, Andrijom Hebrangom, Miomirom Žužulom, Vesnom Škare - Ožbolt i Mladenom Bajicem. Ne spominje se hoce li Ivo na «party za ekipu» pozvati i Stipu. Slobodna donosi naslov «Del Ponte odlucuje o kandidaturi za EU». E moj narode!ÂProcitali ste kolumnu g. Joska Kontica koju novo urednistvo tjednika Fokus nije htjelo objaviti u cjelosti ili ako ne mozete otvoriti file kliknite na www.lijepanasadomovinahrvatska.com/tekst/ISTINA JE.doc Srdacan pozdravIvica GrgicISTINA JE! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7265/1/H-CroInfo-web-site-opened.html ÂCroInfo web site openedDragi svi,zelim vam predstaviti i pozvati vas da posjetite CroInfo web stranice (www.croinfo.com ) koje sam nedavno pokrenuo i koje funkcioniraju kao neprofitni web site.Prije toga samo dvije rijeci o meni. Zovem se Zdeslav Hrepic, rodjen sam u Splitu, Hrvatska. U USA sam dosao prije 4 godine na poslijediplomski studij. Tu sam stekao titule magistra i doktora znanosti a na jesen pocinjem predavati na Fort Hays State University, Kansas. U USA sam dosao sa suprugom Dijanom, takodjer rodjenom u Splitu a u medjuvremenu smo dobili kcer Zrinku. Vise o meni mozete naci na: http://www.phys.ksu.edu/~zhrepic/ odnosnowww.hrepic.com .Da se vratim na temu :-). Svrha CroInfo web sitea je upozoravanje i senzibiliziranje hrvatske javnosti na teme od iznimne vaznosti (1) za politicku samostalnost i gospodarski napredak Republike Hrvatske i (2) za zastitu i ocuvanje prirodnog okolisa u Republici Hrvatskoj. Mnogim od tih tema se u medijima ne posvecuje pozornost koju zavrijedjuju. Nazalost najvaznije teme cak i kad su dobro poznate javnosti, cesto bivaju zasjenjene drugim, za kvalitetu zivljenja ljudi potpuno nebitnim ako ne i stetnim temama. Primjera je na pretek i necu ih ni spominjati.Kako su politicki, gospodarski i ekoloski bitne teme cesto isprepletene u istim dogadjajima, vijesti i osvrti na CroInfo stranicama najcesce ne pripadaju iskljucivo jednoj od njih. No teme su uvjetno podijeljene radi preglednosti i lakseg snalazenja na stranicama.Ukoliko zelite dati svoj doprinos cilju za koji se zalazem, pozivam Vas da svoja razmisljanja i osvrte objavite na stranicama CroInfo-a. Za bolju Hrvatsku - danas!ÂVeliki pozdrav svim CROWN-ovcima i uredniku Nenadu koji mi je u mnogocemu bio i ostao uzor.Dr. Zdeslav Hrepic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 14 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7269/1/H-Otvaren-Hrvatski-Konzulat-u-Mundimitru---Molise---Italija.html ÂOtvaren Hrvatski Konzulat u Mundimitru - Molise - Italija Petak 28svibnja2004Štovani,šaljem Vam clanak o otvaranja Hrvatskog Konyulata u Mundimitru.Srdacno Vas pozdravljam.Gabriele RomagnoliMontemitro, antico paese croato.Mundimitar, stari hrvatski grad.Web: www.mundimitar.it E-mail: info@mundimitar.it Responsabile - Odgovoran: Gabriele RomagnoliE-mail: gabriele.romagnoli@aliceposta.itMundimitar - U petak 28 svibnja 2004 god. prigodom svetkovanja 17° stogodišnjice izumrle Svete Lucije, otvoren je u Mundimitru Hrvatski Konzulat. Počasnim Konzulom nominiran je geom. Antonio Sammartino, koji se u posljedni desetljeća borio na očuvanju naše kulturne i ježične baštine, a u nama je probudio interes i ponos naše istinske identičnosti, predana nam vijekovima od naših predaka.S lijeva: Vjekoslav Križanec Savjetnik Ministarstva Vanjskih Poslova Republike Hrvatske, Zdenka Babić Petričević Predsjednica Odbora za useljeništvo Republike Hrvatske, Sergio Sammartino gradonačelnik općine Mundimitra, Drago Kraljević Veleposlanik Republike Hrvatske u Rimu, Antonio Sammartino Počasni Konzul Hrvatskog Konzulata u Mundimitru "Pokrajne Molise - Italija", Nevio Šetić Državni Tajnik Ministarstva Prosvjete.Koji datum značajniji za otvaranje Konzulata ako ne na ovaj zadnji petak mjeseca svibnja u kojem je proslavljena i svetkovina posvećena sv. Luciji zaštitnici očiju i općine Mundimitra. Nakon 5 stoljeća tradicija želi da sv. Lucija bude slavljena svakog petka mjesec svibnja a pripovijeda se da su tokom prijelaska Jadranskog mora naši preci sa sobom nosili drveni trup sv. Lucije i da su stigli u naše zemlje jednog petka mjeseca svibnja, ne znajući točniji datum i zbog toga slavljeni su svakog petka mj. svibnja.Posebno su slavljeni prvi i posljedni petak, prvi petak kao znak otvaranja a posljedni i najznačajniji petak kao dan završetka svetkovine. Osobno mi je bila velika čast pričustvovati ovakvoj prigodi, neponovljiva je to prigoda pošto nevjerujem da ću u slijedećoj stogodišnjici biti prisutan, isto vrijedi i za otvaranje Hrvatskog Konzulata u Mundimitru.Zaklada "Agostina Piccoli" u okviru ove prigode, izdala je i predstavila zbirku neizdanih literarnih pjesama s naslovom "S našimi rići". Sakupljenja zbirka pjesama sudjelovala je u posljednje tri godine na objavljenom natječaju Zaklade "Agostina Piccoli". Zbirka sakuplja sve nagrađene, a i nenagrađene pjesme s znatnim interesom.Svečanom otvaranju Hrvatskog Konzulata prisustvovali su nazočni gosti: Drago Kraljević Hrvatski Veleposlanik u Rimu, Franjo Zenko Hrvatski Veleposlanik u Svetoj Stolici, Zdenka Babić Petričević Predsjednica Odbora za useljeništvo Republike Hrvatske, Vjekoslav Križanec Savjetnik Ministarstva Vanjskih Poslova Republike Hrvatske, Nevio Šetić Državni Tajnik Ministarstva Prosvjete, Snježana Hefti Predsjednica Saveza Hrvatskih Zajednica u Italiji, Rosa Alò Konzul Hrvatskog Konzulata u Bari, Pasquale Piccoli Savjetnik Pokrajine Campobasso, Antonio Chieffo Pokrajinski Odbornik za opću javnost poslova i prometa, Augusto Massa Predsjednik Pokrajine Campobasso, Gianluigi Scaltritti Talijanski Izaslanik, Predsjednik Saveza prijateljstva između Italije, Slovenije i Hrvatske, Rosida Norelli gradonačelnica San Felice del Molise "Stifilič", delegacija Hrvatskog Saveza u Rimu, Hrvatska Televizija, Talijanska Televizija RAI treći prog. i svi ostali.Moja posebna pohvala prevoditeljici Orietti Crnobori, njena prisutnost bila je inzvanredna i neophodna za ulakšavanje i razumijevanja jezika svim prisutnima.Gabriele Romagnoli letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7268/1/E-John-Kerry-Statement-for-Croatias-Statehood-Day.html ÂJohn Kerry Statement for Croatia's Statehood Day May 30, 2004Contact: George Kivork, 202-712-3000 Washington, DC - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry issued the following statement Sunday in remembrance of Croatia's Statehood Day:"Today I join the people of Croatia and Croatian descent as they celebrate Croatia's Statehood Day. Over a decade has passed since Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in the early 90's. Independence has not always been easy, but in joining the Adriatic Charter in 2002, Croatia has taken positive steps toward securing its own peace and becoming integrated into a Europe whole and free. I congratulate Croatia on the progress it has made and urge Croatians to continue working for peace, justice and democracy in their country. For over a hundred years, Croatians also have contributed to the rich diversity of immigrants that have made America what it is today. Our nation owes much to those hard-working men and women who sought to better their fortunes here, and who have contributed so much to our culture, our freedom, and our prosperity. Croatians around the world have earned the right to celebrate their independence on this day."www.johnkerry.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Jun 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7271/1/E-Titos-son-named-Croatian-envoy-to-Indonesia.html   Tito's son named Croatian envoy to Indonesia JAKARTA: A generation ago the leaders of Indonesia and Yugoslavia helped set up the Non-Aligned Movement -- a grouping meant to offer a middle path during the Cold War.Now, in an echo of times gone by, the son of Yugoslavia's late strongman Josip Broz Tito has become Croatia's ambassador to an Indonesian government led by the daughter of its founder, Sukarno. Aleksandar Broz, a former vice president of Croatia's state-owned oil company, arrived in Jakarta over the weekend after being named to the post late last year. "I'm not sure what role the non-aligned connection can play nowadays, it certainly cannot hurt relations", Broz said on Monday. Tito and president Soekarno were instrumental in setting up the Non-Aligned Movement at the height of the Cold War in the late 1950s. --AP http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20040525.C07&irec=13   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 25 May 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7270/1/E-NFCA-at-The-White-House.html   NFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANSNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS MEETS WITH LISA TEPPER OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL IN THE WHITE HOUSE  (Washington, D.C., May 24, 2004). On Friday, May 21, 2004, a delegation of the National Federation of Croatian Americans met with Lisa Tepper, the National Security Council Director for Southeastern European Affairs, to discuss Bush Administration policies toward Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delegation, consisted of NFCA President John Kraljic, Past President Steve Rukavina, Vice President of Finance Frank Jerbich, Treasurer Zvonko Labas, Director of Development Erik Milman, Louise Birt and Dr. Judy Vogelsang of Missouri, Andrew and Susan Marcec of Illinois, Joseph Rukavina and John Balaich of Minnesota, Marie McGuckin of Illinois and Joseph Foley of Foley Government and Public Affairs.During the meeting, NFCA representatives expressed their views regarding Croatia's status vis-a-vis NATO, the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The NFCA took the opportunity to express to Ms. Tepper its concern over the continued linkage by certain American and international officials of Croatia's membership in NATO with the surrender of General Gotovina. As was noted during the meeting, Croatia's continued integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions cannot be delayed on the basis of the failure of one person to surrender to an international tribunal.Those present further noted that requiring General Gotovina's surrender as a sine qua non of NATO entry presented an unfair burden to Croatia, especially in light of the fact that the United States and its NATO allies have failed to capture Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic despite being in control of Bosnia and Herzegovina for close to ten years.With respect to the ICTY, NFCA representatives expressed their frustration at the failure of the international community and especially the United States to enforce oversight over the Tribunal. They noted to Ms. Tepper the ICTY's clear attempts to draft indictments to balance guilt among the parties to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the ICTY's continued reliance on sources for evidence having questionable credibility, such as Savo Strbac, a former high-ranking official of the criminal "Republika Srpska Krajina," whose Belgrade-based organization has been instrumental in assisting the ICTY in drafting some of the more recent indictments against certain Croatian generals.Concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina, the NFCA spoke generally about their disappointment with the continuing state of limbo in which that country and especially its Croat population finds itself in. Several of those present expressed the fear that the failure to properly protect the rights of the Croatian community within Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the continued presence of extremist Serbian nationalism and the potential threat of increased Islamic fundamentalism placed Bosnia and Herzegovina in an especially precarious situation, reminiscent to some of the former Yugoslavia immediately prior to its collapse in the early 1990s.Following the meeting, Mr. Kraljic noted that the NFCA was pleased to have had the opportunity to have met with an official of the National Security Council to express its position on these issues of vital importance to Croatian-Americans. "This meeting comes on the heels of meetings we held in early April with Ambassador Prosper and with State Department officials responsible for oversight of relations with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We come away from these meetings with a generally positive impression about the current state of relations between Croatia and the United States. However, a number of issues continue persist which need to be resolved in a manner beneficial to Croatia. Moreover, the problems in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to haunt us and there seems to be little understanding in the international community for plight of the Croatian community in that country. We need to strengthen our focus on that issue in the coming months."The NFCA is a national umbrella group of major Croatian-American organizations which collectively have 120,000 members.For more information, please contact Mr. Joseph Foley via info@foleycoinc.com or Mr. Erik Milman at NFCA headquarters at 202-331-2830.1329 Connecticut Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 331-2830 Fax: (202) 331-0050 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 24 May 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7272/1/E-A-Useful-Balkan-Flip-Flop-By-VITOMIR-MILES-RAGUZ.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 20 May 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7274/1/E-Europe-Plans-For-An-Arab-Expansion.html ÂEurope Plans For An Arab ExpansionThe Times, LondonBRUSSELS, May 4. - WITH the largest-ever enlargement of the EU behind them, European officials are now preparing even more ambitious plans to expand the Brussels empire across North Africa, West Asia and Asia. They hope that just as last weekend's enlargement helped to entrench democracy in eight former Communist countries, this new policy will stabilise much of the Arab world, as well as the still turbulent far eastern regions of Europe. Next week, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, will launch a strategy document setting out details of an effective enlargement of the EU over decades across all the Muslim countries lining the Mediterranean, from Morocco to Syria, as well as Israel, Lebanon and all the former parts of the Soviet Union which are in Europe, including Russia. This is in addition to the well-advanced plans for Romania and Bulgaria to become full members of the EU in 2007, followed by all the Balkan countries including Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. The Commission will also announce in October whether it thinks that Turkey is ready to join the EU. ÂSource:http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=42295  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 10 May 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7273/1/E-Slobodna-Dalmacija-on-Ashdown.html ÂASHDOWN'S EDUCATION MANIFESTOÂSlobodna Dalmacija's BiH has run a piece on Ashdown'sUK education policies. My article from last Octoberhas filtered through! Link to SD item below, as wellas my original piece.Brianhttp://members.madasafish.com/~opus/Croatia/Brian.Gallagher.200404.html VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 987 - 10.10.03Paddy Ashdown's manifesto commitments and his writingswhilst he was leader of the Liberal Democrats in theUnited Kingdom shed a lot of light on his policies inBosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, the details oneducation are of great importance, as that is a majorissue right now in BiH, especially for the Croats. AndAshdown's views are very close to the Croats. In BiH, reform of education is being debated byparliament. There is a push by the Organisation forSecurity and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to placeeducation on the entity level away from the locallevel. In the Muslim-Croat Federation this would meancontrol passing to the education ministry in Sarajevo.Croats are very concerned about this; not unreasonablythey wish their children to be taught in their ownlanguage and about Croat culture, which they are ableto do now at local level. They believe this may becompromised if it is placed at entity level; theCroats are significantly outnumbered in the Federationby the Bosniaks. If a solution is not found, then Paddy Ashdown mayimpose one. If one considers his political trackrecord then in theory his solution would be somethingCroats find agreeable.In an interview for the Guardian last year, Ashdownstated that he is implementing the 1992 LiberalDemocrat manifesto in BiH. So it seems that Ashdown is drawing on his partypolicies as leader in running BiH. The 1992 electionmanifesto is very clear on education: Under "Puttingeducation at the heart of the community" they discussthe independence of schools and colleges and theirpioneering local management. They want educationwithin a "democratically accountable framework oflocal education authorities". Local educationauthorities in the UK roughly translates into cantonsin BiH, rather than the entities.The manifesto also says that education is an area that"should be devolved from Whitehall (centralgovernment) and brought nearer to the people they mostaffect."For Ashdown's 1997 manifesto - which I personallycampaigned for - previous ideas are built upon, withmore power to be given to schools. The "valuable role"of church schools is recognised, and where there issubstantial community support, the major faiths canestablish publicly funded voluntary schools. Furthermore, the role of national culture and languageis also regarded as important. The 1997 ScottishLiberal Democrat manifesto under "A new deal forGaelic and Scots culture", states they "will supportand maintain the diversity of Scotland's linguisticand cultural traditions." Specifically they willsupport and develop the provision of Gaelic ineducation and that they will "Promote a greateremphasis on Scottish culture in the mainstreamcurriculum".It is obvious from all this that Ashdown's commitmentsas party leader were to local control of school and astrong recognition and support of religion, languageand culture. The positive implications for Croats areclear. In 1994 Ashdown wrote a book entitled 'BeyondWestminster - Finding Hope in Britain'. Essentially hetravelled across the United Kingdom, includingdeprived areas, spending time with the diverse peopleof the country.In East London, he speaks approvingly of Saturdayschools run by and for ethnic minorities which "teachtheir religion, preserve their language and cultureand supplement mainstream education". Croats of courseare a constituent people, not an ethnic minority. Theyexpect mainstream schools to do their job rather thanhaving to organise separate schooling themselves. AndEast London is extraordinarily multi-cultural incontrast to BiH. The situations are very different. But the critical point here is that Ashdown supportsthe preservation of people's language, culture andreligions. In Beyond Westminster's conclusion Ashdown declareshis belief in local communities and people providingsolutions - not centralised government. In total, it is very clear that Paddy Ashdown'smanifesto commitments as Liberal Democrat leader andhis own words lean towards local control of education,an appreciation of religion in schools and supportingthe development of local language and culture. Thiscertainly would benefit Croats - but it also benefitsSerbs and Bosniaks as well. No one group should beable to dominate another in any field in BiH under theguise of unity - Serb domination in former Yugoslaviawas hardly a good idea. Croats should set about reminding Paddy Ashdown of hismanifesto commitments - and use them right now insupport of their case for their schoolchildren andstudents to be taught in their own language and abouttheir own culture.If Ashdown has to impose a solution, it will beinteresting to see what he does; I am sure manyobservers in Britain will be keen to see if he sticksto his principles. © Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 10 May 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7277/1/E-Stand-with-me-for-peace.html ÂA MESSAGE FROM DENNIS KUCINICHRECORDED THE EVENING OF APRIL 20, 2004TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO POSTCARD:Hi, this is Dennis.The situation in Iraq continues to get worse, and unfortunately leaders of both political parties do not seem to know any way out and they are guiding us towards a path of sending in more troops, which will inevitably prolong the war, and put us in a situation where we are going to have more casualties on both sides, and a greater cost to the American taxpayers and an alienation further from the nations of the world.Your help has enabled me to bring a message that war is not inevitable and that peace is inevitable if we are willing to work for a new plan which will enable us to go to the United Nations and bring in U.N. Peacekeepers and bring our troops home. As you know, now we've been talking about this plan for six months. And as you know, with your help, I've been able to stay in this presidential campaign to continue to talk about the need for peaceful resolutions of the conditions in Iraq.Now more than ever your help is needed to help us keep this message going. Now more than ever I need your financial assistance to make sure that we can carry this message not only through the platform committee process, but through to the convention so that our Democratic party can offer the American people a real alternative. It really isn't fair to the American people that they have to choose between a Democratic version of Iraq and a Republican version of the war in Iraq.Yet our campaign gives the people some hope that there are alternatives. That we can go to the U.N. and ask the U.N. to handle the oil assets of Iraq on behalf of the Iraqi people until the Iraqi people are self-governing. The same with the contracts. That we tell the world community the United States is no longer interested in the privatization of Iraq. That we ask the U.N. for help in scheduling elections and drafting a constitution for Iraq. That we help to pay for what we destroyed, that we pay reparations to families of innocent victims and noncombatants who lost their lives in the conflict, and that we help fund a U.N. peacekeeping mission.It's not inevitable that we stay in Iraq. And it's not necessary for our troops to have the bear the responsibility for stabilizing Iraq. You know and I know that the U.S. invasion created the instability in Iraq. That the U.S. invasion created a situation where the war is deepening, and that only when we get our troops home is there going to be any hope of bringing about a resolution provided of course that we can come to and agreement with the U.N. for a new peace plan. And that's exactly what I've offered.This is the moment when we get a chance to consciously choose a new direction for our nation. Your support for this campaign has made it possible for us to get this far. But I can't take another step without your help. I need your help to keep funding our effort. I need you to go right now to our website at kucinich.us and send another contribution so that in the next weeks and months so that we can keep this message alive inside the Democratic Party.We have to have the Democratic Party stand for peace. We can't tell the American people that they're going to be asked to choose between a Republican version of the war in Iraq and a Democratic version of the same. So your help is going to be so important in helping to send this campaign in a direction where we can enable the Democratic Party to stand for something. To stand for a new hope. To stand for a new way to stand for a course of action which will bring our troops home.As we speak, 10,000 miles away, there are men and women who serve this country who wonder if their leaders are going to be able to come up with a solution so that they can come home and be with their families. As we speak, there is bloodshed in the streets of Iraq and people are wondering if there is any way out of this plight that seems to afflict this country without end.And yet, we have it within our hands to take a new direction. We have it within our hearts to cause the American dream to be opened up to people in this country when we start focusing the resource of this country on rebuilding the American way of life, instead of using our military might to try to force people to accept conditions which are basically foreign to them.This is the time that we get an opportunity to say what we stand for. Please stand with me as I continue to carry the challenge forward. The challenge that America must walk the way of peace. The challenge of a Democratic Party must offer true peaceful alternatives. A challenge that as we prepare for a November election that our people can be given a real choice. And that when the choosing is complete, that they will have chosen peace, that they will have chosen reconnecting with the world community.With your help this is possible. I look forward to continuing to work for you and with you in the weeks and the months ahead, as we prepare America to take a new course of action which will bring peace not only with Iraq, but will enable us to reconnect with the world community in the hopes of creating peaceful tomorrows. Thank you very much.Dennis Kucinich======Contribute by calling 866-413-3664 or online at https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php or by sending your check to the address shown at the bottom of this page.PLEASE NOTE - You can also help the campaign by ordering ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN MEMORABILIA such as cups, travel mugs, t-shirts, and buttons and in the Official Campaign Store: http://www.kucinich.us/store.php . These designs are limited stock; once these quantities are gone they will be no longer available.Sign Petitions: We are taking signed petitions to the Democratic National Convention in Boston this July, focused on the critical issues this campaign has stood for. Petitions to end the war in Iraq, repeal critical sections of the PATRIOT Act, and to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace are among those available. You can sign the petitions online right now, or print and circulate them. Get the petitions here: http://kucinich.us/VolunteerAction/petitions.php ."DENNIS TALKS ABOUT" is a series of 2 to 5 minute reports of Dennis on the campaign trail. In these clips, Dennis discusses in detail his current thoughts on specific issues. You can watch the video online, hear the audio, or read the text transcript on each of the issues. Below are the latest installments of Dennis Talks About.Just in from North Carolina, just in time for Earth Day which is tomorrow, 4/22...The Environment:http://www.kucinich.us/talksabout/environment-talksabout.php Also new:PATRIOT Act: http://kucinich.us/talksabout/PATRIOTact-talksabout.php Military Draft: http://kucinich.us/talksabout/draft-talksabout.php Affordable Housing:http://kucinich.us/talksabout/housing-talksabout.php [ more Dennis Talks About: http://kucinich.us/video/issues_video.php ]Do you stand with Dennis? Tell us why:http://www.kucinich.us/standsfor_form.php Find out why others stand with Dennis:http://www.kucinich.us/standwithdennis1.php HEAR THE AUDIO POSTCARDClick here to contribute to Kucinich for President online.Please forward this Email quickly and widely.(Delete the opt-out link at the very bottom, so that no one accidentally cancels your subscription.)If you received this Email from a friend and would like to receive them directly, click here: http://kucinich.us/alerts-signup.htm Contact us:Kucinich for President11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)http://www.kucinich.us  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 25 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7276/1/H-Hrvat-Ivan-Gasparovic-dosao-na-celo-Slovacke.html ÂHrvat Ivan GaÅparoviÄ? doÅao na Ä?elo SlovaÄ?ke ÂSENZACIONALNI REZULTATI NADMETANJA PREDSJEDNIČKIH KANDIDATA Vijest o izboru Ivana GaÅparoviÄ?a brzo se proÅirila Grižanima, gdje mu žive roÄ'aci Nepredvidivo slovaÄ?ko biraÄ?ko tijelo odradilo je u joÅ jednu senzaciju; Ivan GaÅparoviÄ?, predsjednik Pokreta za demokraciju, pobijedio je na predsjedniÄ?kim izborima u SlovaÄ?koj i posatao treći predsjednik samostalne SlovaÄ?ke. GaÅparoviÄ? je izborima pristupio kao kandidat kojemu su predizborne ankete dodjeljivali treće, Ä?etvrto mejsto. Prvo su davale Eduardu Kukanu, ministru vanjskih polsova, i uz premijera Dzurindu najzasluÅnijem Ä?ovjeka za ulazak zemlje u NATO i EU, te Vladimiru MeÄ?iaru, kontroverznom premijeru devedesetih godina, za mnoge koÄ?niÄ?aru ulaska zemlje u reÄ?ene euroatlastske integracije. Nakon debakla u prvom krugu, agencije za predviÄ'anje izbornih rezultat nisu se ni oglaÅavale prije drugog kruga u koji su uÅli MeÄ?iar sa 32,73 posto i GaÅparoviÄ? sa 22,28 posto glasova. Uvjerljiva pobjeda U drugom je krugu, GaÅaparoviÄ? svojeg nekadaÅnjeg Åefa i bliskog suradnika MeÄ?iara (za Ä?ije je vlasti bio predsjednik parlamenta, no proÅle su se godine žestoko raziÅli), uvjerljivo nadvisio - 59,91 prema 40,09 posto. Odnosno, viÅe od milijun glasaÄ?a dalo je glas GaÅparoviÄ?u, a 722 tisuće MeÄ?iaru. Poraz je MeÄ?iar primio toliko teÅko da nije ni primio GaÅparoviÄ?evu ruku u susretu nakon izbora. MeÄ?iaru nije pomogao ni 15 puta jaÄ?i proraÄ?un kampanje za drugu rundu.Veliku pomoć GaÅparoviÄ?u je pružio Robert Fico, predsjednik koalicijske stranke Smer, sve veći kritiÄ?ar Vladine i Dzurindine samodopadnosti. Bela Bugar, predsjednik koalicije maÄ'arskih stranka, smatra da je odluÄ?io strah od povratka MeÄ?iara na vlast. Fikusne ovlasti predsjednika ipak mogu usporiti Vladine reforme. GaÅparoviÄ? pak tvrdi da će biti predsjednik svih graÄ'ana, a Dzurinda koji se hvalio da neće ni ići na glasovanje brže-bolje izražava spremnost na suradnju. OduÅevljenje u Grižanama Vijest o izboru Ivana GaÅparoviÄ?a za novog predsjednika SlovaÄ?ke brzo se proÅirila Grižanima i Tribljem, mjestima u zaleÄ'u Crikvenice u kojima žive njegovi bliži i dalji roÄ'aci. U zaseoku Blažići u Triblju posjetili smo Anicu Miklić, Ä?ija je baka Margareta BoljeÅić roÄ'ena sestra bake slovaÄ?kog predsjednika GaÅparovića, Agne. Prema njezinoj priÄ?i, Agna se pred poÄ?etak I. svjetskog rata udala za Tomu GaÅparovića i nedugo zatim braÄ?ni se par odselio u SlovaÄ?ku. Tada je, naime, gotovo svaka kuća imala nekoga u ekonomskoj emigraciji, a nerijetko su glave obitelji od prvog zaraÄ'enog novca kupovale kartu za svoje supruge kako bi im se pridružile u svijetu. Anica Miklić ne zna toÄ?no jesu li GaÅparovići pritom sa sobom imali i dijete, ali zna da su Tomo i Agna u SlovaÄ?koj imali puno djece, meÄ'u njima je i Vladimir, po Anici, otac danaÅnjeg slovaÄ?kog predsjednika Ivana GaÅparovića. Obitelj iz SlovaÄ?ke nikad nije izgubila vezu sa starim krajem, izmijenjivala su se pisma i Ä?estitke, a prije Ä?etrdesetak godina tada već starica Agna sa sinom Vladimirom posjetila je Grižane i svoju rodnu kuću u BoljeÅićima, kao i rodnu kuću supruga Tome u Baretićima. Razumljivo, nakon prve objave izbornog rezultata u SlovaÄ?koj svi su se GaÅparovići, kojih je u ovome kraju mnogo, oduÅevili Åto imaju roÄ'aka - predsjednika. Nitko ovdje ne dvoji da je Ivan GaÅparović praunuk Agne i Tome, a to je ponosno susjedima i novinarima objaÅnjavala Anica Miklić, njegova roÄ'akinja u trećem koljenu. Cijela se obitelji u nedjeljno poslijepodne okupila kako bi i oni, iako daleko od SlovaÄ?ke, proslavili izborni uspjeh svoga roÄ'aka zaželjevÅi mu, uz zdravicu, uspjeÅno voÄ'enje zemlje u kojoj je postao prvi Ä?ovjek ŽELJKO VALENTIĆ, ANTON FICKO Izvor: http://www.vecernji-list.hr/2004/04/19/Pages/hrvat.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 25 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7275/1/E-President-of-Slovakia-Ivan-Gasparovics-Croatian-Roots.html ÂPresident of Slovakia Ivan Gasparovic's Croatian Roots According to Vecernji List, newly elected president of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic has Croatian roots. The original Croatian article can be found at:http://www.vecernji-list.hr/2004/04/19/Pages/hrvat.html GASPAROVIC WINS SLOVAK PRESIDENTIAL RACE...Ivan Gasparovic, leader of the extraparliamentary Movement for Democracy (HZD), defeated three-time former Prime Minister and leader of the People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) Vladimir Meciar in a presidential runoff of 17 April, international news agencies reported. Gasparovic won by a convincing margin of nearly 60 percent as against slightly more than 40 garnered by Meciar. Gasparovic is to take office on 15 June, six weeks after Slovakia joins the EU. Turnout was 43.5 percent, according to CTK. According to TASR, Gasparovic won in all of Slovakia's eight regions. Upon learning of his victory, Gasparovic pledged to try to find common ground with Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and said he wants Slovakia's EU integration to be smooth. Dzurinda congratulated Gasparovic, according to TASR. The premier said he will "strive to have a good relationship with the president because this is in Slovakia's interests," Reuters reported. Parliamentary speaker Pavol Hrusovsky said the electoral outcome signifies "the final defeat of Meciar's policies." All leaders of the four-party center-right coalition stayed away from the poll, saying there is "no lesser evil" to chose from. MSIvan Gasparovic's official website (in Slovak)http://www.gasparovic.sk/  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 25 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7279/1/E-Slobodna-Dalmacija-on-Ashdown.html ÂASHDOWN'S EDUCATION MANIFESTOÂSlobodna Dalmacija's BiH has run a piece on Ashdown'sUK education policies. My article from last Octoberhas filtered through! Link to SD item below, as wellas my original piece.Brianhttp://members.madasafish.com/~opus/Croatia/Brian.Gallagher.200404.html VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 987 - 10.10.03Paddy Ashdown's manifesto commitments and his writingswhilst he was leader of the Liberal Democrats in theUnited Kingdom shed a lot of light on his policies inBosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, the details oneducation are of great importance, as that is a majorissue right now in BiH, especially for the Croats. AndAshdown's views are very close to the Croats. In BiH, reform of education is being debated byparliament. There is a push by the Organisation forSecurity and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to placeeducation on the entity level away from the locallevel. In the Muslim-Croat Federation this would meancontrol passing to the education ministry in Sarajevo.Croats are very concerned about this; not unreasonablythey wish their children to be taught in their ownlanguage and about Croat culture, which they are ableto do now at local level. They believe this may becompromised if it is placed at entity level; theCroats are significantly outnumbered in the Federationby the Bosniaks. If a solution is not found, then Paddy Ashdown mayimpose one. If one considers his political trackrecord then in theory his solution would be somethingCroats find agreeable.In an interview for the Guardian last year, Ashdownstated that he is implementing the 1992 LiberalDemocrat manifesto in BiH. So it seems that Ashdown is drawing on his partypolicies as leader in running BiH. The 1992 electionmanifesto is very clear on education: Under "Puttingeducation at the heart of the community" they discussthe independence of schools and colleges and theirpioneering local management. They want educationwithin a "democratically accountable framework oflocal education authorities". Local educationauthorities in the UK roughly translates into cantonsin BiH, rather than the entities.The manifesto also says that education is an area that"should be devolved from Whitehall (centralgovernment) and brought nearer to the people they mostaffect."For Ashdown's 1997 manifesto - which I personallycampaigned for - previous ideas are built upon, withmore power to be given to schools. The "valuable role"of church schools is recognised, and where there issubstantial community support, the major faiths canestablish publicly funded voluntary schools. Furthermore, the role of national culture and languageis also regarded as important. The 1997 ScottishLiberal Democrat manifesto under "A new deal forGaelic and Scots culture", states they "will supportand maintain the diversity of Scotland's linguisticand cultural traditions." Specifically they willsupport and develop the provision of Gaelic ineducation and that they will "Promote a greateremphasis on Scottish culture in the mainstreamcurriculum".It is obvious from all this that Ashdown's commitmentsas party leader were to local control of school and astrong recognition and support of religion, languageand culture. The positive implications for Croats areclear. In 1994 Ashdown wrote a book entitled 'BeyondWestminster - Finding Hope in Britain'. Essentially hetravelled across the United Kingdom, includingdeprived areas, spending time with the diverse peopleof the country.In East London, he speaks approvingly of Saturdayschools run by and for ethnic minorities which "teachtheir religion, preserve their language and cultureand supplement mainstream education". Croats of courseare a constituent people, not an ethnic minority. Theyexpect mainstream schools to do their job rather thanhaving to organise separate schooling themselves. AndEast London is extraordinarily multi-cultural incontrast to BiH. The situations are very different. But the critical point here is that Ashdown supportsthe preservation of people's language, culture andreligions. In Beyond Westminster's conclusion Ashdown declareshis belief in local communities and people providingsolutions - not centralised government. In total, it is very clear that Paddy Ashdown'smanifesto commitments as Liberal Democrat leader andhis own words lean towards local control of education,an appreciation of religion in schools and supportingthe development of local language and culture. Thiscertainly would benefit Croats - but it also benefitsSerbs and Bosniaks as well. No one group should beable to dominate another in any field in BiH under theguise of unity - Serb domination in former Yugoslaviawas hardly a good idea. Croats should set about reminding Paddy Ashdown of hismanifesto commitments - and use them right now insupport of their case for their schoolchildren andstudents to be taught in their own language and abouttheir own culture.If Ashdown has to impose a solution, it will beinteresting to see what he does; I am sure manyobservers in Britain will be keen to see if he sticksto his principles. © Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 22 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7278/1/E-A-BRITISH-U-TURN-OVER-CROATIA.html ÂCROATIAFOCUS COMMENT A BRITISH U-TURN OVER CROATIA?21.04.04by Brian GallagherAre the British gearing up for a U-turn over Croatia?Previously, the United Kingdom, in the form of EuropeMinister Denis McShane and the Foreign Office wereinsistent that Britain would block Croatia joining theEU if it did not hand over General Ante Gotovina. Yetwithin days of negative comments, the UK has notblocked the EU from giving a positive 'avis' toCroatia's desire to join the EU. There are a number ofreasons for this, but one factor that may beoverlooked is the rather larger U-turn by PrimeMinister Tony Blair over the European Constitution. Britain has seemed more concerned with Gotovina thanwith the Serbian indictees Karadzic and Mladic, nodoubt because of the British role in supportingBelgrade during the war.But in Zagreb on 19 April, MacShane was full ofglowing words for Croatia. He believed that Croatiawould join the EU before the end of the decade. Heeven mentioned Croat partisans working with Britonsduring the second world war - a far cry from the'Ustasha' propaganda of old. Of course, MacShane didnot explicitly say policy had changed - the UK couldstill veto Croatia's entry into the EU and may yet doso. Even so, he went out of his way to be positive."Gotovina no longer remains an obstacle to sayingCroatia can start accession talks," MacShane told theGuardian.A large part of this turnaround has no doubt much todo with anti-British feeling developing in Croatia; itappeared from MacShane's interview statements thatBritain did not care if Croatia could not get hold ofGotovina - they would block Croatian entry anyway.Anti-British feeling is not in the UK's interests. Anegative 'avis' from the EU would have meant no morehold over Croatia by the UK, EU or Carla del Ponte.Furthermore, the emergence of the 1995 videotape ofGeneral Gotovina berating his officers for theirsoldier's criminal acts has severely damaged thecredibility of an already highly dubious UN indictment- which ludicrously claims that such acts were part ofsome master plan by Gotovina and others. This cannothave passed unnoticed in the Foreign Office. However, British domestic politics may have played amajor role. On 20 April, Tony Blair announced aBritish referendum - bizarrely not mentioning the word'referendum' - on the proposed European constitution.This is regarded as major U-turn - he previously ruledout such a referendum. There has been much humourabout Blair's 'reverse gears' - he once said he hadnone. It is certainly one of the most extraordinaryturnarounds in recent British political history.What has this got to do with Croatia? Blair will nodoubt campaign for a 'yes' vote. He is already makingstrong pro-EU comments. He will not want any argumentsor discords with his EU partners; this would play intothe hands of 'no' campaigners. It is known that Britain - with the Dutch - are theones preventing Croatian entry into the EU. In June,if Britain votes against Croatia to start accessiontalks it would create an EU split. This would annoyother countries - who then may be disinclined to workwith Britain on other matters. MacShane's U-turn seemsto follow straight on from Blair's - which had beenextensively leaked to the press days before Blair madehis announcement.Of course, the Croatia issue is a small thing inrelation to UK politics, and we can expect similarchanges on other EU policy issues. But Blair wants toshow the UK working with Europe in a harmonious,positive way. Will he really want a split - big orsmall - with Europe over General Gotovina? Especially,as mentioned above, when the indictment is so flimsy?Let alone the questions that may - justifiably - ariseagain over Serbophilia in the Foreign Office.Certainly, the various generals Croatia has sent tothe Hague of late has provided a good excuse forBritain to change tack - they can now report howimpressed they are with Croatia's co-operation.It is revealing that this Croatia U-turn it hasnothing to do with morality and all the rest of it -but everything to do with Britain's interests and thepolitics of the Blair government. Something Croatswould do well to bear in mind.© Brian Gallagher www.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 21 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7281/1/E-Croatia-Gets-a-Very-Positive-Avis.html ÂCroatia Gets a Very Positive AvisÂIvana Novakova21 April 2004Chris Patten, EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Yesterday, in Strasbourg, the European Commission recommended in its avis to the European Union to start the negotiations with Croatia on full membership in the Union. Avis is a document used by the Commission to evaluate, on the request of the Council of Ministers, the capacities of a country to start the negotiations on full membership and to accept the responsibilities and obligations charged in the full membership. 'The Commission recommends that the negotiations on integration of Croatia into the European Union should be opened', state the conclusions of the avis. It lists not requirements or conditions, but cites, among other points, that the Chief Prosecutor of The Hague Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, said this month that "Croatia is fully cooperating with the ICTY.' Romano Prodi, EU Commission President However, the avis also states that Croatia needs to make additional efforts in the fields of minority rights, return of refugees, reforms of the judiciary, regional cooperation and fight against corruption. It states that the political criteria were fulfilled and that Croatia is a functioning democracy with stable institutions which guarantee the rule of law in the country. Majority of economic criteria were also fulfilled, with the conclusion that Croatia "can be considered a functioning market economy" and the addition that, in mid-term, Croatia should be able to compete with the competition pressure and the market forces in the Union, if it continues with the programme of reforms in order to eliminate the remaining weaknesses of its economic system." The environmental protection was the sole field for which it was estimated that no long-term engagement would be needed to fulfill the criteria, but it will require great investments. 'In order to assist Croatia in the preparations for accession negotiations, it would be necessary to undertake a thorough analysis of the harmonization of legislation. The Commission, moreover, proposes to the EU to prepare a pre-accession strategy for Croatia and to prepare the necessary proposals", state the conclusions of the avis. Simultaneously with the avis, the Commission presented the draft-European partnership document for Croatia, which identifies the priorities in the preparations for accession. http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/84115/1/  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7280/1/E-Croatia-Inches-Closer-to-EU-Membership.html ÂCroatia Inches Closer to EU Membership EU Commissioner Chirs Patten squarely backs Croatia's application for EU membership The European Commission has pledged to back Croatia's application to join the union. Although a start date for accession talks won't be confirmed until June, the former Yugoslav republic is already en-route to home base.In an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, European External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and Enlargement Commissioner Günter Verheugen announced the commission's support for Zagreb's application, adding they would suggest to the Council of Ministers that they start membership talks "quickly." Patten described it as an "historic day for Croatia," which is the second Balkan country after Slovenia to have come so far in a bid to become a part of the growing European Union. He said Croatia had made a lot of progress but stressed that there was still work to be done. Directly addressing Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, who was present at the debate in Strasbourg, Patten said Zagreb needed to reform its judicial system, do more to protect its minorities and make it possible for Serb refugees to return to their homes.Verheugen praised Croatia's growing economy, which is a key factor for potential accession to the EU. "Croatia is better placed today than most of the countries that will be joining on May 1st," Verheugen said in reference to the impending expansion of the union from 15 to 25 members. "The economy is strong, very strong, and in close cooperation with the economy of the EU," he added. The expansion commissioner said he believed EU support for Croatia's increasing efforts to meet membership entry requirements would send an "important and powerful signal" to the entire region. He cited the former Yugoslav republic as an example to it neighbors that effort pays off. Clean bill of health Croatia first applied to join the EU roundtable in February 2003, but the application stuck on the issue of how much Zagreb was doing to cooperate with the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Banging the drum of concern were principally the Netherlands and Britain, who wanted to see Zagreb do more to track down war crimes suspects before endorsing its application. Britain, in particular, wanted Croatia to hand over General Ante Gotovina, who has been wanted in The Hague since 2001 for alleged war crimes against Serbs in 1995.Although the fugitive Gotovina has still not been captured, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has overseen the handover of eight suspects to the tribunal since his election in November. They include two indicted generals and six former Bosnian Croat officials. And this seems to have been enough to pacify Britain, which has now dropped its blocking tactic. "The British government hopes to see Croatia as a member of the EU before the decade is out," Denis MacShane, Britain's Minister for Europe told the Guardian newspaper. He added that "Gotovina no longer remains an obstacle to saying Croatia can start accession talks." Speaking in Strasbourg yesterday, Chris Patten said UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte had given Croatia a clean bill of health for its cooperation with the tribunal. "She concluded that Croatia is fully complying with the tribunal, and sees no likelihood of that situation changing. As far as the Gotovina case is concerned, she indicated that the Croatian government is doing all it can to help locate and turn him over to The Hague," Patten told Reuters.New chapter in Balkan historyIt's a breakthrough for the Croatian prime minister, who is hoping to lead his country into the EU in 2007 along with Romania and Bulgaria. "We're opening today a new page in our history, and I'm sure the whole nation is sharing in the happiness of taking this first concrete step towards EU membership," Sander said in the Croatian capital. In accession he sees a chance not only for his people, but also for the entire region. "Croatia has the chance to become a success story, to pave the way for our neighbors in southeast Europe to follow," Sanader said. "A unified Europe wouldn't stand a chance if new dividing lines were introduced, and some countries were excluded from unification."http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,1430_A_1176063_1_A,00.html  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7282/1/E-Marcus-Tanner-on-Mostar---The-Independent.html ÂA symbol of hope is reborn in MostarÂRelatively speaking, this is one of the most balancedpieces concerning Bih Croats I have seen. Inparticular, mentions Bosniak attacks on Croats inCentral Bosnia. Furthermore, sums up Croat concernsover Ashdown's Mostar solution fairly. And - am Ireading too much into this? - seems to be slightlyskeptical over the Ashdwon solution. Shows the valueof putting forward your case.Brianhttp://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=512234 The IndependentBridge over the ethnic divide: a symbol of hope is reborn in MostarAfter 12 years and £7.5m, the famous Old Bridge atMostar - destroyed in the Bosnia war - has beenrebuilt. But is it too late to close the dividebetween the town's Muslim and Croat communities?Marcus Tanner reports17 April 2004After the passage of so many years it is not the sightof Mostar's Old Bridge that I remember so much as thetouch of it. In the summer of 1988 I was in Mostar onholiday with my mother. "Feel the stones!" I remembercalling out, as I padded across in socks, enjoying thesensation of the smooth, almost silken whiteflagstones cooling my sweaty feet. Boys were divingtheatrically from the side of the bridge into thegreen waters of the river Neretva about 20 yards below- some paid for their exploits by tourists.Mostar was full of visitors then. Some came just toadmire the delicate-looking single-arched bridge builton the orders of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566, andpotter around the gift shops and restaurants clusteredaround the squat towers at either end. Others werenuns or Catholic pilgrims, stopping in Mostar beforejourneying to the nearby Marian shrine at Medjugorje alittle way to the west. Some Bosnians who werelounging on the bridge chatted to me as I glidedacross. Generations of people had worn the stonessmooth by sliding back and forth just as I was doing,they said, laughing. It was a miracle the bridge stillstood, they added, for the stones had been gluedtogether with nothing more than hair and eggshell. Yetthere it was, spanning the Neretva after more thanthree centuries.Fast forward to 1990 and I was back on the bridge ascorrespondent for The Independent. A couple of hundredmiles to the north-east the sound of war in the makingwas coming out of Serbia and the echo had reached evenhere. But war, the Bosnians said, would never come totheir sleepy republic and certainly not to the city onthe banks of the Neretva. How could it, with Serbs,Muslims and Croats scattered equally over almost everylarge town? The conference we were attending - somedoomed intellectual forum devoted to "reformingYugoslavia" - had a relaxed air. The Bosnians did whatthey always do at such events - talk themselves to astandstill. At the hotel, I took a photograph of twoof the participants - the Kosovo Albanian intellectualShkelzen Maliqi and his wife, sunning themselves. Istill have the picture.Fast forward again and it was September 1992. War hadcome to Bosnia after all and I was back in a radicallychanged Mostar, four months after soldiers of theBosnian Croat force known as the Croatian DefenseCouncil, or HVO, had retaken the city from the Serbs.On the edge of the city, I went to see a pit full ofbodies the Serbs had shot during their few months ofoccupation. Now the Serbs had fled and thefine-looking Serbian Orthodox cathedral had been razed- a sign of things to come, it turned out. TheMuslims, both those in the HVO and those living in thecity, looked cowed and reluctant to talk. "It is goodthat the Serbs have gone but now the Croats wanteverything for themselves," one whispered. The bridgealready looked battered and desolate. It had takenseveral knocks when the Serbs shelled the city at thestart of the conflict, and the Serbs had also burntthe mass of little shops and restaurants clutteringeither side of the bridge - the same shops my motherhad nosed around in, not many years before.I never saw the Old Bridge again. And I never will seeit again, for the $13.5m [£7.5m] restoration jobmanaged by UNESCO and financed among others by theWorld Bank and the Turkish and Croatian governments,is a reconstruction. When the internationaldignitaries who now govern Bosnia walk across it tomark its reopening, they will be traversing abeautiful copy, even if the stone has been quarriedfrom exactly the same limestone site as its16th-century predecessor.Suleiman's Old Bridge, the "Stari Most" from which thetown takes its name, has gone for good. It fell intothe Neretva on the 9 November 1993, when a Croatcommander ordered a tank to open fire on the weakenedand cracked remnants, then pathetically garlanded withrubber car tires intended to limit the damage fromincoming shells. The blocks have since been lifted outof the river but the bridge's modern restorers decidedreluctantly that most were too damaged to be worthreusing.The Old Bridge was one of hundreds of Ottoman andIslamic architectural gems that were blown to piecesin the frenzied atmosphere of the early 1990s, whenBosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats - the latter twoarmed by their sponsors in Serbia and Croatia -tussled over the corpse of the strategically importantrepublic in the heart of former Yugoslavia.After the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo declaredindependence from Yugoslavia in 1992, trusting vainlyand unwisely in the willingness of Europe and Americato guarantee its security, Bosnia's two "Christian"communities descended on the Islamic heritage in theirmidst with a vengeance. As symbols of the historicpresence of a Slav Muslim community in Bosnia,hardline Serbian and Croatian nationalists decided thewhole lot had to go.The Serbs who overran most of Bosnia in the spring of1992 naturally did most of the demolition. Mostarsuffered a different fate, falling victim to asmaller, Muslim-Croat war that spluttered on insanelyfor a year or so from the spring of 1993 to the springof 1994. A a sideshow compared to the epic strugglebetween the Muslims and the Serbs, it was neverthelessbloody enough until the Americans snuffed it out in1994.It was this Muslim-Croat struggle that ripped Mostarapart and sent the Old Bridge tumbling into theNeretva. The Bosnian Croats had earmarked Mostar asthe future capital of a Croatian mini-state, namedHerceg-Bosnia. The trouble was that the city was fullof Muslims who objected. After the HVO failed todislodge them from the old town on the east bank, PlanA - to grab the whole of Mostar - was jettisoned forPlan B - to concentrate on the west and lock theMuslims into the east by blowing up the bridge.Radovan Ivancevic, a Croat art historian and member ofthe UNESCO commission in charge of restoring thebridge, wrote recently in the magazine Bosnia Reportthat it was ironic that a Croatian tank had destroyedthe Old Bridge. "While the designer of the bridge wasindeed the great Ottoman architect Hajrudin," herecalled, "it was actually built by stonemasons fromKorcula [in Croatia], so that in a way it is also aCroatian cultural monument."These historical niceties were lost on the BosnianCroats. When the Croatian commander who ordered thetank to open fire on the bridge reportedly declaredthat it was "not worth one finger of a Croatiansoldier," many local Croats in Mostar seemed to agree.They made no outcry about the destruction of "their"bridge, as most supported the separation of Mostarinto two cities.Bosnia's international governors, now led by PaddyAshdown, have long since dismantled the Croatianmini-state. But Mostar remains as divided as Belfastor Nicosia. As a result, the renovation of the OldBridge, one of those symbolically-loaded grandprojects that the international community in Bosnialove so much, is less significant to the localcommunity than it is to outsiders. Sultan Suleiman'sMostar was a single organic community. Sultan Paddy'sMostar is divided by a lot more than water. The cityhas changed almost irreversibly since the early 1990s,after waves of ethnic cleansing pushed Croats to thewest, Muslims to the east and Serbs out altogether.And it will take more than a wonderful copy of the OldBridge to reunite them, whatever the internationalpoliticians say.The two communities have grown apart. On the westbank, former Muslim homes have long been filled byCroats who fled Muslim attacks on their old homes incentral Bosnia. The west is now richer than it was -and far richer than the east as well - boosted by itsproximity to the tourist towns on the Croatian coast,many of them now a favoured haunt of Britons and otherEuropeans looking for second homes.The HVO's superior firepower meant that west Mostarwas never seriously bombed. But now new shops and barsline the streets and there are some profitablefactories too - a rare phenomenon in the economicdesert that is post-war Bosnia.The westsiders have showed scant interest in theprospect of crossing over to walk the somewhatdesolate boulevards of the east and meet the sullenglances of their less fortunate co-townsmen. They faceresolutely westwards, towards Croatia, the land fromwhere they get their television and newspapers, wherethey keep their money, where they send most of theirexports, which they look on as home.Only the adults among them even remember the unitedMostar and the days when boys jumped whooping andyelling off the Old Bridge. Time flies by and a newgeneration of children born in the late 1980s has nomemory of the day-to-day contact with Muslims andSerbs that their parents took for granted. If theycross the new-old bridge at all, it will be aswide-eyed tourists, exploring - much as I did in thelate 1980s.A friend from Mostar reminded me of how fast this wallof separation has grown up. She told me of twofamilies - one Croat, one Muslim - who had met up inMostar. But while the parents fell back easily into anold conversational routine, their children wereflummoxed on meeting each other. "What kind of name isthat?" a curious Bosnian Croat girl asked, on hearingthe Muslim name of the other child. To her parentssuch names were totally familiar. To those under 15,they sound funny.The two communities in Mostar have changed in size,too. Pre-war Mostar was roughly 40 per cent Muslim, 40per cent Croat and 20 per cent Serb. But the war drovea coach and horses through the percentages. Apart fromthe virtual disappearance of the Serbs, an influx ofCroats from central Bosnia and the departure of someMuslims from the largely jobless east, it has changedthe ethnic balance. Mostar has a Croatian majoritynow.The knowledge of this has turned many former politicalcalculations on their head. Until a few years ago, theMuslim east - the larger of the two communities forseveral years after the war - championed a reunitedMostar with the Old Bridge at its centre. Now that theMuslims have become a minority, enthusiasm for unityhas waned and the Muslim-led Party for DemocraticAction seems reluctant to embrace Mr Ashdown'sreunified city council.On the other side, a shift in perception is equallystriking. Once almost paranoid in their opposition toany contact with the east, the Bosnian Croats haveshed their fear of reunification now they know theycould outvote the Muslims in a city-wide election.They no longer resent the Old Bridge, for itssymbolism has changed. It has become harmless - apotential draw for the tourists who once flocked toMostar but have not been seen since the 1980s.The suspicious gaze of the local Bosnian Croatpoliticians is not trained on Sultan Suleiman's milkywhite bridge, but on the complicated system of ethnic"weighting" that Mr Ashdown's team has drawn up tostop any single ethnic community from dominating thereunited local council. Unable to resist the bridgemetaphor, Mr Ashdown has described this complex systemas the "political bridge that will reunite the city ofMostar".Perhaps. The restoration of the Mostar bridge is agood project. The city looked daft without it - like aface with its front teeth knocked out. Who knows, itscompletion may even increase pressure on the BosnianSerbs to permit renovation work on some of the gemsthat were lost on their turf in the 1992-95 war,starting with the 16th-century Ferhadija mosque inBanja Luka, or the (once) lovely Aladza mosque, knownas the "painted mosque", in Foca, which the Ottomanserected in the 1550s and which the Serbs blew up inthe 1990s and built a bus station. Personally, I donot think people should be allowed to get away withacts such as this. They should be tormented by theknowledge that what they have destroyed will one daybe rebuilt. At the same time, no one should kid him orherself with loose talk about rebuilding lostcommunities on the backs of architectural projects.Long live the new-old bridge. But it will not bringback the old Mostar.Marcus Tanner is the Balkan editor of the 'Institutefor War and Peace Reporting', and the author of'Croatia - A Nation Forged in War' (Yale University Press)  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Apr 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7284/1/EH-Ashdown-Gallagher-in-Slobodna-Dalmacija.html ÂASHDOWN'S TITOIST SOLUTION FOR MOSTARÂVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON For those interested, On Friday Slobodna Dalmacija'sBiH edition covered my article on Ashdown's Mostardecision. Link below to the article in Croatian , andbelow that the original English version.http://members.madasafish.com/~opus/Croatia/Brian.Gallagher.260304.html by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1002 - 13.02.04Paddy Ashdown's solution to unify Mostar is unfair tothe Croats. Indeed, it appears to owe much to Titostyle politics - that of disadvantaging the Croatspolitically whilst making them pay for the'privilege'. Ashdown has missed the opportunity ofhelping to answer the Croat question inBosnia-Herzegovina and providing greater protectionfor citizens of all three groups. It means that theissue will have to be revisited again in the future. The city of Mostar has been divided into a Croat Westand Bosniak (Muslim) East since the war - although anumber of Bosniaks do live in the West side. Under theDayton Accords, High Representative Ashdown hadresponsibility for re-unifying the city of Mostar -and quite rightly he made clear his determination todo this. First the local politicians had the chance topresent a solution to the problem. The Croats, who now have a majority in Mostar were forthe unification of the city, whilst the Bosniaks wereagainst. This is a reversal of the position of only afew years ago - no doubt due to demographic changes infavour of the Croats. The two sides could not agree onthe reunification of Mostar. At the state level in BiH, all three nationalities areequal and have an effective veto - a vital safeguardfor all three groups. At city level however, where thedemographics vary all over the country, the majorityrules. The Bosniaks are in the majority in Sarajevoand the Serbs in Banja Luka. They therefore run theirrespective towns. Not unreasonably, the Croats considered that the sameshould apply to Mostar. It would then be the onlysignificant town that they would control - althoughtheir majority is not overwhelming. Ashdown's solution is effectively that neitherBosniaks nor Croats will be able to dominate. This maysound laudable, but unfortunately it means that Croatsare discriminated against. Where Serbs and Bosniakshave a majority in any BiH town or city they controlit, but this principle is denied to the Croats. In theonly significant city where they have a majority theyhave to share power. What's more, because the Croatsare more economically active they will effectively bepaying most for the running of the city.This is blatantly unfair. It is very much a solutionreminiscent of Tito's Yugoslavia. The Croats werepolitically disadvantaged - the Serbs ran the show -but were expected to pay a disproportionately largeshare of the bill for the country. Does Ashdown wantto be remembered as a poor man's Tito? The decision will mean further problems developingbetween Croats and Bosniaks in the future. The Croatswill demand proper representation, and this willbecome harder to deny them as time goes on. It willalso lead to resentment elsewhere. Already, Croats inZenica - where the Bosniaks rule - are demanding theMostar solution be applied there. I have personally supported Ashdown thus far in BiH.He was right to recognise the results of the generalelections, he was right to save the Croat run firmAluminij. But here he has made a mistake. Ashdown hasjustified his decision by saying he is simply applyingthe state level vetoes the three national groups enjoyto Mostar. This is disingenuous as it does not applyto any other town or city. It is inconsistent to haveone system in Mostar and a different one for the restof the country. Had Ashdown used his extensive powers to apply hissolution across BiH, it would have been different.Giving all three groups equal status in towns andcities has much to commend it; it would prevent onegroup dominating others and would certainly act as amotor for refugee return. Sarajevo could become amulti-ethnic city again, rather than being effectivelya Bosniak one. However, he did not. What Ashdown should have done was to allow the Croatsto control Mostar via their majority but withessential proviso's such as ensuring some Bosniaks -and indeed Serbs - having a place in the governance ofthe city. I am sure the Croats would have agreed tosuch an arrangement - especially as it would protectthem should the demographics change against them. Whatis more, Ashdown could have used such an example topressure other towns and cities to follow suit. Thiswould have given tremendous protection and security toall three groups. Sadly, Ashdown did not take thisoption. Consequently, the Croat Question in BiH has simplybecome that much larger.© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com This article was subsequently reported in the BiHedition of Slobodna DalmacijaThe media round up on the website of the Office of theHigh Representative also covered the piece. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 30 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7283/1/E-Dr-Ivo-Sanader-in-The-White-House.html ÂDr. Ivo Sanader in the White Housefirst on the left from the bottom of the tablePresident Bush meets with the prime ministers of seven nations that are joining NATO, in the Cabinet Room Monday, March 29, 2004, in Washington. Also present were leaders from Macedonia, Albania and Croatia. From foreground to left are prime ministers: Indulis Emsis, Latvia; Juhan Parts, Estonia; Branko Crvenkovski, Macedonia; Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Bulgaria; Adrian Nastase, Romania; Mikulas Dzurinda, Slovakia; Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuania; Fatos Nano, Albania; Anton Rop, Slovenia; Ivo Sanader, Croatia; and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. (AP Photo/White House, Eric Draper, HO)  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 30 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7287/1/E-DEL-PONTE-SPOILS-FOR-A-FIGHT-WITH-AMERICA.html ÂVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON DEL PONTE SPOILS FOR A FIGHT WITH AMERICAby Brian Gallagher The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1007 - 19.03.04The latest indictments for Croatian Generals Cermakand Markac along with the revised one for Gotovinaregarding Croatia's Operation Storm in 1995effectively puts America in the dock. Operation Stormwas under the de facto control of the United States.It liberated much Croatian territory and half ofBosnia-Hezegovina from the Serbs into the bargain.Milosevic was largely defeated. However, it seems thatHague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte considers allthis to be a "joint criminal enterprise" - and thatimplicates America. The indictment claims that the above Generals, lateCroatian President Tudjman and "others" were involvedin a "joint criminal enterprise" to cleanse Croatia ofits Serbs during and after Operation Storm. As is wellknown, the United States trained the Croatian forcesand provided Croatia with real-time intelligenceduring the operation. They knew everything that wasgoing on during it. They controlled the operation;indeed it was they who halted it, as stated by RichardHolbrooke in regard to stopping Croat forces outsideBanja Luka. By claiming that Operation Storm was a "criminalenterprise", the Americans stand accused of not merelyinvolvement in an alleged major war crime - butcontrol of one. Del Ponte does not name the Americansin the indictment - that would be too dangerous forher politically. However, she does not have to.American involvement in Operation Storm has beencredibly discussed by Newsweek and the WashingtonTimes in relation to the Gotovina indictment. USinvolvement would form part of any defence. America isgoing to be dragged into this, whether they want to beor not - as Del Ponte must surely know. She is quiteclearly spoiling for a fight with the United States.Del Ponte must also realise that any kind of guiltyverdict condemns the United States. America can thenlook forward to politically motivated prosecutors invarious countries - perhaps Belgium? - exercising'universal jurisdiction' to prosecute US citizens.Indeed, Henry Kissinger has made similar pointsregarding the Hague Prosecutor looking at NATO'sKosovo campaign. Such prosecutors would use guiltyverdicts as a basis for their actions. Candidates forsuch anti-US prosecutions range from Bill Clinton toRichard Holbrooke and even to members of MilitaryProfessional Resources Incorporated, the private firmthat trained the Croatian military so well.America rightly used Croatia to defeat the Serbs.Operation Storm was conceived to liberate large partsof Croatia and thus push the Serbs back in BiH. Ittook place at that particular time because the UN safehaven of Bihac in BiH was about to fall to the Serbs -which would have made rolling them back strategicallydifficult. Those are the reasons for the offensives -not some ethnic cleansing exercise. However, many UNpersonnel colluded with the Serbs - not just atSrebrenica - and did not welcome the Croatian action.Criminalising Operation Storm is a way to divertattention from UN-Serb collusion. This helps explainthe actions of the prosecutors - who work for the UN,of course. The exodus of Serbs from Croatia was organised by theSerbian leadership - which they have admitted - inadvance of the Croat offensives. For evidence of this,we can point to the Hague Prosecutors themselves. Inthe Milosevic trial, Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice onFebruary 13 2002 referred to an "overall plan" by theSerb leadership to "funnel" Croatian Serbs to Kosovoto change the demographics there. More recently in theMilosevic trial, the prosecutor deliberately elicitedtestimony from ex-US Ambassador to Croatia PeterGalbraith. He quite clearly stated no ethnic cleansinghad taken place. This was evidence the Prosecutorsubmitted; are they now saying they were wrong, orthat Galbraith was not telling the truth? And just whydidn't these indictments against Croat Generalsmention that the Serb population were ordered andorganised out by their leadership? Indeed, why don' tthese indictments point out that the territoryliberated in Croatia was occupied as part ofMilosevic's "criminal enterprise" - which involvedethnic cleansing and atrocities against Croats? As for crimes committed in the aftermath of OperationStorm, regrettably this happens in liberated territory- especially given the horrors committed by the Serbs.The individual perpetrators should be punishedseverely. These crimes should be taken case by case,not cynically lumped together as part of some imaginedmasterplan. Furthermore, the difficult law enforcementsituation improved over time - which is more than canbe said for NATO's efforts in protecting Serbs afterentering Kosovo in 1999, where murders still takeplace today. Ironically, the indictments of theseGenerals let real perpetrators off the hook. This is adisturbing precedent for the future, where individualsoldiers will commit crimes safe in the knowledge thatonly senior commanders will be held accountable. Apart from the United States being put in the dock,all those who supported Croatia's - and indeedBosnia-Herzegovina's - military actions against theSerbs in 1995 will be accused of supporting a'criminal enterprise'. That would include variedpeople like Margaret Thatcher, ex-British LabourLeader Michael Foot and the Member of the EuropeanParliament Doris Pack. Groups like London's BosnianInstitute may encounter some difficulty as well. BiHexists today because of Operation Storm. Is itsexistence now due to a "criminal enterprise"? A great many people should be examining theindictments against Croatian Generals, and none moreso than United States. American intervention inCroatia and BiH saved countless lives and preventedthe establishment of a Greater Serbia. This is a fineachievement. America's enemies - many, these days -will delight in seeing the UN pervert this into acrime. The United States should not let it happen.© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 28 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7285/1/H-Premier-Dr-Ivo-Sanader-doputovao-u-SAD.html ÂDr. Ivo Sanader doputovao u SADU PONEDJELJAK CE PRISUSTVOVATI PRIMANJU SEDAM NOVIH CLANICA U NATOSubota, 27. ozujka 2004. Hrvatski premijer Ivo Sanader doputovao je u Sjedinjene Drzave gdje ce u ponedjeljak u Washingtonu sudjelovati na svecanosti obiljezavanja primanja sedam novih clanica u NATO. Premijer, koji ce se u nedjelju u New Yorku, u hrvatskoj zupi Svetog Cirila i Metoda, susresti s predstavnicima hrvatskih iseljenika, u ponedjeljak ce u Washingtonu sudjelovati u svecanosti obiljezavanja prijama Bugarske, Estonije, Latvije, Litve, Rumunjske, Slovacke i Slovenije u NATO.Svecanosti obiljezavanja prijama u NATO sedam tranzicijskih europskih zemalja clanica Vilniuske skupine nazocit ce njihovi premijeri kao i premijeri druge tri clanice skupine: Hrvatske, Albanije i Makedonije koje zele u punopravno clanstvo Saveza. Premijeri sedam zemalja predat ce dokumente o pristupu koji se pohranjuju u americkom State Departmentu cime ce njihove zemlje i formalno postati nove clanice NATO-a.Predvidjen je zajednicki susret i razgovori premijera deset zemalja s americkim predsjednikom Georgeom W. Bushom, drzavnim tajnikom Colinom Powellom te americkim kongresnicima i senatorima.Hrvatski premijer ce nazociti i svecanom prijamu za deset predsjednika vlada u organizaciji, sto ga priredjuju etnicke zajednice sedam novih clanica NATO-a i na kojemu bi trebao govoriti americki ministar obrane Donald Rumsfeld. Uz premijera Sanadera svecanosti u Washingtonu ce nazociti i ministar vanjskih poslova Miomir Zuzul. (Hina) xsl yrtUrednikova nota:Danas je u New Yorku pred cca 1000 ljudi, prvi hrvatski premier koji je posjetio zupu Svetog Cirila i Metoda, Dr. Ivo Sanader, odrzao kratko predavanje za sve prisutne. Dr. Sander je posjetio Hrvatski centar prije 4 godine nakon poraza na izborima. U ove protekle cetri godine, svjedoci smo izuzetnog napretka jednog suvremenog hrvatskog politicara. Predavanje je bilo izuzetno zanimljivo, bez epike i sustinski je obuhvatilo vazna pitanja nataliteta, izgradnje infrastrukture (i melioracije, sto je izuzetno bitno, a vrlo zanemareno u zadnjih 50 godina), odnosa iseljene Hrvatske i matice domovine, te pravo glasa, i stvaranje uvjeta, gdje ce svi Hrvati u svijetu imati na izbor vratiti se ili ne. S tim da se birokracija i administracija pojednostavi, a i ubrza elektronskom/Internet tehnologijom. Razlozi ubraznog ulaza u Europu i NATO. Ovako odusevljenu publiku nismo davno culi u New Yorku. Podrzimo ga !Nenad Bach letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 28 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7289/1/E-NFCA-TO-HOST-12th-ANNUAL-ASSEMBLY-OF-DELEGATES.html ÂNFCA TO HOST CROATIAN AMERICAN LEADERS ANDCOMMUNITY ACTIVISTS AT ITS 12th ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF DELEGATESWashington, D.C. (March 23, 2004). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) will hold its 12th .Annual Assembly of Delegates in Washington, D.C. on May 21-May 22, 2004 at the Washington Court hotel, located at 525 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. The hotel is a short walk to Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress and Union Station.The NFCA has obtained a preferred rate for its delegates and guests of $109 per night. Please call the Hotel at 202-628-2100 to make your reservations and tell them that you are with the National Federation of Croatian Americans. To be eligible for the special rate, you must make your reservations no later than April 21, 2004.The NFCA is planning a special welcome reception for the delegates and their guests on Friday, May 21. There will be several meetings arranged with U.S. government officials for the same day. Details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. The formal Assembly will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 22. This year's Assembly will highlight our legislative activities including Croatia becoming a member of NATO. Delegates will further hear about the NFCA's other activities related to business development projects to help Croatia's economy. Our formal convention activities will conclude on Saturday, May 22 with a reception for delegates and guests at the Croatian Embassy on Embassy Row which will feature the superb cuisine of Chef Ivo Svircic.You can be part of all these events as a delegate. The NFCA Executive Committee can appoint a number of at-large delegates who must be dues paying members of the NFCA. The NFCA encourages everyone who desires to be a delegate to submit a letter of interest to our national office as soon as possible. For more convention information, please call Erik Milman at the NFCA office at 202-331-2830. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 23 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7288/1/E-Kofi-Annan-meets-with-Croatias-Miomir-Zuzul.html ÂUnited Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan meets with Croatia's Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul at U.N. headquarters in New York, March 24, 2004. REUTERS/Jeff Christensen letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 23 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7286/1/E-NATO-enlargement-ceremony-at-White-House-March-29.html ÂNATO enlargement ceremony at White House March 29 WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) in a White House ceremony next week will host the heads of government of seven former eastern bloc countries now joining NATO a spokesman said. On March 29, Bush will welcome the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. Government chiefs of three other countries also seeking NATO membership, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia, will also be present. "These Central and East European democracies have already acted as allies through their strong solidarity and actions in the war on terrorism, and in helping to strengthen peace and democracy in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites)," the White House spokesman said. "As NATO acts to face the new challenges of the 21st century, the membership of these seven nations in NATO will advance the cause of freedom and strengthen the Atlantic Alliance, the central pillar of transatlantic relations," he said. On the same day, the seven nations will hand their ratification documents to US officials -- the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty is deposited in Washington -- in the last step before adhesion to NATO. A formal adhesion ceremony is scheduled to take place in Brussels on April 2 and will be attended by the foreign ministers of the current 19 and seven new member countries. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040323/pl_afp/us_nato_enlarge_040323202310 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 23 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7291/1/E-CAA-hosts-Rep-Henry-Hyde-and-Jeff-Kuhner.html ÂFor Immediate Release:"CAA hosts Rep. Henry Hyde and Jeff Kuhner at Annual Banquet"March 17, 2004, Chicago, IL - The Croatian American Association held its 14th annual banquet in Chicago on Saturday, March 13. Several prominent speakers included Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Democratic Presidential Candidate Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio and Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan D. Schakowsky. Mr. Hyde, Mr. Kucinich and Ms. Schakowsky pledged their full support for Croatia's fast-track entry into NATO and the European Union. Former Rep. Ed Derwinski also echoed the views of his fellow representatives.Rep. Henry Hyde's warmly received visit was made possible by a close working relationship with the Croatian American Association on issues that are of concern for Croatians who live in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rep. Hyde will continue to work with the CAA, principally, on Croatia's entry into NATO although this issue depends upon Croatia's willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on the non-extradition of U.S. service-members to the International Criminal Court that was mandated by an Act of Congress sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde entitled the 'American Service-members' Protection Act of 2002'.Continued success for the CAA was expressed through a congratulatory letter from Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and a personal greeting by Illinois State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka. Since mid-March represents an election cycle in Illinois, the CAA event included campaign stops by Cook County Treasurer and U.S. Senate Candidate from Illinois Maria Pappas, Dorothy Brown in her re-election bid for the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Candidate Frank Avila for Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and Candidate Jeanne R. Cleveland Bernstein for the Circuit Court Judge of the 9th Subcircuit. Diplomatic representatives from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina also provided remarks. Priests from local Croatian Catholic parishes led in solemn prayers for the continued success of the CAA. A festive atmosphere was provided by a home-cooked Croatian dinner and a Croatian folk dance performed by the Cardinal Stepinac dance group.The event's main speaker was Jeffrey T. Kuhner, the New Europe columnist for The Washington Times and communications director of the Ripon Society, a centrist-leaning think tank based in Washington, DC. In his speech, Mr. Kuhner praised the CAA for its leading role in garnering support of the Bush administration for Croatia's entry into NATO. Mr. Kuhner also stressed that the indictment issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia against Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina is legally groundless and should be rescinded immediately. "The Gotovina indictment is a clear example of prosecutorial abuse of power by the office of chief ICTY prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. The charges brought against Gen. Gotovina are legally unsustainable and morally untenable," Mr. Kuhner said. "Mrs. Del Ponte is seeking to use the Gotovina indictment as a means to criminalize Croatia's homeland war and its legitimate struggle for independence. The government in Zagreb needs to make clear that Mrs. Del Ponte has a legal and ethical obligation to drop the indictment."At a question and answer session the next day, Mr. Kuhner and CAA President George Rudman announced that they will be spearheading an initiative to either start-up or purchase a major daily newspaper in order to offset the leftist bias rampant in the Croatian media. "I will be asking numerous Croatian business leaders in the Diaspora and within Croatia itself to help provide the funding for a major daily that will have a patriotic, center-right and independent editorial policy," Mr. Kuhner said. "The days of the neo-communist nomenklatura's stranglehold on the Croatian media are coming to an end."Contact:Mirjana Rasich, National Secretary(847) 942-8822 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 20 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7290/1/E-2nd-Generation-Croatians-active-in-US-Politics.html 2nd Generation Croatians active in US Politics573 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq on March 20, according to the most recent Department of Defense figures. Of those 391 died as a result of hostile action, and 183 died of non-hostile causes.Over 100,000 people peacefully demonstrated against the war in New York City on March 20, 2004. One of the main speakers was the Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Dennis Kucinich (1946) The oldest of seven children, Kucinich was born in Ohio, near Cleveland's West Side, an area dotted by gritty ethnic neighborhoods and blue-collar suburbs. His Croatian father, Frank Kucinich, drove a delivery truck; his Irish mother, Virginia, cared for the children. Like many other working class people in the city, Kucinich's family lived through austere, difficult times. With his father's meager income as the only means of support, the family frequently couldn't pay rent, and Kucinich would live in 21 different places by the time he was 17. Dennis pursues a career in public service and has won elections for Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio State Senate, now serving his fourth term in Congress, while running for President of the United Stateswww.kucinich.us or call toll free 866-413-3664 Another second generation Croatian contemplating political office isKrist Novoselic, (1965) born in Compton, California. He was the bass guitarist and one of the founders for Nirvana, a punk rock group. His parents Krist and Maria were Croatian immigrants from Zadar and moved to the US in 1963. While teenagers, Krist and his brother Robert constantly got into trouble with their father and authorities for such things as vandalism, and property damage. His parents send him to Croatia when he was fourteen to live with relatives for one year. Having a little knowledge of the Croatian language from around the house, he fit in nicely and made lots of friends and found the schools to be excellent. It was also during this extended stay that he found his first tastes of "punk rock". His mother Maria is still a hairdresser in Aberdeen, Washington State. Krist is now a dedicated leader of artists, music fans and music industry professionals alike. As an activist and artist, he continues to champion free speech and decided not to run for lieutenant governor in WA, but wants to remain active in politics by working with "Music for America" to boost voter participation among young people and continue his efforts for election reform. Krist writings on democracy are posted at http://fixour.us orhttp://murkyslough.com orwww.novoselic.com orwww.nirvana-online.net/krist.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 20 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7292/1/H-14-BANKET-HRVATSKO-AMERICKOG-UDRUZENJA.html Â14. BANKET HRVATSKO-AMERICKOG UDRUZENJAÂU subotu 13. ozujka u Chicagu je odrzan 14. banket Hrvatsko americkog udruzenja-CAA.Odaziv americkih Hrvata i samo zanimanje za taj skup bio je velik tako da su stolovi bili popunjeni do zadnjeg mjesta racunajuci i one koji su bili naknadno postavljeni kako bi svi zainteresirani mogli biti primljeni i ugosceni.To je prvi hrvatski skup uopce gdje su bila prisutna tri americka kongresmena: g. Henry Hyde , g. Dennis Kucinich koji je ujedno bio u utrci za Predsjednika SAD-a, gos. Jan Schakowski .Svako od njih su svojim toplim rijecima obecali podrsku u americkom Kongresu Hrvatskoj u njenim nastojanjima u procesu ukljucivanja u EU i NATO.Takodje prisutnima su se obratili gos. Judy Bar Topinka -IL State treasurer , gos. Maria Pappas -Cook country Treasurer i kandidat Demokratske stranke za Senat SAD-a ,te mnogi drugi americki politicari iz Chicaga.Svi su bili slozni u jednom a to je kako Hrvatsko americka udruga-CAA treba nastaviti sa radom sa jos vecim entuziazmom te da zasluzuje podrsku u svakom pogledu.Cestitali su pocasnom predsjedniku CAA-a g. Anthony Peraici na dosadasnjem radu a koji je vrlo uspjesno vodio program te veceri .Od hrvatskih predstavnika bili su : g. Ivan Grdesic-ambasador RH u SAD-a , te predstavnici hrvatskih konzulata iz Chicaga i iz Los Angelesa.Glavni govornik veceri bio je g. Jeffery Kuhner-dopisnik Washington Times-a koji je svim nazocnima odrzao zanimljiv govor koji je trajao oko sat vremena izazvavsi njihovu apsolutnu pozornost i zanimanje .Teme su bile nepravde haaskog suda prema Hrvatima,integracija Hrvatske u EU i NATO,veca povezanost Hrvatske sa Zapadom, polozaj Hrvata u BiH,njegovi hrvatski korijeni.Govor je zavrsio pricom o svome djedu koji mu je rekao,par sati prije nego ce izdahnuti , da nikad ne zaboravi nepravde prema Hrvatima, hrvatske zrtve i svoje porijeklo.Na banketu je nastupila i grupa "Kardinal Stepinac" iz hrvatske zupe "Sv. Jeronima "sa kolom "Lindzo" koju cine djeca hrvatskih iseljenika.Ivica Grgicwww.lijepanasadomovinahrvatska.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 16 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7293/1/E-Foreign-Minister-of-Croatia-Visits-Israel.html ÂForeign Minister of Croatia Visits IsraelJerusalem, March 4, 2004Foreign Minister of Croatia Visits Israel(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Croatia, Mr. Miomir Zulzul, is arriving in Israel today (14 March 2004) for an official visit as the guest of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom.The Croatian foreign minister will be accompanied by Science Minister Dragan Primorac and Minister of Agriculture Petar Cabankovic.The visiting ministers will meet with the Israeli president, the prime minister, the foreign minister, and will also visit Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. In addition, they will tour some research institutions and look into options for economic cooperation between Israel and Croatia.Ties between the two countries, which established diplomatic relations in 1997, are excellent, and this visit to Israel by the Croatian foreign minister is expected to contribute to the deepening of those ties. http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0ogi0 Foreign Minister of Croatia Visits Israel02:48 Mar 15, '04 / 22 Adar 5764(IsraelNN.com) The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Croatia, Mr. Miomir Zulzul arrived in Israel on Sunday for an official visit as the guest of Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom. The Croatian foreign minister will be accompanied by Science Minister Dragan Primorac and Minister of Agriculture Petar Cabankovic. The visiting ministers will meet with the president and the prime minister, and will also visit Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Museum. In addition, they will tour some research institutions and look into options for economic cooperation between Israel and Croatia. Ties between the two countries, which established diplomatic relations in 1997, are excellent, and this visit to Israel by the Croatian foreign minister is expected to contribute to the deepening of those ties.http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=59432 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 14 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7294/1/E-Bosnian-Croats-Some-good-words.html ÂCroat's advanced economic development in BiH.This article by Stephen Schwartz has not done therounds, it seems. Make's important points of Croat'sadvanced economic development in BiH.BGhttp://www.techcentralstation.com/020204C.html Beware IraqoslaviaBy Stephen Schwartz Published 02/02/2004 Will Iraq survive as a single country, or is itdestined to be partitioned between its threeconstituent communities, the Kurds, Sunni MuslimArabs, and Shia Arabs? This controversy, which has yetto rise to the status of formal debate anywhere,nonetheless lurks in the background as policy expertsand pundits offer predictions for Iraq's future. The question of revised borders offers a parallelbetween Iraq and the former Yugoslavia -- one ofseveral that should trouble the sleep of globalpolitical leaders, if they care to observe it.Yugoslavia's ExampleLike Yugoslavia, Iraq was a "nation" assembled out ofparts of a former empire, at the end of World War I.In the former instance, the Slavic possessions of theHabsburgs were merged with Serbia and Montenegro. Inthe latter, three separate governing districts of theOttoman empire were cobbled together on little basisother than geographical proximity.No "Yugoslav" identity commanded the loyalty of thecountry's majority, and no "Iraqi" nationality can besaid, today, to unite the people who live within theBaghdad state's borders. In Yugoslavia, differinglanguages, religions, and political and legaltraditions defined local attitudes. There, the worstconflicts took place between differing Christiansects: the Catholic Croats and the Orthodox Serbs. InIraq, Sunni and Shia Muslims view one another withsimilar malicious feelings.Is Iraq destined to break up into separate nations, asYugoslavia did? Not necessarily -- if only because thepotential consequences of redrawn borders in theMiddle East are, at first glance, even more deadlythan in the Balkans.Of the contenders in the Yugoslav wars, only theKosovar Albanians had ethnic kinsmen outside the"invented" country, and their desire to leave theYugoslav federation did not suggest that an existing,neighboring power would be immediately undermined. InIraq, however, independence for Kurdistan would befirmly opposed by Turkey, which fears secession by itsown restive community of Kurds. In addition, SaudiArabia is clearly terrified by the prospect of an"independent" Shia-ruled entity on its northernborder. A Shia state carved out of southern Iraq might havelittle effect on Shia Iran, which is Persian, ratherthan Arab, in culture. But its existence might verywell inspire significant discontent among the ShiaArab majority in the Saudi Eastern Province, wheremuch of the country's oil is located. Shias are themost oppressed element in Wahhabi-ruled Saudi Arabia.Of this, more will be said below.In addition to the former Yugoslavia and Iraq sharinga legacy of artificial borders and ethnic dissension,both may end up as laboratories for administrativepolicy-making by the United Nations. Discussion of U.S. vs. UN control of Iraq began evenbefore the military intervention there. A considerablenumber of UN personnel who served in the Balkans weresent to Iraq soon after the fall of Baghdad. Some diedin terror incidents, and the rest were quicklywithdrawn.But soon enough, U.S. authorities began discussingalternatives to the political structure established inthe immediate aftermath of the war, i.e. the IraqiGoverning Council. Responsibility for a new Iraq, itwas said, might be handed to the UN, or to theEuropean Community. It could even fall into the handsof the French, who have the worst record in theBalkans, and internationally, for spinelessness in theface of criminality (see Rwanda, as well as thehistory of French dealings with Saddam Hussein).If Iraq is similar to the former Yugoslavia in itshistory as an abstract construct, it could even moreresemble the formerly-Yugoslav successor state ofBosnia-Hercegovina in becoming a country of competingnational groupings - Croats, Bosnian Muslims, andSerbs - ruled by foreign authorities.I would therefore offer a set of predictions on thefuture of Iraq, based on precedents visible inBosnia-Hercegovina.Iraq's FutureFirst, regarding the Iraqi Kurds. Thanks to a longperiod of U.S. protection, they have developed asuccessful, functioning economy, stable politicalleadership, and competent media. They also have atradition of fierce nationalism that is uncomfortablefor their neighbors. In this, they resemble theBosnian Croats, whose long relationship with centralEurope has allowed them to leap ahead of their Serband Muslim neighbors in economic development. Yet theBosnian Croats are kept at arm's length by "theinternational community," charged with radicalnationalism and extensive economic corruption.The Croats and Kurds also share peculiarcharacteristics in that both nations were onceconsidered mercenaries of empire, the Habsburgs in theCroat case and the Ottomans for the Kurds, and bothwere, in the past, seen as paragons of radical leftism-- in the Croat instance, during the 1920s. I predict, therefore, that as in the Bosnian Croatcase, international bureaucrats, if they gain controlin Iraq, will reinforce their current tendency toignore the Iraqi Kurds, and denigrate their economicand social advances.The Iraqi Shias, although they constitute the majorityin the country, resemble the Bosnian Muslims, whocomprised a near-majority, in coming to the table ofthe new Iraq with a reputation for Islamistsympathies. At the same time, they are characterizedby extraordinary gratitude to the U.S.-led coalitionfor having removed the Shia holy sites, Karbala andNajaf, from the control of Saddam -- as the BosnianMuslims still thank Clinton for saving them. Thesocial and economic development of both BosnianMuslims and Iraqi Shias has been quite distinctive andis little understood by the West. The dilemma of thelatter community is visible in the reluctance of theU.S. in Iraq to grant their understandable demand forelections. Like the Bosnian Muslims, the Iraqi Shiashave allies who excite suspicion, in both caseslocated in Iran. I predict that the goodwill and enthusiasm of theIraqi Shias will be ignored, and opportunities wastedby the international community, which will have nointerest in spending the time required to study andcomprehend them and their traditions.The so-called Sunnis of central Iraq have much incommon with the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. Likethe Serbs, they enjoyed favorable economic, social,and political advantages under the dictatorship. Inaddition, like the Serbs in Yugoslavia, who enjoyedRussian patronage, the Iraqi Sunnis are now backed intheir opposition to the new regime in Iraq by thepower of Saudi Arabia. Nobody was prepared to challenge the Russians overBosnia. Nobody in the West today is ready to call theSaudis to account for their incitement of jihadistterror in Iraq, recruitment of Saudis to fight and diein Iraq, and similar examples of criminal interferencenorth of their border. To emphasize, the Saudis are nomore interested in the success of a Shia-majoritydemocracy in Iraq than the Russians were in thetransformation of socialist Yugoslavia into aprosperous free-market society. In a chilling parallel between the former Yugoslaviaand Iraq, Western media flatter Saudi-recruitedWahhabi terrorists by describing them as an Iraqi"resistance" to Western invasion, just as numerousjournalists described Serbian aggression against theneighboring republics as revenge against the Croats,Bosnian Muslims, and Albanians for events thatoccurred during World War II. I predict "the international community," if allowed totake charge in Iraq, will make accommodation withSunnis their main priority. This will lead to more,rather than less terrorism, just as international"peacekeeping" in Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1992-95, and"monitoring" in Kosovo prior to 1999, led to more,rather than fewer Serbian atrocities in the formerYugoslavia. Stephen Schwartz is a frequent TCS contributor. Helast wrote for the site about Iraq's Record and theUN's Track Record. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 08 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7295/1/E-Thank-You-for-Your-Support-from-Dennis-Kucinich.html Â"Thank You for Your Support" from Dennis KucinichHEAR THE AUDIO POSTCARDMORNING OF MARCH 6, 2004TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO POSTCARD:WOW! This is Dennis. I cannot thank all of you enough for the tremendous response we have received in just a couple of days from people all over the country who are urging us to stay in this contest and move forward with our message of hope, and optimism, and peace.Just in a few days we raised about $200,000 which was really astonishing, and it puts us in a position where we are moving the campaign along. I'm now in Texas on the way from San Antonio to Corpus Christi and will be campaigning in South Texas all day. Tomorrow I'll be in the March in Selma, the commemoration of the march, and then I'll be back to Florida. We have strong campaigns going in both Texas and Florida, and it's because of you - because you're enabling us to move ahead.So as you're thinking this weekend about the direction of this country just know that you're helping to move not only a message, but to move America in a new direction. I'm so proud to be part of this effort and so grateful to you for everything you're doing to make this happen. We are on the way to Boston, and you can help smooth the road and help us speed our path towards that convention, by continuing to support us financially, spiritually, in any way you can. This is the moment for us to continue to stay together, and to move ahead and to celebrate this wonderful effort which is changing America and the world.Thank you so much, this is Dennis, and I'll be talking to all of you soon. Bye now.Dennis Kucinich***Contribute by calling 866-413-3664 or online athttp://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php or by sending your check to the address shown at the bottom of this page.HEAR THE AUDIO POSTCARDClick here to contribute to Kucinich for President online.Please forward this Email quickly and widely.(Delete the opt-out link at the very bottom, so that no one accidentally cancels your subscription.)If you received this Email from a friend and would like to receive them directly, click here: http://kucinich.us/alerts-signup.htm Contact us:Kucinich for President11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)http://www.kucinich.us denniskucinich@kucinich.us letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 07 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7296/1/E-UN-SPIRIT-AT-SREBRENICA-LIVES-ON-AT-THE-HAGUE.html ÂVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON THE U.N. SPIRIT AT SREBRENICA LIVES ON AT THE HAGUEby Brian Gallagher The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1005 - 05.03.04The International Criminal Tribunal for the formerYugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague has often colluded withSerbian interests in much the same way UN personneldid throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Thisis obscured by Serbian complaints that the Tribunal isbiased against them. Not only have they openlyprovided intelligence to the Serbs, they have notinvestigated major Serbian war crimes suspects inrelation to crimes in Croatia. This is no doubt due toa political effort by the Prosecutor's office torevise and distort history to play down Serbianaggression and show that "all sides are equallyguilty". The attitude of the Office of the Prosecutor can beclearly seen by their views on Srebrenica. The UN hasbeen condemned and held responsible by many for theslaughter of thousands of Bosnian men and boys.Indeed, the Milosevic trial itself has seen testimonydamning the UN role at Srebrenica. One would think then that UN personnel would beinvestigated for their involvement in war crimes bythe Hague Prosecutor. Not a bit of it. On thecontrary, the Prosecutor seems to think the UN's rolewas an innocent one. In 2000, the pro-prosecutorInstitute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) wrote thata group called the 'Mothers of Srebrenica andPodrinje' had - quite reasonably - asked theProsecutor to investigate UN officials such as formerSecretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali for complicityin the massacre at Srebrenica. Deputy ProsecutorGraham Blewitt had this to say: "Some common sense hasto be exercised here." He elaborated further, "Tosuggest the UN in its role as peacemaker in the formerYugoslavia, and particularly in Bosnia, had motiveswhich would amount to crimes is unrealistic." A prosecution witness in the Milosevic trial, formerVenezuelan ambassador to the UN, Diego Arria, hasclaimed that UN personnel - including Boutros-BoutrosGhali - deliberately withheld intelligence from thesecurity council. This may have prevented action tosave lives. Arria had warned of a massacre atSrebrenica; he was ignored. He has called this thebiggest cover-up in UN history. Will Graham Blewittnow start an investigation? I suspect not. UNofficials will breathe easy. The Office of the Prosecutor has often providedintelligence on their investigations to the Serbs - nodoubt helping suspects elude justice. The HagueProsecutor used to produce sealed indictments -meaning suspects could be arrested by surprise. In2001, IWPR reported that the Hague Prosecutor handedover sealed indictments to the Bosnian Serb leadershipin Bosnia-Herzegovina. They in turn promptly handedthese indictments to the suspects, without arrestingthem. The suspects were thus alerted to the fact theywere being hunted, and would no doubt adopt a lowprofile. Deputy Prosecutor Blewitt's comments on the matterseemed more geared to exonerating Bosnian Serb leadersof blame for this leak. "I do not believe thegovernment did it intentionally. The responsibility ison an individual in the government who wanted to slowdown justice" he said. The Bosnian Serb leadership have never been supportiveof the Tribunal. What possessed the Office of theProsecutor to hand over such sensitive material? Andwhy did Blewitt minimize the responsibility of theBosnian Serb leadership? Had the indictments been leaked by the Office of theProsecutor there would have been an outcry. But asthey were leaked by the Bosnian Serbs - having beengiven them officially by the Prosecutor - there was nosuch outcry. In 2003, The UK's Spectator magazine criticised HagueChief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte for handing overintelligence on the whereabouts of Radovan Karadzic tothe Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic. TheSpectator pointed out that Djukanovic was underinvestigation by Italian judges for directing acigarette-smuggling ring and was facing anOSCE/Council of Europe investigation for allegedlynobbling a prosecution of alleged human traffickershigh in government. Another charmer that Del Ponte handed intelligence towas assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindic,this time on Ratko Mladic. Djindic was lauded in theWest for being a democrat and so on. In reality he wasa Greater Serbia enthusiast and admirer of RadovanKaradzic. Not really the sort of person a prosecutorshould give such intelligence to. Del Ponte claimedthat Djindic told her he was going to hand overMladic. She actually believed this. Given that he hadnot already done so and that in the supposed crackdownthat followed his death Mladic was not arrested, itseems that Djindic and his 'reformers' took Del Pontefor quite a ride. Does the Hague Prosecutor still haveany intelligence the Serbs don't know? Then we have Savo Strbac and his 'Veritas'organisation - ostensibly an organisation providinginformation on the alleged wrongs to Serbs by Croats.Strbac and Veritas work closely with the HagueProsecutor in order to prosecute Croats. This beggarsbelief. Strbac is an unapologetic believer in aGreater Serbia. His Veritas website -www.veritas.org.yu - carries Greater Serbia imagery onits homepage. He was a senior official in the occupation 'RepublikaSrpska Krajina' (RSK) structure in Croatia between1991-5. The RSK was set up on the back of ethniccleansing and mass murder - including the destructionof Vukovar. It actively persecuted Croats. It was partof the "criminal enterprise" as related in the Hague'sown Milosevic indictment. The Prosecutor has beenworking with Veritas since 1994 - when Veritasoperated from occupied Croat territory. Allinvestigations into Croats are compromised by Strbac'sinvolvement. Strbac himself was named in the Milosevic trial by aprosecution witness as head of a bodies exchangecommission. During one exchange of bodies with Bosniasix of the dead the Serbs handed over were murderedfor this purpose. It was stated that the commissionwas fully aware of this. Yet Strbac and his organisation are consideredperfectly suitable by the Prosecutor to assist inprosecuting Croats. Its gets worse. The Prosecutor gave Strbac a 'Letterof Endorsement' to help raise funds for hisorganisation, which he proudly displays on hiswebsite. That says it all. Serbs complain they are disproportionately targeted bythe Prosecutor. In reality, not enough Serb warcriminals have been indicted. The majority of Serbianwar crimes in Croatia have not been investigatedproperly - if at all. How is it that Yugoslav Chief ofStaff General Zivota Panic, who oversaw thedestruction of Vukovar and the slaughter of EasternSlavonia for months was left to live out his finalyears in peace, recently dying in his bed, undisturbedby Carla del Ponte? In contrast, Croatian Chief of Staff Bobetko died inhis bed with a dubious indictment for an allegedmassacre that was on a vastly smaller scale thanPanic's atrocities. Clearly, the prosecutor is not operating on the basisof charging those responsible for the worst crimes.She must therefore be operating on a political basis -the UN one of "all sides are equally guilty". When one considers all this, much becomes clear. Wesee that the UN policies in former Yugoslavia ofcolluding with Serbs have been carried over to theHague Prosecutor. The result of all this is that thoseSerbs responsible for slaughtering thousands inCroatia, destroying cities and ethnically cleansingone third of the country have got away with it. Who,exactly, is demanding the bringing to book of allthose - possibly thousands of - Serbs responsible forwhat happened to Croats? No-one. Certainly not theHague Prosecutor. The UN spirit at Srebrenica lives on.© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 06 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7297/1/E-Is-Membership-A-Bridge-Too-Far-For-.html ÂEU: Is Membership A Bridge Too Far For Western Balkans, Ukraine, Caucasus?By Eugen TomiucThe European Union, which in May undergoes the largest expansion in its history, has reiterated that possible enlargement in future will continue to strictly depend on prospective candidates fulfilling admission criteria. Analysts say a further enlargement of the bloc to include other countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe will depend both on the countries' readiness and on how fast the expanded EU can integrate the 10 new members. But they add that, in the long run, the EU is likely to shift focus from enlargement itself to partnership agreements with its future neighbors.Prague, 3 March 2004 (RFE/RL) -- On 1 May, the European Union will take in 10 new, mostly Eastern European, members in what is hailed as a historic step toward the reunification of the continent. The 15-nation EU will grow to 25 members once Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join. The bloc is expected to further expand to 27 countries in 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania are likely to be admitted. "I think it's perfectly feasible to imagine that in the next five to 10 years, a country like Croatia may join the EU, but whether countries like Bosnia or Albania are going to be ready -- even in the medium run -- is quite unclear."But analysts say general support for enlargement within the EU is dwindling, due to the costs of taking in the first 10 countries and to the slow pace of implementation of the body of EU laws known as the acquis communautaire. Analyst Joan Hoey, of the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, told RFE/RL that the EU's executive body, the European Commission, is likely to show even more strictness toward future candidates. "Although the [European] Commission is saying that negotiations are going to be on the same basis, obviously the whole climate has changed and is about to change [further] after May 2004. There is this enlargement fatigue. Support for enlargement is falling. There's a political backlash that's gathered momentum in some countries. There is growing skepticism about the implementation of the acquis in the eight East European countries that are joining in May, and there's a nervousness about the costs of enlargement," Hoey said. In a sign that it means business when it comes to enlargement, the EU sent a strong warning to laggard candidate Romania last month, saying it risks missing the 2007 target unless it takes rapid and decisive measures to implement judicial reform, get rid of endemic corruption, and stop pressure on the free media. A European Parliament report on Romania stopped short of recommending the suspension of accession talks, but issued a tough wake-up call for Bucharest to pursue a complete "reorientation" in the country's strategy for joining the EU.Bucharest's slow progress toward fulfilling the admission criteria has raised the question of whether prospective candidates could be taken in before they are completely ready. Analysts point to the example of Greece, which became a successful EU member despite its apparent unpreparedness when it was admitted in 1981, only years after having experienced a military dictatorship. But analyst Kirsty Hughes, of the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) says accepting unprepared members after this year's huge expansion could undermine the EU. "Obviously, if countries are brought in when they're not fully ready, especially when we're facing such a big enlargement [with] so many new member states, then the more member states you have who aren't acting as they should, who aren't implementing laws as they should, who aren't following the rules as they are, who aren't true democracies, then that is potentially going to undermine the EU unless the EU applies the sanctions it has, that it can use against member states. But the more member states that are breaking the rules, the more difficult it is to apply serious sanctions against them," Hughes said. Countries in the western Balkans, such as Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Albania or Serbia and Montenegro, have also expressed interest in European integration, with Croatia best positioned to be accepted as a candidate. Farther east, Moldova, Ukraine, and, more recently, Georgia have made no secret of their European aspirations. Experts say the way the EU treats Romania's candidacy could become a case study for other, more distant, EU hopefuls. Political analyst Tom Gallagher, of the University of Bradford in Britain, told RFE/RL that he believes the EU would be taking a risk by accepting Romania before it is fully ready for membership. "If the accession process regarding Romania went wrong, and Romania turned out to be a huge headache for the EU after it became a full member, I think the motivation and commitment for expanding to the rest of the Balkans would diminish, and people would just shrink from the bigger task of integrating countries in the Caucasus and farther east," Gallagher said. Hughes of CEPS says any future expansion beyond Bulgaria and Romania will largely depend on how the EU shapes itself over the next several years. "I think what we have to look very much for [is] what happens in the next three, four, or five years -- how much the EU changes, how difficult it finds it to operate at 25 [members], whether it becomes a rather looser, for instance, sort of organization. All those questions are very much unknown and that, therefore, impacts on what you could say about future candidacies from the western Balkans or even from countries like Georgia or Ukraine. I think it's perfectly feasible to imagine that in the next five to 10 years, a country like Croatia may join the EU, but whether countries like Bosnia or Albania are going to be ready -- even in the medium run -- is quite unclear," Hughes said. But Hughes also warns that EU membership may remain a bridge too far for many eastern countries. She points to the fact that the current political trend within the EU favors partnership agreements with future neighbors over promises of full-fledged membership. "When one looks farther east, the EU itself has a political decision to make about whether it is at any point going to say, 'We have borders. We have a point when we stop expanding. We have a point when we try and make good friends and associates with our neighbors rather than members.' And I think what the EU has clearly been trying to do in the last year or so is to say to countries like Ukraine and Moldova, 'You are really not on the agenda of potential candidates for 20 years or more, so please don't even try and talk about it. Let's talk about building good relations.' That may not be what Georgia [for example] wants to hear, but that, for the moment, is current political reality," Hughes said.Author: Eugen Tomiuc joined RFE/RL in 1996. He previously worked for BBC World Service in London. Eugen has a decade of experience in international broadcast journalism. He is the author of numerous articles on EU and NATO expansion issues and has covered developments in Eastern Europe and the Balkans for several years. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/03/dbfea7c2-d968-41db-865d-f7a279247c27.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 04 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7298/1/E-Connor-Vlakancic-for-Congressman.html ÂConnor Vlakancic for CongressmanPosted on Wed, Mar. 03, 2004 Risley to run against FarrBy DAN LAIDMANdlaidman@montereyherald.com A Pacific Grove businessman and rookie politician looks to be the Republican nominee to challenge incumbent congressman Sam Farr.As results trickled in Tuesday, Peninsula Sports Management owner Mark Risley held a consistent and commanding lead over challenger Connor Vlakancic. At a party for supervisorial candidate Steve Collins in downtown Monterey, Risley said he was looking forward to the admittedly daunting challenge of taking on a popular incumbent."I think the people of this area deserve to have a viable challenger to Sam Farr," he said.In the Democratic primary, Farr, D-Carmel, appeared to have easily vanquished challenger Art Dunn.Risley, who has never held elective office, spent much of the primary season attacking Farr. In print ads and on his Web site, Risley tore into the congressman for being a career politician and for his votes on taxes and foreign policy. Farr has responded by calling Risley "angry" and saying the novice politician has yet to lay out an agenda of his own.Risley denied Tuesday that he was running a negative campaign, saying he was merely laying Farr's record out before the voters. Still, he signaled he wanted to shift tactics for the general election, calling Farr "a very nice man" and saying "it goes against my grain to run a negative campaign."Vlakancic, owner of 5 Star Group International, a company that imports wine and food from Croatia, had made several previous unsuccessful runs for Congress in Silicon Valley.Dan Laidman can be reached at 646-4346. Source:http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/8094076.htm  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 02 Mar 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7300/1/E-Decision-on-Croatias-EU-candidate-status-by-June.html ÂIreland hoping for decision onCroatia's EU candidate status by June10 February 2004 Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, on Tuesday said he hoped a decision on Croatia's bid to join the bloc will be made during the EU summit in June. "Ireland will facilitate its consideration by the council with a view to a possible decision on candidate status at the June European Council," Cowen told reporters at a joint press conference with his Croatian counterpart Miomir Zuzul.Croatia formally applied for EU membership in February 2003 and hopes to acquire official candidate status in June and full membership in 2007. Cowen commended Croatia for making "remarkable progress in recent years both economically and in the wide-ranging reform process". Zuzul pledged that his country would continue in that process as it was fully determined to meet all the criteria for membership. The Croatian minister is due in London on Wednesday for talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Defense Minister Geoff Hoon. Britain and the Netherlands have refused to sign an EU association agreement with Croatia because of Zagreb's failure to fully cooperate with the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague. In particular, Croatia has been told its EU bid could be in doubt as long as it refuses to extradite fugitive war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina, accused of murdering ethnic Serb civilians during the country's 1991-95 war. Zuzul will head to Berlin for two days from Thursday, where he will meet German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Copyright © 2004 AFP.http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040210143119.h7e3xtru letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 16 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7299/1/E-Rumsfeld-praises-Croatia.html ÂRumsfeld praises Croatia Associated Press Zagreb, Croatia - U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised the leaders of Croatia's new government Sunday and encouraged their pursuit of defence reforms designed to make the Balkan nation eligible for NATO membership.In a three-hour visit, Mr. Rumsfeld also thanked President Stipe Mesic and other government officials for supporting the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. Croatia has a small contingent of military police in Afghanistan but it has not yet asked the Parliament to approve troops for Iraq.At a joint news conference with Mr. Rumsfeld, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said, "Croatia sees in the United States not only a friend and partner but also an ally." He also said his government supports President George W. Bush's policy of pre-emptive military action to stop terrorists before they can strike.Mr. Rumsfeld said the Bush administration was eager to continue building better relations with Croatia."I look forward to the day when Croatia will become a part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," he said.Mr. Rumsfeld had been scheduled to fly to London later Sunday to meet with British Defence Minister Geoff Hoon, but he cancelled the stop and was returning directly to Washington. Aides said Mr. Rumsfeld changed plans because he had more time than expected in talks with Mr. Hoon while the two were in Germany on Saturday.Mr. Rumsfeld was in Munich for a NATO defence ministers meeting on Friday and to attend an annual conference on security policy. He left the conference after meeting privately with Jordan's King Abdullah II, who spoke at the event.Jordan has provided much-welcomed support for the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, including a major field hospital in Afghanistan. Jordan hosts training for Iraqi police.Croatia, which gained its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, has 50 troops in Afghanistan, including 44 military police, as part of the International Security Assistance Force headed by NATO. Croatia also has provided weapons and ammunition for the new Afghan national army.The Croatian government, which was elected in November, is considering asking Parliament to approve sending troops to Iraq, Mr. Sanader said. He said that any such troops would be focused on humanitarian missions, as opposed to combat.Croatia is one of three Balkan nations pursuing a Membership Action Plan designed by NATO to achieve the kinds of military reforms deemed necessary to be eligible for alliance membership. The other two countries are Albania and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.Mr. Rumsfeld was the first Cabinet official to visit Croatia since former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was in the country in 1999.http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040208.wrums0208/BNStory/International/ letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 16 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7304/1/E-Denmark-backs-Croatian-membership-in-EU-NATO.html ÂDenmark backs Croatian membership in EU, NATO05 February 2004 Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller expressed Thursday his support for Croatia's membership in the European Union and NATO in the coming years, saying the country was "progressing very fast". "It is (now) only a question of when Croatia is joining the EU and NATO. Denmark is doing what we can to help Croatia into the family as we are helping the Western Balkans with a new membership program," Moeller told reporters following talks with his Croatian counterpart Miomir Zuzul. "It was a good discussion which has given me reason to believe that it will be possible for Croatia to catch up with all of us," Moeller said. Croatia, a former Yugoslav republic bordering Slovenia and Hungary, hopes to start accession negotiations with the EU later this year and to join the Union by 2007. It also hopes to join NATO in 2006. Moeller said it was important for the international community to support the Croatian bids, as there were "disturbing signs around the Balkans", an indirect reference to the rise of ultra-nationalists in former Yugoslavia. Zuzul said meanwhile that more time was needed to stabilize the entire western Balkans. "We do see that Croatia can play a role in the stabilization of the region," he said. http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040205162603.h66ijzl4 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7303/1/E-Americki-povjesnicarU-Bosni-muslimani-bili---agresori.html ÂAmerički povjesničar tvrdi da su u srednjoj Bosni muslimani bili - agresori ÂPovijest naglavačkeAmerički povjesničar tvrdi da su u srednjoj Bosni muslimani bili - agresori "Ratna zbivanja u središnjoj Bosni ispričana su 'naglavačke', jer se hrvatska vojska - ustvari - branila, dok su muslimanske snage bile agresori" - tvrdi povjesničar i umirovljeni časnik američke vojske Charles R. Shrader u nedavno objavljenoj knizi o hrvatsko-bošnjačkom sukobu u Bosni i Hercegovini pod naslovom "The Muslim-Croat Civil War in Central Bosnia". "Prvi izvještaji, uključujući i teorije koje su se koristile u Sudu za ratne zločine u Den Haagu, kao i propaganda koju je širila muslimanska vlast, utjecali su na formiranje sadašnjih stajališta. Ona su se, međutim, temeljila na djelomičnim informacijama... Samo se pogledom unatrag može sagledati sve činjenice zajedno - i na taj sam način i ja shvatio da je cijela priča ispričana naglavačke", kaže Shrader. On smatra da će s vremenom biti preispitane neke od kazni izrečene pred Haškim tribunalom za ratne zločine. Glas Amerike http://www.voanews.com/Croatian/article.cfm?objectID=9EA2372C-F708-4EBE-A112283FA4422186&title=Shrad ... letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7302/1/E-Rumsfeld-in-Zagreb-on-Sunday.html ÂRumsfeld scheduled to travel to Zagreb, Croatia on SundayRumsfeld says he does not regret 'old Europe' remark By ROBERT BURNS, AP MILITARY WRITERMUNICH, Germany (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday he does not regret having referred to France and Germany as "old Europe," a comment in 2003 that many Europeans took as an insult. "I'm too old to have regrets," Rumsfeld said in an interview with several European journalists shortly before the start of a NATO defense ministers meeting. "No, I don't regret it."Although his remark may add fuel to an old fire, Rumsfeld said he had not meant to denigrate traditional U.S. allies Germany and France. He said his intention had been to distinguish between "old NATO" with its membership of 19 countries and the "new NATO" that is adding seven more.In Friday's NATO talks, Rumsfeld was expected to endorse a plan to expand NATO's troop presence in Afghanistan over the next few months and to repeat his suggestion that the alliance consider eventually taking over the entire military operation in Afghanistan. The ministers were expected to approve setting up five new civil-military reconstruction teams in Afghanistan this spring.In the interview with the European journalists, Rumsfeld also blasted the Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera."We are being hurt by al-Jazeera in the Arab world," he said. "There is no question about it. The quality of the journalism is outrageous - inexcusably biased - and there is nothing you can do about it except try to counteract it." He said it was turning Arabs against the United States."You could say it causes the loss of life," he added. "It's causing Iraqi people to be killed" by inflaming anti-American passions and encouraging attacks against Iraqis who assist the Americans, he added.On Thursday, Rumsfeld said U.S. relations with Europe, which were badly strained by the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, have returned to being "fairly normal."Setting out Thursday on a three-nation European tour that started in Munich, Rumsfeld said that differences between allies are inevitable, and he dismissed suggestions that a major diplomatic effort will be required to mend fences.On Saturday Rumsfeld planned to attend the yearly Munich Conference on Security Policy, which attracts officials, analysts and military leaders from around the globe.Throughout NATO's 55-year history, he said, the trans-Atlantic relationship "has gone from little difficulties to things better, from little difficulties to things better - it's been a pattern over my entire adult lifetime.""I would say the relationships right now are fairly normal."Rumsfeld also said that although NATO may get more involved in Iraq at some point, "Its first task really is to do well (in) the Afghanistan task" of leading the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, the Afghan capital, and managing civil aid teams in several provinces.Rumsfeld said he expected Iraq to be a major topic of discussion during his two days in Munich. On Sunday he is scheduled to travel to Zagreb, Croatia, followed by meetings in London on Monday.When speaking at the Munich conference a year ago, Rumsfeld was critical of Europeans who favored giving United Nations inspectors more time to determine whether Iraq possessed chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Delay, Rumsfeld said, "could well make war more likely, not less, because delaying preparations (for war) sends a signal of uncertainty instead of a signal of resolve."Almost a month later, U.S. forces invaded, toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. So far, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. The head of the U.S. search team, David Kay, told Congress last week that it appears that the administration's prewar claims were erroneous. http://newsobserver.com/24hour/world/story/1141156p-7948232c.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7301/1/E-Vukovar-Drvar-Its-Croatian-population-had-gone.html ÂHalf-Empty or Half-Full Towns? Many refugees have returned to towns synonymous with ethnic cleansing. Many have not, and it doesn't look likely they will return soon. A success or a failure?by Tim Judah VUKOVAR, Croatia, KOZARAC and DRVAR, Bosnia and Herzegovina--Are you an optimist or a pessimist? You know how to tell. When you see a half-full glass of water do you say that it is "half full" or "half empty"? That was easy. Now for a hard question. When it comes to the former Yugoslavia, and you see a town with half its prewar population, do you say that it is "half full" or "half empty"? Consider this: At the end of 1995, the formerly Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) town of Kozarac lay in ruins. It was almost completely deserted. Vukovar, in eastern Croatia, was also still in ruins. Its Croatian population had gone, much of it replaced by Serbian refugees from elsewhere. Drvar, in western Bosnia, was not a ruin, but its entire Serbian population had fled, only to be replaced by Croatian refugees. Consider this: Today almost every single house in Kozarac, which lies deep in Bosnia's Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, has been rebuilt. Half of its pre-war population has returned.Vukovar has been almost entirely rebuilt, but only half its pre-war population lives there. In Drvar, everything has changed too. The vast majority of the Croats has gone and the local Serbs are back. Now this is a solidly Serbian town again--but deep inside the Bosniak- and Croat-dominated Federation entity. With the end of the wars and the absence of the "big story" some amazing changes on the ground have gone virtually unnoticed by the rest of the world. And not just the rest of the world. Ask someone in Belgrade, Zagreb, or Sarajevo who lives in these three towns today and the likelihood is that they'll look completely blank--if not a little disdainful too. These three towns may be far-flung provincial backwaters, although actually not that far from the three capitals, but it is in these three towns, perhaps more than anywhere else, that you can see the new frontline. That is, between optimists and pessimists. For the optimists there is plenty of good news. In Vukovar Serbs and Croats live and work, side by side. In Kozarac, Bosniaks are back in force and in Drvar Serbs are home too.And ammunition for the pessimists? Only half the prewar populations are back. People live side by side, maybe, but not together like before. It seems unlikely that any more people will return. But that is not necessarily because they don't want to--it is because they can't. There is no work for them. KOZARACLying along the road between Prijedor and Banja Luka in northern Bosnia, Kozarac became a symbol of the wartime ethnic cleansing. In the summer of 1992 Serbian forces simply drove out the entire population. Thousands of local Bosniak men also ended up in the most infamous and murderous of the wartime camps, Omarska and Keraterm. Houses were then systematically dynamited. The architects of Serbian wartime policy deemed it necessary to completely cleanse a solidly ethnic Bosniak wedge deep in an area they wanted to claim.In the aftermath of the Dayton Accords, which ended the war in 1995, Bosniaks were left in no doubt that they would not be welcome if they tried to return.But that was then. From 1999 onwards, through a combination of the determination of the people and international aid and pressure, the return began. Now 10,000 Bosniaks, half the original number, are back and some 90 percent of houses have been rebuilt. As everywhere in Bosnia, 90 percent of legal claims to have houses returned to their lawful owners have been solved. Bosniaks here are also back because they feel physically secure. Nineteen ringleaders of the wartime ethnic cleansing in the area have been indicted and tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.In eastern Bosnia by contrast, where fewer people have been indicted or arrested, the rate of return is far lower.Overall, far more people have returned home, or at least have resolved their status, than many realize. According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, almost a million refugees out of an original total of 2.2 million have come home. The agency estimates that today only some 400,000 still want to return somewhere in Bosnia. Someone who did not know the history of Kozarac and who was just passing through could be forgiven for not realizing the extent of the horrors that happened here. Jasmin Jakupovic, a Bosniak returnee, has invested heavily in building a large new restaurant in town. It is called Stara Basta (The Old Garden). Jakupovic has even hired a sculptor to create stone figures to decorate the garden and buildings. He says he returned because he "can't live without Bosnia." But why, I asked him, has the rate of return been so high here as compared to so many other places? He replied: "We are different because of the will to return. And we suffered most after Srebrenica."Close by is the police station, from which hangs the Serbian flag, the police here being Republika Srpska police even if some of the policemen themselves are ethnic Bosniaks.A little further down the road is a renovated school, which works according to the Bosniak curriculum. Bosnian Serb and Croat schools have different ones.Across the road from the school locals point to where some of the family of Dusko Tadic still live. Tadic, a Serb, was the first man ever to be convicted by the ICTY.Locals say that more people would have returned if there were more jobs, but much of the former heavy industry and the mines around here, as elsewhere in Bosnia, is defunct. Still, even before the war people from Kozarac had a strong Gastarbeiter, or guest worker, tradition, for many worked in Switzerland. These links helped cushion the blow of being forced out in 1992 and provided money or refuge for the exiles. During the holidays many more return to Kozarac, and some of those who work in Slovenia or Austria often drive home just for a weekend. But not everyone is happy to be back. In a shop in Kozarac a 20-something woman working there, who asked that I not use her name, told me: "If it was up to me I would not have come back to live amongst people who committed crimes. My husband wanted to come back." She continued: "Salaries are low and prices high. We have no holiday, no paid social security, and no days off. I would not just leave here, but leave Bosnia." In that, she is not alone. Indeed, polls show that two-thirds of young Bosnians want to emigrate. DRVARBefore the war the municipality of Drvar had a population of 17,000. It was 97 percent Serbian. Of that number 9,000 lived in the town of Drvar, which had a high employment rate thanks to its thriving lumber industry. Until the tail end of the war Drvar saw no combat. Its men spent much of their time fighting along the Bihac front. Drvar, however, had some strategic importance. It lay along the road which connected the Serb-held Krajina region of Croatia with Republika Srpska and Serbia. As the war drew to a close, Croatian and Bosnian Croat forces closed in on the town. The entire population bar some 80 elderly Serbs fled. The Dayton Agreement placed Drvar well inside Canton 10 of the Federation. It also called for the return of all refugees. But the new Croatian masters of the region had other plans. With Serbs having fled Krajina, the HDZ felt it imperative to build an ethnic buffer zone along the border. By 1998 it looked as though they had succeeded. Up to 6,000 Croats, mainly refugees from central Bosnia, had been brought in, plus 2,500 troops from the Croatian Defense Council (HVO), the Bosnian Croat Army, and their families. When Serbs tried to return in 1997 and 1998, houses were torched, two elderly Serbs were murdered, and the mayor, Mile Marceta, elected with Serbian refugee votes, was attacked. In Bosnia, the international community pledged tough action to reverse this situation. What is astonishing is that now not many people know what a phenomenal success this has been. Today Mile Marceta, no longer mayor but an important local figure nonetheless, can easily be found around town. According to him there are now only 800 Croats left here, while 8,000 Serbs have returned to the municipality. More would return, but as elsewhere, the problem is lack of jobs. Indeed, he says, because of this "people have started leaving again." While Canadian troops from SFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force, ensure security, Marceta complains that his people are still forgotten by the outside world. As an example, he says, outlying areas of Drvar have not yet been reconnected to the electricity grid. Today, of 29 local policemen, 20 are Serbs and nine are Croats. Yet a flag emblazoned with the Croatian "checkerboard" still hangs outside the police station. It was deemed unconstitutional by the Federation's Constitutional Court in 1998, but the local Serbian police, fearing the sack, don't take it down. This is because local power does not lie at the municipality level but at the canton level and, although three out of six municipalities in the canton are dominated by Serbs, there are well over twice the number of Croats in the other three.Thus, local Serbs now go about their business on streets whose names recall Croatian nationalist heroes. It feels as though Drvar were some extremely odd little Croatian colonial outpost. Mile Marceta complains that while "Europe stood behind Kozarac and everything was rebuilt better than before," Drvar has been forgotten by the international community and foreign donors. Local taxes go to Canton 10's capital Livno, where the Croat-dominated government sends little back, Marceta says. "What we need here is the rule of law, and economic revival." The main employer is Finvest, a Croatian company which bought the biggest local sawmill after 1995. Many local Serbs grumble that this was a classic case of a firm being privatized by being given to friends of HDZ leaders. As Serbs began to return to Drvar, it was hard to find work at Finvest. Now, as Croats have moved out, the company has had to employ locals. Many worry that a huge amount of illegal logging is despoiling the region and undermining chances for a real economic recovery in the future. As memories of the war years recede, local Serbs have begun to venture back to the Croatian coast to take their holidays. Almost everyone, though, has family in both the Republika Srpska and Serbia and there is a lot of movement between the three places. And it is not just that. As is the case elsewhere in Bosnia--and much to the rage of statisticians--many in Drvar are registered as living in several places at once. While locals had to register as returnees to get their property back, many have managed to stay registered as refugees in Republika Srpska and Serbia as well, to keep social benefits or to qualify in the future for a passport issued by Serbia and Montenegro. Drvar, of course, was a famous Partisan stronghold during the Second World War and you can still see the cave where the wartime leader, Josip Broz Tito, lived during his time here. This year locals hope to celebrate the 60th anniversary of a famous battle and in this way gain publicity for their town. Perhaps it is some of that Partisan spirit that has brought people back. There are those who complain, though, that a lot of that spirit has gone. One young woman, a member of the small, activist Drvar Youth Council, told me: "It is all about jobs. Here, everyone wants to work, but there are no jobs. So, everyone, even with money, feels trapped. It is just so dead." "I would love to stay," continued the woman, who asked not to be named, "and fight for a better tomorrow, but no one else is interested. There is a real lethargy here, especially amongst young people." Almost nine years after the end of the Bosnian and Croatian wars, Vukovar, Kozarac, and Drvar are symbols of something. For optimists it is renewal and the gradual defeat of the ethnic cleansers. For pessimists, it's the opposite. Watch this space. This story has many years left to run. Tim Judah is the author of The Serbs: History, Myth & the Destruction of Yugoslavia and Kosovo: War and Revenge. http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=4&NrArticle=11547 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7307/1/H-ASHDOWN-MONTIRA-POLITICKI-PROCES-JELAVICU.html ÂASHDOWN MONTIRA POLITICKI PROCES JELAVICUSlobodna Dalmacija, Marijan PUNTARIC, 3. veljace 2004. http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/PRAVOSUDNI SKANDAL "SLOBODNA" OBJAVLJUJE DOKUMENTE O PRITISKU VISOKOG PREDSTAVNIKA OUN-a NA SUDOVE U BIHNOVA UHICENJA Jelavic, Prce, Rupcic i Azinovic gonit ce se i zbog "pokusaja uspostave samostalnog hrvatskog entiteta na podrucju Hercegovine 2001". Ta tvrdnja iz obrazlozenja Zahtjeva za odredjivanje pritvora prijeti i svim ostalim politicarima u BiH koji su sudjelovali u proglasavanju Hrvatske samoupraveProslog je tjedna iz Kazneno-popravnog zavoda Kula, u Srpskoj Ilidzi, nedaleko od Sarajeva, gdje je vec deset dana pritvoren zajedno s Miroslavom Prcom, bivsim federalnim ministrom obrane, i Miroslavom Rupcicem, bivsim direktorom Hercegovina osiguranja, bivsi predsjednik Bosne i Hercegovine i bivsi predsjednik HDZ-a BiH Ante Jelavic otvoreno porucio da se protiv njega poveo montirani politicki proces. Jelavic je upozorio javnost da njegovo "zarobljavanje, spektakularno otimanje i pritvaranje od SFOR-a i medjunarodne zajednice ima iskljucivo politicku pozadinu. Smijesno je da se akcija SFOR-a organizira protiv gradjanina koji je, pred nenadleznim Sudom BiH, po clanku 358. Kaznenog zakona Federacije BiH, osumnjicen za zloporabu polozaja i ovlasti i nesavjesno poslovanje.Sa svim dokumentima i pritiscima koji su od OHR-a ucinjeni na Ustavni sud BiH u slucaju Jelavic, a koji izravno svjedoce o politickom karakteru vec pripremljene optuznice i, navodno, odredjenog datuma sudjenja Jelavicu, Prci, Rupcicu i Azinovicu, upoznat je drzavni vrh Republike Hrvatske. Proteklih dana upucena je i sluzbena nota Sarajevu kojom je pokazana briga i interes RH za osiguranjem pune zakonitosti u kaznenom postupku koji se pred Sudom BiH vodi hrvatskim drzavljanima i trazi odgovor nadleznih BiH organa. Politicki tuziteljAkcija SFOR-a i, navodni, gospodarski kriminal, za koji me tereti Posebno odjeljenje Tuziteljstva BiH za organizirani kriminal, nikako ne idu zajedno. Nisam ja odgovoran ni za zlocine u Srebrenici, a nisam valjda ni Karadzic, Hussein ili Bin Laden", ustvrdio je Jelavic. Je li Jelavic bio u pravu kada je ustvrdio: "Ovaj proces koji od pocetka vode stranci pretvorio se u politicki proces, u kojem ce nas se optuziti za ugrozavanje teritorijalne cjelovitosti BiH i suditi nam za politicko djelovanje na uspostavi hrvatske samouprave, a Hercegovacku banku proglasiti sredisnjom financijskom institucijom u funkciji nekakve separatisticke politike HDZ-a BiH i rusenja ustavnog uredjenja BiH. To je razlog mojega zarobljavanja." Na zalost, dokumenti koji su u posjedu redakcije "Slobodne Dalmacije" ukazuju da je Ante Jelavic imao pravo.U opseznom i proteklih dana dobro cuvanom obrazlozenju Zahtjeva za odredjivanje pritvora, koji je zamjenik glavnog tuzitelja BiH, sef Posebnog odjeljenja za organizirani i privredni kriminal Amerikanac John H. McNair uputio sucu Amerikancu Bernardu Bolandu, jasno pise: "Hercegovacka banka je bila osnovni element nastojanja da se financira uspostava samostalnog hrvatskog entiteta u Hercegovini pocetkom 2001. godine. Dana 3. marta 2001. clanovi hrvatske nacionalisticke stranke, HDZ, na celu sa Jelavicem, proglasili su privremenu hrvatsku samoupravu, pokazavsi svoju namjeru da se odvoje, ukoliko druge dvije zajednice u BiH ne ispune odredjene uslove. HDZ je marta 2001. godine pozvala HVO da se povuce kao hrvatska komponenta Vojske FBiH. Narednog dana oko 7000 hrvatskih oficira i vojnika napustili su svoje kasarne. Isplate takvim HVO jedinicama koje su ucestvovale u ovom demonstrativnom napustanju, od toga trenutka su vrsene sa racuna Hercegovacke banke, koje je posjedovalo nekoliko kantona i subsidijarnih pravnih lica Hercegovacke banke, Hercegovina osiguranje, Eronet i Croherc AG Mostar. Do 6. aprila 2001. banka je postala sredisnji mehanizam putem kojeg su osumnjiceni i njihovi pomagaci imali namjeru da financiraju odvajanje."Iako se proteklih dana u javnosti kao razlozima uhicenja kalkuliralo prije svega osnivanjem i mogucim nezakonitostima u poslovanju Hercegovacke banke, te preusmjeravanjem novca iz proracuna RH preko HVO za druge potrebe, cini se neupitnim da ce se optuznica protiv Jelavica, Prce, Rupcica i Azinovica bazirati na kaznenom progonu radi "pokusaja uspostave samostalnog hrvatskog entiteta na podrucju Hercegovine iz 2001. godine", kako stoji u Zahtjevu za odredjivanje pritvora.Tuzitelj McNair podsjeca da je jos u studenom 2001. godine Kantonalni sud u Sarajevu donio rjesenje kojim je utvrdjeno da "postoji osnovana sumnja da su cetiri osumnjicenika pocinili krivicno djelo pokusaja otcjepljenja dijela teritorija BiH protuustavnim sredstvima, organiziranjem i odrzavanje Hrvatskog narodnog sabora i Medjuzupanijskog vijeca 3. marta 2001. godine"...., te da su "Jelavic, Prce i drugi pocinili krivicno djelo podrivanja vojne i obrambene moci donosenjem odluka kojima se naredjuje raspustanje hrvatske komponente Vojske FBiH". Tuzitelj McNair, medjutim, istice kako je o Jelavicevoj zalbi na nadleznost Kantonalnog suda u Sarajevu, odlucivao Vrhovni sud FBiH, a potom i Ustavni sud BiH. McNair konstatira da je Ustavni sud BiH udovoljio zahtjevu Jelaviceva odvjetnika da se daljnji postupak protiv Jelavica pred Kantonalnim sudom u Sarajevu prekine, te da se donesenom privremenom mjerom sve do tada poduzete radnje Kantonalnog suda stave izvan pravne snage do konacne odluke. Ali, tuzitelj McNair ne govori istinu kada u Zahtjevu za pritvaranje istice da "u toku naredna 23 mjeseca Ustavni sud nije donio konacnu odluku", te je zbog toga medjunarodni tuzitelj 20. listopada 2003. obavijestio Ustavni sud o namjeri da zatrazi naredbu o prijenosu postupka na Sud BiH.Ustavni sud BiH je bio sprijecen donijeti konacnu odluku i to izravnom intervencijom viskog predstavnika u BiH Wolfganga Petritscha. Da je doista na djelu najava velikog politickog procesa protiv Jelavica, Prce i dugih zbog politickog djelovanja, i da ce se dvije optuznice, ona za gospodarski kriminal u vezi s Hercegovackom bankom, i ona za rusenje ustavnog poretka BiH, stopiti u jednu, i to pred Sudom BiH, potpuno je jasno iz tocke 72. Zahtjeva o pritvaranju. McNair navodi "da se pred Kantonalnim sudom u Sarajevu otvaraju pitanja od najveceg drzavnog znacaja i obuhvacanju krivicna djela protiv teritorijalnog integriteta, politicke nezavisnosti i drzavne bezbjednosti BiH. O optuzbama vezanim za pokret hrvatske samouprave najbolje se moze presuditi na nacin da se ti postupci izmjeste sa Kantonalnog suda u Sarajevu..."Skandalozno pismoOno sto je tuzitelj McNair presutio zanimljiva je prica i dokumentacija koja je u posjedu "Slobodne Dalmacije", a iz koje je razvidno da se tijekom svibnja 2002. godine, izravnim politickim pritiscima iz Ureda visokog predstavnika OUN-a za BiH, utjecalo na Ustavni sud BiH da ne objavi vec donesenu odluku o ukidanju svih radnji koje su protiv Jelavica i drugih, u postupku zbog rusenja ustavnog poretka, donesene pred Kantonalnim sudom u Sarajevu. Ustavni sud nije samo propustio svoje rjesenje uciniti pravomocim vec je popustio pred pritiscima, promijenio odluku i cijeli postupak protiv Jelavica i drugih, vratio na pocetak. Tako je prvo rociste protiv Jelavica, Prce i ostalih u obnovljenom postupku koji, evidentno, ima politicki karakter, sazvano za 29. sijecanj 2004. godine.Medjutim, sest dana prije, osumnjicenici su vec bili u pritvoru pod sumnjom da su pocinili gospodarski kriminal. Na taj je nacin, izravnim mijesanjem OHR-a u neovisnost i samostalnost sudstva, najbolje pokazano da je BiH protektorat medjunarodne zajednice. Tako su upravo duznosnici medjunarodne zajednice pruzili dokaze Jelavicevoj tvrdnji da se radi o montiranom politickom procesu. Naime, Ustavni sud BiH je 25. i 26. veljace 2002. godine donio rjesenje kojim je usvojio apelaciju Ante Jelavica, u kojoj on istice da mu je onemoguceno Ustavom zajamceno pravo na pravicno sudjenje. Ustavni sud BiH dao je za pravo Jelavicu i donio privremenu mjeru kojom se privremeno obustavlja izvrsenje odluka Kantonalnog suda u Sarajevu, temeljem istrage otvorene u studenom 2001. godine. U toj istrazi Jelavica, Prcu i nekolicinu hrvatskih politicara u BiH se teretilo za kaznena djela protiv teritorijalne cjelovitosti BiH i slabljenja vojne i obrambene moci BiH. Pet mjeseci prije, uspostava hrvatske samouprave je bio povod visokom predstavniku OUN-a Wolfgangu Petritschu da smijeni Antu Jelavica s duznosti clana Predsjednistva BiH.Na odluku Ustavnog suda BiH, Petritschev ured reagirao je pismom koje je Ian Campell, zamjenik visokog predstavnika i sef pravnog odjela, 22. ozujka 2002. uputio predsjednici Ustavnog suda BiH prof. dr. Snezani Savic. Campell upozorava Ustavni sud BiH da je rjesenjem koje ide u prilog Jelavicu, napravio "ozbiljan propust ako Sud nije smatrao da je Ured visokog predstavnika zaista trebao biti pozvan da makar dade svoje komentare kao amicus curie u ovom slucaju, a prije nego je Sud donio odluku".Campell u ime OHR-a otvoreno trazi da Ustavni sud promijeni svoju odluku. "Na srecu, zbog cinjenice da odluka nije finalizirana, ocito je da Sud jos uvijek moze ispraviti ovaj vazan nedostatak tako sto ce redigirati ili promijeniti svoju odluku prema clanu 67. ili 68. Poslovnika Ustavnog suda". I kako ne bi bilo nikakve dvojbe sto OHR radi i sto OHR trazi, Campell u svojem skandaloznom pismu kojim se otvara mogucnost novih politickih procesa na ovim prostorima, kojim se ugrozavaju svi principi pravicnog sudjenja u BiH i rusi neovisnost i samostalnost BiH pravosudja, posebno istice:... "ovim pismom vam prenosim zahtjev visokog predstavnika da se ne poduzimaju nikakvi daljnji koraci u pogledu redigiranja ili odobrenja dok se ne mogne ponoviti postupak, kako bi se ponovo obavila rasprava"..., dodajuci kako W. Petritsch ima "stvarno najjaci interes za slucaj koji je u pitanju".Sud je popustioVec 17. svibnja 2002. godine predsjednica Ustavnog suda BiH dr. Snezana Savic odgovara zamjeniku viskog predstavnika da "predmet ocjene pred Sudom nije bila odluka visokog predstavnika za BiH, tj. visoki predstavnik nije bio ucesnik u postupku, Vas komentar od strane Suda nije trazen". Dr. Savic tako je dala do znanja OHR-u da nije sudionik u sporu i da odluke Ustavnog suda ne mogu biti predmet njegove intervencije i pritisaka. Medjutim, politicki pritisak na Ustavni sud BiH bio je suvise jak i neumoljiv. Vec 23. svibnja 2002. godine dr. Savic pise novo pismo zamjeniku visokog predstavnika Ianu Campellu u kojem mu kaze da ce zahtjev visokog predstavnika "proslijediti Sudu na preispitivanje donesene odluke", u smislu clanova Poslovnika Ustavnog suda BiH. Naime, odluku da se Rjesenje Ustavnog suda ne objavi u "Sluzbenim novinama", kako bi postalo pravomocno, vec da se vec donesena odluka preispita, donijelo je vecinom glasova Malo vijece Ustavnog suda BiH, u sastavu dr. Snezana Savic, Azra Omeragic i Mirko Zovko, zamjenici predsjednice. Tako je Ustavni sud BiH priznao da su sudovi u BiH samo instrument u rukama medjunarodnog protektorata. Na Jelavicevu zalbu na takvu odluku nitko nije odgovorio. Pravni ucinak stvari sastoji se u tome da se cijeli proces i istraga protiv Jelavica, Prce i drugih zbog istih kaznenih djela ugrozavanja teritorijalne cjelovitosti i slabljenja vojne i obrambene moci, opet vratila na pocetak, opet pred nenadleznim Kantonalnim sudom u Sarajevu. Prvo rociste u obnovljenom politickom procesu za rusenje ustavnog poretka BiH i uspostavu fantomskog treceg entiteta, sto Hrvatska samouprava rezolutno nije ni bila, Jelavicu, Prci, Batinicu, Tokicu, Milicu i drugima, trebalo je zapoceti 29. sijecnja 2004.Prvo saslusanje pred Kantonalnim sudom omelo je uhicenje i pritvaranje Jelavica i Prce, temeljem odluka Suda BiH, koji o tome nije donio ni sluzbeni nalog. To ujedno znaci da se mogu ocekivati ne samo nova najavljena uhicenja pojedinih generala ili duznosnika u vezi s Hercegovackom bankom, vec da ce se uskoro pred Sudom BiH naci i svi oni politicari koji su s Jelavicem sudjelovali u proglasavanju Hrvatske samouprave, kao pokusaja upozorenja na neodrzivost neravnopravnog pravnog, politickog i drustvenog polozaja hrvatskog naroda u BiH.Oni ce, prema najavama tuzitelja McNaira u Zahtjevu za pritvaranjem, odgovarati za rusenje ustavnog poretka i odcjepljenje hrvatskog entiteta uz uporabu vojne sile. Kako je to bilo moguce u uvjetima kada je HVO bio raspusten, i kada vise nije bilo novca za njegovo odrzavanje, jer iz hrvatskog drzavnog proracuna preko racuna u Hercegovackoj banci vise nisu stizali novci u BiH, ostaje vidjeti.Sedmorica su znala za akciju uhicenjaSa svim dokumentima i pritiscima koji su od OHR-a ucinjeni na Ustavni sud BiH u slucaju Jelavic, a koji izravno svjedoce o politickom karakteru vec pripremljene optuznice i, navodno, odredjenog datuma sudjenja Jelavicu, Prci, Rupcicu i Azinovicu, upoznat je drzavni vrh Republike Hrvatske. Proteklih dana upucena je i sluzbena nota Sarajevu kojom je pokazana briga i interes RH za osiguranjem pune zakonitosti u kaznenom postupku koji se pred Sudom BiH vodi hrvatskim drzavljanima i trazi odgovor nadleznih BiH organa. Zanimljivo je da za SFOR-ovu akciju uhicenja Jelavica, Prce i ostalih za gospodarski kriminal nije znala ni sudbena, ni izvrsna vlast BiH. Cak ni ministri unutrasnjih poslova i sigurnosti. Za akciju uhicenja znali su samo Paddy Ashdown, britanski i americki veleposlanici u Sarajevu, zapovjednik SFOR-a, tuzitelj McNair, sudac Boland i ravnatelj Federalnog MUP-a Zlatko Miletic.--------------------------------------------Note: The Croatian World Congress CWC, functions on all continents and in all countries of the world where there exist Croatian communities. The Croatian World Congress (CWC) is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-party international organization that enjoys advisory status as a NGO member of the United Nations.The Croatian World Congress CWC, although a young institution, unites numerous Croatian associations world-wide as no other Croatian body has succeeded nor attempted to achieve to date (4.5 million Croats and people of Croatian heritage live outside of the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). Croatian World Congress H.S.K. NGO Member of the United Nationshttp://www.crowc.org/ letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 04 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7305/1/E-Israeli-Ambassador---No-Anti-Semitism-in-Croatia.html ÂÂ"I like the combination of old and new"The following translation of an interview with Israel's ambassador toCroatia appeared in the Januart 28, 2004 edition of Vjesnik. JohnKraljicI HOPE SANADER VISITS ISRAELZagreb, January 27. The Israeli Ambassador to Croatia who has her seatin Vienna, Yael Rubenstein, rates relations between Israel and Croatiaas more than good, emphasizing that she expects continued cooperationwith the new government. In a discussion with Vjesnik, AmbassadorRubenstein emphasized that Jews in Croatia feel completely equal withother Croatian citizens and that the possibility of cooperation betweenthe two nations are promising. The Israeli ambassador notes withpleasure that there is no anti-Semitism in Croatia.Vjesnik. - Among the 19,000 Righteous Gentiles, 98 are from Croatia.How do you see the contributions and courage of Croatian citizens insaving Jews during World War II?Rubenstein. - Those 98 Croats together with other Righteous Gentiles inthe world were extremely brave and for me are the most worthy persons.Working in such a manner during the dark period of our history duringWorld War II and being so brave so as to do what you believe, in spiteof the atmosphere which then prevailed in central European countries andin Germany and Austria, acting in keeping with one's conscience, issomething with which we should all admire. We should take this as alesson for the future, because I believe that such racism and hatredtoward one who is different or toward a foreigner should not have aplace anywhere in the world.Vjesnik. - Do Jews feel the effects of the Holocaust today, in Croatiaand elsewhere?Rubenstein. - My impression, after meetings with the Jewish community inCroatia and with other Israelis who now work in Croatia, is more thangood, they feel terrific in Croatia, they have excellent relations andcooperation with ministries and institutions. They feel completelysecure, fully equal and they have no problems, they feel very satisfied.Of course, all have some memories concerning what occurred fifty yearsago. I visited the Jewish community in Zagreb and I was impressed withtheir activities. I think that they feel completely equal as do otherpeople in Croatia who are not Jews.Vjesnik. - We are witnesses to occasional anti-Semitism in manycountries. What can we do to stop it?Rubenstein. - I am very satisfied that I can say that Croatia is not oneof those countries in Europe in which we are confronted withanti-Semitism. In some other Western European countries, which I willnot now mention, some of them are in the European Union, we areconfronted with strong anti-Semitism, burning of synagogues or attackson rabbis on the street. Personally, I see this as a deficit in seriouseducation. The fact that someone can come to a Jew, Christian or Muslimand attack him only because he is something that he is not is somethingthat I cannot understand. I think that European countries, as allcountries in the world, must concentrate on educating people tounderstand that in civilized society it is completely normal that noteveryone be totally the same. It is fine to believe in a differentfaith, a different track, to be a member of another party. Tolerance isone of the key questions of this and the following decades.Vjesnik. - How do you see present day relations between Croatia andIsrael?Rubenstein. - I see much potential if we think about economic andpolitical relations. I see Croatia as a very friendly country towardIsrael. In the past two years we have had two presidential visits,first your president came to Israel and then our president came toCroatia. Now you have a new government and we hope that some of yourministers will visit Israel, including the Premier. In Croatia we feelas if we are at home, not only me as an Ambassador, but it is also afeeling I get from other Israelis who work or live here.Vjesnik. - What is the potential for economic prospects between Israeland Croatia to further advance?Rubenstein. - I attempt to direct all of your visits [to Israel]especially toward the development of economic relations. I see greatpotential in many areas, such as in agriculture. We in Israel developeda unique system of irrigation, and I know there are problems inSlavonia. I think that cooperation can also be achieved in health care.We can share with you the latest findings in the treatment of cancer ordialysis, we always want to share these findings with friendly nations,among which are Croatia. We can also have certain common views withrespect to the EU and NATO.Vjesnik. - How can Israel assist Croatia in approaching Euro-Atlanticintegration?Rubenstein. - We are not part of the European Union, but we have aspecial agreement with the Union. For certain reasons we currently donot wish to be a part of the EU and we are not concerned with thoseproblems, but we are close to the Union. Since Croatia is one of thosecountries which will enter into the Union in the second round, it is inour interest that we closely work with current and future members of theEU.Vjensik. - What are your impressions of Croatia?Rubenstein. - I like Zagreb very much. I have been to Split, Dubrovnikand Hvar and some other islands. It is such a beautiful country. Wealso have a beautiful coastline but you have all those islands and whenyou drive from Dubrovnik to the north it is magical. In Zagreb I likethe combination of old and new which we have in Jerusalem. Thatcombination is always impressive and unique.Jurica Korbler letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 04 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7306/1/E-STEREOTYPES-CAN-LET-YOU-DOWN.html ÂSTEREOTYPES CAN LET YOU DOWNVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1000 - 30.01.04Recently, it transpired that the HDZ victory inCroatia had a helping hand from spin doctors fromIreland's governing party Fianna Fail. This led to anangry response from Sinn Fein, the political wing ofthe Irish Republican Army terrorist group who accusedFianna Fail of helping a party guilty of war crimes.This may puzzle some in Croatia who may be under themisapprehension that the IRA are somehow sympatheticto the Croatian cause because of a perceivedstereotype of Catholic IRA fighting oppressivepro-Serb Britain. In reality, Sinn Fein wassympathetic to the former Serb dominated Yugoslavia.This demonstrates that many Croats must adopt moresophisticated thinking to establish who their friendsand foes are. The UK Sunday Times of 21 December ran a story statingthat Croatia's HDZ hired a Irish consultancy groupheaded by PJ Mara, a former director of elections forFianna Fail to help HDZ reform itself and win theelections. Mara hired other Fianna Fail figures suchas former general secretary Martin Mackin and JackieGallagher - former adviser to Irish Prime MinisterBertie Ahern. The HDZ campaign featured images ofBertie Ahern. The article was distinctly unsympatheticto Croatia, making unsubstantiated claims that HDZ had"forcibly expelled" Serbs from Croatia. Aengus O'Snodaigh, a Sinn Fein MP, attacked IrishPrime Minister Ahern. "Ahern has to ask himselfwhether it is right that his image as an incoming EUpresident was used by a foreign party that hasharboured war criminals, just because his buddies arehelping them out," O'Snodaigh said. This is a bit much coming from Sinn Fein. The IRA areexperts in atrocity; they murdered and torturedcivilians, police, soldiers, protestants and catholicsover the years. At least some in Fianna Fail clearlyhave a greater understanding of Croatia. It is worth pausing to remember that when people inthe EU - especially the UK - attack "HDZ" and "FranjoTudjman" they are actually using code to attackCroatia itself. This makes them look "fair" ratherthan simply anti-Croat which in reality is usually thecase. After all, if these people were really concernedabout matters such as human rights in Croatia theywould be demanding the arrest of all those involved inthe slaughter of up to 20,000 Croats during the war.Instead, all they speak of is Serb rights.Unfortunately, the former government of Ivica Racannever understood this and appeared to seriouslybelieve such criticism really was about the HDZ. Thiswas never the case as shown by Britain's hostileattitude towards Racan's efforts to get Croatia intothe EU. This code can equally be applied to Sinn Fein. SinnFein has an extreme left wing background and indeeddraws sympathy from left wing characters in the UK whoalso sympathised with the Serbs during the war, suchas former MP Tony Benn. This may seem rather confusing but other pro-Serbsympathisers in the UK have often tried to link theIRA with Croats. The commentator Richard West did soin his biography of Tito. The Yugoslav state alsoappeared to play on this by ostensibly backing the UKin Northern Ireland. Yugoslavia always went to greatpains to equate Croats with terrorism. That said, Croats have not been helped by recentallegations of Croat arms smuggling to the Real IRAterrorist splinter group. Fortunately, this has beeneffectively counter-balanced by Croat officialscracking down on such activities - which were probablydue more to organised crime than terrorist sympathies.Pre-World War 2, Sinn Fein and the Ustasha were alsocompared by commentators. But it may come as a great surprise to some Croats -and perhaps to some Serbs and their friends - thatSinn Fein was sympathetic to the Yugoslav state andfound it to be a source of inspiration. Articles inIrish magazine The Blanket - which covers IrishRepublican affairs - quote Sinn Fein's Republican Newson the party's policies in the 1970's, when IRAterrorism was at it's height. They based economicpolicies on Yugoslavia, amongst other states, and evenconsidered it a model for a united Ireland.Furthermore, Tito's death elicited a fulsome tributefrom the then Sinn Fein President. Clearly the rights of Croats in Serb dominatedYugoslavia was not something Sinn Fein cared about,and from O'Snodaigh's remarks they remain none toosympathetic today. Given Sinn Fein's background in theinternational left - never a friend of Croatia - noneof this should be too surprising. It's also worth pointing out that Margaret Thatcher,who championed Croatia's cause on the world stage wasan implacable foe of the IRA. The IRA narrowly failedto assassinate her in the Brighton bomb in 1984.Suppose they had succeeded? Croatia would not havebenefited from her powerful voice. The point here is that Croats need to understand thatthings are not always what they seem. Just becausesomething is identified as Catholic does not mean it'spro-Croat. Catholic France is notoriously pro-Serb andhas little time for Croatia. Another example is inNorthern Ireland. As author Brendan Simms has pointedout, Nationalist (Catholic) politicians such as JohnHume kept silent on the wars in Croatia andBosnia-Herzegovina. By contrast, Unionist (Protestant)David Trimble criticized Milosevic. Croats need to assess matters as how they are, ratherthan on stereotypes that may not be grounded inreality. Many people do view things on nationalist orreligious grounds; but some do on the basis ofideology, and Croats should understand this whenseeking support in the world. Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 03 Feb 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7308/1/E-Chilean-president-Ricardo-Lagos-in-Zagreb.html ÂChile- CroatiaChilean president Ricardo Lagos (L) and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic (R) review an honor guard during their official meeting in Zagreb, January 29, 2004. Lagos is on a three-day visit to Croatia where will have meetings with Croatian top officials in Zagreb and Adriatic port of Split. REUTERS/Nikola Solic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 29 Jan 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7310/1/E-KEEPING-THE-LIGHTS-ON-IN-BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA.html ÂKEEPING THE LIGHTS ON IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAby Brian GallagherThe last few weeks have seen events inBosnia-Herzegovina that could have destabilized theentire country and cost it much needed internationalinvestment. The international media failed to reporton it. These events concerned the Croat run Aluminijfactory in BiH. It is the most successful firm there,producing 25% of its exports and is a major source ofemployment. The Bosniak (muslim) run electricity firm- Elektroprivreda BiH - threatened to cut offelectricity to the factory, which would have resultedin its closing down. High Representative Paddy Ashdownhad to step in to prevent this. The whole affairdemonstrates yet again that BiH needs to provideproper safeguards for its three national groups. Aluminij is situated near the southern town of Mostar.It was severely damaged by attacking Serbian forcesduring the war. After the war, the Croats got the firmback on its feet and made it a success - in starkcontrast to enterprises around the rest of thecountry. It currently employs hundreds of people fromthe local region, pays them BiH's highest wages, keepsthousands more employed indirectly and has securedinward investment from Germany, Switzerland andCroatia. An incredible feat in a war torn,impoverished country. When Aluminij became successful it attracted unwantedinterest from the Bosniak run Federation government -on which territory Aluminij is situated. It wasclaimed that the company was stolen from BiH in amafia scam and that non-Croat workers had lost theirjobs - needless to say when Aluminij was re-startingno one was interested in the firm. Unprofitable firms and those run into the ground havenot been given this kind of treatment. It was fairlyclear what was going on; forces in Sarajevo want todestroy or take over the firm, which would devastatethe economy of largely Croat occupied WestHerzegovina. This is effectively a political andeconomic war against the Croats. The latest action against the firm has been to damageit via threatening its electricity. Electricity isprovided to the firm by Debis International - asubsidiary of Daimler Chrysler - based in Germany. Inturn, it purchases electricity from ElektroprivredaBiH, which is wholly owned by the Bosniak government.The contract with Debis International ran to the endof 2004. Elektroprivreda BiH unilaterally broke offthe contract with Debis International in 2003,claiming it could get more money on the open market.Aluminij's electricity supply - and how much it wouldhave to pay - became uncertain. Unable to properlyfunction in such conditions, the firm prepared toclose down its operations on 31 December 2003. The effect on the Mostar/West Herzegovina economywould have devastating. It would cause large scaleunemployment amongst Croats and many would have toleave BiH to find work - an outcome no doubt desiredby some in Sarajevo. It would be a massive blow toCroat/Bosniak relations - already poor - withunpredictable results. It would have had an appallingeffect on investors into BiH.Aluminij has major international partners such asDaimler Chrysler and Glencore International. Croatianfirm TLM Sibenik owns 12% of Aluminij and the Croatianport of Ploce depends on business from Aluminij. IfAluminij had closed down because of the politicalbehavior of Sarajevo, no major investor in theirright mind would invest in BiH. The whole of thisstruggling country would suffer for the desire of someBosniak politicians to economically attack the Croats.At the very last moment, a rightly annoyed HighRepresentative Paddy Ashdown directly intervened,issuing a 'Decision' that effectively meant thatelectricity would continue to be supplied to the firmon 1 January 2004. Ashdown is no fool; he understoodwhat was at stake. He has prudently made economicinvestment into BiH a priority. The closure ofAluminij would have destroyed his efforts. No doubtAluminij's economic partners were pressing behind thescenes. Indeed, the German government protested toSarajevo over the breaking of the Debis Internationalcontract. Despite the importance of this affair, theinternational media and 'expert' groups ignored it.The International Crisis Group's 'Crisiswatch'newsletter somehow failed to spot this crisis in itsBiH section. Ashdown should be congratulated for his move. He'sdone the Croats in particular and the country as awhole a big favour. However, the whole incident showsthat political structures in BiH need to be changed. Some form of devolutionary change and institutionalprotections are needed to ensure one national groupcannot use economic or political means to attackanother group in this manner.There is some recognition that change is needed. EUparliamentarians recently signed a declaration tochange the Dayton agreement BiH is currently based on.The German think tank European Stability Initiativejust recently released a constructive report.Essentially, it calls for the cantonisation of BiHbased on current boundaries - but dispensing with theentities of Republika Srpska and the Federation. Whatever change does occur, it's important that therelative wealth of the Croats is not exploited undercover of 'redistributing' to 'poorer areas' - readBosniaks and Serbs. That would be grossly unfair,create tensions and would encourage - not unreasonably- secession by the Croats. In the meantime however, Paddy Ashdown should continuehis good work in seeing that Aluminij is fullyprotected, and continues to make its majorcontribution to BiH. Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7309/1/E-Zuzul-and-Seks-meet-Powell.html Šeks, Powell, Žužulphoto by Alan VojvodicCroatia courts NATO, European UnionBy David R. SandsTHE WASHINGTON TIMESThere could be a strong backlash against the West across the Balkans if Croatia's bids to join the European Union and NATO are rejected, the country's foreign minister warned in an interview. Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul said other states of the former Yugoslav federation are watching closely as Croatia's newly installed center-right government makes its pitch to join the two organizations. Once considered a long shot for both the European Union and NATO, Croats argue that the country's difficult economic reforms and efforts to move past the bloody ethnic feuds of the 1990s have made it a strong candidate. "I fear [rejection] would be very dangerous not just for Croatia but for the entire region," Mr. Zuzul said Tuesday during a Washington visit. "It would be exactly the way to destroy the vision of a way forward for countries such as Serbia and Bosnia," he said. "A signal that we are welcome in the EU, on the other hand, I think would be very crucial to the stability of the entire region." Croatia has been lobbying hard in recent months to obtain official status as a candidate country at an EU summit in June, leading perhaps to full membership in three years. The primary stumbling blocks have been Zagreb's economic reforms, its treatment of Serbs and other ethnic minorities and its cooperation with The Hague tribunal investigating war crimes in the fighting after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The activist group Human Rights Watch earlier this month said Croatia still must take concrete steps to allow Serbian refugees to return home and bring to justice suspected war criminals such as fugitive former Croat Gen. Ante Gotovina. Britain and the Netherlands have put an effective hold on Croatia's EU hopes, demanding to see more cooperation with The Hague panel. The ruling party of new Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has its roots in the authoritarian political machine built up by the late Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tudjman. But the new government has embraced a wide-ranging, pro-market economic policy and says it wants to cooperate with The Hague investigators seeking suspects believed still at large in the country. Mr. Zuzul said the new government, which took power a month ago, is attempting to depoliticize the war-crimes issue, leaving it to justice and law enforcement officials in the new administration to coordinate policy with The Hague. A party headed by ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj took a plurality of the seats in Serbian parliamentary elections earlier this month. Mr. Zuzul expressed confidence that the party would not be invited to join a coalition government in Belgrade, but said the result was worrying nonetheless. "You have to have concerns when you have a major party in a neighboring country claiming half of your territory," he said. The Croatian diplomat said domestic support for the European Union and NATO is the highest in the region, with 80 percent backing the country's EU bid and more than 60 percent supporting NATO. He said Croatia is small but would be a reliable ally for Washington in a troubled region, and could help bridge recent trans-Atlantic tensions that crystallized during the Iraq war. "We want to join Europe, but we are also very comfortable with the United States. We have never accepted the idea that you have to choose between the two," Mr. Zuzul said. Šeks i Žužul s Powellom o suradnji i ulaskuHrvatske u NATOPredsjednik Hrvatskog sabora Vladimir Šeks i ministar vanjskih poslova Miomir Žužul razgovarali su u srijedu u Washingtonu s americkim državnim tajnikom Colinom Powellom o suradnji Hrvatske i Sjedinjenih Država i o americkoj potpori Hrvatskoj za ulazak u NATO.Šeks i Žužul su se u srijedu u State Departmentu susreli s Powellom na završetku petodnevnog službenog posjeta SAD-u na poziv americkog Kongresa tijekom kojega su nastojali dobiti potporu Sjedinjenih Država za brzi ulazak Hrvatske u NATO.Šeks je nakon susreta rekao novinarima kako Powell pruža potporu ulasku Hrvatske u NATO "jer je njegova i naša ocjena da je ulazak Hrvatske u NATO najbolji jamac za participaciju Hrvatske u globalnoj protuteroristickoj koaliciji".Predsjednik Sabora je rekao da je s Powellom bilo rijeci i o tome da je "Hrvatska spremna povecati svoj kontigent u Afganistanu". Hrvatska sada u Afganistanu ima vod vojne policije koji sudjeluje u protuteroristickoj koaliciji."Zakljucili smo da imamo jednaka stajališta o skoro svim važnim pitanjima", rekao je Žužul.On je rekao da je hrvatsko izaslanstvo izrazilo predanost partnerstvu sa Sjedinjenim Državama te da Hrvatska razumije važnost borbe protiv terorizma i cijeni i priznaje vodecu ulogu Sjedinjenih Država na tom podrucju. Šeks je rekao kako je s Powellom bilo rijeci i o americkom zahtjevu da Hrvatska potpiše sporazum o neizrucivanju Amerikanaca Medunarodnom kaznenom sudu (ICC) te da je Powell sugerirao da Hrvatska što prije ratificira memorandum izmedu SAD-a i Hrvatske o intelektualnom vlasništvu.Hrvatski premijer Ivo Sanader uskoro bi trebao posjetiti SAD i tada bi se vodili konkretni razgovori o hrvatsko-americkim odnosima medu ostalim i o otvorenim pitanjima poput sporazuma o neizrucivanju Amerikanaca ICC-u. Šeks i Žužul su se tijekom posjeta SAD-u susreli s nizom kongresnika i senatora nastojeci dobiti njihovu potporu za brzi ulazak Hrvatske u NATO. U tom cilju nastojali su potaknuti izglasavanje rezolucija u Zastupnickom domu i Senatu americkog Kongresa o potpori ulasku Hrvatske u NATO. Utjecajni kongresnik Henry Hyde, predsjednik Odbora za medunarodne odnose Zastupnickog doma Kongresa, obecao je u srijedu da ce biti pokrovitelj takve rezolucije u Zastupnickom domu. Hyde ce uskoro na celu kongresnog izaslanstva doci u Hrvatsku da bi ocijenio kako se Hrvatska priprema za NATO."Bez pretjerivanja ovo je bio sjajan posjet, i sjajni su i njegovi ucinci", ocijenio je Šeks posjet SAD-u.On je kazao kako je hrvatsko izaslanstvo dobilo "sjajnu potporu za povezivanje Hrvatske i SAD-a posebno kroz odnose izmedu Kongresa i Hrvatskog sabora". (HINA)Washington: Kongresnik Hyde ce sponzorirati rezoluciju potpore Hrvatskoj za NATOPredsjednik Hrvatskog sabora Vladimir Šeks i ministar vanjskih poslova Miomir Žužul sastali su se u srijedu u Washingtonu s americkim kongresnikom Henryjem Hydeom koji je obecao pokrenuti inicijativu za izglasavanje rezolucije Zastupnickog doma americkog Kongresa o potpori Hrvatskoj za ulazak u NATO. Šeks i Žužul su Hydeu iznijeli želju Hrvatske da Sjedinjene Države podrže što brži ulazak Hrvatske u NATO. "Hyde je obecao da ce biti jedan od vodecih sponzora kongresne rezolucije kojom Kongres preporuca ulazak Hrvatske u NATO", rekao je Šeks novinarima nakon razgovora.Na Šeksov poziv Hyde ce na celu kongresnog izaslanstva uskoro posjetiti Hrvatsku da bi vidio kako se naša zemlja priprema za ulazak u Sjevernoatlantski savez.Žužul je kazao novinarima kako hrvatsko izaslanstvo "ima sve razloge biti zadovoljno"."Mi racunamo na podršku i partnerstvo sa SAD-om", rekao je on.Potpora kongresnika Hydea je Hrvatskoj važna, jer se radi o utjecajnom clanu Zastupnickog doma americkog Kongresa i predsjedniku Odbora za medunarodne odnose Zastupnickog doma.Šeks i Žužul su razgovarali i s podtajnikom za kontrolu naoružanja i medunarodnu sigurnost u State Departmentu Johnom Boltonom. Bilo je govora o hrvatskoj želji da što brže postane clanica NATO-a, a hrvatsko izaslanstvo je izrazilo hrvatska stajališta o buducim odnosima sa SAD-om."Nije bilo nikakvih disonantnih tonova", rekao je Žužul o tom razgovoru.Šeks je kazao da je Bolton izrazio želju SAD-a da Hrvatska potpiše sporazum o neizrucivanju Amerikanaca Medunarodnom kaznenom sudu (ICC).On je rekao da je Bolton izrazio razumijevanje za hrvatsku poziciju u kojoj s jedne strane trpi pritisak zemalja EU-a, da ne potpiše sporazum, a s druge strane želi partnerstvo SAD-a i za ulazak u NATO treba potporu SAD-a, koji traži da Hrvatska potpiše taj sporazum.Šeks je rekao da ce se razgovori o sporazumu nastaviti s premijerom Ivom Sanaderom, ciji je posjet Sjedinjenim Državama najavio u vrlo skoro vrijeme."Mi smo pokazali, kao što je i predsjednik Vlade pokazao dok još nije bio predsjednik Vlade, puno razumijevanje za to stajalište vlade SAD-a, ali smo iznijeli da ce to biti raspravljeno u bilateralnim razgovormia, nadam se na najvišoj razini", rekao je Šeks.Šeks i Žužul sastat ce se u poslijepodnevnim satima u State Departmentu s americkim državnim tajnikom Colinom Powellom. (HINA) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 21 Jan 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7311/1/E-KUCINICH-WINS-TRUTHOUTorg-POLL.html ÂKUCINICH WINS TRUTHOUT.org POLLÂWhile it's not a scientific poll of voters, it is heartening to know that 23,804 visitors to an important progressive website,www.truthout.org , have voted44.5 percent for Dennis Kucinich, 32.4 percent for Howard Dean, 14.6 percent for Wesley Clark, 3.6 percent for John Kerry, 2.4 percent for John Edwards, 0.9 percent for Al Sharpton, 0.6 percent for Carol Mosley Braun, and 0.3 percent for Joe Lieberman.IOWA IS UP IN THE AIRThe prognosticating political pundits are hedging their bets on Iowa - some even going so far as to admit that they have no idea what results will come out of the caucuses. And rightly so. It all depends on turnout and on the passion of those who turn out. Every person you persuade to take the time to caucus for Dennis can make a significant difference in Iowa, and therefore in the 49 states that come after Iowa.If you want this country to have a real alternative to George W. Bush, now is the time to act. Every phone call you make to Iowa this weekend is worth hours and hours of work down the road.Come to Iowa! http://kucinich.us/doortodoor2004.php Make phone calls to Iowans! http://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/Contact/ContactUs.asp?ievent=43750Read updates from Iowa! http://us.denniskucinich.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2430DENNIS TO ADDRESS CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONVENTIONDennis will address the California Democratic Convention tonight, January 16 at 6:30 p.m. PT. At the event, a number of voters who are re-registering Democratic in order to support Dennis will make their intentions public. The convention is being held at the San Jose Convention Center, at San Carlos and Market Streets in San Jose, Calif.DENNIS TO RECEIVE NAVAJO ENDORSEMENTTomorrow, January 17 at 9 a.m MT, Dennis Kucinich will receive the endorsement of the Dine Bidziil Navajo Strength Coalition, a broad coalition of 24 grassroots organizations. Dennis will address 1,000 members of the annual Dine Bidziil convention on Saturday morning and be ceremonially honored. Also speaking will be Winona LaDuke. The convention will be held at the Farmington Civic Center in Farmington, NM.BALTIMORE SUN COLUMN ON DENNIShttp://www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.witcover16jan16,0,2260751.column?coll=bal-oped-headlinesCORRECTING MICHAEL MOOREMichael Moore has sent out a misleading Email that has many people asking if Dennis voted for the war on Iraq. He did not. He led the effort that organized 126 Democrats in the House of Representatives to go against their own party leader and vote against the war. And Dennis voted against the war. What Moore has in mind is a later, symbolic vote taken during the war on support for the President and the troops. Dennis supported the troops but not the President, so he voted "Present." That this was the closest thing Moore could find to a reason not to support Dennis says a lot.USE THE POWER OF THE MEDIAKeep an eye on the media!MONEY MAKES A DIFFERENCEFunding is needed for mobilization efforts in Iowa, New Hampshire, and beyond. Now is when it's needed.If you received this Email from a friend and would like to receive them directly, click here: http://kucinich.us/alerts-signup.htm Contact us:Kucinich for President11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)http://www.kucinich.us letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 16 Jan 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7312/1/E-US-Israel-send-greetings-to-new-Croatias-PM.html ÂPrime Minister dr. Ivo SanaderUS, Israel send greetings to new Croatia's PM, urge closer ties Wed Dec 31, 2003 ZAGREB (AFP) - US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged Croatia to support the fight against terrorism and boost ties in 2004 in their greetings messages to the country's new prime minister, the government said. Bush's message to Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said the US knew it could "count on the support of the Croatian people and the Croatian government... in the fight against international terrorism." It added that Croatia had "shown once again its firm commitment to democratic values". Sanader heads the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which won the legislative election in November, defeating a centre-left alliance. The HDZ says it has turned the page on its nationalist past and is serious about bringing Croatia into the European Union (news - web sites) in 2007. Israel's Sharon voiced hope for a "further improvement of the cooperation and friendship between Croatia and Israel". Relations between the two countries were frosty during the 1990s rule of the Croatia's late autocratic president, HDZ founder Franjo Tudjman, who Israel accused of failing to issue a strong enough denunciation of Croatia's pro-Nazi World War II regime. Editor's note:In reading most of the texts around the globe, there is very little information on Croatian antifascist movement duringWorld War II that actually led onto defeat of axes. Croatians formed 11 divisions and defeated fascism in former Yugoslavia. Period. This fact must be told. When shall we start to read about that? Also the fact that the late Croatian President Dr. Franjo Tudjman (1922-1999) was a resistance fighter who fought fascism in the World War II. We must inform the world that during the WWII Croatians were overwhelmingly (98%) anti-fascist. Fact is that the anti-fascist movement in the former Yugoslavia started in Croatia says it all and is nowhere to find due to a 50 years of stolen history and distortion. It seems to me that our generation MUST do the work and tell the truth, which needs systematic approach and not just random expression of dissatisfaction, like this, after 50 years of systematic distortion.Nenad BachCROWN, Editor in Chief letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 01 Jan 2004 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7315/1/H-Nova-vlast-ima-buducnost.html ÂNova izvršna vlast ima buducnostRazvoj dogadanja na hrvatskoj politickoj sceni pokazuje kako bi se na celu Hrvatske, prvi put od proglašenja neovisnosti, mogla naci manjinska vlada. Zbog toga se putem raznih domacih i inozemnih medija pokušava stvoriti ozracje kako ce buduci hrvatski premijer Ivo Sanader od prvoga saziva novoga Hrvatskoga sabora do sljedecih parlamentarnih izbora voditi hrvatsku vladu u napetoj situaciji održavanja parlamentarne podrške. Doista, celnika HDZ-a sljedecih cetiri godine ceka težak posao: vodit ce zemlju i predlagati Vladine zakone u Saboru u kojemu nema apsolutnu podršku pa ce zbog toga glasove podrške možda morati kupovati raznim ustupcima. Medutim, vecina strucnjaka smatra kako bi se ovaj, do sada u hrvatskoj praksi nepoznat oblik izvršne vlasti, vrlo brzo mogao pokazati kao dobra opcija."Manjinska vlada je zapravo izraz za stranku koja ima relativnu, a ne apsolutnu vecinu u Hrvatskome saboru. HDZ je prije tri godine, dakle nakon prošlih parlamentarnih izbora, u Saboru imao relativnu vecinu, ali je zbog toga što nije išao u predizborna koaliranja izgubio zgoditak - vlast", objasnio je prof. dr. Tomislav Sunic, politolog i sveucilišni profesor."Manjinska vlada je ona u kojoj stranke koje sastavljaju Vladu nemaju vecinu u parlamentu. Medutim, to ne mora biti pravilo jer se vrlo cesto dogadaju izuzetci, kao što je bilo nakon prošlih izbora kada je PGS bio clan vladajuce koalicije, ali nije imao nijednoga predstavnika u izvršnoj vlasti. Može se reci da je manjinska vlada ona koja na temelju koalicijskoga ugovora nema vecinu zastupnika u Saboru nego vecinu osigurava nekim drugim metodama", smatra dr. Nenad Zakošek, profesor na zagrebackome Fakultetu politickih znanosti. Prof. Zakošek tvrdi kako je iznimno bitno da se nakon izbora za zastupnike u Saboru potpišu tzv. koalicijski ugovori kojima se definiraju odnosi izmedu stranaka i nacin sastavljanja Vlade. "U zemljama zapadne demokracije taj posao je nezamisliv bez tih koalicijskih ugovora, koji su uvijek vrlo konkretni te sastavljeni na stotinu do dvije stotine stranica. Na žalost, takav koalicijski ugovor izmedu dvije vodece stranke u pobjednickoj koaliciji, SDP-a i HSLS-a, prije tri godine imao je sadržaj od samo tri stranice, u kojemu su celnici tih dviju stranaka definirali raspored mjesta u Vladi i Saboru. "Istina, taj je ugovor sadržavao kratak dodatak u kojemu je bilo objašnjeno kako ce program buduce vlade biti dio ovoga koalicijskoga ugovora", mišljenja je Zakošek.Zastupnik talijanske nacionalne zajednice u Hrvatskoj, gospodin Furio Radin, u prošlome je broju Fokusa izjavio kako ga "raduje" buduca manjinska vlada u Hrvatskoj, koja se vec nekoliko godina u "zemlji njegova kulturnoga podrijekla", Italiji, pokazala vrlo efikasnom. Strucnjaci se takoder slažu kako su manjinske vlade postale raširena praksa u velikome broju država s parlamentarnom demokracijom. "Nakon što se tijekom proljeca ove godine u Poljskoj dogodio raspad velike koalicije, poljski premijer Leszek Miller je od socijalista i socijaldemokrata osnovao manjinsku vladu koja je nastavila dobro funkcionirati i Poljsku uspješno voditi u Europsku uniju", kazao je prof. Tomislav Sunic te objasnio kako su i daleki Novi Zeland i obližnju Austriju vodile manjinske vlade. Konzervativni njemacki kancelar Wolfgang Schüssel 2000. godine osnovao je koalicijsku manjinsku vladu s "desnicarem" Haiderom. Austrijska se vlada nakon toga našla pod teškim sankcijama Europske unije i medunarodne zajednice. Raskoli i odredeni problemi s Jörgom Haiderom rezultirali su ove godine izborima na kojima je Schüssel dobio dovoljno mandata za tzv. vecinsku vladu...Pretplatite se na FokusRašeljka Kekez http://www.fokus-tjednik.hr/vijest.asp?vijest=1561 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 28 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7314/1/E-Kucinich-stressed-his-immigrant-roots-from-Croatia.html ÂKucinich, presidential candidate, Blast Corporate MediaHis grandfather came through Ellis Island from CroatiaA Shunned Kucinich Blasts Corporate MediaBy PUENG VONGS Pacific News Service (12-19-03)The campaign of presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, has not garnered the same high media profile enjoyed by some of his Democratic opponents such as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and retired U.S. general Wesley Clark. ABC News has announced it will stop having producers travel full time with the candidate's campaign. Kucinich says it is this kind of corporate control of media, industries and government that he will fight against as president. It is stifling free speech, he says. There used to be monopolies in such industries as steel and shipping, but today the monopolies are "in media, energy, health care and banking," Kucinich said."The media should not dictate presidential debates based on polls and endorsements. How can they tell voters who to vote for?" Kucinich said. He told an audience of ethnic media on Dec. 15 in San Francisco that he supports more community access in media and that he would go on with his grassroots campaign. "I'm the Seabiscuit of 2004," he said referring to the legendary underdog racehorse that won the hearts and minds of Depression-era America. The press briefing was co-sponsored by NCM, a national coalition of ethnic news organizations, the Media Alliance, the San Francisco Immigrant Voter Coalition, San Francisco Tabernacle Congregations, and Accion Latina/El Tecolote. Kucinich is no stranger to battling corporate interests. In 1978, at the age of 31-the youngest mayor to ever govern a major city, Cleveland-he refused when the city's banks demanded he sell Cleveland's city-owned power company to a private group, which was partly backed by local banks. As a result of his decision, Kucinich lost office when the banks drove the city to a major loan default. It took 15 years before Kucinich returned to public office and he would be credited for resisting the corporate power grab and saving Cleveland residents millions on their electric bills. Mei Ling Sze with the Chinese language television station KTSF in San Francisco asked Kucinich how he would proceed with the anti-terror campaign in Iraq a day after the capture of former Iraq President Saddam Hussein. Kucinich said he would use the opportunity to take U.S. troops out of Iraq, embrace the world community in efforts against terrorism and seek out the United Nations for leadership and peacekeeping troops. Kucinich also detailed plans to put Iraqi oil interests in a trust for the Iraqi people and eliminate "sweetheart" deals in Iraqi reconstruction for specific American companies. "The sons and daughters of middle class Americans are paying the price for this war," he said. Addressing concerns on the sagging economy, Kucinich said there is too wide a gulf between the "haves" and the "have nots." "Some are doing well, others are not. The minimum wage is frozen at $5.15 an hour nationally." He says he also opposes Republican efforts to reduce overtime. In response to the recent Medicare reform approved by Congress, Kucinich said that the term "reform" was being used very loosely. "Every time you hear this administration use the term reform, get hold of your wallets, lock your doors, and bolt your windows" because special interests are coming to "raid your wallets." He said the new Medicare plan would favor private insurers and allow pharmaceutical companies to charge Medicare whatever they want for drugs. It took cost containment out of the bill and hurts the program, he said. Beatriz Ferrari, with Spanish language television network Univision asked Kucinich his view on U.S.-Mexico relations. "I propose to 'take down the wall' and encourage a new cooperation between Mexico and the United Sates," he said. This would include canceling the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which only decreases wages for workers under threats of moving jobs overseas, Kucinich said. He would instead replace NAFTA with bilateral trade agreements, which take into consideration workers' rights, human rights and environmental principles. Kucinich also supports amnesty for millions of undocumented workers. For too long these "immigrants have been used to reinforce the wealth of private companies while being relegated to second class citizens," he said. The workers are exploited as cheap labor and if they complain, companies only need to threaten to report their status to immigration officials. "We must change this system," he cried. Additionally Kucinich said that he supports the controversial measure to offer drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. Kucinich stressed that his immigrant roots helped him understand the plight of immigrants in the United States. His grandfather came through Ellis Island from Croatia. The United States must continue to extend a light of freedom and hope to immigrants, he said, and he opposes any efforts that stands in the way including the Patriot Act. Kucinich is the only presidential candidate to vote against the Patriot act. "As president, I want to see again a connection from our heart to the hearts of the world," he said. http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=12-19-03&storyID=17954 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 28 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7313/1/H-Radman-savjetnik-u-vladi.html ÂRADMAN: IZABRAO SAM MJESTO SAVJETNIKA Svjetski priznati geneticar Miroslav Radman kazao je veceras u Zagrebu da je izabrao mjesto savjetnika u novoj Vladi nakon što ga je mandatar Ivo Sanader pozvao telefonom u Pariz da ozbiljno razgovaraju."Mjesto savjetnika bez place mi se cinilo najprivlacnije jer je najslobodnije, naravno pod uvjetom da ne bude dosadno", kazao je Radman i dodao do još ništa preciznije nisu razgovarali."Pokušat cu okupiti kreativne ljude odavde i iz inozemstva. Spreman sam na iznenadenja i nadam se da možemo napraviti nešto po cemu ce Hrvatska bljesnuti i postati poznata u svijetu. Posebno je važno dati mogucnosti mladima", kazao je Radman i ocijenio da "situacija ovdje nije tako loša kao što se misli".Dobro je pokušati napraviti najbolje što možemo, kazao je na predstavljanju knjige intervjua i clanaka "Miroslav Radman: covjek koji je srušio genetski zid".Odgovarajuci na pitanja publike Radman je rekao da se divi rezultatima ljudskog rada jer ljudima upravljaju geni i ideje za koje covjek nije zaslužan niti ih može lako mijenjati."Moramo nauciti živjeti i shvatiti da u životu postoji sreca i peh. Bolje se s tim pomiriti znajuci da nas jedno od to dvoje ceka svaki trenutak kad nešto pokušamo napraviti." Usprotivio se komentaru u publici kako vladaju mediokriteti kazavši: "Možemo misliti što hocemo o ljudima, ali nikad ne vrijedajte nikoga. Nije prihvatljiva diskusija u kojoj se ljudi ne osjecaju slobodni reci što žele".Na pitanje može li se vec kod bakterija govoriti o zacetku morala rekao je da ne zna o tome još ništa, ali da vjerojatno postoji "kemija morala".Održavanje tolerancije i slavljenje raznolikosti medu ljudima smatra jednom od najvažnijih stvari jer su svi ljudi "strašno genetski slicni". Svi smo na zemlji vlasnici jednom genoma koji se slaže u razlicite mozaike i mi smo svi suodgovorni, posebno prema hendikepiranima koji ce svojom patnjom platiti raznolikost našeg genoma, kazao je.Iznio je privatni stav da su umjetne genetske modifikacije samo kap u moru onoga što evolucija nosi sa sobom i da je covjeku puno štetnija intenzivna poljoprivreda. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 22 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7317/1/E-Candidate-Clark-testifies-at-Milosevics-war-crimes-trial.html ÂCandidate Clark testifies at Milosevic's war-crimes trial 12/16/03Anthony Deutsch Associated PressThe Hague, Netherlands - U.S. presidential hopeful Wesley Clark faced his wartime foe Slobodan Milosevic yesterday for the first time since the former Yugoslav leader's fall, testifying at his war crimes trial. Afterward, Clark accused Milosevic of responsibility for years of death and destruction in the Balkans. Clark, a retired four-star general and former NATO supreme commander, was taking a hiatus from his cam paign for the Democratic presidential nomination for two days of testi mony behind closed doors at the Yugoslav war crimes tri bunal in The Hague. The hearings will continue today, with Milosevic able to cross- examine Clark.Most of Milosevic's trial, which began in February 2002, has been public, but the United States won an agreement from the tribunal to keep Clark's appearance closed for security reasons. Prosecutors hope Clark will back up their contention that Milosevic was aware of Serbian wartime atrocities, such as the massacre of thousands of Muslim civilians in Srebrenica, Bosnia, and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible. Clark, who as NATO's supreme commander led the 1999 bombing campaign in Kosovo, has unique insight into the tactics of the former Yugoslav leader, who was ousted in 2000 and later extradited to the U.N. war crimes tribunal. Milosevic, who is running for office in his homeland despite his detention, faces 66 charges of war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Milosevic, who studied law but never practiced it, has proved to be a skilled cross-examiner and probably will be looking to undermine Clark's credibility as a prosecution witness. His trial is televised in Serbia, and experts say he uses the platform of the courtroom to score political points at home rather than to score legal points with his judges. From his detention cell, Milosevic is running in the Dec. 28 parliamentary elections in Serbia, which could see a resurgence of support for his Socialist Party. Clark's appearance comes at a critical time as the prosecution tries to wrap up its case by the end of the year, clearing the way for Milosevic to present the case for the defense beginning in April. Clark's book, "Waging Modern Warfare," gives a day-by-day account from the command center of the 78-day bombing campaign, which drove Milosevic's Serb troops out of Kosovo to end a campaign of repression and expulsion of the ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia's southern province. Clark also served as director of strategy, plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the mid- 1990s, when the United States was trying to negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia. © 2003 The Plain Dealerhttp://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1071574346311610.xmlWesley Clark describes Milosevic as stubbornAssociated PressTHE HAGUE, Netherlands - U.S. presidential hopeful Wesley Clark said on Tuesday that former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was the same argumentative and stubborn man he faced as a foe during the Balkan wars.Clark issued that assessment at the end of two days of closed testimony at Milosevic's war crimes trial. The testimony, which dealt with Milosevic's command responsibility during the Balkan wards, was to be released later this week after screening by State Department lawyers, Clark told reporters outside the U.N. court in The Hague.His evidence also covered Milosevic's alleged role in the 1995 massacre of about 7,000 Muslims in Bosnia's Srebrenica enclave, Clark said. "Srebrenica did come up and his foreknowledge did come up," Clark said. He declined to say whether Milosevic bears criminal responsibility. Passing a verdict on Milosevic's actions will be "up to the judges," he said. Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, allegedly committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Clark, NATO's top commander during the alliance's 1999 bombing campaign in Yugoslavia that drove Milosevic's forces from Kosovo, said it was satisfying to testify after seeing "the shattered cities of the former Yugoslavia." "I saw no change in his demeanor, his stubbornness, his petulance, from the man who I believe was responsible for so much slaughter and victims in the Balkans," Clark said after nearly 10 hours in court. Milosevic spent several hours cross-examining Clark, who said his high position in the military alliance gave him knowledge about Milosevic's ideas and policies from 1995-1999, when the two men met for some 100 hours in all. Clark said his testimony provided insight into Milosevic's "state of mind and, in addition, my impression of his overall leadership style." He called it "a typical Milosevic performance" with the defendant argumentative and at times "overly personal." The two days of testimony are the first time that Clark, a retired four-star general, faced Milosevic since NATO warplanes bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days to end a Serb crackdown on the majority ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. The Serb attacks reportedly killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee. For Clark, the exposure on an international stage offers a chance to boost his profile as he seeks the Democratic nomination ahead of U.S. presidential elections in 2004. Milosevic, who is running for a seat in Serbia's parliament despite his detention, studied law but never practiced it. He is defending himself in court with the assistance of a team of shadow lawyers from Belgrade. His trial is televised in Serbia, and he often appears more concerned with scoring political points at home than with winning in the courtroom. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1071594922914_10/?hub=WorldWesley Clark describes Milosevic as 'petulant' in war crimes trial testimony ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, December 16, 2003 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------(12-16) 09:07 PST THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- U.S. presidential hopeful Wesley Clark said on Tuesday that former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was the same argumentative and stubborn man he faced as a foe during the Balkan wars. Clark issued that assessment at the end of two days of closed testimony at Milosevic's war crimes trial. The testimony, which dealt with Milosevic's command responsibility during the Balkan wards, was to be released later this week after screening by State Department lawyers, Clark told reporters outside the U.N. court in The Hague. His evidence also covered Milosevic's alleged role in the 1995 massacre of about 7,000 Muslims in Bosnia's Srebrenica enclave, Clark said. "Srebrenica did come up and his foreknowledge did come up," Clark said. He declined to say whether Milosevic bears criminal responsibility. Passing a verdict on Milosevic's actions will be "up to the judges," he said. Milosevic faces 66 counts of war crimes, including genocide, allegedly committed in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Clark, NATO's top commander during the alliance's 1999 bombing campaign in Yugoslavia that drove Milosevic's forces from Kosovo, said it was satisfying to testify after seeing "the shattered cities of the former Yugoslavia." "I saw no change in his demeanor, his stubbornness, his petulance, from the man who I believe was responsible for so much slaughter and victims in the Balkans," Clark said after nearly 10 hours in court. Milosevic spent several hours cross-examining Clark, who said his high position in the military alliance gave him knowledge about Milosevic's ideas and policies from 1995-1999, when the two men met for some 100 hours in all. Clark said his testimony provided insight into Milosevic's "state of mind and, in addition, my impression of his overall leadership style." He called it "a typical Milosevic performance" with the defendant argumentative and at times "overly personal." The two days of testimony are the first time that Clark, a retired four-star general, faced Milosevic since NATO warplanes bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days to end a Serb crackdown on the majority ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. The Serb attacks reportedly killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands to flee. For Clark, the exposure on an international stage offers a chance to boost his profile as he seeks the Democratic nomination ahead of U.S. presidential elections in 2004. Milosevic, who is running for a seat in Serbia's parliament despite his detention, studied law but never practiced it. He is defending himself in court with the assistance of a team of shadow lawyers from Belgrade. His trial is televised in Serbia, and he often appears more concerned with scoring political points at home than with winning in the courtroom. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/16/international1207EST0526.DTL letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 18 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7316/1/H-Nova-vlast-ima-buducnost.html ÂNova izvršna vlast ima buducnostRazvoj dogadanja na hrvatskoj politickoj sceni pokazuje kako bi se na celu Hrvatske, prvi put od proglašenja neovisnosti, mogla naci manjinska vlada. Zbog toga se putem raznih domacih i inozemnih medija pokušava stvoriti ozracje kako ce buduci hrvatski premijer Ivo Sanader od prvoga saziva novoga Hrvatskoga sabora do sljedecih parlamentarnih izbora voditi hrvatsku vladu u napetoj situaciji održavanja parlamentarne podrške. Doista, celnika HDZ-a sljedecih cetiri godine ceka težak posao: vodit ce zemlju i predlagati Vladine zakone u Saboru u kojemu nema apsolutnu podršku pa ce zbog toga glasove podrške možda morati kupovati raznim ustupcima. Medutim, vecina strucnjaka smatra kako bi se ovaj, do sada u hrvatskoj praksi nepoznat oblik izvršne vlasti, vrlo brzo mogao pokazati kao dobra opcija."Manjinska vlada je zapravo izraz za stranku koja ima relativnu, a ne apsolutnu vecinu u Hrvatskome saboru. HDZ je prije tri godine, dakle nakon prošlih parlamentarnih izbora, u Saboru imao relativnu vecinu, ali je zbog toga što nije išao u predizborna koaliranja izgubio zgoditak - vlast", objasnio je prof. dr. Tomislav Sunic, politolog i sveucilišni profesor."Manjinska vlada je ona u kojoj stranke koje sastavljaju Vladu nemaju vecinu u parlamentu. Medutim, to ne mora biti pravilo jer se vrlo cesto dogadaju izuzetci, kao što je bilo nakon prošlih izbora kada je PGS bio clan vladajuce koalicije, ali nije imao nijednoga predstavnika u izvršnoj vlasti. Može se reci da je manjinska vlada ona koja na temelju koalicijskoga ugovora nema vecinu zastupnika u Saboru nego vecinu osigurava nekim drugim metodama", smatra dr. Nenad Zakošek, profesor na zagrebackome Fakultetu politickih znanosti. Prof. Zakošek tvrdi kako je iznimno bitno da se nakon izbora za zastupnike u Saboru potpišu tzv. koalicijski ugovori kojima se definiraju odnosi izmedu stranaka i nacin sastavljanja Vlade. "U zemljama zapadne demokracije taj posao je nezamisliv bez tih koalicijskih ugovora, koji su uvijek vrlo konkretni te sastavljeni na stotinu do dvije stotine stranica. Na žalost, takav koalicijski ugovor izmedu dvije vodece stranke u pobjednickoj koaliciji, SDP-a i HSLS-a, prije tri godine imao je sadržaj od samo tri stranice, u kojemu su celnici tih dviju stranaka definirali raspored mjesta u Vladi i Saboru. "Istina, taj je ugovor sadržavao kratak dodatak u kojemu je bilo objašnjeno kako ce program buduce vlade biti dio ovoga koalicijskoga ugovora", mišljenja je Zakošek.Zastupnik talijanske nacionalne zajednice u Hrvatskoj, gospodin Furio Radin, u prošlome je broju Fokusa izjavio kako ga "raduje" buduca manjinska vlada u Hrvatskoj, koja se vec nekoliko godina u "zemlji njegova kulturnoga podrijekla", Italiji, pokazala vrlo efikasnom. Strucnjaci se takoder slažu kako su manjinske vlade postale raširena praksa u velikome broju država s parlamentarnom demokracijom. "Nakon što se tijekom proljeca ove godine u Poljskoj dogodio raspad velike koalicije, poljski premijer Leszek Miller je od socijalista i socijaldemokrata osnovao manjinsku vladu koja je nastavila dobro funkcionirati i Poljsku uspješno voditi u Europsku uniju", kazao je prof. Tomislav Sunic te objasnio kako su i daleki Novi Zeland i obližnju Austriju vodile manjinske vlade. Konzervativni njemacki kancelar Wolfgang Schüssel 2000. godine osnovao je koalicijsku manjinsku vladu s "desnicarem" Haiderom. Austrijska se vlada nakon toga našla pod teškim sankcijama Europske unije i medunarodne zajednice. Raskoli i odredeni problemi s Jörgom Haiderom rezultirali su ove godine izborima na kojima je Schüssel dobio dovoljno mandata za tzv. vecinsku vladu...Pretplatite se na FokusRašeljka Kekez http://www.fokus-tjednik.hr/vijest.asp?vijest=1561 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 18 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7320/1/E-A-CROAT-LOBBY-IN-BRITAIN.html ÂA CROATIAN LOBBY IN BRITAIN?VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 994 - 05.12.03With a new government being formed in Croatia, it isan opportune time for the country to reassess itsrelationship with the United Kingdom. This has neverbeen good, and has in fact got worse, with Britain nowblocking Croatia's path to the EU. New thinking isrequired. A Croat lobby needs to be formed in the UK. First off, some form of information/media centre needsto be established. London is a centre for manyinternational media organisations, quite apart fromthe local media. Such a centre can be used as acontact point for journalists. Further it should rebuterroneous stories each and every time they appear.Certainly the BBC should be held to account for theircontinual stories about the alleged sufferings ofSerbs - whilst somehow ignoring what happened toCroats during the war. English language reports on Croatia need to beproduced, and sent to media organisations,politicians, academics etc. Negative human rightsreports produced in the UK need to be pored over andwhere necessary their conclusions and sources need tobe challenged in detail. Such challenges should alsobe made known to relevant political and media sourcesin the UK. Its worth mentioning that anti-Croat activitiescontinue in the UK. Highly negative and biased reportsemerge from the Institute of War and Peace Reporting(IWPR) - part funded by the British Foreign Office -which are disseminated to many people. Furthermorethere is still an active Serb lobby in the UK. Any Croat official dealing with Britain should readBrendan Simm's best-selling 'Unfinest Hour - Britainand the Destruction of Bosnia' and Carole Hodge's 'TheSerb lobby in the United Kingdom' to see how theForeign Office is still pro-Serb and the greatinfluence of the Serb lobby. Croatia underestimates orignores this at its peril. That is why efforts tocounter this are required. One problem Croats have in the UK and indeed elsewhereis the perception of being fascists - the excuse theSerbs used to murder Croats. Indeed, IWPR often havesome comment to make about supposed fascism inCroatia. This is all based on the Second World War andthe Croatian 'Ustasha' puppet government. Oneexcellent way of dealing with this would be todemonstrate Croatia's anti-fascist credentials. Onebook on this already exists - 'Serbia's Secret War' byPhilip J. Cohen. But another, focusing more on Croatiawas published in Zagreb in 1996. This is 'Vojska Antifasisticke Hrvatske (1941-1945)'by Dr Branko Dubrovica (Publisher: Narodno sveucilisteVelika Gorica). This book demonstrates the stronganti-fascist record of Croats, using facts and figuresfrom government archives. It has an introduction by arespected academic, Dusan Bilandzic. Bilandzic pointsout that this work should be used to counteraccusations of fascism against Croatia. Indeed, itneeds to be translated into English and distributedwidely, in particular to academic institutions. Indemonstrating Croatia's anti-fascist credentials, itsubsequently becomes much easier to raise such issuesas the communist slaughter of Croat troops handed overby the allies in 1945 and the allied bombardment ofZadar during the war, which needlessly devastated muchof the city. In the academic field, much more could be done in thesame vein. Credible English language academic materialdoes need to be fed into the UK and elsewhere. JohnKampfner in his illuminating book 'Blair's Wars' -another important primer for Croats dealing with theUK - relates how prior to Blair taking office he wasbriefed on foreign policy issues by eminentex-diplomats and academics. Given academia's inputinto policy, it is important to ensure they haveaccess to reliable texts rather than serbocentricmaterial on Croatia - of which there is a great deal.A lot of pressure is put on Croatia by the UK andothers in regard to the Hague tribunal and Serbrefugees. Zagreb should put some pressure back. It maybe diplomatically difficult, but Britain's role ineffectively supporting Serbia during the war should bementioned. Serbian atrocities in Croatia should behighlighted. Indeed, an act of remembrance should beheld every year in London, with British dignitariesinvited, to remember the Croat victims of the Serbinvasion and occupation of Croatia. Such crimes shouldnot forgotten - and it would make it more difficultfor Britain to be obstructive. At the moment, certainpeople in Britain are pushing the Serbs as the victimsof the war. This needs to be resisted. One area where Croatia fails near completely is in thearea of culture. Most central and east Europeancountries invest heavily in promoting their culture inthe UK: artistic festivals, book launches, filmseasons, music recitals, wine tastings etc. TheCzechs, Bulgarians, Poles and especially theHungarians put major efforts in this. Croatia doesn'treally do any of this at all. Cultural events in theUK are usually at the initiative of artists in Croatiaand Croat groups in London. The embassy hosts theoccasional event but a major programme - such asHungary's 'Magyar Magic' - of Croat events is absent.This is a clear sign that Zagreb has not been seriousin its EU application or indeed any foreign policygoals. Cultural events by other East/Central Europeanstates have been more or less tools to pursue thegoals of integration into the west. A lack of imagination is also evident. A number ofBritish people are investing in Croatian homes. Thesepeople thus have an interest in Croatia's well-being -they should be contacted and given information onCroatia's problems with the UK. Many of these peoplewill be influential types who may well be happy tohelp. All of this is geared to creating an effective Croatlobby in the UK. It may not turn the UK into Croatia'sbest friend but it should at least alleviate negativepressure. It's certainly not impossible - after allthe UK went along with diplomatic recognition ofCroatia and more recently the country's tourismefforts have led to Croatia being named 'hottestdestination' for 2003 by The Sunday Times Travelmagazine. A warmer relationship would also benefitLondon as it currently has little influence inCroatia. Zagreb's approach to the UK is a mess thathas held the country back. How the new governmentdeals with this situation will be a key test of howserious it is in taking Croatia forward.© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 07 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7319/1/H-Od-virtualnog-Dana-drzavnosti-do-stvarne-isprike-agresoru.html ÂOd virtualnog Dana drzavnosti do stvarne isprike hrvatskog predsjednika agresoruNakladnicka tvrtka "Slovo M"poziva na predstavljanje knjigeNenad Piskac IZMEDJU HRVATA I HRVATSKEOd virtualnog Dana drzavnosti do stvarne isprike hrvatskog predsjednika agresoruAutor knjigu posvecuje Dubravku Horvaticuponedjeljak 8. prosinca 2003. u 19 satidvorana KIC-a, Preradoviæeva ul., ZagrebKnjigu ce predstaviti:Tomislav Vukovic, novinar Glasa Koncila Bozo Cubelic, urednik u Fokusu letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 07 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7318/1/E-Croatia-at-the-crossroads.html ÂCroatia at the crossroadsBy Jeffrey T. KuhnerCroatia has given Europe's political establishment a massive cardiac arrest. The Continent's leftists are in shock following the country's recent national elections. Ivo Sanader, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the main conservative opposition party, soundly defeated Prime Minister Ivica Racan's socialist government. The HDZ campaigned aggressively, highlighting Mr. Racan's inability to improve the country's sluggish economy. The HDZ's electoral triumph was made even more impressive by the fact the European Union and many in the Western liberal press openly supported Mr. Racan's leftist coalition. Yet average Croatian voters rejected the outside meddling for one simple reason: They understood Mr. Racan's economic policies had failed. Under his leadership, unemployment remained high at 18 percent, while the public debt soared. Rather than scoring a "brilliant victory," as Mr. Sanader claimed on Election Night, the HDZ benefited significantly from widespread voter frustration with Mr. Racan's stagnant regime. Nevertheless, Mr. Sanader has been given a historic opportunity to transform both his party's image in the West and to forge Croatia into a modern, fully functional European nation-state. The HDZ was denounced in the West during much of the 1990s for the authoritarian policies of its founder, the late President Franjo Tudjman. The Croatian strongman also was criticized for the widespread corruption that characterized his rule until his death in 1999. But for all his flaws, Tudjman was a visionary and first-rank statesman, who secured Croatia's national independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. Mr. Sanader, however, lacks Tudjman's popular charisma and ideological core convictions. Rather, the HDZ leader is a pragmatic technocrat, who insists he now heads a revamped, pro-European party committed to Western-style conservatism. The centerpiece of his campaign was a Bush-style tax cut and promotion of Croatia's entry into the European Union by 2007. But the true test of Mr. Sanader's conservatism will come not in his words, but in his actions. Since its independence in 1991, Croatia has failed to confront its communist past. Croatia's economic life remains rife with Titoist-style bribery and cronyism. Hence, if Mr. Sanader is serious about leading a conservative revolution in the Balkans, he must start an immediate, sweeping decommunization. The massive public bureaucracy, dominated by former apparatchiks who oppose economic reform, must be dismantled. A legal framework is needed to protect private property rights and the rule of law, and encourage entrepreneurship and creation of investment capital. Most importantly, the HDZ leader must vigorously campaign against corruption. He can start by having the Croatian parliament pass a law making it a criminal offense for public officials to engage in bribery, kickbacks or have cronies and family members receive government contracts practices common not only in Croatia but throughout the region. Yet perhaps the greatest obstacle Mr. Sanader faces is the issue of cooperation with the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. Brussels has made it clear Zagreb's entry into the EU hinges upon unconditional cooperation with The Hague tribunal, especially regarding the court's chief request to arrest and extradite Gen. Ante Gotovina, who has been in hiding since his 2001 indictment. Mr. Sanader has pledged full cooperation with the tribunal. But any decision to hand over Gen. Gotovina would spell the end of his ruling center-right coalition. Gen. Gotovina is rightly viewed as a hero by most Croats for his role in leading a 1995 military operation that ended the Croat-Serb war. Extradition of the general would spark mass protests and civil unrest. Moreover, the Gotovina indictment has been severely criticized by The Hague tribunal experts and senior Bush administration officials. Gen. Gotovina is not charged with ordering or committing atrocities, but for having "command responsibility" over purported massacres of 150 civilians. The Gotovina indictment is an attempt by European leftists to impose the dangerous precedent of "command responsibility" in international military law. Earlier this year, a Belgian court sought to indict Gen. Tommy Franks for "command responsibility" over supposed atrocities of U.S. forces against civilians during the Iraq war. The State Department got Brussels to withdraw the complaint. But it is now clear the International Criminal Court views The Hague tribunal's use of the principle of command responsibility as a basis for possible future indictments against U.S. military leaders. A senior administration official confessed that "the indictments issued by The Hague tribunal based on the theory of command responsibility risks establishing the principle in international law." Mr. Sanader should insist Washington step up to the plate and demand the Gotovina indictment be amended or, preferably, dropped. He needs to make the case to the Bush administration that, just as the United States correctly opposes the ICC for fear of politically motivated indictments, Zagreb has similar concerns about the politicized prosecution against Gen. Gotovina. The principle of command responsibility threatens not only Croatia's national interests, but those of America as well. The HDZ leader should demand a straight swap: Zagreb will support signing a treaty to exempt Americans from prosecution by the ICC in exchange for U.S. pressure on The Hague to withdraw the Gotovina indictment. The challenges facing Mr. Sanader are immense. Time will tell if he is up to the task. Jeffrey T. Kuhner is assistant national editor at The Washington Times.http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20031207-114044-3871r.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 07 Dec 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7321/1/E-Croatia-wishes-to-distance-itself-from-the-region.html ÂCroatia in fact wishes to distance itself from the regionStability Pact chief criticises Serbia-Montenegro unionVIENNA -- Thursday - The loose union of Serbia and Montenegro has only served to aggravate problems between the two republics, the head of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe said last night. The Belgrade Agreement has succeeded in reversing the process of reintegration, Erhard Busek told a roundtable in Vienna entitled "The Balkans and Southeast Europe". Busek said there is some confusion over which countries in fact make up the Balkans, and claimed that Croatia in fact wishes to distance itself from the region. The countries of the Balkans, he said, are part of Europe and must integrate with the European Union. But no deadlines should be set, he added.  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 27 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7322/1/E-CROATIA-SAVED-BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA.html ÂCROATIA SAVED BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald 21 November 2003Croatia is again taking half the blame for the war inBosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Ex-Yugoslav Prime MinisterAnte Markovic at the Milosevic trial has spoken of adeal between Milosevic and the late President Tudjmanof Croatia to divide BiH between themselves. The deathof ex-BiH president Alija Izetbegovic has also broughtout similar accusations. This perception of Croatiahas done much damage to the country. Whatever dealsmay or may not have been made does not reflect thereality of what actually happened; Croatia and Croatsin BiH saved the country. The Croatian governmentshould recast Croatia as the saviour of BiH. It is alleged that in early 1991 Milosevic and Tudjmanagreed to divide BiH between Croatia and Serbia. Thismay or may not be true. If it is, then clearlyMilosevic misled Tudjman. This division was to bepeaceful. The plan may seem disagreeable, but itcannot be construed as a war crime. Far more importantly the deal was off the momentSerbia attacked Croatia. Significantly, Milosevic'sforces attempted to assassinate Tudjman by bombing hispalace in an air strike in October 1991. It is hard tobelieve that Tudjman would have agreed to his owndeath. Common sense dictates that this alleged deal ismeaningless - and more likely a way for Milosevic tohide his true intentions from Tudjman by telling himwhat he may have wanted to hear. Milosevic may havestrung that out with Tudjman for years after, if webelieve they kept in contact one way or the other. Butin any event, reality on the ground demonstrates therewas no actual 'carve-up'. When the Serbs attacked BiH the first people to resistwere the Croats who had established some militaryforces - the Croatian Defence Council (HVO).Izetbegovic in Sarajevo had failed to prepare. On thecontrary, he invited the Yugoslav army into BiH.Indeed, prior to that he gave invaluable assistance toSerbia in its war against Croatia. During that war theSerbs destroyed the Bosnian Croat village of Ravno.Izetbegovic did not react. Had it not been for the HVO, BiH would have beenoverwhelmed almost immediately; there would be no BiHtoday. If there was some deal between Milosevic andTudjman to divide BiH then why exactly did the HVOfight the Serbs? Should not all their efforts havebeen against the Muslims (Bosniaks)? The Muslim-Croat war is frequently cited as evidenceof Croatia's bad intent towards BiH. But here thingsare changing. Charles Shrader's superlative newhistory of the conflict effectively rubbishes theentire idea of a carve-up by establishing that it wasthe Bosniak side that started the war in order tocleanse Central BiH of its Croats. Shrader also pointsout that the transit of arms via Croatia to BiH, thecontinued co-operation of HVO and BiH forcesthroughout the Muslim-Croat conflict - let alone thefact that Izetbegovic placed his family in the safetyof Zagreb - is not exactly consistent with a carve-up.Shrader is a respected American military historian.Further, his book is published by the reputableAmerican Texas A&M University press's Eastern EuropeanStudies. These studies have an editorial board whichcontains people sympathetic to the BiH state, and whowere critical of Tudjman. In other words, this is abook that is credible and cannot be dismissed as Croatpropaganda. Zagreb should use this book to defend itself againstallegations of aggression against BiH. Indeed, givenSarajevo's assistance to Serbia during the war againstCroatia, Zagreb has grounds to accuse Sarajevo ofcollaborating with Serbian aggression. Despite that,thousands of Bosniaks were accepted as refugees inCroatia. If Croatia were an aggressor on the level ofSerbia why would Bosniaks seek refuge there? And whywould Croatia accept them - especially when it had itsown refugees to contend with. The Muslim-Croat war was over in 1994 - with manyCroats 'cleansed' from Central BiH. Croat and Bosnianforces then devoted all efforts against the Serbs. In1995, Croatia launched Operation Storm. Croat forcesrecaptured last swathes of its territory. In theprocess, the beleaguered Bihac pocket in BiH was savedfrom a Srebrenica style fate. Serb forces were rolledback and peace in BiH was achieved. 49% of BiH wasgiven to the Serbs, not as part of anyTudjman/Milosevic deal - but by the internationalcommunity. It was not Izetbegovic who saved BiH as has beenstated in tributes to him. The allegedMilosevic/Tudjman deal as described by variousincluding Paddy Ashdown and Ante Markovic, bear norelation whatsoever to what happened on the ground. Itwas the Croatian Army, and the HVO that saved BiH.Croatia should inform the world of this reality - orface a future equated to those who besieged Sarajevoand slaughtered thousands at Srebrenica.My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com© Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 26 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7327/1/H-HDZ-u-62-mandata-a-SDP-u-s-koalicijskim-partnerima-43.html ÂHDZ-u 62 mandata, a SDP-u s koalicijskim partnerima 43 24.11.2003 Po najnovijim neslužbenim rezultatima parlamentarnih izbora, koje je objavio DIP sinoc u 23.50 sati, HDZ i dalje vodi u osam od 10 izbornih jedinica, i po prvim neslužbenim procjenama imao bi 62 zastupnika, dok SDP s koalicijskim partnerima (IDS, Libra i LS) vodi u dvije izborne jedinice i imali bi 43 zastupnika.SDP je, u jedinicama gdje je išao samostalno osvojio 15 mandata, a u koaliciji s IDS-om, Librom i LS-om ima još 28 mandata. HNS je samostalno osvojio osam mandata, a u koaliciji s PGS-om još tri mandata. HSS osvojio je 10 mandata, a HSP samostalno je osvojio sedam mandata te još jedan u prvoj izbornoj jedinici, gdje je koalirao sa Zagorskom demokratskom strankom (ZDS). Koalicija HSLS-DC osvojila je dva mandata, no u Hrvatskom saboru uci ce samo zastupnici HSLS-a. U Sabor prvi put ulazi Hrvatska stranka umirovljenika s tri zastupnika. Po neslužbenim rezultatima u 11. izbornoj jedinici za dijasporu HDZ za sada premocno vodi s 71 posto glasova, a koalicija HSLS-DC osvojila je 7 posto, dok je HSS osvojio šest posto glasova. S obzirom na to da u toj izbornoj jedinici broj izabranih zastupnika zavisi o prosjeku potrebnom za zastupnicko mjesto za 10 izbornih jedinica u Hrvatskoj i broju glasova u dijaspori, po nefiksnoj kvoti, a po prvim procjenama, u Hrvatski sabor ušli bi samo zastupnici HDZ-a, najvjerojatnije njih pet. U posebnoj 12. izbornoj jedinici pripadnici nacionalnih manjina birali su osam zastupnika i po prvim neslužbenim rezultatima srpsku nacionalnu manjinu, koja bira tri zastupnika, predstavljali bi Milorad Pupovac i Vojislav Stanimirovic iz SDSS-a te Milan Ðukic iz SNS-a. Predstavnik madarske manjine bio bi Jene Adam, a talijanske Furio Radin, dok ce cešku i slovacku nacionalnu manjinu zastupati Zdenka Cuhnil. Austrijsku, bugarsku, njemacku, poljsku, romsku, rumunjsku, rusinsku, rusku, tursku, ukrajinsku, vlašku i židovsku nacionalnu manjinu zastupat ce Nikola Mak, a Šemso Tankovic predstavljat ce albansku, bošnjacku crnogorsku makedonsku i slovensku nacionalnu manjinu. Na izborima se natjecala 41 samostalna stranacka lista, 28 koalicijskih i 50 neovisnih lista. Za osam manjinskih zastupnika natjecalo se 79 kandidata. Po podacima DIP-a do 16 sati glasovalo je 51,77 posto biraca.(Hina) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 23 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7326/1/H-Izborni-zakon---neodredjeni-broj-zastupnika-za-iseljenistvo.html ÂCROWN - Izbori 2003Postovani gosp. Bach,nadam se da mi necete zamjeriti ako Vas zamolim da objavite nesto sto sam danas cuo. Navodno, novi izborni zakon ne daje fiksan broj zastupnika za iseljenistvo (za razliku od manjinskih zastupnika, kojih je 8 bez obzira na odziv), vec taj broj ovisi o odzivu biraca*. Stoga je Hrvatima u dijaspori bitno odazvati se na izbore kako njihov glas ne bi 'vrijedio manje', tako sto ce imati manje zastupnika.* pojedinosti se mogu vidjeti ovdje:http://www.hic.hr/dom/253/dom01.htm Najljepsi pozdravi i unaprijed zahvalan,Tomislav PetricevicOp-edhttp://www.izbori.hr/sabor/index.htm pogledajte pod Biracka mjesta u Inozemstvu.NB letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 23 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7323/1/E-K-1-fighter-Mirko-Cro-Cop-elected-in-Croatia.html ÂK-1 fighter Mirko Cro Cop elected in CroatiaTuesday, November 25, 2003 at 02:43 JSTVIENNA - Croatians elected popular K-1 fighter Mirko Cro Cop, who ranked third on the proportional representation list in the first electoral district of Zagreb, in Sunday's general election, according to official returns on Monday.The 29-year-old fighter, whose real name is Mirko Filipowicz, won his seat after his Social Democratic Party of Croatia won nearly 30% of votes cast in the district, winning more than four seats. (Kyodo News)http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=279976 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 22 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7324/1/E-PRESIDENT-OF-CROATIA-IN-ATHENS.html ÂPRESIDENT OF CROATIA IN ATHENSÂAthens, 18 November 2003 (13:35 UTC+2) President of Croatia Stipe Mesic is beginning his three day visit to Athens today, accompanied by his wife.Mr. Mesic arrived at the "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport at 11:00, at 12.10 he met with the President of the Greek Republic Costis Stefanopoulos, while at 17:30 he will visit the Benaki museum. One hour later he will meet with the President of the Parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis, while Mr. Stefanopoulos will hold a dinner in his honor tonight.Tomorrow at 10:00, Mr. Mesic will visit the archeological museum of the acropolis, while at 11:40 he will attend a meeting at the Foreign Ministry, in order to sign the Olympic Truce. At 12 noon, he will have discussions with Prime Minister Costas Simitis. At 16:00, the President of Croatia will visit the Museum of Cycladic Art, while he will then have successive meetings with the President of New Democracy Costas Karamanlis, the Secretary General of the Greek Communist Party, Aleka Papariga, and the President of the Coalition, Nikos Constantopoulos.On Thursday at 13:00, Mr. Mesic and his wife will visit the archeological site at Delphi, while at 16:50 they will depart on a special flight to Zagreb.http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=416402 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 18 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7328/1/H-Sanader-vs-Racan-Radio-Interview.html ÂPredizborni politicki dijalog Sanader - Racanwww.lijepanasadomovinahrvatska.comPostovani,Pogledajte www.lijepanasadomovinahrvatska.com . Srdacan pozdravIvica Grgic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 03 Nov 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7329/1/E-Croatias-New-Anti-Corruption-Hotline.html ÂCroatia's New Anti-Corruption Hotline Is Constantly HotBy Liz Barrett for Southeast European Times - 09/07/03 Croatians do not trust national governments to deliver on their campaign promises. But also at the local level, in the municipality or post office, the public is suspicious of authority and suspect that staff will block their requests rather than try to help them.The problem can become a vicious circle. Because citizens are suspicious of public servants, public servants get demoralised and it becomes harder to recruit skilled professionals. And because citizens expect that they will have to pay a bribe to get a service, they often offer bribes regardless of whether they are requested, adding to the perception that such payments are the norm.One new service in Croatia is trying to break the circle. Set up by Transparency International (TI), an anti-corruption NGO, with funding from the OECD, its aims are not just to reveal corruption. Rather, it hopes to inform citizens about their rights and make sure that they know how to use rights that already exist. "One of our aims is to demystify corruption," says Ana Milovcic, executive manager of TI's Croatia office, adding "many people in Croatia believe that everything is corrupted."The emphasis, Milovcic says, is on empowering citizens to use procedures that are already there. "Before people even try to get information or make a complaint they have the attitude that nothing can be done. Part of what we do is encourage them to try, and tell them how to do it," she explains.Around one-fifth of the calls refer to suspected corruption in the courts, known for their long delays and non-transparent practices. About the same amount cite corruption in the various ministries. Health care is the subject of around one in ten calls. Citizens report having to pay 2,000 euros to obtain surgery, while war veterans claim that it is necessary to pay 5,000 euros to obtain a doctor's certificate stating that one suffers from post-war stress. These sums are often well beyond the wallets of those who need them most and show just how damaging corruption can be.In such cases, TI seeks to raise public awareness by announcing its findings in the media, but callers remain anonymous. In other cases, callers are pleased to give their names and want a police investigation. TI then co-operates with the interior ministry, which is better equipped to find out whether a claim is genuine. TI warns callers that anyone who has paid a bribe is legally culpable under Croatian law -- it is not just those who collect bribes who break the law. But someone reporting a bribe is nevertheless likely to be looked on kindly by the police and courts.Milovcic sees government institutions as part of the solution and finds the interior ministry very helpful. The ministry set up its own hotline two years ago, but it has proved less popular -- perhaps because citizens would rather speak to TI's trained volunteers than deal with government officials. The new hotline gives citizens a voice, but it also allows the government to get feedback on its own performance. Over time, it could not only help to rid the Croatia of corruption, but could also build a more trusting relationship between government and citizens. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 31 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7330/1/E-Paddy-Ashdown-in-Financial-Times.html ÂAshdown in Financial TimesSaturday Oct 25 2003. All times are London time. By John-Paul FlintoffPublished: October 24 2003A man walks into a crowded room in Sarajevo. He takeshis place at the head of a long table, alongside ayoung woman interpreter. "Forgive me if I start with abit of nostalgia," says Paddy Ashdown, former leaderof Britain's Liberal Democrats."One of the events that changed my life was coming tothis city for the first time in July '92. After that,I made it a habit to come twice a year during thesiege and to stay for a week. People used to say tome, 'Why?' People said I was the 'Member of Parliamentfor Sarajevo'.I was heavily criticised, I was insulted and called awarmonger because I was calling for action. I wascriticised for paying more attention to the problemsof Bosnia Hercegovina than the problems in Britain.And people said, 'Why?'"The answer, he explains, is that Sarajevo seemed tohim to possess a vibrant intellectual and culturallife that the international community, in itsignorance, was allowing to be crushed. A spirit oftolerance that was defended most vigorously, Ashdownsays, by the people in this room - who include aformer president of Yugoslavia, an ex-prime ministerof Bosnia, a one-time ambassador to the US, professorsof economics and philosophy and an actor from thenational theatre.They're members of Circle 99, a liberal Bosniandiscussion group, and many of them led the citythrough the desperate months of bombardment from Serbpositions in the surrounding hills, while theinternational community presented a spectacle ofimpotence: unwilling to intervene with enough force tostop the killing and the "ethnic cleansing", not justin Sarajevo but all over Bosnia. But since the warthese liberals have become marginalised.If they seem hostile this evening that's because,eight years later, they feel disappointed by the lackof progress in postwar Bosnia and neglected byAshdown, foremost representative of the internationalcommunity still running the country.Most of all, they disapprove of his willingness towork with the less liberal types favoured by voters ashe works to bring peace, democracy and economicdevelopment to a country where the people hated eachother, and still do."I say all that for one reason," Ashdown continues,fidgeting with a gold pen while his words aregradually translated. "We will no doubt speak bluntlytonight - you to me, and maybe me to you. Let me startoff in that spirit by saying I arrived back here 18months ago.The dynamism and cultural and intellectual life hadsomehow not translated itself into politicalengagement. I was stunned by that. And the level ofmisunderstanding about what we are trying to achievehere was bewildering."The aim that I set myself when I arrived remains thesame: to use my mandate to set this countryirreversibly on the path to statehood and on to thepath to Europe. My job is to get rid of my job. And Ithink that in trying to build the checks and balancesof a European state we are on the right course."The speech is greeted with silence and long faces.Then come the questions, more like angry lectures,about problems that have become acute since the war,while the world turned its attention elsewhere.These include: unemployment, the dearth ofinternational investment, a brisk trade in humantraffic, illegal logging, poor dental services, theproblems of returning refugees and the on-goingfailure to arrest suspected war criminals.The speeches would have hit harder, one suspects, ifthe delivery were not slowed by the process oftranslation. Ashdown waits till everybody has finished- nearly two hours later - before responding. "I hopeyou will forgive me if I do not attempt to answer allyour questions," he says, before replying to severalspeakers by name. His concluding remarks areconciliatory. "Let me say something aboutmisunderstandings. I have read criticism [in thepress] from some in this room in terms quite close toinsult. You have said that my decisions would havebeen better if I had come to see you before. I pleadguilty. The last year has been very busy, but this iscertainly a group that I should have been to see."The meeting ends with prolonged applause. For theinterpreter.Ever since Mark Anthony was dispatched from Rome toEgypt, talented and clever individuals have attemptedto run other people's countries with variable results.Anthony fell in love with Cleopatra, went to war withRome, committed suicide. Clive of India, charged withcorruption, likewise killed himself. Maximilian, sentby the French to Mexico, ended up before a firingsquad. General Macarthur is generally agreed to havemade a decent fist of things in Japan after the secondworld war - but few have since emulated that success.Today, intervention and how - or if - to do it is atthe top of everyone's foreign affairs agenda. Itconvulses the domestic politics of the US and ofBritain. At the United Nations, ambassadors couldeasily become dizzy discussing whether or not toinvade dysfunctional territories such as Liberia,Afghanistan and Congo. What has tended to get lessattention - at least, until Iraq spiralled into chaosthis year - was how to piece together those shatteredterritories afterwards. But the work of Paddy Ashdownprovides a useful case study.His position as high representative for BosniaHercegovina was created under the Dayton PeaceAgreement of December 1995, which recognised therights of Serbs, Croats, Muslims - also known asBosniaks - and others to live in the war-torn country.Dayton established Bosnia Hercegovina as a statecomprising two "entities", each with a high degree ofautonomy: the Republika Srpska, which is predominantlybut not exclusively Serb; and the Federation, which islargely Muslim and Croat.Each entity has its own rules: if you take a cab fromSarajevo airport into the old town and the main roadis busy, drivers licensed by the Federation will stopthe car here and there to conceal their "taxi" signswhile passing through suburbs belonging to the SerbRepublic. As things stand, the entities even haveseparate armies, customs and tax regimes.But Dayton imposed strict ethnic quotas on bothentities. Thus the police force in the Serb Republicis required to employ a certain proportion of Muslims,which isn't easy because few Muslims want to workthere, not least because salaries are lower than inthe Federation.Even nationalist parties that did well in last year'selections, if they wish to fill their share ofministerial posts, may be obliged to appoint a partymember from another ethnic group. The highrepresentative's job is to tidy up this postwararrangement by strengthening BH at state level. (Thestate has been hopelessly feeble - its annual budgetof about E300m [Â208m] is slightly less than theamount generated by ticket sales in the US for TheLion King.)The high representative must overcome a vast array offirmly entrenched interests, helped only by thewillingness of virtually all Bosnians to meet theentry requirements of Nato and the EU - both expectstable government at state level.Ashdown will this month have completed three-quartersof his term as high representative. The job couldpossibly be extended, but that will of course dependon how well he has done.He is no stranger to trouble spots. He was born in NewDelhi, where his father was a colonel in the IndianArmy, in 1941. An abiding memory is of passing slowlythrough a train station where the platform waslittered with dead Hindus or Muslims (he could nottell which). When he was four, his family returned toBritain and bought a farm in another territory rivenby sectarianism, Northern Ireland. But the venturefailed financially and Ashdown remembers the tearsrunning down his father's face as he informed thefamily - "the saddest day of my life," he says.Between 1959 and 1972, he served in the Royal Marines:in Borneo in the jungle, and in Belfast on thestreets. Rather than take a desk job in the army, hejoined the Foreign Office. Posted to Geneva aged 31,he handled Britain's relations with various UNorganisations and lived in a "massive" house on theshores of Lake Geneva, with plenty of time forsailing, skiing and climbing with his wife, Jane, andtwo children.But in 1976 he packed it in and moved to his wife'shometown, Yeovil, determined to do something moremeaningful. "I had a sense of purpose," he says, awarethat this might sound pompous. (An old joke aboutAshdown is that his answering machine invites callersto leave a message "after the high moral tone".)Life in Somerset wasn't easy. He was twice unemployedand desperately hard up but he was determined to standfor parliament. "Most of my friends thought it wasutterly bonkers." In 1983 he overturned a 10,000Conservative majority to take Yeovil for the Liberals.Five years later he became party leader.In June 1991, when the crisis in the former Yugoslaviastarted to blow up, Ashdown "didn't even know whereall the countries were", according to his publisheddiaries. But he was greatly interested - he saysthat's because he's always had a strong sense ofhimself as European and he became expert long beforemost outsiders in a position to intervene had decidedthat Bosnia was worth worrying about.Reading the diaries it is impossible not to beimpressed that Ashdown visited so often and in suchdangerous conditions. It is also clear that he wasonce a soldier: few other British politicians, underfire, would write that the barrage consisted of "120mmand 81mm mortars, at a guess".At the invitation of Radovan Karadzic, thepsychiatrist who led the Bosnian Serbs and is nowsought as a suspected war criminal, Ashdown alsovisited territory under Serb control. At subsequentwar-crimes tribunals, witnesses stated that conditionsat the Serb camps had been harsh until one day when aBritish MP - Ashdown - arrived with TV cameras,followed by the Red Cross. "I still regard this as themost useful day's work I have done in politics,"Ashdown says.Another Serbian war criminal told him when they metthat he could take the besieged Sarajevo whenever heliked but, "if you are given the chance to kill anenemy or shoot his balls off, always shoot his ballsoff."The late Croat leader, Franjo Tudjman, sat next toAshdown at a dinner in London and sketched on the backof a menu a map showing how he intended to carve upBosnia. And Ashdown met Slobodan Milosevic, theSerbian former Yugoslav president, several times; mostrecently at the Hague where he testified against him.For all these reasons, Ashdown made a compellingchoice as high representative. "The job came up notonce but again and again. [Tony] Blair asked if Iwould allow my name to be put forward. I said no. Iwas still MP for Yeovil. I didn't believe in doing onejob until I had finished another." Ashdown stood downas Liberal Democrat leader in 1999 and retired fromthe Commons in 2001. In 2000 he was asked to take overin Bosnia.He agreed, and the appointment was ratified by the UNsecurity council. Thus a man who spent a significantpart of his career trying to get elected leader of hisown country found himself in charge of somebody else'scountry, and without any electoral mandate.On a sunny day in early autumn, Ashdown has come toMostar, a predominantly Muslim and Croat city in thesouth, to launch a new initiative, a commission,chaired by a foreign diplomat charged withstreamlining the city's expensive and inefficientgovernment. (Hospitals routinely send patients toSarajevo, three hours away, rather than to otherhospitals in Mostar regarded as serving a rival ethnicgroup.)The visit coincides with an important stage in therebuilding of Mostar's symbolic bridge, a medievalmasterpiece destroyed in hours in 1993. With Ashdownare his senior deputy high representative WernerWnendt, who is a German diplomat, and JulianBraithwaite, Ashdown's director of communications.They're here for a strategy meeting with JacquesAndrieu, the Frenchman recently appointed to run thehigh representative's Mostar office.Ashdown's face has caught the sun. His previouslyreddish hair is now mostly grey and he's craggier thanBritish voters may remember. In thoughtful moments,listening to others, he takes off his specs anddangles them from his mouth.At other times he pushes them up his forehead to stareout from beneath them. Trying out a line for the pressconference, he says: "This is a solemn week. We have amemorial to Srebrenica." (The massacre of more than7,000 Bosniaks, in September 1995, finally led todecisive international intervention.) But onecolleague advises against linking Mostar toSrebrenica, which is far away. "We will maybe losemore than we gain." Ashdown agrees. He tries anotheridea: "We are not just in the business ofreconstructing buildings" - the famous bridge - "butmen's minds."Finally, he runs through the names of the politiciansexpected to sign the new agreement - even setting upthe new commission requires a major signing ceremony."Do I announce the names? Mirsad? Is that right?Jelko? Zhelko? Poo-bah-cha?" But Braithwaite, thespin-doctor, suggests there may be a problem withcalling out names because somebody could be missing.Soon after the strategy meeting, and a morale-boostingspeech to staff, Ashdown paces out of the building,surrounded by security men muttering into microphoneshidden in their cuffs. The assassination in August ofSergio de Mello, the UN man in Baghdad, is not theonly reminder that Ashdown's job is potentiallydangerous: this afternoon he will visit the Swedishembassy to sign a book of condolence for the murderedminister Anna Lindh. As he strides along, people lookup from pavement cafes to say "Hello Paddy!" Threeyoung women, walking towards him, break into gigglesas he passes with a gruff "Hi!"Arriving at his destination, Ashdown sweeps past thepress photographers, up two flights of stairs and intoa meeting room with a mile-long table surrounded bynervously smiling men in cheap suits. They take theirplaces, ignoring the bottles of mineral water beforethem and the plastic ballpoints with which they willsign the agreement. A liberal party leader, ZlatkoLagumdzija of the SDP, has still not appeared, whichcould be disastrous - the SDP boycotted a previouscommission on Mostar (with which Ashdown was notinvolved) and Lagumdzija blames Ashdown for failing tosupport moderates at the recent election.Will he derail this commission too? No: he arrivesjust as the press and TV cameras are allowed in. "Hi!"says Ashdown jovially. "How are you, my friend?"inquires Lagumdzija. Everybody makes a speech. Thedeputy mayor, speaking last, affirms that he is trulya "great optimist". "You have to be," says Ashdown,"in this country. Thank you very much indeed. I don'tthink we could have got off to a better start. Perhapsnow we could pass the folders." And the agreement issigned by one and all.Meanwhile Braithwaite slouches in a corner seat,flicking through newspapers. The son of a careerdiplomat, he physically resembles the actor RupertGraves. But his professional ability, manner andvocabulary owe rather more to the four years herecently spent at 10 Downing Street working alongsideAlastair Campbell.In fact, Braithwaite is not a New Labour man - he's acivil servant, on secondment from the Foreign Office.A spell in Belgrade led to him marrying a local womanand achieving fluency in Serbian (or Bosnian as it iscalled here). When Ashdown spoke to him about the jobin Sarajevo, Braithwaite insisted that he must work onthe same basis as Alastair Campbell worked for Blair:at the heart of the decision-making process. So heusually knows what's going on. Ashdown confirms this:"You know the phrase of Richelieu or whoever, whenMetternich died? 'What can the old fox have meant bythat?' Julian is brilliant at understanding why anevent has taken place."And despite the late arrival of Lagumdzija,Braithwaite was right to worry that Bosnianpoliticians might not show up. Fatima Leho, localrepresentative of a Bosniak nationalist party, theSDA, has failed to materialise. Leaving the buildingwhen the ceremony is finished, Ashdown barks at acolleague scampering behind: "What is this SDAdisappearance?" She replies: "I don't know, but it'snot a good sign." Braithwaite, typically unruffled,plays it down. "The local bunch are headbangers," hetells me. "We hold the party as a whole to thisagreement. I'm amazed that only one person decided notto come. That's good by local standards."Among other commissions that Ashdown is setting up isone on defence. The idea is to knit together the twoarmies already run by the entities. In March, Nato'sBosnian peacekeeping force found plans in Banja Luka -headquarters of the Serb Republic - for an invasion ofthe Federation. "We used that to launch reforms," saysBraithwaite."The stick was that they had been planning to invadeeach other, so a minister had to resign. The carrot isthat, in principle, they can join Nato's Partnershipfor Peace, a waiting room for full membership. Theprofessional military desperately wants that, andpoliticians want it too because it's respectable.They will be able to tell citizens that they'redelivering a normal country again." But the commissionmust resolve the all-important details to make thispossible. "Compromise is a dirty word in this part ofthe world. It's seen as betrayal. It's very difficultto get to a position where no one gets everything buteveryone gets something," says Braithwaite.At a meeting on Bosnia's public broadcasting system, Isee for myself how hellish it can be to achieveconsensus. Twelve representatives, from three publicbroadcasters (State, Serb Republic and Federation)line up across the table from Ashdown, Braithwaite andWnendt. Also present is a representative of the BBC,acting as consultant.Ashdown opens the meeting with a robust warning. Ifthe people gathered here don't make the changes thatare necessary then Ashdown will make them himself. Ifthey do it, that will be regarded as a plus whenBosnia applies to join the EU; if Ashdown does it, aminus. He says he's sorry to speak so bluntly but theymust understand that just because he is handing overthe process to them that does not mean he doesn't careabout the outcome. Because he does. Then he leaves.For the following hour, precisely none of theindividual points in the draft law is discussed. Notone. Instead, there are speeches by politicians andbroadcasters drawing attention to the deep divisionsbetween them.These divisions are more complicated than one mightexpect: parties from the various ethnic communities,predictably, have their own interests. For instance,the group from the Serb Republic would prefer to keeptheir own modest broadcasting infrastructure thanshare something better with the Federation.But the ethnic groups are also divided amongthemselves. Politicians from both entities and at thestate level agree that they deserve more respect frombroadcasters. ("We are not savages!" says one.) Thebroadcasters, likewise, have shared interests: onepoints out that it's impossible to run a publicbroadcasting system if politicians, enraged by somepiece of reporting, successfully and with impunityencourage citizens to withhold subscriptions.Wnendt, the German diplomat, has a wonderfully drysense of humour - but he brilliantly conceals thisbeneath a stiff, formal appearance and unflappablegood manners. After each intemperate speech, relayedthrough headphones, he replies to the effect thatthese are interesting and valuable points which shouldbe borne in mind as the process goes forward. Then yetanother politician or broadcaster says, "If I may makeone more point..." and proceeds to do so.By the end of the meeting the BBC man looks shattered.He confides that this is "the second meeting fromhell" that he has attended, out of a grand total oftwo meetings. I suspect that, like me, he finds itbaffling that Bosnia's leaders can't just put theirgrudges behind them and concentrate on makingprogress.But that specimen of "common sense" is perhaps tooeasily adopted by outsiders - and takes insufficientaccount of the widespread feeling that justice has notbeen done and atrocities have not been avenged.Braithwaite, always optimistic, says brightly that themeeting went better than expected, because by the endthe group had at least agreed to take the draft law asa subject for discussion at the next meeting.Earlier this year, Ashdown was accused by the EuropeanStability Initiative, a think-tank, of running Bosnialike the British Raj. He brushes that off: "I havebeen criticised more strongly than that before.The thing that bothered me was not the language butthat they didn't speak to us. Most of the things theycriticised us for not doing we were doing already. Butthe questions that they ask are perfectly legitimate."Even if it's unfair to draw parallels with the Raj,Bosnia does resemble a colony. The mindset of itscitizens is cripplingly dependent - and this could bethe hardest thing to overcome."I'll give you an anecdote showing the attitude ofpeople here. On my first night I was asked to giveprizes in a football match. (I have stopped doing thatnow, because it's not my job to act like a president.)It had been a very bitterly fought game, and not everydecision of the referee was accepted. So one man cameup and said, 'What is the point of having you here, ifyou can't sack the referee?'"Ashdown frequently acknowledges the urgent need totransfer power. "When I started I said we wanted tohave a 'white dot' plan, because that is the lastthing you see when you turn off the TV. We are settingup institutions and then closing our own departments.But I can't tell you when we will leave."And who is taking over? Many - though not all --Bosnian politicians serve merely as puppets for otherswhose criminal records, including war crimes, rule outan official role. With no local constituencies,representatives are appointed from party lists andmake few direct appeals to voters. Ashdown, from theBritish political tradition, has made a goodimpression by talking to citizens, reports SeadNumanovic of Dnevni Avaz, Bosnia's bestselling dailypaper. At press conferences, Bosnia's weakerpoliticians typically ramble, so press and TVreporters instead use Ashdown's more appealingsoundbites. As a consequence - but also because of thefragmentary nature of Bosnia's community - Ashdown istwice as popular with voters as even the most favouredBosnian politicians. Which, though gratifying for him,will do nothing to advance his stated intention ofempowering the locals.At a press conference launching a draft law onBosnia's intelligence service, Ashdown takes care tolean far back in his chair so that he's out of thephotos showing prime minister Adnan Terzic shakinghands with the Hungarian diplomat who chaired theintelligence commission. Afterwards, from his officeupstairs, Braithwaite phones his counterpart inTerzic's office: "Tariq, it's Julian... Your primeminister did very well at the press conference. Shouldbe pictures of him shaking hands with [Kalman] Kocsison the front of tomorrow's papers."But this calculated boosterism is undermined, at thepress conference, by Terzic himself. Responding toqueries from journalists clutching freshly distributedcopies of the draft law, he says: "I wish to expressmy satisfaction and thanks for this. My informationtells me that it was drafted to European standards andin compliance with democratic control...Unfortunately, you journalists have read this lawbefore me so I can't answer your questions."Inevitably, somebody asks Ashdown: "Highrepresentative, how is it possible that the primeminister has seen this law only after journalists?"An hour later, sitting in the prime minister's officeacross the river I'm expecting Terzic to be enragedabout this embarrassment. But he appears to hold nogrudge; and is no less enthusiastic about Ashdown thanhe is about smoking cigarettes - which is to say, avery great deal. Indeed, he compares Ashdownfavourably with previous high representatives andhopes Ashdown will stay in Bosnia long enough tofinish the job ("I would like him to remain for thenext two years as my partner in closing down theoffice of high representative"). I'm puzzled by thisunexpected goodwill until Braithwaite later tells methe prime minister had seen the draft law - though notperhaps the latest print-out - and only denied havingseen it to distance himself publicly from Ashdown;with whom he does in fact get on well. Whatever thetruth of the matter, it's clear that Bosnia'spoliticians are not altogether to be regarded asmerely Ashdown's stooges and sidekicks.Indeed, Terzic believes that Bosnians employed by theoffice of the high representative (OHR) don't want tolose their highly paid jobs. The average salary, inBosnia, is about Â1,800 a year. OHR staff earn muchmore. Even some diplomats, Terzic hints, don't want tofinish the job in Bosnia because if they do they maybe posted somewhere less congenial, such as Liberia."It's much safer to work here." This may seem unlikelyto outsiders, but many Bosnians believe it."One of the things I have done aggressively was'Bosnianise' the OHR," says Ashdown. "We have kickedout a lot of the internationals." Roughlythree-quarters of OHR staff are Bosnian, but none ofthe half-dozen people gathered at Ashdown's morningmeeting. Today, the inner circle includes Wnendt, plusmembers of Ashdown's private office - a team thatincludes Braithwaite; head of the political departmentEd Llewellyn, who used to work with Margaret Thatcherand Chris Patten; and Julian Astle from the LiberalDemocrats.On Ashdown's large desk there are two trays: an 'In'tray and, less predictably, an 'Ian' tray, which isfor his personal adviser, Ian Patrick. The walls aredecorated with a map of Bosnia and political cartoonsrelating to Ashdown's previous life.After diary announcements, Braithwaite reads outnewspaper headlines relating to yesterday's work inMostar. "Ashdown will not allow domination of themajority," says one. Ashdown asks: "That report isfairly straight?" "Very much," says Braithwaite. "Andthe SDA doesn't figure at all. It only says thatFatima didn't show." Ashdown wants to know what theSDA's party leader says. This time Wnendt replies:"They're going to talk to her. This confirms thatthere is a difference between those in Mostar[Braithwaite's "headbangers] and those who are here."Ashdown: "We had a report from [Alija] Izetbegovic [aformer Bosnian president] that he is in favour.Julian, can you find some subterranean way to get thatout into the press?" Braithwaite: "I think it might bewise not to brief Izetbegovic." "He briefs me!" "Butwe have European standards." "Well, it would be niceif this fact got out there somehow."Julian Astle once said that working for Ashdown waslike being the Chinese student who stood in front ofthe tanks at Tiananmen Square. Ian Patrick talks about"hard-hat days". "I caught him saying that to Jane oneday," Ashdown admits. "I can be unbelievably rude, forwhat I think is incompetence. I can get impatient, butmy staff will say, 'You're wrong, Paddy.' In thiscountry, in this extraordinary job, you get crisescoming 10 to a box. You deal with issues of a sortthat will not often come up anywhere else. And theyall end up with me. So it can be quitenerve-wracking."The BBC journalist-turned-politician, Martin Bell, inhis new book Through Gates of Fire, describes visitingAshdown in Sarajevo. Ashdown told Bell there can besuch a thing as too much democracy. "When wars end,the west believes that what these countries need firstand foremost is immediate and abundant elections: justwave the magic wand of democracy and set the peoplefree to elect their own, and all will be well. Look atwhat we did here," says Ashdown. "We held electionsall over the place and as soon as we could, for alllevels of government. What we should have done was putlaw and order first. Once that is in place you havethe foundations for a real democracy." As Bellcomments, the same mistake has been made in Iraq."Liberation without law and order is not much of anachievement. It merely replaces tyranny with anarchy.""I'm a great UN supporter," says Ashdown, "but we needto know what the UN can do and can't do. One thing itcan't do is fight wars. But it has a role after thelegal war, if there is such a thing, in constructingthe legal peace. This is one of the world's greatgrowth industries. We have become extremely good atfighting these short, high-tech wars. But we are notso good at fighting what Kipling calls the 'bitter warof peace'. We are manifestly not very good at this. Weneed to make this something like a science. I haveargued that we need a kind of college to pass on theknowledge. A soldier has to make a gearshift frombeing in hot pursuit and a killing machine to beingalmost a policeman. To do that, they need to betrained. The British solder is like that, after longpractice. The American is not. But I'm not blamingthem."In every aspect of his work, Ashdown provides a modeleither to be followed or rejected in Iraq. But he'sreluctant to discuss the situation outside Bosnia. "Ido not allow myself the luxury of an opinion [on Iraq]because that would make my job more difficult. But Iwould say that you should beware of lightly and easilycommenting. Look at Europe in the late 1940s: couldyou ever have believed those nations would gettogether?"The University of Lausanne, he says, has shown thatcrimes against individuals are no more common inBosnia than in Switzerland. "We have freedom ofmovement, less violence in elections than in theBasque country or Northern Ireland, and a stablecurrency. But if you looked at this place in the 10thweek after the war it looked like a complete disaster.There were Serbs digging up their dead in Sarajevo,and Croat houses burning down. The world was full ofwiseacres making judgments."John-Paul Flintoff is contributing editor of the FTMagazinejohn-paul.flintoff@ft.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7332/1/E-ASHDOWNS-EDUCATION-MANIFESTO.html ÂASHDOWN'S EDUCATION MANIFESTOVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 987 - 10th October 2003Paddy Ashdown's manifesto commitments and his writingswhilst he was leader of the Liberal Democrats in theUnited Kingdom shed a lot of light on his policies inBosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, the details oneducation are of great importance, as that is a majorissue right now in BiH, especially for the Croats. AndAshdown's views are very close to the Croats. In BiH, reform of education is being debated byparliament. There is a push by the Organization forSecurity and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to placeeducation on the entity level away from the locallevel. In the Muslim-Croat Federation this would meancontrol passing to the education ministry in Sarajevo.Croats are very concerned about this; not unreasonablythey wish their children to be taught in their ownlanguage and about Croat culture, which they are ableto do now at local level. They believe this may becompromised if it is placed at entity level; theCroats are significantly outnumbered in the Federationby the Bosniaks. If a solution is not found, then Paddy Ashdown mayimpose one. If one considers his political trackrecord then in theory his solution would be somethingCroats find agreeable.In an interview for the Guardian last year, Ashdownstated that he is implementing the 1992 LiberalDemocrat manifesto in BiH. So it seems that Ashdown is drawing on his partypolicies as leader in running BiH. The 1992 electionmanifesto is very clear on education: Under "Puttingeducation at the heart of the community" they discussthe independence of schools and colleges and theirpioneering local management. They want educationwithin a "democratically accountable framework oflocal education authorities". Local educationauthorities in the UK roughly translates into cantonsin BiH, rather than the entities.The manifesto also says that education is an area that"should be devolved from Whitehall (centralgovernment) and brought nearer to the people they mostaffect."For Ashdown's 1997 manifesto - which I personallycampaigned for - previous ideas are built upon, withmore power to be given to schools. The "valuable role"of church schools is recognized, and where there issubstantial community support, the major faiths canestablish publicly funded voluntary schools. Furthermore, the role of national culture and languageis also regarded as important. The 1997 ScottishLiberal Democrat manifesto under "A new deal forGaelic and Scots culture", states they "will supportand maintain the diversity of Scotland's linguisticand cultural traditions." Specifically they willsupport and develop the provision of Gaelic ineducation and that they will "Promote a greateremphasis on Scottish culture in the mainstreamcurriculum".It is obvious from all this that Ashdown's commitmentsas party leader were to local control of school and astrong recognition and support of religion, languageand culture. The positive implications for Croats areclear. In 1994 Ashdown wrote a book entitled 'BeyondWestminster - Finding Hope in Britain'. Essentially hetraveled across the United Kingdom, includingdeprived areas, spending time with the diverse peopleof the country.In East London, he speaks approvingly of Saturdayschools run by and for ethnic minorities which "teachtheir religion, preserve their language and cultureand supplement mainstream education". Croats of courseare a constituent people, not an ethnic minority. Theyexpect mainstream schools to do their job rather thanhaving to organize separate schooling themselves. AndEast London is extraordinarily multi-cultural incontrast to BiH. The situations are very different. But the critical point here is that Ashdown supportsthe preservation of people's language, culture andreligions. In Beyond Westminster's conclusion Ashdown declareshis belief in local communities and people providingsolutions - not centralized government. In total, it is very clear that Paddy Ashdown'smanifesto commitments as Liberal Democrat leader andhis own words lean towards local control of education,an appreciation of religion in schools and supportingthe development of local language and culture. Thiscertainly would benefit Croats - but it also benefitsSerbs and Bosniaks as well. No one group should beable to dominate another in any field in BiH under theguise of unity - Serb domination in former Yugoslaviawas hardly a good idea. Croats should set about reminding Paddy Ashdown of hismanifesto commitments - and use them right now insupport of their case for their schoolchildren andstudents to be taught in their own language and abouttheir own culture.If Ashdown has to impose a solution, it will beinteresting to see what he does; I am sure manyobservers in Britain will be keen to see if he sticksto his principles. © Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 20 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7331/1/E-HUMAN-RIGHTS-WATCH-SHOULD-BE-HELD-TO-ACCOUNT.html ÂHUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SHOULD BE HELD TO ACCOUNTVIEWPOINT FROM LONDON by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 985 - 26thSeptember 2003The New York based human rights group Human RightsWatch (HRW) has released a report recently entitled"Broken Promises: Impediments to Refugee return toCroatia". This report criticises the Croatiangovernment over its record over Serb refugee return.The report is seriously flawed. It portrays an imageof Croat antipathy towards Serbs being based on purelyethnic grounds, as opposed to the more rationalgrounds of mass murder of thousands of Croats by theSerbs during the war. Furthermore, it uses a formerSerb occupation official in Croatia and Greater Serbiaenthusiast - the notorious Savo Strbac - as a"credible" source.The HRW report plays down the crimes of the Serbs andin particular the 'Republika Srpska Krajina' ('RSK'),the Serb occupation structure in Croatia. Moralequivalency between aggressor and victim runsthroughout the report. It implies that discriminationagainst Serbs is due simply to their ethnicity -something that no-one can justify. HRW emphasises thisby referring to a poll which states that over 80% ofCroats have no objection to marrying Italians andHungarians, but only 54% to Serbs. However, if thereis antipathy towards the Serbs, it is due to theircriminal behaviour during the war, not merely theirethnicity. The Serbs invaded, occupied and ethnically cleansedone third of Croatia. This involved the mass slaughterof up to 20, 000 Croats, ethnic cleansing of hundredsof thousands, the destruction of Vukovar and manyvillages, bombardment of Dubrovnik, Zadar, Osijek andother cities. Many Croatian Serbs participated in allthis. Those are the reasons why Croats have no greatlove for the Serbs. This is not to justifydiscrimination. But it does mitigate and provides amore rational reason for dislike of Serbs than simplebigotry. Indeed, that marriage poll shows over 50% ofCroats not objecting to marrying Serbs. Given thecircumstances, that demonstrates Croat tolerance, notbigotry. The report even fails to mention that the Serbs fledCroatia under the orders of the 'RSK' leadership -which they have admitted - in a well prepared processin order to settle in areas of Kosovo andBosnia-Herzegovina that had been cleansed ofnon-Serbs. Such an omission conveniently gives thewrong impression that Croats ethnically cleansed them.Serbian crimes are played down to prevent the Croatsbeing portrayed as victims; in light of the fullcircumstances few would agree to the pressure HRWdemands the international community put on Croatia.HRW's shameful omission of such information distortsthe entire report, and one can only conclude it waspolitically motivated to help the internationalcommunity have a stick to beat Croatia with. HRW are clearly unsympathetic to Croat suffering. Theyinsensitively demand the Croatian government "build apublic atmosphere in which the populace would welcomereturn of Croatian Serbs". What they mean is thatCroats should simply forget about the horrors ofVukovar etc. Many in the international community willbe delighted with HRW's crass comment - after all,many of them backed the Serbs during the war. Shockingly, the report also uses information from SavoStrbac and his Veritas organisation, of whom I havewritten before. In a footnote, we are informed thatthe information Strbac provides appears 'credible'. Weare told however, that the Croatian press considersStrbac to be biased. Strangely, HRW fails to inform uswhy. I am delighted to reveal what HRW don't want itsreaders to know. Mr Strbac is a Greater Serbia enthusiast. He was anoccupation official in the the 'RSK'. The 'RSK' waspart of the "joint criminal enterprise" - as definedin the Hague Milosevic Croatian indictment - tocleanse "Croat and other non-Serb population fromapproximately one third of the territory of theRepublic of Croatia". Strbac made his views well known during the occupationof Croatia. As 'government secretary' of the 'RSK' hetold Agence France Presse in 1995 that "Our final goalis union with other Serbs (in Bosnia and the Republicof Serbia)". Strbac's views have not changed;reportedly he still wants to restore the criminalenterprise of 'RSK' - presumably cleansed of its Croatpopulation. Don't take my word for it. Have a look atthe Veritas website at www.veritas.org.yu. The firstthing you see is Greater Serbia imagery. It gets worse. It emerged during the Milosevic trial -29 October 2002 - that Strbac was the head of a Serbbodies commission that exchanged bodies with a Bosniancounterpart. Horrifyingly, this involved one exchangewhich included six people murdered specifically forthis purpose. This incident is also related in theMay/June 2003 edition of the respected US journalForeign Affairs in an article by Gary J Bass. HRWshould be aware of it - they are quoted in the piece.It is disturbing to note also, that Strbac is a topadviser to the Hague Prosecutor - thus compromisingall their investigations into Croat crimes in Croatia.It beggars belief that such a man could be considereda reliable source. Surely Strbac is not the kind ofindividual any human rights group should takeseriously?Mr John Kraljic, President of the National Federationof Croatian Americans, wrote to HRW regarding MrStrbac's role in the report. HRW remarked on MrKraljic's comments in an email to a concerned memberof the public. Incredibly, they state that even ifeverything Mr Kraljic wrote was true it does notmatter because Strbac's information was "accurate" -apparently because it coincides with OSCE figures andanyway he is only mentioned in 8 footnotes out of 333.It does not seem to occur to HRW that the use ofStrbac casts a shadow over the entire report. Onewonders about the other sources they use. Furthermore,Strbac's views and background are well known inCroatia. What does that say about the biases of thosecompiling the report?Another source they use is the 'satirical' magazineFeral Tribune. This magazine insults people theydislike as 'Shit of the Week'. They also have'Championshit' and 'Shit of the year'. This is acredible source? And isn't that sort of language likethe 'hate speech' human rights groups are supposed tooppose? So what do we have in all? A report that implies someCroats antipathy towards Serbs is based purely onethnicity rather than Serbian war crimes, and whosesources include a Greater Serbia enthusiast and amagazine which labels people 'Shit of the Week'. Notvery good, is it? Lets be clear: Serbs should be treated lawfully andproperly, just like anyone else. But this report is adisgrace. Croat associations around the world - andall those concerned with human rights - should protestthis report to their elected representatives, NGO'sand the media. HRW are demanding others be held toaccount.Let us hold them to account. And whilst we do, lets aspare a thought for those people allegedly murdered tomake up that bodies exchange. Who is seeking justicefor them? Not Human Rights Watch, that's for sure. © Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 20 Oct 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7335/1/E-NATO-begins-joint-naval-exercise-off-Croatia.html ÂNATO begins joint naval exercise off CroatiaZAGREB (AFP) Sep 13, 2003A joint naval exercise led by 14 NATO and partner countries began Saturday off Croatia's Adriatic coast. The exercise, codenamed "Cooperative Engagement 2003," will continue until September 20, a defense ministry spokeswoman told AFP. The exercise, focused on sea-rescue and anti-mine operations, began with 10 naval vessels entering the port of Split, in Croatia's southern Dalmatia region. Taking part in the exercise will be some 500 troops, a dozen ships and five planes from NATO members Belgium, France, Greece and Italy, along with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Latvia, countries invited to join the alliance, partner countries Albania, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine, as well as Egypt and Algeria. Officials said the exercise was aimed at demonstrating NATO's capacity to integrate forces for partner countries in such operations. The Cooperative Engagement exercise takes place every two years. All rights reserved. © 2003Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 13 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7334/1/E-Croatian-in-Sea-Battle-with-Slovenia.html ÂCroatian in Sea Battle with Slovenia Slovene ambassador withdrawn as maritime dispute escalates.By Drago Hedl in Zagreb (BCR No 459, 12-Sep-03)Long-standing tensions between Croatia and Slovenia have escalated into a war of words over territorial claims to the Adriatic Sea.Croatia says it plans to forge ahead with asserting its economic rights to an area of water far out to sea, blocking free access to the Mediterranean for Slovenia. Analysts say the dispute reflects an obsolete nationalist approach to resolving foreign policy differences, at a time when both countries are seeking membership of the European Union, EU.Slovenia recalled its ambassador to Zagreb, Petar Bekes, "for consultations" on August 31, after Croatian foreign minister Tonino Picula confirmed that his country was determined to declare an Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, in the Adriatic. Picula made the remarks in an interview published in the newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija earlier the same day. The following day, Slovene foreign minister Dimitrije Rupel warned that once his country gets into the EU next May, it may not support Croatia's application to join in the next wave, expected in 2007.Croatia's government has indicated that its decision is final, and that it will be submitted to parliament in October, a move which seems to undercut the possibility of compromise at talks with Slovenia scheduled for September 16. The speaker of Croatia's parliament, Zlatko Tomcic, has denied accusations by his Slovene counterpart that Zagreb's stance on the EEZ is an electioneering tactic. The suggestion was that Prime Minister Ivica Racan's left-of-centre government, which faces an early general election in November, needed to do something to enhance its nationalist credentials. Croatia is claiming an EEZ under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which would give it a broad strip of the Adriatic all the way along its coast, extending much further than its current 12-mile territorial waters. It would not have full sovereignty over the area, but would have exclusive rights to fish and exploit mineral resources there. The latter aspect has become much more significant since the discovery of gas reserves in the Adriatic.Croatian officials have made it clear that they resent Slovenia's presumption that it can interfere in a decision that Zagreb can take unilaterally.Slovenia, with just 47 kilometres of coastline tucked into the northernmost corner of the Adriatic, faces the prospect of losing all claim to fishing and gas outside its own small offshore zone, and having its ships pass through foreign waters every time they head for the Mediterranean. "If all countries in the Mediterranean were to start proclaiming trade zones, there would be chaos," said Foreign Minister Rupel.Slovenia is not entitled to declare its own EEZ because its waters do not open onto the high seas. But in recent weeks its politicians and legal experts have been arguing that Croatia has no right to carve out a sector of the sea, because there has been no formal demarcation since the old Yugoslav state disintegrated. They say that as one of the inheritor countries, Slovenia should have a fair share of the former state's maritime territories.What makes the Slovenes even angrier is that they thought they already had a deal with the Croatians. The Piran Bay agreement, drafted in 2001, drew new lines on the map to give them a sea corridor to international waters in the Adriatic, squeezed between the 12-mile zones of Croatia and Italy. But Croatian politicians subsequently got cold feet on the deal, sensing that it was viewed as a territorial loss at home, and failed to ratify it. Picula's latest announcement that the EEZ was going ahead appears to have killed the Piran accord off completely. Faced with the spectacle of two prospective members quarrelling over borders, the EU has refrained from intervening but has urged both countries to negotiate a compromise solution. European officials hope that the September 16 bilateral talks will produce some kind of agreement.The two countries have a record of wrangling over unresolved ownership issues that are the legacy of the Yugoslav break-up. As well as a dispute over sovereignty in the Piran Bay, they have rowed publicly about the Krsko nuclear plant, built by both countries but located on Slovene territory, and about outstanding debts arising from Slovenia's now-defunct Ljubljanska Bank.Some local analysts are weary of what they see as a continuing pattern of confrontational behaviour, more reminiscent of the past than of a future within an integrated Europe. Slovene law professor Lojze Ude, who was involved in ratifying the UN convention on the sea when he was justice minister in the old Yugoslavia, says politicians on both sides are "slaves to nationalism".Damir Grubisa, an analyst at the Institute for International Relations in Zagreb, thinks politicians in both countries have failed. "Croatian and Slovenian politics long to distance themselves from the Balkans," he said. "Yet it could be said that they are led by typical Balkans politicians, in the derogatory sense of that phrase, used in both countries."Drago Hedl is an Osijek-based IWPR contributorhttp://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200309_459_3_eng.txt letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 13 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7333/1/E-Foreign-Debt-Will-Reach-21-Bln-By-Years-End.html ÂForeign Debt Will Reach 21 Billion By Year's End ÂZagreb, September 12, 2003 - Croatian National Bank Governor Zeljko Rohatinski said yesterday that measures enacted earlier this year to curb imports had proven effective and had not raised interest rates. Rohatinski added he did not believe interest rates would rise in the coming months either. At the same time, imports have continued to increase, although at a slower rate. The balance of payments deficit, which is affected by imports, would be lower if foreign owned banks and businesses had not transferred a billion US dollars in profits out of the country this year, Rohatinski pointed out. Nearly half of that amount accounted for foreign business bank profits, HIC reports. The Croatian National Bank believes that Croatia's foreign debt will continue to grow, reaching some USD 20.8 billion by the end of the year - an alarming 70 percent of the GDP. According to Rohatinski, there is no need for concerns if the growth of the deficit in the balance of payments can be curbed.http://www.southeasteurope.org/subpage.php?sub_site=2&id=9517&head=hl letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 13 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7336/1/E-Join-Me-On-Peace-Day---from-Congressman-Kucinich.html ÂFROM CONGRESSMAN DENNIS J. KUCINICHPS. After President Bush requested $87 billion more for war andoccupation, peace advocate, ice cream entrepreneur and Kucinichsupporter Ben Cohen explained what America could get for that amount of money: We could solve the school budgetcrisis in every community in America. Or we could provide healthinsurance for every uninsured American child for 15 years. Orwe could feed all 6 million children who die from hunger worldwidefor the next 7 years.Âfrom: info@kucinich.us to: letters@croatianworld.net Dear Friend,Many of you first heard about me as I led opposition to the Iraq war in the U.S. House of Representatives. Or after I'd launched my presidential campaign and surprised the cynics with a strong showing in the MoveOn primary. I thank you for supporting my efforts.I need your help again.I am asking you to join with me in celebrating the International Day of Peace on September 21st by participating in our Peace Day House Party Campaign.On the International Day of Peace, as designated by the United Nations, millions of people will come together with the common aspiration of creating a world based on a peaceful, just and sustainable future. I ask each one of you on that incredible day to join with others who share the vision of our presidential campaign.Of an America that once again will be the light of nations. Of an America that will lead the world toward peace, not to the specter of war without end.Of an America that stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and peace and freedom.To be part of our Peace Day House Party campaign, click here: http://www.kucinich.us/houseparty.htm This is a critical time in our campaign. When we file our fundraising report on September 30, the pundits and so-called "experts" will once again be looking for an excuse to dismiss us. While our message of peace and justice continues to draw thousands in state after state, the pundits only measure success in dollars and cents.Let's prove them wrong.We will never match the more corporate-friendly candidates in fundraising. But there is power beyond imagining in our common purpose. That is why your participation is so crucial, whether your house party can raise $100 or $1,000, or whether 2 people or 200 gather at your party. Because when thousands of us act together, we will change the outcome of this election.There are 13 days until the International Day of Peace. Invite your friends and neighbors to your party. All of us, together, will make our Peace Day campaign a powerful statement for a new America.Now is a great time to contribute to our campaign for peace, economic justice, equality and sustainability: https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php Sincerely,DennisPS. Please check out our website at http://www.kucinich.us and forward this email to others.Big Week for Kucinich info@kucinich.us Dear Kucinich Supporter,Thanks to you, we're on a roll.Our Peace Day House Parties are taking off (see below) and lastThursday, thousands of Kucinich supporters gathered in MEETUPS in morethan 200 cities and towns across the country to organize local groupsand campus chapters. As a Boston volunteer wrote: "They just keepgetting bigger and better." A Minneapolis activist commented: "It'sempowering to know there are other motivated Kucinich supporters outthere who can believe in a politics outside the corporate media."In that night's nationally-televised DEBATE in Albuquerque, Dennis wonbig applause when he distinguished himself from other candidates onissues like the bloated military budget, corporate trade treaties, andgetting the U.S. out of Iraq with "no more Halliburton sweetheart deals." Dennis' barb aimed at Gov. Dean was widely quoted in the media: "You can talk about balancing the budget in Vermont, but Vermont doesn't have a military. And if you're not going to cut the military, then what are you going to do about social spending?"On a Sunday TV politics show, one of the pundits made this observation:"Who's Howard Dean really worried about? I think he's worried aboutDennis Kucinich taking off left and populist votes in Iowa in thecaucuses."On Sunday night, Dennis issued a POWERFUL REBUTTAL to the Bush speech:"The President has been unable to produce evidence that this war wasfought over weapons of mass destruction. It is not too late for him toprove that it was not fought over oil. That can be done by returningcontrol of the oil to the Iraqi people." (At the United Nationsyesterday, Dennis reiterated these points at a news conference withreceptive journalists.)And finally, in just a few days after Dennis issued his call forsupporters to celebrate the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE -- Sept. 21 --by holding fundraising house parties, 290 people have already pledged to hold Peace Day parties in support of the Kucinich campaign. To join the Peace Day House Party movement, click here:http://www.kucinich.us/houseparty.htm If you can't participate in a Peace Day party, you can help the campaign by making a GENEROUS DONATION: https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php And don't miss TONIGHT'S DEBATE, sponsored by the Congressional BlackCaucus, on Fox News Channel (no joke!) at 8-9:30pm Eastern.Thanks again for your support.Jeff Cohenhttp://kucinich.us PS. After President Bush requested $87 billion more for war andoccupation, peace advocate, ice cream entrepreneur and Kucinichsupporter BEN COHEN (no relation) explained what America couldget for that amount of money: We could solve the school budgetcrisis in every community in America. Or we could provide healthinsurance for every uninsured American child for 15 years. Orwe could feed all 6 million children who die from hunger worldwidefor the next 7 years. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 11 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7337/1/E-VIEWPOINT-FROM-BRAC-A-PRO-CROATIA-PROPOSAL.html ÂVIEWPOINT FROM BRAC A PRO-CROATIA PROPOSALwww.croatiafocus.com by Brian GallagherThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 981 - 29th August 2003I write this from Croatia itself, specifically thebeautiful island of Brac. It seems an appropriate timethen to put forward a proposal to improve the Croatiansituation. Some form of pro-Croat political journal isneeded - for both a Croatian and internationalaudience - to be published in Croatia. It wouldcontain accurate information about the serious issuesthat face Croatia, and also rebut allegations andcharges made not only by the international media, butin some parts of the Croatian media. It's no secret that Croatia's image is not what itcould be. Unpleasant articles routinely appear in theinternational media, recently in the Guardian and inthe Canadian media. Further, internationally fundedgroups such as the Institute of War and PeaceReporting publish material that continually showsCroatia in a bad light. Much of this reporting has to do with issues such asCroatia's war for independence, the war in BiH and TheHague tribunal. And a lot of this reporting isinaccurate or biased. Croatian diplomacy does nothing,and consequently we have a situation in which Croatiais seen as being equally guilty with Serbia. Indeed,we seem to be moving into a situation where Croatia isseen as having been the aggressor. In discussion herein Croatia, it is clear that some in the Croatianmedia are also promoting an anti-Croat line -primarily magazines such as Feral Tribune, Globus andNacional. This may seem surprising, but there is aconstituency in Croatia for such material; essentiallythe losers in Croatian independence - or perhaps moreprecisely Croatian democracy. I.e. those circles thatwere privileged either by the communist party orSerbian elites or both - one should not forget thatYugoslavia in many ways was a Serb dominated racket,with all the human rights violations that entailed. What should emerge in Croatia is a monthly -regularity is important - journal that would bepublished in both Croatian and English - for theinternational audience - and would deal with Croatianissues in a serious way. Such a journal does not need to be something sold onevery news stand to be effective. For example, inBritain, the Eurosceptic European Foundation publishesthe European Journal, which is not widely availablebut does inform commentators and politicians. I am notsuggesting that such a journal be anti- EuropeanUnion, simply that its focus should be a pro-Croatone, something desperately needed. That said, some ofthe bizarre notions some Croats have about the EUcould be tackled. The attitude of Croat self-hatred by some, coupledwith continued Serb propaganda efforts and theCroatian government policy of silence will haveappalling effects on Croatia. Consider the economiceffect. Can Croatian business thrive in the worldmarket with such a negative political image of thecountry? I suspect not. It's a topic that Croatianbusiness people should really start thinking about.Perhaps they could sponsor such a journal. The journal could address topics such as Croatianinvolvement in the BiH war and the Gotovina case withreference to the evidence that is freely available innumerous documents and testimonies which nobody seemsto refer to - material beneficial to Croatia. Articlesabout the reality of Yugoslavia - UBDA and all therest of it - would also be a good thing, rejecting thefairy tale image of Yugoslav harmony in some quarters.It should also take time to refute the more damagingstories that appear in the Croatian press with hardevidence. It would have a bias towards currentaffairs, and highlight favorable developments abroad,such as Charles Shrader's book on the Muslim-Croatcivil war in BiH and Robin Harris' history ofDubrovnik. Indeed, such people should be invited tocontribute. Such an initiative would have to be done in Croatia;it can't be done by anyone else. The Croatian Diasporadoes what it can - and can help in this - but onlyCroats in Croatia can really change things. There areenough smart people in Croatia to make it work. Itshould certainly not be connected to any politicalparties. No-one on the Croatian political scene isdoing the work necessary to undo the political damagethat Croatia has suffered over the past few years. Toomuch effort, perhaps. An influential, respected,independent political journal could go a long way toensuring that a pro-Croat attitude - based on hardfacts and evidence - takes hold amongst the Croatianmedia and body politic, and indeed the internationalone."Wishful thinking" is no doubt one reaction to this.Quite probably, but a debate is needed about how torealistically change the Croatian situation - asituation which is currently not tenable at all.© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 01 Sep 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7338/1/E-Democracy-Revisited-transl-by-T-Sunic.html ÂDemocracy Revisited:The Ancients and the ModernsAlain de BenoistTranslated by Dr. Tomislav Sunic"The defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy," wrote George Orwell.1 This does not seem to be a recent phenomenon. Guizot remarked in 1849: "So powerful is the sway of the word democracy, that no government and no party dares to live, or thinks it can, without inscribing this word on its banner."2 This is truer today than ever before. Not everybody is a democrat, but everybody pretends to be one. There is no dictatorship that does not regard itself as a democracy. The former communist countries of Eastern Europe did not merely represent themselves as democratic, as attested by their constitutions;3 they vaunted themselves as the only real democracies, in contrast to the "formal" democracies of the West.The near unanimity on democracy as a word, albeit not always a fact, gives the notion of democracy a moral and almost religious content, which, from the very outset, discourages further discussion. Many authors have recognized this problem. Thus, in 1939, T.S. Eliot declared: "When a word acquires a universally sacred character . . . , as has today the word democracy, I begin to wonder, whether, by all it attempts to mean, it still means anything at all."4 Bertrand de Jouvenel was even more explicit: "The discussion on democracy, the arguments in its favor, or against it, point frequently to a degree of intellectual shallowness, because it is not quite clear what this discussion is all about."5 Giovanni Sartori added in 1962: "In a somewhat paradoxical vein, democracy could be defined as a high-flown name for something which does not exist."6 Julien Freund also noted, in a somewhat witty tone: To claim to be a democrat means little, because one can be a democrat in a contradictory manner-either in the manner of the Americans or the English, or like the East European communists, Congolese, or Cubans. It is perfectly natural that under such circumstances I refuse to be a democrat, because my neighbor might be an adherent of dictatorship while invoking the word democracy.7Thus we can see that the universal propagation of the term democracy does not contribute much to clarifying the meaning of democracy. Undoubtedly, we need to go a step further. The first idea that needs to be dismissed-an idea still cherished by some-is that democracy is a specific product of the modern era, and that democracy corresponds to a "developed stage" in the history of political regimes.8 This does not seem to be substantiated by the facts. Democracy is neither more "modern" nor more "evolved" than other forms of governance. Governments with democratic tendencies have appeared throughout history. We note that the linear perspective used in this type of analysis can be particularly deceiving. The idea of progress, when applied to a political regime, appears devoid of meaning. If one subscribes to this type of linear reasoning, it is easy to advance the argument of the "self-evidence" of democracy, which, according to liberals, arises "spontaneously" in the realm of political affairs just as the market "spontaneously" accords with the logic of demand and supply. Jean Baechler notes: If we accept the hypothesis that men, as an animal species(sic), aspire spontaneously to a democratic regime which promises them security, prosperity, and liberty, we must then also conclude that, the minute these requirements have been met, the democratic experience automatically emerges, without ever needing the framework of ideas.9What exactly are these "requirements" that produce democracy, in the same manner as fire causes heat? They bear closer examination. In contrast to the Orient, absolute despotism has always been rare in Europe. Whether in ancient Rome, or in Homer's Iliad, Vedantic India, or among the Hittites, one can observe very early the existence of popular assemblies, both military and civilian. In Indo-European societies kings were usually elected; in fact, all ancient monarchies were first elective monarchies. Tacitus relates that among the Germans chieftains were elected on account of their valor, and kings on account of their noble birth (reges ex nobilitate duces ex virtute sumunt). In France, for instance, the crown was long both elective and hereditary. It was only with Pippin the Short that the king was chosen from within the same family, and only after Hugh Capet that the principle of primogeniture was adopted. In Scandinavia, the king was elected by a provincial assembly; that election had then to be confirmed by the other national assemblies.Among the Germanic peoples the practice of "shielding"-or raising the new king on his soldiers' shields-was widespread.10 The Holy Roman Emperor was also elected, and the importance of the role of the princely electors in the history of Germany should not be neglected. By and large, it was only with the beginning of the twelfth century in Europe that elective monarchy gradually gave way to hereditary monarchy. Until the French Revolution, kings ruled with the aid of parliaments which possessed considerable executive powers. In almost all European communities it was long the status of freeman that conferred political rights on the citizen. "Citizens" were constituent members of free popular communes, which among other things possessed their own municipal charters, and sovereign rulers were surrounded by councils in the decision-making process. Moreover, the influence of customary law on juridical practice was an index of popular "participation" in defining the laws. In short, it cannot be stated that Europe's old monarchies were devoid of popular legitimacy.The oldest parliament in the Western world, the althing, the federal assembly of Iceland, whose members gathered yearly in the inspired setting of Thingvellir, emerged as early as 930 A.D. Adam von Bremen wrote in 1076: "They have no king, only the laws." The thing, or local parliament, designated both a location and the assembly where freemen with equal political rights convened at a fixed date in order to legislate and render justice.11 In Iceland the freeman enjoyed two inalienable privileges: he had a right to bear arms and to a seat in the thing. "The Icelanders," writes Frederick Durand created and experienced what one could call by some uncertain yet suggestive analogy a kind of Nordic Hellas, i.e., a community of freemen who participated actively in the affairs of the community. Those communities were surprisingly well cultivated and intellectually productive, and, in addition, were united by bonds based on esteem and respect.12"Scandinavian democracy is very old and one can trace its origins to the Viking era," observes Maurice Gravier.13 In all of northern Europe this "democratic" tradition was anchored in a very strong communitarian sentiment, a propensity to "live together" (zusammenleben), which constantly fostered the primacy of the common interest over that of the individual. Such democracy, typically, included a certain hierarchical structure, which explains why one could describe it as "aristo-democracy." This tradition, based also on the concept of mutual assistance and a sense of common responsibility, remains alive in many countries today, for instance, in Switzerland.The belief that the people were originally the possessor of power was common throughout the Middle Ages. Whereas the clergy limited itself to the proclamation omnis potestas a Deo, other theorists argued that power could emanate from God only through the intercession of the people. The belief of the "power of divine right" should therefore be seen in an indirect form, and not excluding the reality of the people. Thus, Marsilius of Padua did not hesitate to proclaim the concept of popular sovereignty; significantly, he did so in order to defend the supremacy of the emperor (at the time, Ludwig of Bavaria) over the Church. ÂThe idea of linking the principle of the people to its leaders was further emphasized in the formula populus et proceres (the people and the nobles), which appears frequently in old texts.ÂHere we should recall the democratic tendencies evident in ancient Rome,14 the republics of medieval Italy, the French and Flemish communes, the Hanseatic municipalities, and the free Swiss cantons. Let us further note the ancient boerenvrijheid ("peasants' freedom") that prevailed in medieval Frisian provinces and whose equivalent could be found along the North Sea, in the Low Lands, in Flanders, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Finally, it is worth mentioning the existence of important communal movements based on free corporate structures, the function of which was to provide mutual help and to pursue economic and political goals. Sometimes these movements clashed with king and Church, which were supported by the burgeoning bourgeoisie. At other times, however, communal movements backed the monarchy in its fight against the feudal lords, thus contributing to the rise of the mercantile bourgeoisie.15In reality, most political regimes throughout history can be qualified as mixed ones. "All ancient democracies," writes François Perroux, "were governed by a de facto or de jure aristocracy, unless they were governed by a monarchical principle."16 According to Aristotle, Solon's constitution was oligarchic in terms of its Areopagus, aristocratic in terms of its magistrates, and democratic in terms of the make-up of its tribunals. It combined the advantages of each type of government. Similarly, Polybius argues that Rome was, in view of the power of its consuls, an elective monarchy; in regard to the powers of the Senate, an aristocracy; and regarding the rights of the people, a democracy. Cicero, in his De Republica, advances a similar view. Monarchy need not exclude democracy, as is shown by the example of contemporary constitutional and parliamentary monarchies today. After all, it was the French monarchy in 1789 that convoked the Estates-General. "[D]emocracy, taken in the broad sense, admits of various forms," observed Pope Pius XII, "and can be realized in monarchies as well as in republics."17ÂLet us add that the experience of modern times demonstrates that neither government nor institutions need play a decisive role in shaping social life. Comparable types of government may disguise different types of societies, whereas different governmental forms may mask identical social realities. (Western societies today have an extremely homogeneous structure even though their institutions and constitutions sometimes offer substantial differences.)So now the task of defining democracy appears even more difficult. The etymological approach has its limits. According to its original meaning, democracy means "the power of the people." Yet this power can be interpreted in different ways. The most reasonable approach, therefore, seems to be the historical approach-an approach that explains "genuine" democracy as first of all the political system of that ancient people that simultaneously invented the word and the fact. The notion of democracy did not appear at all in modern political thought until the eighteenth century. Even then its mention was sporadic, frequently with a pejorative connotation. Prior to the French Revolution the most "advanced" philosophers had fantasized about mixed regimes combining the advantages of an "enlightened" monarchy and popular representation. Montesquieu acknowledged that a people could have the right to control, but not the right to rule. Not a single revolutionary constitution claimed to have been inspired by "democratic" principles. Robespierre was, indeed, a rare person for that epoch, who toward the end of his reign, explicitly mentioned democracy (which did not however contribute to the strengthening of his popularity in the years to come), a regime that he defined as a representative form of government, i.e., "a state in which the sovereign people, guided by laws which are of their own making, do for themselves all that they can do well, and by their delegates do all that they cannot do themselves." 18It was in the United States that the word democracy first became widespread, notably when the notion of "republic" was contrasted to the notion of "democracy." Its usage became current at the beginning of the nineteenth century, especially with the advent of Jacksonian democracy and the subsequent establishment of the Democratic Party. The word, in turn, crossed the Atlantic again and became firmly implanted in Europe-to the profit of the constitutional debates that filled the first half of the nineteenth century. Tocqueville's bookDemocracy in America, the success of which was considerable, made the term a household word. Despite numerous citations, inspired by antiquity, that adorned the philosophical and political discourse of the eighteenth century, the genuine legacy drawn from ancient democracy was at that time very weak. The philosophers seemed more enthralled with the example of Sparta than Athens. The debate "Sparta vs. Athens," frequently distorted by bias or ignorance, pitted the partisans of authoritarian egalitarianism against the tenets of moderate liberalism.19 Rousseau, for instance, who abominated Athens, expressed sentiments that were rigorously pro-Spartiate. In his eyes, Sparta was first and foremost the city of equals (hómoioi). By contrast, when Camille Desmoulins thundered against Sparta, it was to denounce its excessive egalitarianism. He attacked the Girondin Brissot, that pro-Lycurgian, "who has rendered his citizens equal just as a tornado renders equal all those who are about to drown." All in all, this type of discourse remained rather shallow. The cult of antiquity was primarily maintained as a metaphor for social regeneration, as exemplified by Saint-Just's words hurled at the Convention: "The world has been empty since the Romans; their memory can replenish it and it can augur liberty."20If we wish now to continue our study of "genuine" democracy, we must once again turn to Greek democracy rather than to those regimes that the contemporary world designates by the word. The comparison between ancient democracies and modern democracies has frequently turned into an academic exercise.21 It is generally emphasized that the former were direct democracies, whereas the latter (due to larger areas and populations) are representative democracies. Moreover, we are frequently reminded that slaves were excluded from the Athenian democracy; consequently, the idea emerged that Athens was not so democratic, after all. These two affirmations fall somewhat short of satisfying answers.Readied by political and social evolution during the sixth centuryb.c., as well as by reforms made possible by Solon, Athenian democracy entered its founding stage with the reforms of Cleisthenes, who returned from exile in 508 b.c. Firmly established from 460 b.c., it continued to thrive for the next one hundred and fifty years. Pericles, who succeeded Ephialtes in 461 b.c., gave democracy an extraordinary reputation, which did not at all prevent him from exercising, for more than thirty years, a quasi-royal authority over the city.22For the Greeks democracy was primarily defined23 by its relationship to two other systems: tyranny and aristocracy. Democracy presupposed three conditions: isonomy (equality before laws); isotimy (equal rights to accede to all public offices); and isegory (liberty of expression). This was direct democracy, known also as "face to face" democracy, since all citizens were allowed to take part in the ekklesía, or Assembly. Deliberations were prepared by the boulé(Council), although in fact it was the popular assembly that made policy. The popular assembly nominated ambassadors; decided over the issue of war and peace, preparing military expeditions or bringing an end to hostilities; investigated the performance of magistrates; issued decrees; ratified laws; bestowed the rights of citizenship; and deliberated on matters of Athenian security. In short, writes Jacqueline de Romilly, "the people ruled, instead of being ruled by elected individuals." She cites the text of the oath given by the Athenians: "I will kill whoever by word, deed, vote, or hand attempts to destroy democracy.... And should somebody else kill him I will hold him in high esteem before the gods and divine powers, as if he had killed a public enemy."24Democracy in Athens meant first and foremost a community of citizens, that is, a community of people gathered in the ekklesía. Citizens were classified according to their membership in a deme-a grouping which had a territorial, social, and administrative significance. The term démos, which is of Doric origin, designates those who live in a given territory, with the territory constituting a place of origin and determining civic status.25 To some extent démos and ethnos coincide: democracy could not be conceived in relationship to the individual, but only in the relationship to the polis, that is to say, to the city in its capacity as an organized community. Slaves were excluded from voting not because they were slaves, but because they were not citizens. We seem shocked by this today, yet, after all, which democracy has ever given voting rights to non-citizens?26The notions of citizenship, liberty, or equality of political rights, as well as of popular sovereignty, were intimately interrelated. The most essential element in the notion of citizenship was someone's origin and heritage. Pericles was the "son of Xanthippus from the deme of Cholargus." Beginning in 451 b.c., one had to be born of an Athenian mother and father in order to become a citizen. Defined by his heritage, the citizen (polítes) is opposed to idiótes, the non-citizen-a designation that quickly took on a pejorative meaning (from the notion of the rootless individual one arrived at the notion of "idiot"). Citizenship as function derived thus from the notion of citizenship as status, which was the exclusive prerogative of birth. To be a citizen meant, in the fullest sense of the word, to have a homeland, that is, to have both a homeland and a history. One is born an Athenian-one does not become one (with rare exceptions). Furthermore, the Athenian tradition discouraged mixed marriages. Political equality, established by law, flowed from common origins that sanctioned it as well. Only birth conferred individual politeía.27Democracy was rooted in the concept of autochthonous citizenship, which intimately linked its exercise to the origins of those who exercised it. The Athenians in the fifth century celebrated themselves as "the autochthonous people of great Athens," and it was within that founding myth that they placed the pivot of their democracy.28In Greek, as well as in Latin, liberty proceeds from someone's origin. Free man *(e)leudheros (Greek eleútheros), is primarily he who belongs to a certain "stock" (cf. in Latin the word liberi, "children"). "To be born of a good stock is to be free," writes Emile Benveniste, "this is one and the same."29 Similarly, in the German language, the kinship between the words frei, "free," andFreund, "friend," indicates that in the beginning, liberty sanctioned mutual relationship. The Indo-European root *leudh-, from which derive simultaneously the Latin liber and the Greek eleútheros, also served to designate "people" in the sense of a national group (cf. Old Slavonicljudú, "people"; German Leute, "people," both of which derive from the root evoking the idea of "growth and development"). The original meaning of the word "liberty" does not suggest at all "liberation"-in a sense of emancipation from collectivity. Instead, it implies inheritance-which alone confers liberty. Thus when the Greeks spoke of liberty, they did not have in mind the right to break away from the tutelage of the city or the right to rid themselves of the constraints to which each citizen was bound. Rather, what they had in mind was the right, but also the political capability, guaranteed by law, to participate in the life of the city, to vote in the assembly, to elect magistrates, etc. Liberty did not legitimize secession; instead, it sanctioned its very opposite: the bond which tied the person to his city. This was not liberty-autonomy, but a liberty-participation; it was not meant to reach beyond the community, but was practised solely in the framework of the polis. Liberty meant adherence. The "liberty" of an individual without heritage, i.e. of a deracinated individual, was completely devoid of any meaning.If we therefore assume that liberty was directly linked to the notion of democracy, then it must be added that liberty meant first and foremost the liberty of the people, from which subsequently the liberty of citizens proceeds. In other words, only the liberty of the people (or of the city) can lay the foundations for the equality of political and individual rights, i.e., rights enjoyed by individuals in the capacity of citizens. Liberty presupposes independence as its first condition. Man lives in society, and therefore individual liberty cannot exist without collective liberty. Among the Greeks, individuals were free because (and in so far as) their city was free.When Aristotle defines man as a "political animal," as a social being, when he asserts that the city precedes the individual and that only within society can the individual achieve his potential (Politics, 1253a 19-20), he also suggests that man should not be detached from his role of citizen, a person living in the framework of an organized community, of a polis, or a civitas. Aristotle's views stand in contrast to the concept of modern liberalism, which posits that the individual precedes society, and that man, in the capacity of a self-sufficient individual, is at once something more than just a citizen.30Hence, in a "community of freemen," individual interests must never prevail over common interests. "All constitutions whose objectives are common interest," writes Aristotle, "are in accordance with absolute justice. By contrast, those whose objective is the personal interest of the governors tend to be defective." (Politics, 1279a 17sq). In contrast to what one can see, for instance, in Euripides' works, the city in Aeschylus' tragedies is regularly described as a communal entity. "This sense of community," writes Moses I. Finley, "fortified by the state religion, the myths and traditions, was the essential source of success in Athenian democracy."31In Greece, adds Finley, "liberty meant the rule of law and participation in the decision- making process-and not necessarily the enjoyment of inalienable rights."32 The law is identified with the genius of the city. "To obey the law meant to be devoted with zeal to the will of the community," observes Paul Veyne.33 As Cicero wrote, only liberty can pave the way for legality: "Legum…servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus" ("We are the servants of the law in order that we can be free," Oratio pro Cluentio, 53.)In his attempt to show that liberty is the fundamental principle of democracy (Politics, VII, 1), Aristotle succeeds in de-emphasizing the factor of equality. For the Greeks equality was only one means to democracy, though it could be an important one. Political equality, however, had to emanate from citizenship, i.e., from belonging to a given people. From this it follows that members of the same people (of the same city), irrespective of their differences, shared the desire to be citizens in the same and equal manner. This equality of rights by no means reflects a belief in natural equality. The equal right of all citizens to participate in the assembly does not mean that men are by nature equal (nor that it would be preferable that they were), but rather that they derive from their common heritage a common capacity to exercise the right of suffrage, which is the privilege of citizens. As the appropriate means to this téchne, equality remains exterior to man. This process, as much as it represents the logical consequence of common heritage, is also the condition for common participation. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks it was considered natural that all citizens be associated with political life not by virtue of universal and imprescriptible rights of humans as such, but from the fact of common citizenship. In the last analysis, the crucial notion was not equality but citizenship. Greek democracy was that form of government in which each citizen saw his liberty as firmly founded on an equality that conferred on him the right to civic and political liberties.The study of ancient democracy has elicited divergent views from contemporary authors. For some, Athenian democracy is an admirable example of civic responsibility (Francesco Nitti); for others it evokes the realm of "activist" political parties (Paul Veyne); for yet others, ancient democracy is essentially totalitarian (Giovanni Sartori). 34 In general, everybody seems to concur that the difference between ancient democracy and modern democracy is considerable. Curiously, it is modern democracy that is used as a criterion for the democratic consistency of the former. This type of reasoning sounds rather odd. As we have observed, it was only belatedly that those modern national governments today styled "democracies" came to identify themselves with this word. Consequently, after observers began inquiring into ancient democracy, and realized that it was different from modern democracy, they drew the conclusion that ancient democracy was "less democratic" than modern democracy. But, in reality, should we not proceed from the inverse type of reasoning? It must be reiterated that democracy was born in Athens in the fifth century b.c. Therefore, it is Athenian democracy (regardless of one's judgments for or against it) that should be used as an example of a "genuine" type of democracy. Granted that contemporary democratic regimes differ from Athenian democracy, we must then assume that they differ from democracy of any kind. We can see again where this irks most of our contemporaries. Since nowadays everyone boasts of being a perfect democrat, and given the fact that Greek democracy resembles not at all those before our eyes, it is naturally the Greeks who must bear the brunt of being "less democratic"! We thus arrive at the paradox that Greek democracy, in which the people participated daily in the exercise of power, is disqualified on the grounds that it does not fit into the concept of modern democracy, in which the people, at best, participate only indirectly in political life.There should be no doubt that ancient democracies and modern democracies are systems entirely distinct from each other. Even the parallels that have been sought between them are fallacious. They have only the name in common, since both have resulted from completely different historical processes.Wherein does this difference lie? It would be wrong to assume that it is related to either the "direct" or "indirect" nature of the decision-making process. Each of them has a different concept of man and a different concept of the world, as well as a different vision of social bonds. The democracy of antiquity was communitarian and "holist"; modern democracy is primarily individualist. Ancient democracy defined citizenship by a man's origins, and provided him with the opportunity to participate in the life of the city. Modern democracy organizes atomized individuals into citizens viewed through the prism of abstract egalitarianism. Ancient democracy was based on the idea of organic community; modern democracy, heir to Christianity and the philosophy of the Enlightenment, on the individual. In both cases the meaning of the words "city," "people," "nation," and "liberty" are totally changed. To argue, therefore, within this context, that Greek democracy was a direct democracy only because it encompassed a small number of citizens falls short of a satisfying answer. Direct democracy need not be associated with a limited number of citizens. It is primarily associated with the notion of a relatively homogeneous people that is conscious of what makes it a people. The effective functioning of both Greek and Icelandic democracy was the result of cultural cohesion and a clear sense of shared heritage. The closer the members of a community are to each other, the more likely they are to have common sentiments, identical values, and the same way of looking at the world, and the easier it is for them to make collective decisions without needing the help of mediators.In contrast, having ceased to be places of collectively lived meaning, modern societies require a multitude of intermediaries. The aspirations that surface in this type of democracy spring from contradictory value systems that are no longer reconcilable with unified decisions. Ever since Benjamin Constant (De la liberté des anciens comparée à celle des modernes, 1819), we have been able to measure to what degree, under the impact of individualist and egalitarian ideologies, the notion of liberty has changed. Therefore, to return to a Greek concept of democracy does not mean nurturing a shallow hope of "face to face" social transparency. Rather, it means reappropriating, as well as adapting to the modern world, the concept of the people and community-concepts that have been eclipsed by two thousand years of egalitarianism, rationalism, and the exaltation of the rootless individual.Alain de Benoist is a leading French theoretician of the European New Right, the editor of Nouvelle École, and a principal founder of the Group for the Research and Study of European Civilization (GRECE). In 1978 he was awarded the Grand prix de l'essai de l'Académie francaise.Translated by Dr. Tomislav Sunicfrom the author's book Démocratie: Le problème (Paris: Le Labyrinthe, 1985)End Notes 1. George Orwell, Selected Essays (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1957), p. 149. 2. François Guizot, De la démocratie en France (Paris: Masson, 1849), p. 9. 3. Georges Burdeau observes that judging by appearances, in terms of their federal organization, the institutions of the Soviet Union are similar to those of the United States, and in terms of its governmental system the Soviet Union is similar to England. La démocratie (ParisÂ: Seuil, 1966), p. 141. 4. T.S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society (London: Faber & Faber, 1939). 5. Bertrand de Jouvenel, Du pouvoir (GenevaÂ: Cheval ailé, 1945), p. 411. 6. Giovanni Sartori, Democratic Theory (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1962), p. 3. 7. "Les démocrates ombrageux,"ÂContrepoint (December 1976), p. 111. 8. Other authors have held exactly the opposite opinion. For Schleiermacher, democracy is a "primitive" political form in contrast to monarchy, which is thought to correspond to the demands of the modern state. 9. "Le pouvoir des idées en démocratie,"Pouvoir (May 1983), p. 145. 10. Significantly, it was with the beginning of the inquiry into the origins of the French monarchy that the nobility, under Louis XIV, began to challenge the principles of monarchy. 11. The word "thing," which designated the parliament, derives from the Germanic word that connoted originally "everything that is gathered together." The same word gave birth to the English "thing" (German Ding: same meaning). It seems that this word designated the assembly in which public matters, then affairs of a general nature, and finally "things" were discussed. 12. "Les fondements de l'État libre d'Icelande: trois siècles de démocratie médiévale," in Nouvelle Ecole 25-26 (Winter 1974-75), pp. 68-73. 13. Les Scandinaves (Paris: Lidis [Brepols], 1984), p. 613. 14. Cf. P.M. Martin, L'idée de royauté, ... Rome. De la Rome royale au consensus républicain (Clermont-Ferrand: Adosa, 1983). 15. Here "democracy," as in the case of peasants' freedoms as well, already included social demands, although not "class struggle"-a concept ignored by ancient democracy. In the Middle Ages the purpose of such demands was to give voice to those who were excluded from power.ÂBut it often happened that "democracy" could be used against the people. In medieval Florence, social strife between the "popolo grosso" and the "popolo minuto" was particularly brisk. On this Francesco Nitti writes: "The reason the working classes of Florence proved lukewarm in defense of their liberty and sympathized instead with the Medicis was because they remained opposed to democracy, which they viewed as a concept of the rich bourgeoisie." Francesco Nitti, La démocratie, vol. 1 (Paris: Felix Alcan, 1933), p. 57.) 16. This opinion is shared by the majority of students of ancient democracies. Thus, Victor Ehrenberg sees in Greek democracy a "form of enlarged aristocracy." Victor Ehrenberg, L'état grec (Paris: Maspéro, 1976), p. 94. 17. Pius XII, 1944 Christmas Message: http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P12XMAS.HTM 18. M. Robespierre, "On Political Morality," speech to the Convention, February 5, 1794: http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/413/ 19. On this debate, see the essay by Luciano Guerci, "Liberta degli antichi e liberta dei moderni," in Sparta, Atene e i `philosophes' nella Francia del Setecento (Naples: Guido, 1979). 20. Camille Desmoulins, speech to the Convention, March 31, 1794. It is significant that contemporary democrats appear to be more inclined to favor Athens. Sparta, in contrast, is denounced for its "war-like spirit." This change in discourse deserves a profound analysis. 21. Cf., for example, the essay by Moses Finley, Démocratie antique et démocratie moderne (Paris: Payot, 1976), which is both an erudite study and a pamphlet of great contemporary relevance. The study is prefaced by Pierre Vidal-Naquet, who, among other errors, attributes to Julien Freund (see n. 7, above) positions which are exactly the very opposite of those stated in the preface. 22. To cite Thucydides: "Thanks to his untainted character, the depth of his vision, and boundless disinterestedness, Pericles exerted on Athens an incontestable influence.… Since he owed his prestige only to honest means, he did not have to truckle to popular passions.… In a word, democracy supplied the name; but in reality, it was the government of the first citizen." (Peloponnesian War II, 65) 23. One of the best works on this topic is Jacqueline de Romilly's essay Problèmes de la démocratie grecque (Paris: Hermann, 1975).  24. Romilly, Problèmes de la démocratie grecque. 25. The word "démos" is opposed to the word "laós," a term employed in Greece to designate the people, but with the express meaning of "the community of warriors." 26. In France, the right to vote was implemented only in stages. In 1791 the distinction was still made between "active citizens" and "passive citizens." Subsequently, the electorate was expanded to include all qualified citizens able to pay a specified minimum of taxes. Although universal suffrage was proclaimed in 1848, it was limited to males until 1945. 27. On the evolution of that notion, see Jacqueline Bordes, 'Politeia' dans la pensée grecque jusqu'à Aristote (ParisÂ: Belles Lettres, 1982).  28. Nicole Loraux interprets the Athenian notion of citizenship as a result of the "imaginary belonging to an autochthonous people" (Les enfants d'Athéna. Idées athéniennes sur la citoyenneté et la divison des sexes [Paris: Maspéro, 1981]). The myth of Erichthonios (or Erechtheus) explains in fact the autochthonous character and the origins of the masculine democracy, at the same time as it grafts the Athenian ideology of citizenship onto immemorial foundations. 29. Emile Benveniste, Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, vol. 1 (ParisÂ: Minuit, 1969), p. 321. 30. On the work of Aristotle and his relationship with the Athenian constitution, see James Day and Mortimer Chambers, Aristotle, History of Athenian Democracy (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1962). 31. Finley, Démocratie antique et démocratie moderne, p. 80. 32. Finley, Démocratie antique et démocratie moderne, p. 141. 33. Veyne adds: "Bourgeois liberalism organizes cruising ships in which each passenger must take care of himself as best as he can, the crew being there only to provide for the common goods and services. By contrast, the Greek city was a ship where the passengers made up the crew." Paul Veyne, "Les Grecs ont-ils connu la démocratie?" Diogène October-December 1983, p. 9. 34. For the liberal critique of Greek democracy, see Paul Veyne, "Les Grecs ont-ils connu la démocratie?" and Giovanni Sartori, Democratic Theory (see n. 6 above). http://theoccidentalquarterly.com/ The Occidental Quarterly: Volume 3, Number 2 - Summer 2003 translated from French into English by T. Sunic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 31 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7339/1/E-VIEWPOINT-FROM-LONDON.html ÂViewpoint from LondonCharles R Shrader's A Military HistoryTHE SARAJEVO-BELGRADE DEALBy Brian Gallagher The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 974 - 11 July 2003Did the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina supportBelgrade during the Serbian invasion of Croatia in1991? This is a question worth looking at especiallyin light of a new history of the Muslim-Croat war byAmerican military historian Charles R Shrader. It isbeing publicised as reaching 'uncomfortable'conclusions. These conclusions are that Croats wereoutgunned and on the defensive in that conflict; not aview that will not go down well in some circles. Givensuch re-assessment, it is worth looking at Sarajevo'sbehaviour towards Croatia in 1991. Much is made of the alleged deal between FranjoTudjman and Slobodan Milosevic to partitionBosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). In their noted history "TheDeath of Yugoslavia", the authors Laura Silber andAllan Little make the rational point that thisagreement did not last long, as the Serbs made theirmove against Croatia shortly after it. This allegedagreement is much aired, especially in regard to theMuslim-Croat war. It no doubt serves the purposes ofmany in different ways such as the internationalcommunity, the Serbs, some Croatian politicians, andfor obvious reasons the Bosnian government of thetime. It is in Silber/Little's work that we find somedisturbing facts about the behaviour of the thenSarajevo government that the publicity around thealleged Milosevic/Tudjman deal has helped obscure.Tudjman had put feelers out to BiH PresidentIzetbegovic's government via its Croat members aboutopening a second front against the Serbs using the BiHTerritorial Defence forces (TO). However, pro-BelgradeBosniak Interior Minister Alija Delimustafic hadalready placed the BiH TO on Belgrade's side. Heagreed to allow the Yugoslav Army (JNA) to use BiH asa command base to attack Croatia. JNA GeneralKadijevic agreed with the Bosnian leadership to set upjoint patrols. This help was highly significant. Silber/Little quoteno less a figure than JNA counter-intelligence chiefAleksander Vasiljevic on the matter. He states howjoint Bosnian/JNA patrols and checkpoints were set upprevent armed movements by paramilitaries and tofacilitate for JNA movements. BiH was needed to getthe JNA to Knin in Croatia. Vasiljevic clearly thinksthat Bosnian help to the JNA was instrumental: "Ifthey had not got through we would never have been ableto fight. Bosnia was our corridor to Krajina (occupiedCroatia)". This obviously reflects on Delimustafic's boss,President Izetbegovic. Izetbegovic respected andfeared the JNA, praising it at one point as a"stabilising effect" in BiH - blaming reservists fortrouble. He had agreed with Kadijevic to jointBosnian/JNA patrols. Indeed, when there were murders of muslims by Serbs inthe town of Bijeljina in 1992, Izetbegovic - underpressure - invited in the JNA to the town. This,despite the JNA slaughter of Croats in Croatia.Furthermore, the JNA had the previous year attackedand destroyed the the Bosnian Croat town of Ravno. TheJNA had already shown aggression towards BiH yetIzetbevovic invited them to Biljeljna. The non-Serbpopulation was swiftly ethnically cleansed. Littlewonder that many Bosnian Croats did not trustSarajevo. Silber/Little shy away from the implications of theagreements with Belgrade. But it is fairly clear fromthis that Sarajevo supported Serbian aggressionagainst Croatia, prior to the Serbs all-out attack onBiH. This needs more exploration, especially given thehigh profile claims regarding Croatia's role in BiHduring the war. This matter should not detract from the reality ofSerbian aggression against BiH, nor does it mitigateany Croat atrocities committed against Muslims. Norindeed should it detract from many Bosniaks whosupported Croatia. But Sarajevo's role in supportingBelgrade's criminal enterprise against Croatia in 1991is a matter that is long overdue for properexamination.*For those interested, Charles R Shrader's "TheMuslim-Croat Civil War in Bosnia : A Military History"should be available this month, published by Texas A&MUniversity Press Consortium ; ISBN: 1585442615© Brian Gallagher My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter atwww.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 20 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7340/1/E-IRISH-PARLIAMENT-VISITS-CROATIAN-PARLIAMENT.html ÂIRISH PARLIAMENT DELEGATION VISITS CROATIAN PARLIAMENTDeputy Prime Minister Mate Granic met with the delegation of the Irish parliament visiting Croatia Tuesday when he informed the delegation on the political and economic situation in Croatia. The Irish parliament delegation, led by the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Woods, has expressed full support for Croatia's efforts to become a full member of the European Union and offered assistance in achieving this goal. Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic and the Irish guests also discussed ways of strengthening cooperation between the two parliaments  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 16 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7341/1/E-MESIC-KATSAV-ATTEND-CROATIAN-ISRAELI-BUSINESS-FORUM.html ÂCroatia - Israel , new pageMoshe Katsav, president of Israel, left and Croatian president Stjepan Mesic listens the national enthems during their meeting in capital Zagreb on Friday July 11, 2003. During the 3-day visit to Croatia , Moshe Katsav will go to Dubrovnik and a WW II concentration camp of Jasenovac.(AP Photo/Hrvoje Knez) July 11, 2003. MESIC, KATSAV ATTEND CROATIAN-ISRAELI BUSINESS FORUMPresidents Stjepan Mesic and Moshe Katsav on Friday held speeches at the opening of a forum of Croatian and Israeli business people at the Croatian Chamber of Economy, saying that there were great possibilities of enhancing bilateral economic cooperation.President Mesic said that there were no open issues between Croatia and Israel and that the legacy of the past no longer burdened bilateral ties, adding that the two countries had already signed numerous bilateral agreements. President Katsav described relations between the two countries as friendly and expressed hope that Israel could be a very good partner of Croatia. He also met with representatives of the Croatian Jewish community on Friday and expressed satisfaction with the position of Jews in Croatia. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 14 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7342/1/E-CROATIA-AND-EU-ASYLUM-SEEKERS.html ÂCROATIA AND EU ASYLUM SEEKERSVIEWPOINT FROM LONDONÂThe Croatian Herald, Australia No. 972 - 27 June 2003It appears that - despite denials - some form ofasylum seekers camp has been seriously considered tobe set up in Croatia to handle asylum seekers who wishto enter the UK or European Union. In this column of30 May it was predicted that such camps would producetremendous bad publicity for Croatia. Sadly, this hasproved to be correct. At the same time, the wholeconcept has run into political trouble.ÂOn Sunday 15 June Britain's top selling newspaper 'TheObserver', ran a front-page story entitled "SecretBalkan camp for UK asylum seekers". The sub-headlineran as "Britain to ship refugees to Croatian army basefor offshore processing". The story was highlycritical of the entire idea of such camps. It waspointed out that these camps could present humanrights concerns; i.e. is Croatia up to providing suchstandards? Furthermore, Croatia was firmly identifiedas a "Balkan" state. The article pointed out that thiscamp is the vanguard of a network of camps to be setup in "conflict regions".ÂThis was a public relations disaster for Croatia. TheObserver is a top selling newspaper in Britain, andthis story glared out of every newsagent in the land.Other UK and international media picked up the story.ÂCroatia to many people must have come across as a'conflict region' which cannot be trusted on humanrights. Not a good advert for tourism. Or anythingelse. This proposed network is designed to beconstructed outside of the EU - clearly Croatia is notjoining the EU anytime soon.ÂThe whole PR disaster could have been avoided; Croatiashould not have got involved, regardless of anypressure. The bad publicity outweighs any possibleadvantage.ÂMany, not just in this column, pointed out thenegative effects for Croatia hosting such a camp. Therespected Hilda Foley of the Croatian American Society- and who is also media director of the NationalFederation of Croatian Americans - wrote in March andMay to the Croatian president and government on thematter. She received no reply. Zagreb cannot say itwas not warned. It seems the Croatian government wentinto this without any concern over the negativepublicity for Croatia this would create - publicitythat could harm Croatia's tourist trade.However, the entire project has run into politicalproblems. The Financial Times has stated that TonyBlair had to backtrack on these plans. Countries suchas Germany and Sweden are none too keen on them. TheUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has alsocriticized the plans. The UNHCR believes the EU shouldprocess its asylum seekers within the EU.ÂAs for the camp in Croatia at Trstenik, it's now beingclaimed it's for asylum seekers to Croatia; but why isthe EU involved in its construction? The EUinvolvement allows the UK to deny everything. It alsoallows for the camp's purpose to be convenientlychanged at some point in the future to accommodateasylum seekers to the EU. They would claim it's anatural development, given the EU's role in itsconstruction.ÂThe UNHCR is right; the EU's asylum seekers should bedealt with in the EU. They should not be transferredto other countries. Croatia needs to develop an imageof a peaceful, stable country - not one involved innegative controversies such as this. Croatia shouldensure that it stays out of these UK/EU asylum plans.Otherwise it can look forward to more bad headlines inthe European press.© Brian GallagherÂMy 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightlyin the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter at www.croatiafocus.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jul 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7344/1/E-Vote-Confirmation-for-MoveOn.html Âwww.MoveOn.orgÂÂÂFrom:info@moveonpac.orgÂTo: Letters@CroatianWorld.netÂÂDear friend,ÂThank you for voting in the MoveOn Primary! You voted for: Dennis KucinichÂIf you would like to change your vote, you can do so by using your email ballot link again:Âhttp://www.moveon.org/pac/primaryDo not forward this email to anyone else, as that would enable others to change your vote.ÂPlease consider supporting our work with a financial contribution. MoveOn.orgÂPAC operates with very low overhead and rarely asks for direct contributions.ÂYour donation will help us continue our work, as well as to expand into newÂefforts in the coming election cycle such as voter registration, GOTVÂefforts and new and innovative political advertising projects.ÂClick here to make a secure donation to MoveOn.org PAC.ÂThank you for participating in the MoveOn Primary,--The MoveOn PAC TeamÂSecond Choice: John Kerry letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 30 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7343/1/E-Acute-Slavophobia-By-Jeffrey-T-Kuhner.html ÂAcute SlavophobiaThe Washington TimesÂwww.washingtontimes.comÂÂÂAcute SlavophobiaBy Jeffrey T. KuhnerTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished June 1, 2003 It is commonly believed the scourge of racism has been eradicated in theÂWest. Indeed, significant advances have been made in how Western societiesÂtreat historically discriminated minorities such as blacks, Hispanics andÂwomen. Yet there is one ethnic group that continues to be the victim ofÂwidespread discrimination and even hatred: the Slavs. For example, this subtle but nevertheless real prejudice against theÂSlavs can be seen in academia. Although the Holocaust and the evils ofÂfascism have been condemned by most scholars, the crimes of communism remainÂlargely ignored. Marxism-Leninism produced the greatest system of massÂmurder in history, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 million people -Âa considerable percentage of whom were Eastern European Slavs. During the 1930s, communist dictator Josef Stalin systematically starvedÂto death 7 million Ukrainians in one of the most murderous genocides of theÂ20th century. Yet the suffering of Ukraine under Stalin's totalitarianÂempire has been largely forgotten. The same is true of the other victims ofÂthe Marxist project such as the Russians, Poles, Croats, Slovaks and SerbsÂwho in total lost millions of people to state-sanctioned murder. Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution, onceÂstated that the "Slavs are a historyless people." This comment is not onlyÂfalse, but more importantly, it reflects the deep-seated racism of many inÂthe West's political class who continue to view Eastern Europe as aÂprimitive backwater that is not part of European civilization. A clear example of this hostility toward the Slavs was the creation ofÂYugoslavia following the end of the First World War. The establishment of aÂgreater South Slav state violated U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's principleÂof national self-determination. Forged by Western powers to serve as aÂbulwark against Germany and Austria, Yugoslavia was a Serb-dominated,Âmultinational empire that abrogated the national aspirations of its subjectÂpeoples - Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians andÂMontenegrins. Subsequently, while Western leaders as diverse as Franklin Roosevelt,ÂPierre Trudeau and the first George Bush championed the right toÂself-determination for peoples in India, Africa, the Middle East and LatinÂAmerica, they were reluctant to grant the same rights to the enslavedÂnations of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. As late as August 1991, on theÂeve of Ukraine's historic vote for independence, Mr. Bush warned UkrainiansÂof the dangers of "suicidal nationalism." As Yugoslavia began to fall apart in the 1990s, the West at firstÂrefused to grant diplomatic recognition to the breakaway republics ofÂSlovenia and Croatia, then watched passively as Serbian President SlobodanÂMilosevic waged ethnic cleansing campaigns against the Croats, BosnianÂMuslims and Kosovar Albanians. It took the death of nearly 250,000 peopleÂand the displacement of 2 million civilians before NATO finally decided toÂintervene to stop Mr. Milosevic's genocidal rampage. This contrasts sharply with the eagerness of Western governments toÂrecognize the independence of India in 1947; the myriad African nations inÂthe 1960s; Bangladesh in 1971; the Baltic States and East Timor during theÂ1990s. Apparently, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Croats and Bosnians are not asÂworthy of statehood as other non-Slavic peoples. Modern-day Slavophobia can also be seen in the recent indictments issuedÂby the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). ItsÂchief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, is seeking to prosecute leading CroatianÂgenerals on trumped-up charges that would be laughed out of any WesternÂcourtroom. Take the case of Gen. Ante Gotovina. He led the 1995 military operationÂthat ended the Croat-Serb war. The general is being prosecuted not forÂhaving committed or ordered war crimes, but for failing to have preventedÂisolated atrocities by individual soldiers during the three-day offensive.ÂThis is the equivalent to holding Gen. Wesley Clark legally responsible forÂthe deaths of civilians during NATO's 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia. The ICTY is determined to indict leading Croatian generals in order notÂto appear biased against the Serbs. This means innocent Croats are beingÂsacrificed for the sake of a policy of ethnic balance. Not only is this anÂunacceptable manner to run a court, but worse, it reflects the WesternÂdismissal of the rights of individuals in the Balkans. Are individual CroatsÂmere cattle that can be exchanged in order to propagate the myth that theÂICTY is evenhanded? A similar indictment against Gen. Clark - or any American - wouldÂrightly be unacceptable to Washington. It would demand that the charges beÂdropped immediately. But in the case of Gen. Gotovina, the State DepartmentÂis insisting that Croatia hand him over to the tribunal. Ironically, evenÂSerbian human-rights activists have stated that the general is innocent. Gen. Gotovina is obviously the victim of a racist judicial witch hunt.ÂToo bad he is a Croatian. Otherwise, Western leaders might actually care. Jeffrey T. Kuhner is an assistant national editor at The Washington Times. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 30 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7345/1/E-If-Croatia-enters-the-EU-by-2007-the-others-would-take-longer.html  If Croatia enters the EU by 2007 the others would obviously take longerÂEU-BALKANS SUMMIT: THE 255 TRACE A ROAD MAP FOR THE AREA(AGI) - Porto Carras, Greece, June 21 - "An eastern Balkan enclave" is not conceivable for the EU, according to the results of the first summit between the EU and Albania, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Croazia, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro which took place in Porto Carras, near Salonicco, where an agenda for the joining of these countries to the EU was decided upon. "It is a kind of road map with no dates set, which contains all of Europe's requests" starting from an increase in the fight against organized crime and corruption, which are the true "obstacles" to the stability and development in the area, explained the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini.A positive sign came from the announcement made by Javier Solana which stated that Serbia-Montenegro and the authorities from Kosovo will begin a direct dialogue "on matters of reciprocal interest" by the end of July, which is the possible premise for the final definition of the Serb province's status.The EU has confirmed 20 million euro extra to be added to the 4.6 million it had already allocated for 2004-2006 to help the economic and judiciary reforms in the eastern Balkans. If Croatia, together with Bulgaria and Rumania, managed to enter the Union by 2007 the others would obviously take longer. Yet the Union has guaranteed in the final document that "the future of the Balkans lies in the hands of the EU and the procedure's speed depends on the countries in the region"."Europe's unification process will not be complete until the Balkan countries will have become EU members", said Romano Prodi. The President of the European Commission and asked "all the leaders of the area to work well and to continue the reforms, making sure that the necessary funds are allocated". Europe has already allocated abundant funds: more than 7 billion euro from 1991 for only 5 countries. Presently in the Balkan area 5.8 billion euros worth are invested in the stability pact for south-eastern Europe, between the Commission and the individual countries.The summit, to which the leaders and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 15 countries participated as well as the three candidates (Bulgaria, Rumania and Turkey) and the representatives of the eastern Balkans, will be repeated during Italy's turn to chair. Frattini announced that in the following summit there will also be a meeting among the Ministers of Internal Affairs so as to "make the stability and security policies more central".The EU-Balkan summit took place on the last day of the Porto Carras meeting which was centered on the European Council which ended the Greek presidency and began the Italian one, officially to begin on July 1. The Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, and Frattini left for Rome in the late morning. (AGI) Source: http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200306211551-0066-RT1-EST-0-NF11,EU01&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 21 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7346/1/E-Kucinich-doubles-speaking-trips-in-02-reports-show.html  Kucinich doubles speaking trips in '02, reports show ÂSabrina Eaton Plain Dealer BureauWashington - In the months before U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland declared his presidential candidacy, he ramped up the number of trips he took at the expense of out side groups, according to finan cial disclosure reports released yesterday by the House. Kucinich, who officially joined the Democratic presiden tial race in February, went on 14 trips in 2002 compared with six in 2001. From Our AdvertiserLast year, Kucinich traveled to Sweden at the expense of Par liamentarians for Global Action. The Praxis Peace Institute paid for him to visit Croatia. Ameri cans for Democratic Action paid for Kucinich to visit Los An geles, and the United Steel workers of America and the Na tional Nutritional Foods Association paid for separate trips to Las Vegas. Kucinich spokesman Doug Gordon said his boss traveled more last year because he was deluged with speaking requests after his popular February 2002 anti-war "Prayer for America" speech in Los Angeles. Gordon said that when Kucinich began to consider running for presi dent and his trips became more political, his campaign commit tee began to foot the travel bills. The last trip listed on Kucinich's report was in August. Kucinich's report also shows he donated $3,000 he received in speaking fees to the Nizhoni School for Global Consciousness in New Mexico. Gordon said it is a charity that teaches nonvio lence and peace. Kucinich last year repaid a personal debt of between $15,000 and $50,000 to Cleve land developer James Carney, but still owes a similar amount to another friend, actress Shir ley MacLaine, the disclosure statement shows. It indicates Kucinich's net worth is less than $32,000. His main assets are bank and retirement accounts. Although some Ohio mem bers of Congress, such as Re publicans Paul Gillmor of Old Fort, Rob Portman of Cincin nati, David Hobson of Spring field, and John Boehner of West Chester all filed disclosure statements that show more than $1 million in assets, those who represent Northeast Ohio are considerably less wealthy. Lawmakers are not required to disclose the value of their homes. Most members draw a House salary of $150,000, though a few in leadership posi tions make more. Navarre Re publican Rep. Ralph Regula has the most assets, with property worth more than $565,000. He has more than $250,000 in stocks and savings at United Bank, as well 200 acres in Stark County and a partnership in his family's farm equipment busi ness, both worth more than $100,000. He took trips to Mi ami, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Fla., and New York. Toledo Democrat Marcy Kap tur was a distant second, with more than $219,000 in assets, including a rental property in Toledo, savings bonds and mu tual funds. The report shows she took three trips: to Russia, Cuba and the New York Stock Exchange. Lorain Democrat Sherrod Brown indicated his assets, which include bank and retire ment accounts, mutual funds and a farm, are worth more than $72,000. He took eight free trips to places including Taipei, Shanghai, London, Mos cow and Mexico City. Madison Republican Steve LaTourette's report showed he has more than $15,000 in a sav ings account, and his wife made $26,000 working for the city of Willoughby last year. LaTou rette did not report any trips. Niles Democrat Timothy Ryan's report detailed that he made $57,400 last year as an Ohio state senator. The only as set he listed is a retirement ac count valued between $1,000 and $15,000. He owes the Sec ond National Bank of Ohio be tween $15,000 and $50,000, the report said. Cleveland Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones ob tained an extension to file her report late. Her acting commu nications director, Nicole Wil liams, said it would be com pleted as soon as possible. The House financial records showed that, in general, the lawmakers are more comfort able than the average American, according to the Associated Press. For instance, the top Democrat in the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, re ported owning vineyards and other properties worth between $8.8 million and $37.5 million, making her far wealthier than her Republican counterpart, Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illi nois, who listed assets of about $500,000. The Senate released financial disclosure reports on Friday. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: seaton@plaind.com, 216-999-4212 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 17 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7348/1/E-Belgrade-youths-set-fire-to-a-Croatian-flag-June-2003.html ÂSerbs set fire to a CroatianEmbassy flag in BelgradeBelgrade youths set fire to a Croatian flag with a flare as they celebrate the victory by the Serbia-Montenegro national water polo team, at the European Water polo Championships in Belgrade, June 15, 2003. Serbia and Montenegro beat Croatia in the final match 9-8. REUTERS/Ivan MilutinovicÂCroatia demands compensation for embassy attackZAGREB -- Monday -- The Croatian Foreign Ministry has reacted to last night's attacks on its Belgrade embassy with a letter to Milan Simurdic, Serbia-Montenegro ambassador to Zagreb.ÂThe ministry's letter demands to be informed of exactly what happened and also requests that an investigation be conducted and damage compensated.ÂCroatia contends that around 2,000 Belgraders marched on its embassy last night, shouting insults and leaving every single window and external light smashed.ÂThe statement added: "The incident peaked when some of those people climbed the embassy balcony, took down the Croatian flag, removed the mast and in its place put the Serbia-Montenegro flag".ÂOp-edIn my opinion this flag shouldn't be there in the first place. Forceful forgivenessand reconciliation is contra productive. Always was. Croatian wounds are deep,not just from the recent war, but from the last 100 years. Bleiburg is recenttoo. And to prove my point, visas have been canceled between these two/threecountries, less then 10 years after the genocide committed by our neighbors. Onemust be highly civilized and enlightened to forgive that. If people involvedwere, it wouldn't happen in the first place. This is not pragmatic thinking, butpurely realistic and practical one. These are two different civilization, notjust countries. Give peace a chance ! As said, there is no way to peace. PeaceIs the way. Forceful Brotherhood leads to bloodshed. Haven't we learn anythingin the last 100 years? To further prove my point, there is no talk about WARREPARATIONS. That would cool anybody who think they can intimidate us withburning the flag. With incompetence, you allow extreme politicians to thrive andpromote violence. Visas should be abolished not less then 25 years or/andconditioned with war reparations.ÂNo vision and wisdom at the top. Everything else are details.Nenad BachCROWN, editor in chief letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 16 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7347/1/E-Croatia-demands-compensation-for-embassy-attack.html Croatia demands compensation for embassy attackZAGREB -- Monday -- The Croatian Foreign Ministry has reacted to last night's attacks on its Belgrade embassy with a letter to Milan Simurdic, Serbia-Montenegro ambassador to Zagreb.ÂThe ministry's letter demands to be informed of exactly what happened and also requests that an investigation be conducted and damage compensated.ÂCroatia contends that around 2,000 Belgraders marched on its embassy last night, shouting insults and leaving every single window and external light smashed.ÂThe statement added: "The incident peaked when some of those people climbed the embassy balcony, took down the Croatian flag, removed the mast and in its place put the Serbia-Montenegro flag". letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 16 Jun 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7349/1/E-Dennis-Kucinich-Discloses-Finances.html ÂDemocratic candidate Kucinich discloses financesÂDemocratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich discloses personal finance, numerous trips By MALIA RULONAssociated Press WriterÂWASHINGTON (AP)--Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich didn't earn much more than his congressional salary, but he did receive some speaking fees for talking about world peace.ÂAccording to his financial disclosure forms, the Ohio lawmaker received $3,000 from two speeches made last year--money he donated to the Nizhoni School for Global Consciousness in Galisteo, N.M.ÂKucinich, a strong opponent of the U.S.-led war against Iraq, took 14 trips last year. He spoke to the NJ Peace Action's annual dinner and the Eugene Peace Academy, which is an Oregon charter school set to open this fall. At the Praxis Peace Institute Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia, he spoke about the cosmic interplay between stardust, matter and one's spirit while also condemning the impending war in Iraq.ÂWhile some lawmakers file pages of stock earnings, money earned from book deals or house mortgages, Kucinich listed just four accounts and one share he owns in the American CroatianLodge. Combined, his assets total less than $32,000.Â``Like many politicians, the congressman did not get into the service of government to make money,'' said Kucinich spokesman Doug Gordon.ÂMembers of Congress receive a $154,700 annual salary.ÂHis only debt is a loan of between $15,001 and $50,000 from actress Shirley MacLaine, a close friend who is listed as Shirley Parker, her legal name. He has not been charged interest for the loan, which was made in 1981.ÂAP-NY-05-16-03 1936EDTCopyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 17 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7351/1/E-US---Croatia---ICC.html ÂUS to cut military aid unless Croatia signs accord14 May 2003 13:24:24 GMTUS to cut military aid unless Croatia signs accordZAGREB, May 14 (Reuters) - The United States has threatened to cut off military aid to Croatia unless Zagreb agrees by July 1 not to extradite U.S. citizens to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a top foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.But Croatia, already working with the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal, hopes to join a select group of countries Washington is exempting from signing such accords, Deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Simonovic told Reuters.The United States, fearing its soldiers overseas could be vulnerable to politically motivated charges at the ICC -- which tries individuals for atrocities, war crimes and major human rights abuses -- wants ICC signatories to sign bilateral immunity agreements.Washington has already signed such accords with 34 countries and is negotiating with others. NATO member countries, major U.S. non-NATO allies and Taiwan are not being asked to sign up."Under the terms of the American Servicemembers Protection Act (ASPA), Croatia could lose $19 million in military equipment and training assistance should it fail to sign the agreement by July 1," the U.S. embassy in Croatia said in a statement.Simonovic said he hoped the United States would allow Croatia not to sign an agreement."I believe the U.S. might consider putting Croatia, and other countries falling under the jurisdiction of the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), among those exempt from signing the agreement because of the specific political and legal situation we face," he told Reuters.Croatia fought to assert its independence in the early 1990s after breaking away from socialist Yugoslavia. The West has put pressure on it to cooperate with the ICTY by handing over senior military officials suspected of responsibility for war crimes against Serb civilians.Cooperation with the Hague-based tribunal is considered a high priority if Croatia is to gain EU membership. It applied to join in February and hopes to become a member in 2007.Simonovic said that, given Croatia's position with the ICTY, it was highly unlikely that the Croatian parliament would agree to sign the non-surrender agreement with the United States.The U.S. embassy said Washington strongly supported Zagreb's efforts to join Euro-Atlantic institutions, especially NATO, and said its military aid focused on supporting that integration."Our priority is to work with the Government of Croatia to negotiate a mutually acceptable bilateral non-surrender agreement before July 1 that will keep this important U.S. assistance flowing," the U.S. embassy statement said. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 15 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7350/1/HE-Poziv-na-predavanje-PROSIRENJE-EUROPE.html ÂFRANCUSKO VELEPOSLANSTVO U ZAGREBUVAS POZIVA NA PREDAVANJEÂIPROJEKCIJU EMISIJE « LE DESSOUS DES CARTES »PROSIRENJE EUROPE : GEOGRAFSKI, EKONOMSKI ILI POLITICKI PROJEKT ?KOJE CE ODRZATIG. FRANCK TETARTZNANSTVENIK ZAVODA ZA POLITIÈKE ZNANOSTI I KARTOGRAFSKE ANALIZEI KOAUTOR EMISIJE TELEVIZIJSKE POSTAJE « ARTE » : « LE DESSOUS DES CARTES»U utorak, 20.05.2003 u 18 hU Medijateci Francuskog Instituta u ZagrebuPreradoviceva 40, Zagreb, HrvatskaPredavanje ce se odrzati na francuskom jezikuAdditional questions email: Boris.Hajos@premisa.hrÂDodatna pitanja: Boris.Hajos@premisa.hrÂFrench Embassy is inviting you for a presentation of Expansion of Europe. Geographical,Economical or Political Project? Presentation will be in French.Tuesday, May 20th 2003, French Institute, 40 Preradovic Street, Zagreb,Croatia letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 15 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7352/1/E-Britains-plan-to-deport-its-asylum-seekers-to-Croatia.html ÂBritain's plan to deport its asylum seekers to CroatiaDear friendsBritain's plan to deport its asylum seekers to Croatia have been announced in the media today (see links below).This is an appeal to all of you, individuals and Croatian organization inland and abroad, to diffuse this messageÂand to use all means of pressure on Croatian authorities to refuse such plans for a country whose own warÂrefugees have not yet been returned to their homes.Thank you all for your support.Best regards,Marko Ivancevicimarko@freesurf.chÂCroatia's officials email addresses:premijer@vlada.hrÂsabor@sabor.hrÂministar@mvp.hrÂured@predsjednik.hrÂÂsource: http://www.monitor.hr on may 07 2003andÂnovi list:http://www.novilist.hr/Default.asp?WCI=Rubrike&WCU=285F2863285D2863285A28582858285B286328962897289E28632863285D285E285F285B285A286328632863285A2863Z letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 08 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7353/1/E-Picula-Powell.html ÂPicula - PowellU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) posess forphotographers for a family photo with the foreign ministers of Albania Ilir Meta(L), Croatia Tonino Picula (2L), and Macedonia Ilenka Mitreva, in Tirana, May 2,2003. Powell signed with the three Balkan countries that were left out from thelatest NATO enlargement round, the Adriatic Charter, envisaging theircoordinated efforts to achieve NATO membership with U.S. backing. REUTERS/ArbenCeli letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 04 May 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7355/1/E-DruzbAdria-and-The-Gooses-Golden-Egg.html ÂStoryAbout The GooseDo you remember the story about the goose which delighted her owner by laying one golden egg each morning? But that because of his greed and impatience, the owner decided not to wait for the solitary egg, concluding that if he killed the goose and took that magical source of gold from her belly, he would have as many golden eggs as he wanted?ÂThen you already know the end to that enlightening tale.The agreement which the Croatian government initialed at the beginning of this year regarding formation of the multinational oil cartel DruzbAdria, and expansion of the terminal in Omisalj (on Krk Island) for loading oil, is vividly reminiscent of this story. Leaving greed aside, there is not one sensible reason for such a decision, while reasons against it are plentiful.ÂLet us begin with the economic benefits, of marked importance in this era of Croatia's post-war economic development. As I read in the Croatian press, servicing Russian exporters would garner revenues of around $30.000.000 in the first year, $50.000.000 in the second, and $80.000.000 in the third.According to some sources, Croatia made 4.5 billion dollars last year from tourism. According to other sources, that number was 7.5 billion. Economic projections for the future are even better. And one day, when roads are modernized and some bright soul plans how to develop tourism by relying on local suppliers of healthy, good-tasting and organically-produced food and local drink, as well as adequate cultural, entertainment and sports offerings - Croatia's tourism will be golden.ÂGiven the relatively humble revenue that the dirty industry of oil would generate, why, then, would the sensible champions of the Croatian nation play with fire?A claim such as: "because Croatia has international responsibilities that it must respect, above all the responsibility that it provide everyone free access to its capacities without discrimination," made by Vesna Trnokop-Tanta (Janaf Administration's president), is misplaced. According to which international statute does any country have this responsibility?"Novi List" from Rijeka reports that Croatian experts in the Scientific Council for Oil and in the Organization of Oil Engineers and Geologists at their recent meeting concluded that: "in the 80s, and again at the beginning of the 90s, all ecological issues relating to this project were resolved." It also states that some scientists advised that the "furor about ballast water which tankers would dump in the Adriatic Sea, is unnecessary." Namely, they are convinced that the danger of pollution from oil is minimal if "great care" is taken in security measures and strict ecological protection is carried out. The claim is that even though the Janaf terminal on Krk Island has functioned for several years already, serving to load oil intended for Croatian refineries for domestic use and to export oil derivatives to neighboring countries, it has not caused any "great problems". (The fact that Omisalj and its environs is a dead tourist zone appears to be the problem of the local population.) Aside from this, Janaf will undertake "all necessary measures" so that every accidental leak of oil is immediately attended to. Someone even stated with pride, "We already have $12.000.000 in the clean-up fund!" Is that a bad joke, or are Croatian geologists and engineers really so inexperienced? How many of them carefully studied the "Exxon Valdez" accident and the billions upon billions of dollars of damage that it caused (and continues to cause today!) to Alaska's tourism and fishing industries? Great economic damage was caused in Europe by accidents of the "Erika" and the "Prestige" tankers in the Atlantic. Do those Croatian experts really believe that America, France, Spain, and other countries are so reckless in their unquenchable thirst for oil, that they have not paid attention to navigational security and their own national ecologies? Or, perhaps they think that they know more than foreign geologists and engineers? (If the clean-ups of microscopic leaks of mazut and oil in Solin's Jadra River, by Dobro-Lesce, Brodski Stupnik, Gracin, and elsewhere, and the pollution of the Kastel Bay and Croatian rivers are anything to go by, the opposite could be readily concluded. Just one accident by a slightly larger tanker in the closed Adriatic Sea would pose an ecological catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences, endangering the flora, fauna, fishing industry and tourism of Istria, Croatian Primorje and Dalmatia for a long (if not for all) time.What are the chances that such accidents will occur with the massive increase in the number and size of tankers and, the more decisive variable, with the loading of oil in Omisalj? Simply put, the likelihood is far grater than the aforementioned Croatian geologists and engineers foresee (at least in the press).However, even if such accidents do not occur in the near future, the danger posed by waste water, poisonous gases, oil and other waste, ballast water, and smaller leaks which accompany almost every loading (and unloading) of oil would soon rob the unique beauty from a small, closed sea such as the Adriatic, which is finally beginning to attract tourists on a global sale and of which Croatia has every right to be proud. Despite Janaf Administration president Vesna Trnokop-Tanta's claims, that "oil and tourism can go together" it is sufficient to take one look at the once beautiful Kastel Bay in order to understand how industrial development and natural beauty can not coexist. It is only a matter of time before tourists will become convinced that Adriatic beaches are not any cleaner than Spanish, Italian, Greek or Turkish ones.ÂHave those responsible studied the experiences of other countries with "zebra" mussels? They live in ballast water or attach themselves to the exterior shell of ships and are able to devastate local shellfish in a relatively short time or with types of algae which use up oxygen necessary for the survival of fish and underwater flora.And what about disposal of the enormous amount of sea water which (for buoyancy) tankers must pump in wherever they unload oil, and pump out wherever they load it? Some solutions have been mentioned, including the possibility of disposing those waters at a depth "greater than 500 meters" or purifying them on shore. Anyone can see the fallacy of the first solution. And when we talk about "purification on shore,) where are facilities to dispose of the huge amount of polluted, oily sea water?On the basis of previous experience with loading oil in Omisalj, Janaf's experts suggest (or wish to convince themselves and the public) that the loading of oil is similar, more or less, to the unloading. This is far from the truth. First of all, the tankers which transport oil to Omisalj in order to unload, pump sea water from the Adriatic into their empty reservoirs. The tankers which will come to Omisalj will be filled with sea water from distant oceans, and will have to release ballast into the Adriatic before loading. These are clearly two very different things.ÂRecently, someone threw another argument into the mix: that Trieste was just waiting for Zagreb to reconsider, so that the Italians and the Slovenians could move in on the profitable deal. The claim is that then our beautiful coastline will be polluted, while all the revenue will go to Rome and Ljubljana. After recent talks about the plan for exporting Romanian oil through the terminal on Krk Island, Romanian Premier Nastase stated: "We wish to operationalize the Constanza-Omisalj oil pipeline project." He pointed out the importance of the Omisalj terminal, which can take tankers with carrying capacities of up to 500 tons, unlike Trieste, which can only take tankers with capacities of up to 80 tons." And Vesna Trnokop-Tanta adds: "Competitive oil pipelines in other countries such as Macedonia threaten Croatia, so we must not decide against DruzbAdrija." Let us contemplate the more salient points in these statements. The truth is that Italy's sandy Adriatic beaches are no match for the beauty of Croatia's coast. But tourism on Italy's Adriatic coast generates enough revenue that Rome would think seriously before making a decision that would endanger its territorial waters. We hardly have to mention the livelihoods of thousands of people who live from tourist services and who, in Italy, have a say, or to speak about "bella Venezia". Italy would never endanger Venice's lagoon and the gargantuan revenue which millions of tourists generate there. Trieste is practically across from it. As far as Slovenia is concerned - their politicians are sufficiently intelligent, and their coastline is short.ÂLet us now consider the Constanza-Omisalj pipeline project, which is, according to Premiere Racan (as reported in the Croatian press) "no competition to the DruzbAdria project, but complimentary to it." One glance at a map shows that Constanza is a large port on the Black Sea. Why, then, does Bucharest wish to build a pipeline hundreds of kilometers long across its territory (practically from the country's east to west), through Vojvodina (or Serbia) to Croatia's eastern border, and then through all of Slavonia to Sisak and to the island of Krk? If the answer is that the "Black Sea is closed" and free movement through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles questionable, why would they not build the three-times shorter pipeline Constanza-Thessaloniki, the Greek port on the Aegean Sea??The Croatian government's rash decision to initial DruzbAdria's international agreement and to accept the Constanza-Omisalj project may have such disastrous consequences that both decisions ought, at the very least, to be put to a general referendum by the Croatian people. Dr. Branko Bosnjakovic, an environmental protection advisor with many years of experience in EU institutions, recently stated, according to a report in Vjesnik: "without public consensus and analysis to examine the economic, ecological, and social implications, we should not embark on a project such as DruzbAdrija"! He is right.ÂBarry Brkic is a journalist who lives in Washington, DC. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7354/1/E-The-Gotovina-Indictment-Prosecuting-the-US-by-Stealth.html ÂThe Gotovina Indictment: Prosecuting the United Statesby Stealth?www.Antegotovina.comÂ22 April 2003The Gotovina Indictment: Prosecuting the United Statesby Stealth?By Brian GallagherAll Americans who took part in assisting the Croatianarmed forces before and during 'Operation Storm' arealmost certainly - and unjustly -considered warcriminals by the Hague Prosecutor. This appallingnotion has been brought out by speculation that theInternational Criminal Court may prosecute Britishforces for alleged war crimes carried out by theUnited States in Iraq.Unlike the United States, Britain is a signatory tothe International Criminal Court (ICC). Articlespublished in Scotland on Sunday and by the Instituteof War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) revealed thatlawyers have told the British Ministry of Defence thatif American forces commit an alleged war crime,British troops could be prosecuted simply forproviding intelligence or refuelling US aircraft inconnection with it.ÂBoth articles were written by Chris Stephen of IWPR,which receives funds from the international comunity.IWPR is known for its support of the HagueInternational Criminal Tribunal for the formerYugoslavia (ICTY) and the ICC; in other words thearticles may reflect current thinking in thoseorganisations. The ICC is very much a product of theICTY.The implications for the Gotovina indictment areclear. The United States provided considerableintelligence, training and support for OperationStorm, which liberated large areas of Croatia, savedBosnia-Herzegovina and put an end to Milosevic'sGreater Serbia project.ÂHowever, the Hague Prosecutor absurdly considersOperation Storm to have been nothing more than anethnic cleansing operation; a war crime. This despiteevidence in the public domain that the Serb leadershipordered their own people out; a fact amusinglyconfirmed by Florence Hartmann, Hague Prosecutorspokeswoman and possible Gotovina defence witness, inher book on Milosevic.The Gotovina indictment directly accuses the entireCroatian Armed forces of 'deporting' thousands ofSerbs i.e. they are all war criminals. This is madeclear in the indictment; paragraph 4 defines Croatianforces as "the HV, the Croatian airforce or HrvatskoRatno Zrakoplovstvo also known as HRZ, the SpecialPolice and Military Police of the Republic of Croatia,which were involved in Operation Storm in UNPA SectorSouth " Paragraph 30 accuses Croatian forces as'deporting' the entire 'Krajina' Serb population -i.e. not just in Sector South.ÂThis dispels the myth that only General Gotovina isbeing accused of war crimes. The indictment is clearlystating that every single member of the the Croatianarmed forces committed war crimes by participating inan operation the prosecution considers to be an ethniccleansing exercise. The ICTY also confirm this ontheir website by referring to the Gotovina indictmentas 'Operation Storm'.There can be little doubt then that the HagueProsecutor considers all US intelligence and trainingpersonnel involved - including the US private firmMPRI - as war criminals for their significantcontribution to Operation Storm.ÂGiven that Operation Storm itself is considered a warcrime by the Prosecutor, given the indictment accusesCroatian armed forces of involvement in a crime andgiven the current thinking on British troops possiblybeing prosecuting for providing assistance to USforces in Iraq it is impossible to see otherwise.Of course, it would be daring of the Prosecutor toindict US personnel. But a precedent has been setfor the new ICC; an operation with strong USinvolvement has been declared a war crime by a UN warcrimes prosecutor.ÂThe indictment does not mention the US, but this doesnot matter; US involvement in Operation Storm is welldocumented and beyond dispute. Indeed, the wholepoint of the indictment may well have been in order tosubtly attack the United States; not mentioning the USin the indictment simply helps to avoid attention.It does not have to be the ICTY that prosecutesAmerican - or indeed Croatian - personnel over this.ÂThere has been controversy in Belgium over 'universaljurisdiction' i.e. Belgian courts trying various worldleaders for alleged crimes.ÂMany in the European left have never forgiven Croatiaor America for defeating Milosevic. An enterprisinganti-American prosecutor or judge in Europe orelsewhere could well use a dubious conviction ofGotovina - should he ever get to trial - as a basis toprosecute the United States for its great crime ofbeing instrumental in defeating Slobodan Milosevic'sGreater Serbia project.Â(c) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7356/1/E-Illegally-confiscated-INAs-property-to-be-sold-in-Serbia.html Illegally confiscated INA's property to be sold in SerbiaÂINA EMBITTERED ABOUT SERBIAN GOVT DECISION TO SELL BEOPETROL ZAGREB, April 23 (Hina) - Croatia's oil industry Ina on Wednesday voiced its dissatisfaction with the decision of a Serbian government agency toprivatize the Beopetrol oil company, i.e. Ina's property which was illegally confiscated in 1990. "We are profoundly embittered about the decision of the SerbianPrivatization Agency, the more so because encouraging signals were coming through (from the Serbian government) that the issue would be solved on the bases of legal facts," Ina's public relations office said in a statement. The Serbian agency yesterday published a public bid for the sale of a majority of Beopetrol's shares. "It is evident that they changed the name of Ina's property, which was illegally confiscated on December 7, 1990, but it was always the same corporate entity," says the statement. Ina recalls that it filed a timely appeal to the December 7, 1990 decision, contesting theorganization of a new company on Ina's property. But the Serbian Higher Commercial Court dismissed the appeal. Ina never received any feedback from the then Serbian chief prosecutor about Ina's request to protect the legality of transactions. Ina's property in Serbia consists of 194 petrol stations, several warehouses, facilities and other investments into long-term property, such as transport, flats, etc. The Croatian oil company stresses that it has warned numerous times the domestic and foreign public, business partners and companies which expressed or will express interest for the purchase of Beopetrol, particularly competent bodies of both countries, about the illegal seizure of its property. "We are adamant about us having the right to our property, which means that we will continue to undertake all legal measures to repossess our property, before competent Serbian bodies and all international institutions which are in charge of protecting the property and material rights of individuals and legal entities. We expect Croatia's competent organs to join in our repeated stands," the statement said. (hina) lml sb letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 24 Apr 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7357/1/E-Support-Kucinich-in-LA-April-5-2003.html  Support Kucinich in LA, April 5, 2003ÂDear friends, We have a Croatian American running for President ofthe USA. This is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity. Wecan work together to support him - It is now or never.Please attend the following events in Los Angeles.(You can also sign up online at http://www.kucinich.US as a campaign volunteer).Hope to see you there next Saturday! Brenda BrkusicSat., April 5 - California Americans Against War With Iraq (AAWWI)cordially invites you to a town meeting on the futureof our country and the world with Rep. DennisKucinich. Introduced by Ed Asner. Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM Rsvp: (323) 692-6912 - The event is free.Sat., April 5 - California Fundraiser for Democratic CandidateRepresentative Dennis Kucinich.Brentwood, CA6:00 PM Rsvp: (310) 664-1142 Sponsors - $500, Friends - $250 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 27 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7359/1/E-Congressman-Dennis-Kucinich---TIKUN-Interview.html ÂInterview with Congressman Dennis KucinichTIKKUNMAIL: An email publication of Tikkun Magazine.----------IN THIS ISSUE: Congressman Dennis Kucinich----------The media claims to be "objective" and non-partisan, yet thevoices of the most effective national leaders against the warare rarely quoted. To take 3 examples--Congressman DennisKucinich, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Professor Noam Chomsky.Would you be willing to contact media and write individualletters to media people complaining about the coverage? If so,please contact media@tikkun.org --and we will give you someaddresses of key people to contact, plus sample letters. One of the most egregious examples is the way thatCongressman Kucinich has been ignored, though he is runningfor the Democratic nomination for President. In a Newsweekstory last week in which the task was to assess how likeablethe various candidates were to people who knew them, they hadlong stories about the "major candidates" (namely, those whomthe media has chosen to be considered "major") but when theycame to Kucinich they said "we'll tell you as soon as we findout who he is." As though no one had ever heard of him. But infact, Kucinich has been a four term Congressman from Ohio whois now chair of the Progressive Caucus in the House. And thatis precisely why no-one has heard of him--because the mediasystematically ignores our most effective spokespeople. So,please join our campaign to challenge media--contactmedia@tikkun.org and work with Evan, our coordinator of MediaCritique for the Tikkun Community (or call him at our newoffice number 510 644 1200). In the March/April issue of TIKKUN we interviewedDennis Kucinich. What he says is still extremelyimportant--and gives a sense of hope that there really aresome terrific spokespeople out there. Kucinich will bespeaking at Tikkun's Teach-In to Congress June 1-4th, so beingthere will give you a personal opportunity to speak to thiscandidate for the presidency. More info: www.tikkun.org.Kucinich will also be in future issues of TIKKUN magazine--soif you haven't yet joined The Tikkun Community (membershipincludes a free sub to TIKKUN Magazine), join now atwww.tikkun.org. Please circulate this letter and the interview withKucinich--it will give your friends some hope at a dark moment. ---Tikkun CommunityTikkun Mar/Apr 2003 : Features : The Iraq War >Â[ INTERVIEW ]ÂAn Interview with Congressman Dennis KucinichÂAn American VisionÂ------------------------------------------------------------------------Congressman Dennis Kucinich is a candidate for the Democraticnomination for President of the United States. Kucinich isco-chair of the Progressive Caucus of the U.S. Congress, andhe led the effort to have Democrats oppose the war in Iraq.ÂTikkun: What is the worldview that you would bring into yourrole as an American leader?Kucinich: We live in a world in which dichotomous thinking hasled to war. I try to look at the world holistically, toemphasize the ways that we are interconnected andinterdependent, as an integrated whole. The job of an Americanleader is to bring about healing and reconciliation, byhelping us overcome the divisions in our society betweenBlacks and Whites, rich and poor, us vs. other countries. Ifour world is going to survive, we are going to have to riseabove these kinds of polarities, and to rise above all theconditions which restrict our definitions of Who We ReallyAre-so that we can free ourselves to become more than we are,and thereby through our own ascent elevate the human condition.Tikkun: What you are saying here is very close to the CoreVision of the Tikkun Community. We've insisted that thewell-being of the United States depends on the well-being ofeveryone on the planet.Kucinich: It's important that we not separate ourselves fromothers. In order to confirm our historic mission as a society,it's imperative that we seek unifying principles-that is theessence of what being a truly united states involves.Tikkun: What do you mean by "our historic mission."Kucinich: Our nation was formed through the understanding ofthe unity of all people. Our sense of nationhood derives fromour sense of what we hold in common: the idea of a right toLife, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, which we hold incommon not only in respect to our fellow countrymen andcountrywomen, but as citizens of the world. These aspirationsflourish everywhere, and our founders understood that. Theydidn't say "all Americans are created equal," but rather "allmen" (which for us means all men and women). In putting itthat way they were expressing a universal sentiment whichincludes people from all over the world. America's vision isnot just of a unity of states, but of the unity of individualswithin these states and unity throughout the world.We need to always be mindful of our historical roots and theways that they were derived from the spiritual principle ofOne-ness.Tikkun: We've found a great deal of resistance among liberalsand lefties to talking about spiritual principles, in partbecause they believe that doing so threatens to bring religionback into the public sphere, and that there it will beright-wing religions that triumph. So they've fiercely adopteda kind of First Amendment fundamentalism, insisting thatspiritual talk should not be part of public life.Kucinich: We need to respect the Founders' break with theChurch of England and the significance that they gave to theFirst Amendment, which provided for guarantees of freedom ofreligion. And this must include freedom from religion ifsomeone chooses not to believe.But while the Founders wanted to provide religious freedom,this nation was also founded on profoundly spiritual values.We can take great comfort from our Founders' commitment tomatters of the Spirit. They insisted on the self-evident truthof equality-and this was a spiritual principle. In theDeclaration of Independence, the Founders recognized Nature'sGod, Divine Providence, and a Creator as the organizingprinciple in the universe. The Founders recognized Liberty,which is a spiritual principle, and Life which integrates withSpirit to find fullest expression.The essence of our Constitution can be understood to beexpressive of high principles, not only of law and ethicswhich subsume those principles, but of Spirit. Whether we lookat the first motto of the United States, E Pluribus Unum (outof many, one), which is a spiritual principle, or in thelatter motto "In God We Trust," we have to recognize theFounders were immersed in contemplation of a world beyond ourexperience, one of spirit, of mysticism, one which saw thepotential of the country as unfolding in a multidimensionalway, both through the work of our hands and the work of ourhearts.The Founders meant to separate Church and State, but I don'tbelieve they ever meant to separate America from spiritual values.------------------------------------------------------------------------We need to distinguish between the right of a nation to defenditself and the right of any nation to assume the awful role ofaggressor.Â------------------------------------------------------------------------Tikkun: You have been one of the few Democrats tounequivocally critique the war in Iraq.Kucinich: It's a foundational principle of this country thatwe have the right to self-defense. In the Preamble to theConstitution, we say that "We the People of the United States,in order to from a more perfect Union, establish Justice,insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence…."It's fundamental that we have the right to defend ourselves,and that right is recognized for all nations by the UN Charter.We need to distinguish between the right of a nation to defenditself and the right of any nation to assume the awful role ofaggressor.There is no question that a war upon the Iraqi people would bea war of aggression, a violation of the UN Charter, of theGeneva Convention, and of every moral principle this countryhas ever stood for.It's reasonable for us to ask what Saddam Hussein stands for;it's even more important to ask, "what do we stand for as aNation?"The Iraq war may be an important transition in Americanhistory-from a period in which we were cooperating with theother nations of the world to affirm international law, to aperiod of unilateralism. It's up to the world community toaddress the challenges of disarmament, and America could leadby fulfilling the obligations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty,abolishing all nuclear weapons, and working to implement theprovisions of the Biological Weapons Convention and theChemical Weapons Convention which call for the control andhopefully eventual elimination of biological and chemical weapons.There are seventeen nations in this world today pursuing,developing or currently holding nuclear weapons. Twentynations are doing so with biological weapons, twenty-six withrespect to chemical weapons, and seventeen nations aredeveloping missiles capable of delivering weapons of massdestruction. Does it occur to anyone that we are at a time inhuman history when we have the means of destroying our world?And yet within the capacity of our hearts we also have themeans of healing our world. If there was ever a time when weneed to fashion our swords into our ploughshares, this is it.If there was ever a time when America needed to lead the wayto disarmament, this is it.Does Saddam Hussein need to be disarmed? Of course. And soshould every other nation.Tikkun: The argument we sometimes hear in response is that thecircumstances are different in dealing with Saddam because hemight give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. Inthe post-September 11 climate in the United States, thatconcern resonates with many people.Kucinich: I support disarmament. But if we use war to disarmIraq, we will create more terrorism.If one nation proceeds unilaterally, it could easily encourageother nations to proceed unilaterally toward their ownperceived security needs.We should work with the world community to disarm all nations.Any nation which possesses arms can be a threat to anothernation and can spur an arms race. Any nation that expressesitself in a belligerent way must be brought to an accountingby the world community. But that can only be done if thecountries involved in disciplining another country havethemselves no ulterior motives and are acting with cleanhands. Actions should not be taken for the purposes of empire,hegemony, or control of resources.International terrorism presents a unique challenge because itoperates without a specific territorial base. It is difficultto hold a particular country accountable for terroristactions. Coordinated international police action is essentialto systematically bring to justice all those engaged in actsof international terrorism.Bombing Iraq will not diminish terrorism; it will create moreterrorism. We have an obligation to challenge terrorists. Wehave to do so within the rules of international law, withoutimpairing civil liberties. The U.S. has taken a serious turnagainst the interests of civil liberties with the passage ofthe Patriot Act, and the Administration continues to revise,through fiat, established criminal justice procedures. We havethe right to defend ourselves as a nation, but we have todefend those human rights and constitutional protections thatmake the condition of nationhood something we celebrate.Terrorists win when they create conditions which lead ourgovernment to roll back constitutional freedoms.Tikkun: How do you account for the wimpy role of the Democratsin this? Its leadership has only called for moving more slowlyand involving more countries, but has not challenged the waron principle.Kucinich: Yes, many speak as though the question is what kindof invasion, instead of questioning the thrust of theAdministration's unilateral and pre-emptive doctrines. I havean understanding and compassion for my colleagues who arecaught in the illogic of war. There is real fear about anotherattack. The Administration says, "Here is how we are going todeal with it: we are going to blow up Baghdad, invade thecountry, overturn the Saddam Hussein regime, occupy andrebuild Iraq." Many members of Congress say to themselves,"Let the Administration do it." This approval comes more fromfear than from an understanding of the causal chain thatbrought terrorism to our shores. It lacks understanding of therelationship between the U.S. and Iraq over the course of thepast twenty years. It lacks understanding of the consequencesof trying to force the world community to join in an attack onIraq. It also lacks a basis in reality, because Iraq was notresponsible for al Qaeda's role in September 11 or the anthraxattack on our country. The Administration has not demonstratedthat Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States.Even so, 126 Democrats had the courage to vote against goingto war.Tikkun: But even with the new leadership in 2003, when giventhe opportunity to address the nation in response to the Stateof the Union address-which President Bush used to mobilizesupport for war-again the Democrats failed the Americanpeople. Instead of giving voice to the principled oppositionto the war which you, Congressman Kucinich, express, theDemocrats presented a wimpy response whose only demurral fromthe impending war was to ask that more time be given toinspectors and more allies be signed up for the invasion.Apparently some important Democrats feel that they might bepolitically vulnerable were they to take a clear stand.Kucinich: Yes, that's true. There are some Democrats who felttheir constituencies would not accept a strong anti-war stand.So the Caucus did not take a unified, public stand. Memberswere told to vote their own conscience.Tikkun: But this has had the consequence of eliminating thepossibility of a strong counter voice to the Administration'smis-education of the public about Iraq. The absence of thatvoice contributes to people's belief that they have noalternative to war, and that belief in turn does make itharder for the Democrats to speak in a principled way.Kucinich: Yes, you are absolutely right. Yet there is asubstantial group of Democrats who strongly oppose this war,and they represent tens of millions of Americans.Tikkun: Is this part of the reason you are running for theDemocratic nomination for president?Kucinich: My candidacy is in response to the yearning ofAmericans for peace. For a nation which protects civilliberties. For a country that is strong, but that doesn't wantto be a policeman of the world. For a nation that willstrengthen international law. My candidacy arises becauseAmericans are aware that there has been a real transfer ofwealth to the top. Americans who have worked their whole livesto try to secure a family, a home, are witnessing thedestruction of our democracy.Unemployment is rising. Too many Americans are losing theirjobs and their homes. Too many families are breaking up. Andthis transfer of America's wealth from the many to the few isdestructive of community.America is at a transformational moment. We can form a moreperfect Union, we can confirm our creative potential, andactualize our highest ideals in economics and in peacemaking.We can renew this country, we can restore the dream.Tikkun: We'd like to know your reactions to the positions thatTikkun has taken on the Middle East-calling for an end to theblame game, recognizing that both sides have created thecurrent reality and that both sides need to do repentance, andcalling for the international community to impose a settlementthat would minimally include an end to the Occupation andcreation of an economically and politically viable PalestinianState, return of Israel to the pre-67 borders with minorborder modifications so that Israel could incorporate thesections of Jerusalem with a Jewish majority, reparations forPalestinian refugees and also for Jews who fled Arab lands,recognition and peace with the Arab world, an end to terror onboth sides, and admission of Israel and of the new PalestinianState into NATO or some other military arrangement that wouldprovide military security for Israel as well as for Palestine.Kucinich: One of the many tragedies of the Administration'sobsession with Iraq is that we've lost time and energy thatcould have been applied to the Middle East. I support theexistence of the democratic State of Israel, for what itrepresents as a beacon of hope and as a bastion of democracy.I also support the creation of a Palestinian State.I think that Tikkun's approach is the key to the resolution ofthis conflict. The blame game has to end. There has to be, inthe words of one significant movement, compassionatelistening, so that people can understand the suffering thateach side has been going through. For the sake of futuregenerations, both sides need to take painful steps towardgenuine reconciliation. I think it can be argued that thecreation of a Palestinian State can be part of the plan toensure security for a democratic Israel. And I think it's ourresponsibility, and the responsibility of the world community,to take steps that would stop the killing. If we saw a brotherassaulting another brother, we'd intervene to stop it, nottake sides but try to save both brothers' lives. We should dothat in the Middle East. It will take fortitude andimagination to create peace. I firmly believe that theapproach Tikkun has advocated, and that has been more fullyarticulated in the book Healing Israel/Palestine which TikkunBooks published, represents a path toward resolution that Ithink we should follow.We must use our hearts and heads to move toward reconciliationand not let any group be separated from others or divided fromtheir own humanity. We must find the common ground that willallow for all people to survive and prosper. We need to beready at every moment to create a new world, and not betrapped by old ways of looking at reality.Tikkun: Now that is a beautiful summary of the heart of theTikkun message. One thing that has led many people to despairabout getting involved in politics again is the way that pastcandidacies have mobilized people and then as soon as theelection was over the energies had no further place forexpression or direction. People who have been involved in thatoften feel misused and burnt out and unwilling to try again.So a campaign needs to be about more than winning-it needs toalso be about creating an ongoing movement.Kucinich: Yes, that's exactly what I intend to do with mycampaign. I hope people will visit www.Kucinich.us, because wewill use that website as a way to begin the process ofbuilding an ongoing movement. It is not just about me. I feelthat I can be a channel for energizing this movement.Â------------------------------------------------------------------------WE WANT TO HEAR from you! Use our direct link to share yourviews. Or write to "Letters," Tikkun Magazine, 2342 ShattuckAvenue, Suite 1200, Berkeley, CA 94704; Fax: (510) 644-1255.Please include your name, address, and daytime phone number.Letters may be edited for space and clarity. magazine@tikkun.org letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 19 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7358/1/E-NFCA-PRESS-RELEASE.html ÂFor Immediate ReleaseÂContact: Erik Milman 202-33-2830OFFICIALS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANSMEET WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT(Washington, D.C., March 17, 2002). On Monday, March 10, 2003, JohnÂKraljic, President of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA),ÂSteve Rukavina, a former President of the NFCA, Erik Millman, the DevelopmentÂDirector of the NFCA and Joseph Foley of Foley Government & Public Relations,ÂInc. met with State Departmentofficials to discuss various issues related toÂrelations between Croatia and the United States.The meeting focused on a number of matters, including Croatia's candidacy forNATO. Mr. Kraljic noted that the NFCA and Croatian-Americans beleived thatÂCroatia had been unfairly put behind Romania and Bulgaria in its bid for NATOÂmembership. "We certainly support NATO's expansion to include Romania andÂBulgaria," Mr. Kraljic noted after the meeting, "but any objectiveÂcomparison of the social, economic, and political indicators shows thatÂCroatia is way ahead of both countries. While US officials havecited toÂproblems with respect to Croatia's internal policies toward refugee returnsÂand general civil rights, we noted that such problems were prevelant inÂpractically all the other nations invited to join NATO at the Prague summitÂlate last year."The NFCA also discussed its concerns with the International Criminal TribunalÂforthe Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The NFCA emphasized Croatia's continuedÂcooperation with the ICTY and noted that Croatia's determination to integrateÂinto NATO, the EU and other Western institutions was being stymied byÂunsubstantiated charges made by the ICTY's Chief Prosecutor. "We told StateÂDepartment officials that we beleived that the Chief Prosecutor isÂessentially an official who was not subject to any control by the UN SecurityÂCouncil and was irresponsibly making statements regarding Croatia which hadÂan immediate effect of Croatia's re-integration with the West," Mr. KraljicÂnoted. Mr. Kraljic also stated that the NFCA expressed its continuing concern withrespect to the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). "I expressedÂmy frustration at the continued failure to bring a final peace to BH. It seemsÂto me that we cannot call the Dayton process a success as BH continues toÂessentially be an international protectorate almost 8 years after the end ofÂthe war. The Croats of BH have especially suffered as a result of thisÂcontinued instability having their rights to elect their own leadersÂoverruled by international bureacrats."Mr. Rukavina brought up the possibility of a possible foregiveness of aÂportion of Croatia's growing foreign debt. He also generally discussed the need toÂdirect American aid to economic reconstruction rather than questionableÂthink-tanks. "We find that much of the money earmarked for Croatia by theÂUnited States is used to fund expensive studies by American consultants theÂworth of which is highly speculative," Mr. Rukavina stated. Mr. KraljicÂadded that he also pointed to the funding of various NGOs in Croatia byÂUSAID. "We beleive that Croatia's democratic transformation is stabilizedÂand the need for international aid to NGOs in Croatia, some of which areÂdominated by ex-Communists,is simply not necessary and indeed has added little to increasing civil andÂpolitical rights in Croatia."The NFCA will continue to focus on the issues it raised at the meeting withÂthe State Department last week in its lobbying efforts in Washington. The NFCAÂcalls on all Croatian Americans to increase their involvement in the AmericanÂlegislative process to insure that the interests of Croatia and Croats isÂwell represented.The NFCA is a national umbrella organization which organizations haveapproximately 130,000 members.NFCAhdq@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 19 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7361/1/E-Dr-Ivo-Sanaders-article-in-The-Wall-Street-Journal.html ÂDr. Sanader in Wall StreetJounalWall Street Journal EuropeFRIDAY/SATURDAY/SUNDAY, MARCH 14 - 16, 2003East of the Oder/ By lvo SanaderThe Europeans Who Recognize Evil in IraqThe question of whether to use force against Saddam Hussein has divided Europe like no other issue in recent history. Tensions are running so high between the United States and some of its closest European allies that the trans-Atlantic partnership itself may be jeopardized.The European publics, elites and media are following Iraq-related news with a level of intensity bordering on obsession. Not surprisingly, there are extensive public discussions under way in Croatia regarding this issue. Indeed, countries like Croatia that aspire to the EU and NATO membership, and yet vividly recall the unique historic American contribution to the cause of European freedom, debate Iraq-related issues with particular vigor.Given its own experience, Croatia also appreciates, better than most European countries, that evil is not a metaphysical abstraction but that its writ runs through the affairs of men-and that use of force, while invariably a horrible enterprise, is sometimes the only answer to the challenge posed by evil regimes.Ironically, while not all European countries appear to appreciate equally the gravity of the threat posed by the Saddam Hussein's regime, it is also the case that the differences-both intra-European and trans-Atlantic-are less about ends than means. Everyone wants Iraq to comply with the United Nation Security Council resolutions requiring its disarmament. American, British and European leaders who support the U.S. position argue that immediate action must be taken against Iraq if it fails to comply. Some European governments, as well as much of European public opinion, believe that more time should be allowed for the U.N. inspections to work. The divisions are about strategy rather than values-but they are real nonetheless.In public discourse, the policy favored by the opponents of immediate military action is often called "appeasement." Strictly speaking, this is incorrect. This concept of appeasement refers to the approach for dealing with Hitler that was prevalent in Europe during the 1930s. At the time, appeasement was driven by a desperate fear of a second world war (by men who had lived through the first). These sentiments prompted many European leaders to adopt an accommodating stance toward Hitler. Of course, the appeasers misjudged the circumstances, the moral imperatives and Hitler. The result was a disaster for everyone. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 16 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7360/1/E-Justice-Politics.html ÂJustice? Politics! The former academic looked tense as the verdict was read out. Dressed in a green jumper and blue blazer, she stood as the presiding U.N. judge pronounced sentence. A large gold cross hung prominently around her neck.ÂGlobe and Mail (AP) "The crimes were of the utmost gravity: that is the starting point for the determination of sentence," Judge May said. "Having given due weight to the factors set out, the Trial Chamber sentences you to a period of 11 years." Experts estimate that more than 200,000 people were killed in the Bosnian war, the worst carnage seen in Europe since the Second World War, as Serbs led a campaign to drive out Muslims and Croats from Serb-dominated areas and create a unified greater Serbia. May recounted that Bosnians were "mistreated, raped, tortured and killed" in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that Plavsic embraced and promoted. "No sentence which the trial chamber passes can fully reflect the horror of what occurred or the terrible impact on thousands of victims," Judge May said.Globe and Mail (AP) Judge Richard May said Ms. Plavsic participated in crimes of "utmost gravity" during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and that "undue lenience would be misplaced."(what would, in light of pronounced sentence, undue leniancy be? being declared UN Ambassador of Peace?)Globe and Mail (AP) It also discounted the prosecution's argument that her refusal to testify against Mr. Milosevic should be held against her.Globe and Mail (AP) In changing her plea, Ms. Plavsic conceded that she was responsible for the crimes listed in the indictment, including "forced transfer or deportation, unlawful detention and killing, cruel and inhumane treatment and inhumane conditions in detention facilities, destruction of cultural and sacred objects, plunder, wanton destruction, forced labor and use of human shields."Swissinfo Judith Armatta from the Coalition for International Justice commented: "I imagine many victims will be distressed and feel that it's notsufficient. I think the court wanted to make a strong statement about her attempts for reconciliation."Canadian Press (AP)Judith Armatta, an expert on war crimes law at the Coalition for International Justice, was surprised at the brevity of Plavsic's sentence. But she said the decision was unusually difficult because of the contrast between the severity of Plavsic's crimes and the many mitigating factors.Â"There should be more consistency in sentencing, but the rules are still being developed," she said. "This panel wanted to give some credence to her conduct, especially after the war."Canadian Press (AP) At a sentence hearing in December, Albright said she had found Plavsic's policies of Serb superiority "repugnant." But she changed her mind about the Bosnian leader after their first one-on-one meeting in 1997.ÂTomislav Petricevic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 16 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7362/1/E-Croatian-Embassy-Media-Advisory.html Croatian Embassy Media AdvisoryÂDear Sir or Madam,We are pleased to inform you that the Ambassador of Croatia to the United States, Dr. Ivan Grdesic will be attending the James E. Smith Midwest Conference On World Affairs at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, March 9-11.The Croatian Ambassador will speak on Monday, March 9 at 9:00am and offer his insight and knowledge on globalization. He will have a unique perspective to offer the panel discussion, due to Croatia's fairly new independence and current success in the rebuilding of their economy. The Ambassador will discuss the Croatian democratic transition and Croatian foreign policy priorities, such as joining the EU and NATO. Even more, he will talk about the importance of economic reform in the era of globalization and economic relations with the U.S.ÂBefore assuming his ambassadorial duties, Dr. Ivan Grdesic earned his PhD in political science at Zagreb University in Croatia. He later became a Political Science Professor at the same University. He is the author of numerous books and scientific articles and has taught multiple postgraduate courses. He also spent several years researching and lecturing in the US.Also in attendance for the "World Affairs" conference will be several Ambassadors and Counselors from the Diplomatic arena present in Washington DC.The annual three-day conference is being sponsored by the College if Business and Technology and is entitled "Global Economy: Promises and Perils of an Uncertain Frontier".For more information, please contact: Alan Vojvodic, Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the United States of America; (202) 986-9476;press@emb.org ; www.croatiaemb.org letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 11 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7363/1/E-Bush-chooses-NEW-Croatia-ambassador.html ÂBush chooses Croatia ambassadorsÂFriday, March 7, 2003Â(03-07) 14:45 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --ÂPresident Bush has picked two career members of the Foreign Service to be the ambassadors of Croatia and Kenya, the White House announced Friday.ÂRalph Frank, now director of the State Department's office of career development and assignments, is moving to Croatia. William Bellamy, now principal deputy assistant secretary in the department's bureau of African affairs, is the president's choice for ambassador to Kenya.ÂPreviously, Frank was ambassador to Nepal and worked as deputy assistant secretary in the department's bureaus of personnel, administration and diplomatic security. His overseas assignments have been in Katmandu, Nepal; Warsaw, Poland; Medan, Indonesia; and Belgrade, Yugoslavia.ÂBellamy earlier was deputy chief of mission in Canberra, Australia, political officer in Paris and chief of the political section in Pretoria, South Africa. He also worked in Washington as political officer in the office of southern African affairs.ÂThe nominations must be confirmed by the Senate. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 10 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7365/1/E-NATO-A-CLUB-WORTH-JOINING.html ÂNATO: A CLUB WORTH JOINING?ÂVIEWPOINT FROM LONDONBrian GallagherHrvatski Vjesnik No. 955 - 21 February 2003'Viewpoint from London' is my new fortnightly columnin the Australian Hrvatski Vjesnik. Future pieces willalso appear on Croatiafocus.com.The approaching war with Iraq has created seriousDivisions within NATO, the European Union and theUnited Nations.Without going into the rights and wrongs of the waragainst Iraq, or the manoeuvring within NATO, it isimportant that the implications of these divisions forCroatia is considered.NATO operates on the principle that an attack againstone is an attack against all. However, the French andGermans were able to prevent NATO from preparing tohelp Turkey in the event of an attack by Iraq.The question must then be asked, if Croatia joinsNATO, and is attacked - let us say by Serbia - wouldNATO come to her aid? Quite possibly not, it seems.During the 1991 war, Britain and France prevented anyhelp to Croatia. If they considered it in theirinterests, they could veto help for NATO memberCroatia in the future.Certainly, the British attitude to Croatia has notchanged; witness how they - and the Dutch - suspendedratification of the EU- Croatia SAA agreement becauseof the Bobetko affair.We should not believe then that Britain, France - orany other NATO state for that matter - would not inpursuance of their own interests prevent NATO militaryaid to Croatia if she needed it.Quite apart from that, the United States will clearlynot rely on NATO for a long time to come. The Kosovocampaign's NATO divisions did not please theAmericans; after the Turkey debacle they will be lessinclined to take NATO seriously.Without United States support, NATO is a talking shop.And without even the assurance of guaranteed help,would NATO then be a club worth the expense ofjoining?As for the EU, the common foreign policy isnon-existent. Further, French President Chirac'soutburst against the Vilnius 10's statement of supportfor the United States - including Croatia -demonstrates that he expects total obedience fromthese countries as a price for joining the EU.ÂThe Iraq crisis has shown that countries act in theirown interests, regardless of "united" rhetoric.Whatever Croatia does, in relation to joining the EUand NATO, it must recognise this fact. And it mustalso recognise that some NATO/EU member's interestsmay be quite hostile to Croatia's.© Brian GallagherÂEdited for CROWN by Ivo Bach letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 06 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7364/1/E-Croatia-Became-a-member-of-the-CEFTA.html  CroatiaBecame a Member of the CEFTACROATIA • Croatia became the eighth member of the Central European Free Trade Association(CEFTA) March 1, making the market of more than 100 million people more accessible to its products, the economy ministry said. "This agreement should increase Croatian merchandise trade and enable its companies to boost their presence on the markets of CEFTA members with over 100 million people and $400 billion [11.6 trillionKc] combined gross domestic product," a ministry statement said.ÂEdited for CROWN By Ivo Bach letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 06 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7366/1/E-Croatia-ended-up-being-the-solution.html ÂCroatiaEnded Up Being The SolutionÂVecernji List (Zagreb daily)March 2, 2003Why Croatia Should Say Yes to Americaby V. M. RaguzWhen deciding on the difficult issue of whether or not to give outright support to the US regarding Iraq, Croatia should consider its own experience with the right to self-defense and unilateralism. The operation Storm was carried out in 1995 despite opposition from the United Nations Security Council, and, we should not forget, only the clandestine support of one state - the US.In the end, the controversial Storm reintegrated the bulk of the occupied territories, saved Bihac, and offered BiH a chance for survival. As pointed out by a Washington Post editorial when the Storm ended, Croatia ended up being, not the problem, but the solution.[Croatia's experience suggests that on the issue of self-defense, a state must be allowed to say on its own when enough is enough.] Zagreb waited for four years for the Security Council to act: to restore Croatia's territorial integrity and establish security. The UN employed UNPROFOR and UNCRO and had at its disposal numerous Security Council resolutions, but it failed repeatedly.In fact, in early July 1995, after the Srebrenica massacre, it appeared as if the UN policy in the region was about to collapse completely. [The Europeans were preparing to withdraw from BiH, and the Americans were preparing a plan that would have divided BiH in two, and allowed the Republika Srpska a referendum on independence as early as 1997.]The US has been waiting for the UN to do its homework in disarming Iraq for even a longer period. Zagreb remembers all of the Security Council resolutions that remained un-implemented. Washington has a litany of similar resolutions that also exist only on paper. In fact, the Bush Administration has challenged the Security Council to implement its resolutions, or lose relevance. Did we not hear the same appeals in the early 1990s, when the radical Serbs were disobedient day after day.Now the US has said enough is enough. Its national security, and of much of the Western world's, is being threatened by the radical regime in Iraq, its weapons of mass destruction, and its history of supporting international terrorism. As a victim of such terrorism that seems to have no bounds, the US is compelled to exercise its right to self-defense, now that it appears that the Security Council has failed.The US faces strong worldwide popular opposition to its likely invasion, but when has there been popular support for war. What is important is that the US has substantial support of allied governments in Europe and elsewhere. They will provide support in various ways, including combat.Croatia will also be in position to help, but that help will likely be limited to intelligence sharing and use of airspace and territorial waters [for transport of materiel and personnel]. What limited assistance, given the assistance the US provided Croatia in 1995, to liberate itself from terrorism and secure its statehood.The US help in 1995 was substantial indeed. When the Zagreb plan to deblockade Bihac and reintegrate Krajina was presented in Washington by special envoy Miomir Zuzul in mid-July, the US jumped in and provided intelligence and direct military assistance. By the time the Storm started, Washington had set up a 40-person intelligence-gathering base in Sepurina that monitored the Serb troop movements using Predator drones. On the day the Storm commenced, under the guise of enforcing the UN no-fly zone, the US sent in two special-purpose Prowler aircraft to disable the Serb communication systems.To be sure, the US did not do this to help Croatia, but to help the Bosniaks in BiH. To that end, after the Storm, it used the Croatian Army troops in western Bosnia to supplement the first NATO air intervention since WWII. [Nevertheless, Croatia substantially benefited from the US role. So when it has to make those difficult decisions today, it just may recall that relationship from 1995.]On the eve of the Storm, the Security Council was preparing a Presidential Statement calling on Croatia to desist. As usual, the Croatian diplomats were working the halls and lobbying the members of the Council to change some hard wording in the draft that was being circulated. Croatian charge d'affaires Vladimir Drobnjak approached the US ambassador Madeleine Albright as well, with the same request. She was brief, took him by the hand, and said: "We shall see what can be done, and by the way, good luck tomorrow."Thinking back to 1995, about the only thing Croatia can do to Larry Rossin's (US ambassador in Zagreb) requests these days, is take him by the hand, and say clearly, we shall see what can be done, and certainly, good luck later in the month. Not much to ask.V. M. Raguz was adviser to Croatian diplomats at the UN in 1995, and later BiH ambassador to the EU and NATO. This article is based on his essay written for the "Journal of Croatian Studies." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 02 Mar 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7367/1/E-Vojvodina-Croatian-leader-offers-evidence-against-Seselj.html ÂVojvodina Croatian leader offers evidence against SeseljNOVI SAD -- Friday - The president of the Democratic League of Croatians in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, Bela Tonkovic, said today that he is prepared to give evidence against Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj before the Hague Tribunal.Â"We have forwarded documentation to the court on everything which has happened in Vojvodina. This is information we have already sent to the highest levels of the UN, the OSCE, the Stability Pact, and all the appropriate local bodies," he said. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 28 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7370/1/E-Croatia-indicts-10-ex-Yugoslav-army-officers-for-war-crimes.html ÂCroatia indicts Tenarmy officers and rebel Serb leadersÂÂSat Feb 22, 8:54 AM ETZAGREB, Croatia - Ten former Yugoslav army officers and rebel Serb leaders - some already charged by the U.N. war crimes court - have been indicted for the deadly wartime shelling of the Croatian city of Vukovar, a district prosecutor said Saturday.ÂThe prosecutor, Bozidar Pilic, said the 10 had been indicted with war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, the state-run news agency HINA reported. The indictment was completed earlier this week following years of investigation, Pilic added.ÂFour of the 10 have been indicted for the wartime crimes in Croatia by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands: ex-Yugoslav army officers Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic; rebel Serb leader Mile Mrksic, and Vojislav Seselj, an ultranationalist leader from neighboring Serbia.ÂPilic did not say why the prosecution launched the indictments against suspects already facing charges by The Hague court, which has precedence over the local judiciary. But the new charges are bound to be welcomed by many Croats, who blame the Serb leaders for atrocities committed during the war.ÂThe indictment also includes former top Yugoslav army officers Veljko Kadijevic, Blagoje Adzic, Zivota Panic, Zvonko Jurjevic and Bozidar Stevanovic, and rebel Serb leader Goran Hadzic.ÂSljivancanin and Radic, who are believed to be living in neighboring Serbia, remain at large eight years after The Hague court indicted them. Mrksic has surrendered and is awaiting trial, while Seselj plans to travel to The Hague on Monday.ÂThe 10 are the highest-level Serb officials indicted in Croatia so far.ÂThousands of Croats were killed and entire villages were leveled to the ground in a war that erupted when Croatian Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav army, rebelled after Croatia in 1991 declared independence from the former Yugoslavia.ÂCroats consider Vukovar, located near Croatia's eastern border with Serbia and Montenegro - the successor to Yugoslavia - a symbol of Serb wartime cruelty. The city was besieged and shelled for three months before falling to the Serbs, and more than 2,000 people were killed there.ÂCroatia has already tried dozens of Serbs for war crimes, but mainly low-key figures. Thousands of other Serbs who joined the rebels during the war were pardoned in 1996, following international pressure. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7369/1/E-Croatian-and-Greek-Foreign-Ministers-Meet.html  Croatian and Greek Foreign Ministers MeetGreek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, right, and Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula speak with the media during a media conference at the EU Council building in Brussels, Monday, Feb. 24, 2003. Three days after Croatia applied for membership in the EU, Macedonia said Monday it will also formally ask to join the European Union this year. (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7368/1/E-French-President-Meets-Croatian-President-in-Paris.html ÂFrench President Meets Croatian President in ParisFrench President Jacques Chirac, right, jokes with Croatian President Stipe Mesic before their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris Monday, Feb. 24, 2003. Croatia is not among the 10 former communist countries set to join the European Union (news - web sites) in 2004, but hopes it could be admitted in 2007. (AP Photo/JackDabaghian/Pool)ÂFrench President Jacques Chirac (L) greets Croatian counterpart Stjepan Mesic at the Elysee Palace, February 24, 2003. Croatia said last weekend it would consult 'European partners' before responding to a U.S. inquiry about support over Iraq. REUTERS/Jack Dabaghian letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 26 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7371/1/E-Croatia-formally-applies-for-EU-membership.html Distributed by CroatianWorld Croatia applied for European Union membershipAP World - General NewsCroatia formally applies for EU membershipÂ2 hours, 27 minutes agoBy MYRON VAROUHAKIS, Associated Press WriterÂATHENS, Greece - Croatia applied for European Union membership Friday saying it hoped to join in 2007, but EU officials warned its refusal to cooperate more fully with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal could keep the country out in the cold.ÂCroatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan's application was received by Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose nation currently holds the EU presidency.ÂCroatia, a former Yugoslav republic, was torn by ethnic warfare following its 1991 declaration of independence and is now struggling to implement reforms - including human rights and legal procedures - to qualify for EU membership.ÂEuropean Commission President Romano Prodi termed Croatia's application "a powerful signal of hope in future development, stability and growth and for peaceful coexistence throughout the region."ÂCroatia's application faces a first test in April when EU governments are to consider the membership request from Zagreb. Croatia wants to join in 2007, along with Romania and Bulgaria which are already negotiating entry terms.ÂThe EU executive Commission in Brussels, Belgium, must review a country's candidacy but only if the 15 EU governments unanimously request such a review. That may be problematic because of criticism from within the EU of Croatia's failure to hand over suspects to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.ÂCroatia's pro-Western government's commitment to fully cooperate was put in doubt late last year, when it hesitated to extradite the former army chief, Gen. Janko Bobetko, to the tribunal in the Hague, fearing mass protests from nationalists.ÂThe Hague doctors later ruled that Bobetko is too ill to travel.ÂMany also suspect that the government tacitly let another suspect, Gen. Ante Gotovina, to flee the arrest in 2001. New indictments are likely to come later this year, posing a new test of the government's readiness to comply.ÂBritain and the Netherlands have held up the full application of a 2001 association agreement that grants Croatia greater access to EU markets because of the countries lack of cooperation with the tribunal. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 21 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7376/1/E-Austrian-Chancellor-does-not-like-term-Western-Balkans.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂAustrian Chancellor does not like term "Western Balkans"Zagreb should take this guy's comments and run with them:CANDIDATES SHOULD BE EVALUATED INDIVIDUALLYZAGREB, Feb 15 (Hina) - Candidates for membership inthe European Union should be evaluated individually,Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said in aninterview with Croatian Television on Saturdayevening.ÂSchuessel said he had never liked the term WesternBalkans because it seemed to denote a group of equallydeveloped countries, which in his opinion was nottrue.Croatia has always been a European country andoriented towards Europe and it currently meets themost criteria for applying for full EU membership, hesaid.Asked whether the EU was able to guarantee peace forall, Schuessel said the EU had been founded as a peaceunion, which was the original idea of its creators.Today the EU, which has 15 and following expansionwill have 25 members, is really a zone of peace andstability. It is understandable that we wish and haveto expand that zone of stability, the Austrianchancellor said.Â(hina) rml letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 16 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7375/1/E-Is-There-a-Conservative-Option-in-Croatia.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂIs There a "Conservative Option" inCroatia? What is a "conservative"? In my opinion, a person who believes there is no need to reinvent a wheel or hot water. A person who knows that tradition is the safe keeper of values, and values are guarantors of virtue. A person who can take a stand, alone, with responsibility. Who values an individual above the crowd, and an individual's freedom above crowd mentality. From Socrates, Cato, Cicero to Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Disraeli, Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. To act in a true conservative way means to act with dignity having recognized the value of human dignity. Applying those standards one would in vain look for a conservative option on the current Croatian political scene. To start with, the word dignity has been forgotten for a long time, and if by some miracle somebody displays a shade of dignity, he would be immediately branded as a weakling. In Croatia, I am tempted to say luckily, the word conservative is rarely used, so its chances of getting soiled are, again luckily, rather slim. The word used to describe the opposite of "liberal" (=good, progressive, cosmopolitan) is "desnica", or "desnicar," often thinly disguising the meaning the regularly unsympathetic speaker has in mind; and the word is "fascist," or, in local version, "ustaša." In the same way, the word used to describe the opposite of "conservative" (=individualistic, dignified, anti-collectivist, all of which is also good) is "ljevica," or "ljevicar"; or in local jargon "komunjara." We are back to the WW2 - to the clash between the "Ustaše" and the "Partizani." Having said that, let us recall the old saying that devil is not as black as he is painted. This does not mean that civility, efficiency, and reason may suddenly break out into Croatian political life; this would hardly be allowed by the media which thrive on scandal-mongering and which are acting as blatant mercenaries of this or that political party, option, or individual. One wonders why Croatian public buys, reads, watches, or listens to that junk at all. And while they do, there are some signs that "the conservative option" may be slowly breaking through both on "the right" and on "the left." What would I consider a Croatian version of the conservative option described above? A dignified stand that promotes national identity without primitivist flag-waving; supports individualism, creativity and a spirit of enterprise within a level field guaranteed by law; seeks close contacts with Croatian diaspora, the Global Croatia, and integration of Croatia into the global community, not as a banana republic, but as a proud individual conscious of its history, tradition, and values. You may say: "Well, this is something that a good, conscious Croatian political leader would do, regardless where he stands within the political spectrum. Yes, this is indeed so. Are there any great differences between a good, conscious, "conservative" and a good, conscious "liberal" politician in any great contemporary democracy - the U.S., Canada, Australia... No. Nor was there a chasm dividing the ideas of a "conservative" Thomas Jefferson, and a "liberal" John Adams, ideas which laid foundation of the greatest democracy in history. Both believe in the right of an individual, but differ on the amount of state intervention they consider useful. A conservative places an individual above the state; a liberal, while respecting the individual, believes that the state should be a guarantor of his freedom and happiness. Neither wants to abolish America, free market, and individualist democracy. In practice, this boils down to taxes: should more or less money be paid to the state so that it may perform (to a higher or lesser degree) it regulatory role. Croatian public is still very far away of that clear vision of what politics in a nutshell is. And therefore, politicians who have seen the light, and who act as potential promoters of "the conservative option," are not particularly cherished by the public, or by the media. And they come from all ends of Croatia's political life. Let me name just a few: Dr. Zdravko Tomac, a social democrat, who, I believe intellectually very well understands what a "conservative option" is; Dražen Budiša, a Social Liberal, although maybe in a more intuitive way. The new leader of the HDZ, Dr. Ivo Sanader, has been moving in that direction too, and possesses both intellectual ability and, probably, political pragmatism to move the "new" HDZ in that direction. And that direction is, broadly speaking, toward the "Center," which is quite encouraging, as such a centrist coalition may be eventually able to move the country from the economic, political, and moral quagmire it has been dragged down to by the current rulers. People of Croatia, and even the Croats abroad, seem to forget, though, that there is a Croatian political party which already stands in this center, and which largely stands for what we have described as the "conservative option." This is the "DC - Demokratski centar - hrvatska stranka centra" (Democratic Center - Croatian Center Party), led by Mate Granic, Vesna Škare-Ožbolt, Slobodan Lang, and some other well-known names among Croatian politician. It has not attracted much attention of the media as it has never produced scandals, and as it stands for the ideas the time of which is yet to come. The DC in its theory and practice promotes the idea that politics should be ruled not by fists and slander, but by words, votes, and tolerance. Its popularity is steadily growing. It has support of about 12% of the Croatian electorate. One of DC's latest moves has been to start opening up toward the Global Croatia. It is concerned with the electoral law, and strongly supports a fair form of representation for the Croats abroad - most importantly, not just Croatian passport holders. And this I consider most important: Croatian political parties have been so far addressing segments of our diaspora - or writing it off altogether. The DC is seeking informed advice on how to reach the entire body of Croatian people around the world. It also supports the idea of creating a special, responsible and efficient, office for practical, day-to-day, political exchange with the Croats abroad, in order to, again, reach informed conclusions how to best integrate the talents and resources of the entire Global Croatia. It will be worth watching how this process goes ahead. At this moment it seems to hold much promise. I accept it as a nice Santa's present from an area which has been stingy in gift-giving for quite a while.ÂVladimir P. Goss letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 15 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7374/1/E-When-Croatia-wins-no-one-thinks-of-the-Balkans.html Distributed by CroatianWorld When Croatia wins,no-one thinks of the 'Balkans'By: Brian GallagherÂCroatia's image remains mixed.ÂIt may come as a surprise to know that the US Militaryconsiders Croatia a "Qualified hazardous-duty area".US Military personnel are entitled to tax breaks ifthey serve in Croatia. One shouldn't be alarmed bythis; Croatia has been listed as such an area by theUnited States since 1995. However, it does not helpCroatia's image. In confirms that in the eyes of many,Croatia is seen as being somewhere unstable, prone towar, crime, corruption etc.ÂEurope is certainly no better. On 2 February, theEuropean satellite news service Euronews screened anitem on the 'Balkans' which emphasized crime andcorruption, stating that it could take decades to rootout. Croatia figured in this item, including shots ofDubrovnik. Anyone watching this with little knowledgeof the subject would automatically assume Croatia tobe as rotten and corrupt as any other 'Balkan' state.This is where 'regional co-operation' gets Croatia.ÂCroatia's leaders have yet to get to grips with theimage problem in the US and EU.ÂCroatia's winning of the Handball World Championshipis much better news, and this sporting success issymbolic; it shows that Croatia can succeed as anindependent nation. One wonders whether Croatia'ssportsmen would have had such success if they hadlimited themselves to 'regional' sporting eventsrather than taking on the world. When Croatia wins,no-one thinks of the 'Balkans'.Croatia's leaders should take note.© Brian Gallagher www.croatiafocus.com 3 February 2003 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 15 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7373/1/E-A-Story-of-Joseph.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂA Story of Joseph"I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt" (Genesis, 45, 4) Joseph was a real pain. Smart, enterprising, and creative he became an unbeatable competitor to his even much elder brothers. Therefore, they decide to kill him, but, having relented, they sell him to Midianites, and these resold him to Egypt. Where Joseph became an instant hit. He quickly put in order the estate of his boss, Potiphar, captain of the Pharaonic guard, and when the latter's wife wrongly accused Jospeh of indecent advances, and Joseph ended up in jail, in the Rounded Tower, he soon became the secretary to the prison's Governor. Joseph was not endowed with just a rational talent of an organizer of genius, with the concomitant ability to prosper in the material word, but also with poetic creativity, which made him an accomplished student of the human soul and its spokesperson through interpreting of dreams. He was one of those truly rare creatures possessing Pascal's esprit de geometrie as well as esprit de finesse. Thanks to his spiritual gift Joseph moves from the prison to the Pharaoh's palace. Having explained Pharaoh's strategically crucial dream, he is appointed the head administrator of the entire Egypt. For more than two hundred years, Croatian Josips and Josipe emigrated in hundreds of thousands to the Misir on the other side of the Ocean - and beyond. They started by washing Potiphar's floors and cleaning the Rounded Towers, but soon they found better ways of using their heads and hands. There are not many Croats who failed in "Egypt." Like Joseph, in many cases Croats were expelled from their country, maybe not always by their brothers, as they were primarily chased away by anti-Croatian rulers - Turks, Venetians, Napoleon, the Habsburgs, the Khuens, the royal and communist Yugoslavs, but the brothers, those domestic traitors without whom the foreign rules would have collapsed, played out their perfidious role. We kept leaving, often with bitterness and anger in our hearts, but we never forgot the homeland and were ready to forgive. Like Joseph, we would say: "And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here" (45, 5). We realized that by leaving we may have done something good, created a chance to help our unlucky brothers, while also contributing to the Misirs we moved to. It was the Will of God, Joseph concluded, and he was certainly right. Just like Joseph, we also often brought Jacob and our brothers into our new homes helping them raise to a civilizational level worthy of a human being. I realized the meaning of the Story of Joseph listening to a sermon in the Episcopalian Church of St. Philip, in Durham, a few days before Christmas 2002. I realized that Jospeh was an early "gastarbeiter," forced to leave his land, to succeed, thanks to his talent, abroad. And I realized it within the context of the current Croatian predicament, which I have mostly shared with my brothers and sisters last three years. I realized again that for us who live, or have spent most of our lives abroad, there is nothing more painful than discord and chaos at home. Croats have more than once by infighting thrown away their chance to have a successful, sovereign state. For us abroad, who depend for our identity on the existence of that state, anything that threatens it creates a feeling of anxiety and frustration. Maybe this is the reason why the huge majority of Croatian people abroad has never joined any Croatian political party. We know only one such body - it is called Croatia and Croatian people. To paraphrase a statement given by Mr. Bernard Luketich, President of the Croatian Fraternal Union of America to the Vecernji list a few years ago, we support those who people of Croatia elect in free, democratic elections - it used to be HDZ, it is still the (former) "Six." No Croatian government so far has tried to understand what theDiaspora is. None tried to take advantage of its talent, experience, political clout, goodwill, and material resources, whenDiaspora was ready to offer all that at a very low, or no, price. A great chance, provided by the Liberation War and unity it created slipped away. Today, the most sober among ourselves ask: what is the future of the Croatian state? Let us return to Joseph, son of Jacob. Letting his brothers go well provided with the food which would save the hungry Israel, Joseph issues an invitation and a warning: invitation to move to Misir, and a warning not to "quarrel on the way" (45, 24). The move to Misir was, in a long run, a mixed blessing. Egypt for the Israelitesproved not be exactly a land of milk and honey. Joseph's offspring became victims of racial discrimination. After long pushing and pulling, and thank to the Lord and Moses and Aaron, the Jews left Egypt and moved back, to the Promised Land. It does not mean that we need to return en masse; in fact, we all have an inside Moses and Aaron which tells us to go back. But Croatia needs a Moses and Aaron to get her out of the quagmire it has sunk into. A friend, top Croatian-American intellectual told me the other day. "If I were to be born again, and to look for a country to live, I would put the top priority on a country with an efficient court system." After my Croatian experiences I agree. For, pacta sunt servanda - what has been agreed upon should be honored. In Croatia, salaries and honoraria are late or never paid; one has to wait for years for ownership titles; guys in black Mercedes drive at 100km/hour in a wrong direction through a one-way street, and nothing happens to them. One can come and cut your tree in your backyard, without any permits or orders, because somebody at the "opcina" decided so (yes, I know such a case). To feel secure one has to become a part of some "network." And this is, folks, the end of individuality, and also the end of democracy. I do not care who "rules," be it "left" or "right," but there is no prosperity, no progress, no STATE without legal security and equality in front of the law. And the law in Croatia is all but disappeared. One more reason we need a Moses to climb the Sinai and bring down the tablets. Soon, in the course of the next year, the Croatian people at home will have an opportunity to select one.Vladimir P. Goss letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 15 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7372/1/E-The-Patient-Art-of-Diplomacy-into-Threats.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂThis Administration has turned the patient art of diplomacy into threatsPublished on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 by CommonDreams.orgÂReckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences by US Senator Robert ByrdSenate Floor Speech - Wednesday, February 12, 2003 To contemplate war is tothink about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, asthis nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level mustbe contemplating the horrors of war. Yet, this Chamber is, for the mostpart, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, nodiscussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of thisparticular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the UnitedStates Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by thesheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers isthere much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engagingin this particular war. And this is no small conflagration we contemplate.This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if itmaterializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possiblya turning point in the recent history of the world. This nation is about toembark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in anextraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- theidea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack anation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in thefuture -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. Itappears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. Andit is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countriesaround the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some othernation's -- hit list. High level Administration figures recently refused totake nuclear weapons off of the table when discussing a possible attackagainst Iraq. What could be more destabilizing and unwise than this type ofuncertainty, particularly in a world where globalism has tied the vitaleconomic and security interests of many nations so closely together? Thereare huge cracks emerging in our time-honored alliances, and U.S. intentionsare suddenly subject to damaging worldwide speculation. Anti-Americanismbased on mistrust, misinformation, suspicion, and alarming rhetoric fromU.S. leaders is fracturing the once solid alliance against global terrorismwhich existed after September 11. Here at home, people are warned ofimminent terrorist attacks with little guidance as to when or where suchattacks might occur. Family members are being called to active militaryduty, with no idea of the duration of their stay or what horrors they mayface. Communities are being left with less than adequate police and fireprotection. Other essential services are also short-staffed. The mood of thenation is grim. The economy is stumbling. Fuel prices are rising and maysoon spike higher. This Administration, now in power for a little over twoyears, must be judged on its record. I believe that that record is dismal.In that scant two years, this Administration has squandered a largeprojected surplus of some $5.6 trillion over the next decade and taken us toprojected deficits as far as the eye can see. This Administration's domesticpolicy has put many of our states in dire financial condition, under fundingscores of essential programs for our people. This Administration hasfostered policies which have slowed economic growth. This Administration hasignored urgent matters such as the crisis in health care for our elderly.This Administration has been slow to provide adequate funding for homelandsecurity. This Administration has been reluctant to better protect our longand porous borders. In foreign policy, this Administration has failed tofind Osama bin Laden. In fact, just yesterday we heard from him againmarshaling his forces and urging them to kill. This Administration has splittraditional alliances, possibly crippling, for all time, Internationalorder-keeping entities like the United Nations and NATO. This Administrationhas called into question the traditional worldwide perception of the UnitedStates as well-intentioned, peacekeeper. This Administration has turned thepatient art of diplomacy into threats, labeling, and name calling of thesort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of ourleaders, and which will have consequences for years to come. Calling headsof state pygmies, labeling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerfulEuropean allies as irrelevant -- these types of crude insensitivities can doour great nation no good. We may have massive military might, but we cannotfight a global war on terrorism alone. We need the cooperation andfriendship of our time-honored allies as well as the newer found friendswhom we can attract with our wealth. Our awesome military machine will do uslittle good if we suffer another devastating attack on our homeland whichseverely damages our economy. Our military manpower is already stretchedthin and we will need the augmenting support of those nations who can supplytroop strength, not just sign letters cheering us on. The war in Afghanistanhas cost us $37 billion so far, yet there is evidence that terrorism mayalready be starting to regain its hold in that region. We have not found binLaden, and unless we secure the peace in Afghanistan, the dark dens ofterrorism may yet again flourish in that remote and devastated land.Pakistan as well is at risk of destabilizing forces. This Administration hasnot finished the first war against terrorism and yet it is eager to embarkon another conflict with perils much greater than those in Afghanistan. Isour attention span that short? Have we not learned that after winning thewar one must always secure the peace? And yet we hear little about theaftermath of war in Iraq. In the absence of plans, speculation abroad isrife. Will we seize Iraq's oil fields, becoming an occupying power whichcontrols the price and supply of that nation's oil for the foreseeablefuture? To whom do we propose to hand the reigns of power after SaddamHussein? Will our war inflame the Muslim world resulting in devastatingattacks on Israel? Will Israel retaliate with its own nuclear arsenal? Willthe Jordanian and Saudi Arabian governments be toppled by radicals,bolstered by Iran which has much closer ties to terrorism than Iraq? Could adisruption of the world's oil supply lead to a world-wide recession? Has oursenselessly bellicose language and our callous disregard of the interestsand opinions of other nations increased the global race to join the nuclearclub and made proliferation an even more lucrative practice for nationswhich need the income? In only the space of two short years this recklessand arrogant Administration has initiated policies which may reap disastrousconsequences for years. One can understand the anger and shock of anyPresident after the savage attacks of September 11. One can appreciate thefrustration of having only a shadow to chase and an amorphous, fleetingenemy on which it is nearly impossible to exact retribution. But to turnone's frustration and anger into the kind of extremely destabilizing anddangerous foreign policy debacle that the world is currently witnessing isinexcusable from any Administration charged with the awesome power andresponsibility of guiding the destiny of the greatest superpower on theplanet. Frankly many of the pronouncements made by this Administration areoutrageous. There is no other word. Yet this chamber is hauntingly silent.On what is possibly the eve of horrific infliction of death and destructionon the population of the nation of Iraq -- a population, I might add, ofwhich over 50% is under age 15 -- this chamber is silent. On what ispossibly only days before we send thousands of our own citizens to faceunimagined horrors of chemical and biological warfare -- this chamber issilent. On the eve of what could possibly be a vicious terrorist attack inretaliation for our attack on Iraq, it is business as usual in the UnitedStates Senate. We are truly "sleepwalking through history." In my heart ofhearts I pray that this great nation and its good and trusting citizens arenot in for a rudest of awakenings. To engage in war is always to pick a wildcard. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly mustquestion the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovokedmilitary attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highestmoral traditions of our country". This war is not necessary at this time.Pressure appears to be having a good result in Iraq. Our mistake was to putourselves in a corner so quickly. Our challenge is to now find a gracefulway out of a box of our own making. Perhaps there is still a way if we allowmore time.ÂOp-edPresident Bush's email: President@whiteHouse.govÂÂKnow that 30 emails, phone calls or faxes on a sameÂsubject have to be reported to the president letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 15 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7377/1/E-What-can-Croatia-offer-to-a-unified-Europe.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂWhatcan Croatiaoffer to a unified EuropeSpeech of the President of the Republic of Croatiaat the Royal Institute for International Relations,Bruxelles, II February 2003Viscount Davignon,distinguishedmembers of the Diplomatic Corps,ladiesand gentlemen,Igladly accepted the invitation of the Royal Institute for InternationalRelations to present to you tonight my views on the topic: "What canCroatia offer to a unified Europe?"As you probably know, in a few days my country will officially apply formembership in the European Union. I expect that our application will be receivedwith understanding. I think, however, that the understanding could be greater ifthose already in the Union get a clearer idea of what a unified Europe gains byadmitting Croatia to its membership.Of course, any serious consideration of our application cannot be countedon, as long as Europe is not convinced that we are not only willing but alsoable to fulfill what is expected from us. Now, I am not referring to what theEuropean Union gains through our membership, but rather what the EU requiresfrom us in order to accept us as a serious and credible candidate.To make the picture complete I shall mention that this is, generallyspeaking, the issue of accepting European standards, or - specifically, and justto mention the most basic requirements: full co-operation with the InternationalCriminal Tribunal in the Hague, basic reform and depoliticisation of thejudicial system, minority rights, return of refugees, making possible forreturnees to freely dispose of their property, transformation of CroatianRadio-Television into a public institution etc.It is known that there have been certain misunderstandings between theCroatian Government and the European Union concerning the fulfillment of theseobligations. I am confident that the time of misunderstanding is over and thatthere will no new misunderstandings in the future. As far as I am concerned Ihave always clearly and without any reservations held the view that Croatia hasto, I repeat, has to meet the international commitments made, which impliescooperation with the Tribunal in The Hague as well, without any reservations andexceptions. I have held and publicly warned that Croatia has to depoliticiseboth the judicial system and the armed forces that it has to make possible forall its citizens who, for whatever reasons, fled from Croatia to return - ifthey want to - and that they freely and without disturbances use the propertybelonging to them.I said there were misunderstandings about some of these issues but Ithink that we have definitely shelved them. In other words: we know what isexpected from us and we are willing, ready and able to implement it. There willbe resistance, I have no doubts about it, but I neither have any doubts thatthis resistance will not obstruct us on the path we are heading for, on the onlypath that we, objectively speaking, can be heading for.I shall add here one point to make this perfectly clear. Everything weshall do in the context of meeting the conditions for membership in the EuropeanUnion, we shall not do because this is required from us by somebody else, butfirst of all for our own sake, because we are aware that we simply have to go toEurope. However, we are also aware that we shall not be able to join Europebefore we acquire European manners.If we have completed the question of what is required from us and what weshall do, let us try to outline the answer to the question that is the topic ofthis address: what we offer, or what is gained, or - to put it very precisely -what the European Union gains through our membership in its ranks.This may sound as a phrase but it really is not. The first thing that isoffered by Croatia's membership in the Union is the possibility of starting theimplementation of the final phase of the project "Unified Europe". Atthe time when the world was bipolar and divided into blocs it was possible tospeak about a unified Europe just in the context of one of its parts - itswestern, democratic one. This, however, is no longer possible. The fall of theBerlin Wall and the collapse of communism, or socialism as a world orderdefinitely changed the political landscape of the Old Continent.We are today realizing a Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural, whichGeneral de Gaulle many times referred to. Such a Europe can neither be conceivednor achieved on the assumption that in its Southeast, or to use an expressionthat has become established over the past years - the Western Balkans - thereremains a blank area.Europe from the Atlantic to the Ural is possible only if really allEuropean countries are included in it.A major step on this path was made at the EU Copenhagen Summit late lastyear. I know that many people tend to say: let us take a time-out now, let uspause for a while until the Union swallows this large bite. However, I do notthink this way. I am confident that just now, after the Copenhagen round of theEU enlargement, it is the right time to continue. It is necessary to workimmediately on creating the conditions for the next rounds of the enlargement aswell - both in the interest of the Union and in the interest of its potentialmembers, predominantly countries in transition.More than once I heard a comment that the European Union is tired of theenlargement and of the unification. However, believe me when I say thatcountries in transition are also tired of transition. These countries, Croatiabeing one of them, will conclude the transition process by integrating into theUnion. The Union, on the other hand, will conclude the project of its owncreation by integrating these countries. What is needed, then, are furtherefforts and energy, positive, political energy, on both sides, to make the grandidea of a unified Europe finally and ultimately a reality. By our integrationinto the Union we offer the Union progress on this very path.Further - we offer the opportunity that the Southeast of Europe, thescene of the last wars on the Old Continent in the 20th century, starts totransform into a zone of stability, peace and security. I do not have to remindyou that a unified Europe is inconceivable as long as outstanding issues smolderamong its member states and as long as their mutual relations areburdened with unresolved problems.Through its policy pursued toward countries in the region, the Republicof Croatia undoubtedly assists in overcoming a situation that I would describeas still somewhat fragile and partly imposed peace after bloody and brutal wars.We are working on creating a situation characterized by normal mutual relationsamong countries and by co-operation on the basis of equality and satisfaction ofmutual interests.Croatia has today several dozen free trade agreements, not only with itsclosest neighbors but with countries of a wider surrounding area as well.Croatia has fundamentally changed its policy to neighboring Bosnia andHerzegovina, discarding all its aspirations to parts of that state's territoryand assisting the Croats living in that state - to their benefit and not to thedetriment of a united state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Croatia is following the course of normalizing its relations with thestate community of Serbia and Montenegro. Liberalization of the visarequirements at the border of the two states will be the next important step inthat direction that will facilitate economic co-operation - already existing andshowing a tendency of expansion. Through negotiations we have reached an interimsolution concerning the Cape of Prevlaka, getting this issue thus off theinternational agenda, not prejudicing, however, the final solution by thisinterim arrangement.We are also determined toresolve, through negotiations, the issue of the sea border in the Bay of Piranwith neighboring Slovenia. The final solution should not deprive either side.On the other hand, in the process of arriving at the resolution both countrieswould demonstrate political maturity that is expected of present or future EUmembers.Giving its support to regional co-operation and practicing it as one ofthe priority goals of its foreign policy, Croatia is, objectively, invitingother countries in the region to follow suit. This will ultimately result in thecreation of a network of bilateral and multilateral relations that will bringthe Southeast of Europe, or the Western Balkans, ever further away from thehistorical and infamous term used to describe it, namely,"powder-keg". In doing so Croatia is not fleeing from the Balkans, asit sometimes may appear, but is rather getting the Balkans, in the standards ofconduct, closer to Europe and is helping that this region, in the modempolitical sense, transforms itself into Europe.In the first decade of its existence my country formally did have amultiparty, pluralistic system. However, in reality it was very close toauthoritarian, not to say totalitarian systems, which drove it, of course, evermore away from a unified Europe to which Croatia, declaratively, aspired. It wasnot before the 2000 elections that chances for a full and complete democratizationand for the final rejection of totalitarianism andauthoritarianism were offered.It is open to argument whether we have seized these opportunities fullyand quickly enough. However, it is beyond any doubt that we are using theseopportunities and that we shall continue to pursue the policy of strengtheningdemocracy and of promoting and implementing democratic values underlying aunified Europe.Here, I have to lay special emphasis on commitment to antifascism,considering the fact that, during the recent wars, there were instances ofunfortunate flirting with fascism or of tolerating some forms of neo-fascism.Incidents still occasionally occur and will be occurring, just the same as inmany other European countries. However, these are incidents that should besanctioned, and are not state policy.Taking such a position the Republic of Croatia renders additionalassistance in stabilizing the region and making it ever more thoroughly aEuropean region. The whirlpool of war lifted, namely, the dregs of fascism tothe surface in some other countries of the Western Balkans as well.In the context of respect for and fulfillment of human rights, we havebeen, since the 2000 elections, working on the implementation of a consistentpolicy towards members of the national minorities. Minorities are one of theessential features not only of the Southeast of Europe, but more or less of theentire continent. Due to many circumstances that tonight I cannot and do nothave time to discuss, minorities were in the past, and not completely withoutfoundation, often looked upon as a factor of hindrance. Today, under the changedcurrent circumstances and with a vision of Europe's future, minorities arebecoming an element that links and connects.Taking over European standards and sometimes even surpassing them Croatiacan, through its policy towards national minorities, serve as a guide and rolemodel to others in the region. Of course, it also holds true here that it isinsufficient to accept the standards, but they need to be, and I lay specialemphasis on this, consistently and vigorously implemented.I should add one thing. The policy towards minorities is the very areawhere we arc faced with the difficult task of getting rid of the burden ofhatred in the relations between the majority Croatian people and members of theSerbian minority. This hatred is a consequence of war and, because it fed on thewar events and was spurred by some of the media, it poisoned many people on bothsides.We are aware of such a situation and the need to overcome it. We areresolute to turn a new page in the interethnic relations. The positive exampleset by Croatia in this field is bound to have an impact on inter-ethnicrelations in other states of the region as well, and here I am referring firstof all to the states that emerged in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.The stormy war time when the modem Croatian state was born was not idealeither for building a state based on the rule or of law, or for practicing thisrule. The consequences of this are felt today both in Croatia and in a broaderregion. Here too, we have been persistently working on changing the conditionswe found. To make it short and clear - we want to establish such conditions thatyou here may take for granted. However, they were not standard in our areaneither in the communist (or socialist) times in the former Yugoslavia, nor inthe first years following its dissolution, in the new states that grew on theruins of the former Federation.We want a state where all laws will be at every moment equally applied toall its citizens, where nobody will be discriminated on the basis of race,nationality, religion, sex or political views. We are on the right path toachieve this goal although - frankly speaking - we are encountering stubbornresistance. It comes from those who are used to benefiting from favorable conditions of the absence of the rule of law. However, rest assured that weshall break this resistance, whether it comes from organized crime scene or fromthe circles of some former or, for that matter, some present protagonists on thepolitical scene.Through this too we are contributing to the Europeanization of the wholeregion since a deficient rule of law was not a characteristic just of Croatia inthe years behind us.Finally, we have also been working on the transformation of the mediascene. Following the break-up of the socialist System, the scene headed forunrestrained media freedoms. However, an abrupt disappearance of allrestrictions, inherent to the former System, including censorship andself-censorship occasionally resulted in unbridled sensationalism, who's onlyand single aim was to make money and only in passing to slightly inform.Moreover, new political options tried to usurp a vacuum arising in place of thesphere of influence of the Communist Party, once the only political force, byturning - often with success - some of the media into their barely disguisedpropaganda organs. To a great extent, this assessment holds true for the role ofthe state television until the year 2000.Croatia stands now before a complex but inevitable task of transformingthe Croatian Radio-Television into a public institution. I think that the newlaw on the Croatian Television, regardless of all its shortcomings, is animportant step forward on this way. Thus we are not just achieving Europeanstandards within our borders, but we are also setting an example, I even daresay a guide to those living on the other side of these borders that are alsofacing the same or similar problems. The same also holds true for the effortsmade by professional journalist associations to re-establish the professionalrules and principles of professional ethics in the media scene.I would try now to sum up everything I have said, if only in some basicoutlines, and to say what it is that the Republic of Croatia can offer or giveto a united Europe.Through our membership in the European Union we shall make possibleanother step forward in the implementation of the project of a unified Europe.Through our policy of regional co-operation we can contribute to stabilizingthe recent scene of bloody wars and in this way participate in theprocess of the transformation of this region that will render it acceptable fora united Europe.Through our correct and good relations with neighboring countries we canhelp to overcome the consequences of war in the political, economic and allother fields. Through this we would make it easier for these countries to drawcloser to the achievement of their strategic goal - a united Europe - but wewould also induce the united Europe to open its doors to the rest of the WesternBalkans.Through our policy aimed at a consistent building of democracy andstrengthening the foundations of the state based on the rule of law we canassist in creating a political climate where, in the context of a broaderregion, democracy and the rule of law will be established as unephemeral andirreversible values.Through our human and minority rights policy we can help inaugurate a newapproach to the issue of minorities in our part of Europe. This implies thatminorities are given the place and position within society which they alreadypredominantly have in a unified Europe, or which they have to have if thisEurope wants to exceed the dimension of, historically speaking, just ashort-lived experiment.I shall not enumerate further. I think that you have a clear idea of whatI want to say. Croatia is not a country that directs to a unified Europe justits requests and expectations. We really can be of assistance in getting thewhole region first closer to the European Union and then integrating it into theUnion. And this very capability is what we offer Europe and what we bring intoit.I believe you have noticed that I have used the expression "we canhelp" several times. I have not said "we are helping" or "wewill help". With good reason. Namely, I have spoken about our potentialsand our capabilities. Whether we shall develop this potential, whether we shalluse these capabilities depends on us, but also on a unified Europe.As far as we are concerned we have to persevere on the path we have beenfollowing. We have to continue pursuing the adopted policy in order to be ableto one day enjoy the blessings offered by the membership in the European Union.However, on the other hand, a unified Europe should recognize what we can giveit by our accession and also show its readiness to receive and use it.In other words, I see the Croatian path to a unified Europe as a processof mutual giving and receiving. I am confident that this very mutuality inreceiving and giving does constitute a solid foundation for our accession to aunified Europe. I do not expect that you simply accept my point of view. I dohope, though, that this expose will at least encourage you to reflect upon theCroatian application for membership in the European Union within the framework Ihave tried to sketch here.Thank you. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 14 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7380/1/E-President-of-Croatia-in-Albania.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂPresidents Mesic in AlbaniaAlbanian President Alfred Moisiu, left, greets his Croatiancounterpart Stipe Mesic, prior to the start of a summit in Tirana Wednesday,Feb. 12, 2003. The presidents of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia gatheredWednesday in Tirana to discuss cooperation that aims to bring their countriescloser to NATO (news- websites). (AP Photo/Hektor Pustina)Wed Feb 12, 7:02 AM ETTIRANA, Albania - The presidents of Albania,Croatia and Macedonia gathered Wednesday in Tirana to discuss cooperation thataims to bring their countries closer to NATO , the president's office said in anews release. The three countries wereexcluded from a group of former communist countries invited to join the alliancelast year at a summit in the Czech capital, Prague. But their joint efforts areconsidered promising in a region that has suffered nationalist strife in recentyears.The meeting aimed to set joint goals for the three countries, and to spellout what they needed to do to reach the goals, the news release said. James F.Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Albania, was set to attend the meeting.The three countries plan in March to sign an agreement called the"Adriatic 3," which will create a legal context for the cooperationamong the three countries and the United States.Albania has hired the U.S. law firm Paige E. Reffe for one year to boost itsefforts to join NATO. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 12 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7379/1/E-Croatia-and-NATO.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂCroatiaand NATOThe USA will provideCroatia s armed forces with $7 million in radio equipment to bring it intoline with NATO standards, the US Embassy in Zagreb said yesterday. (Reuters)http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/world_3340578KathiLev&xml/&aspKath/world.asp?fd ate=12/02/2003 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 12 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7378/1/E-John-Pindar---for-the-European-Parliament-2004.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂJohn Pindar, in the European Parliament in2004Dear AllThe British Liberal Democrats are currently voting onwho will be their candidates in the next elections tothe European Parliament in 2004.I am delighted to say that a great friend of Croatia,John Pindar, is a candidate for the London list.John is a very familiar face in London's Croatiancommunity. He has traveled extensively in Croatia.Indeed, in his election manifesto to members Johnpoints his travel experience in the ex-communistcountries of Central and Eastern Europe - "especiallyCroatia"!John is the only one of the candidates to mentionCroatia in their manifesto's.John is an elected councillor in the London borough ofLambeth - in ex-Tory Prime Minister John Major's oldward - having won the seat from New Labour.Essentially John would be an excellent MEP for London,and would bring much needed knowledge of Croatia tothe European Parliament.John will be attending a party hosting meeting soonand I am sure we all wish him well on that - I'll bethere.John gets my No.1 preference vote, and I am sure thatwe all wish John the very best in obtaining a greatmany other party member's No.1 votes too!Good Luck John!Brian letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 12 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7381/1/E-Finger.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂFingerEuropean Commission President Romano Prodi, left, andCroatia's Prime Minister Ivica Racan talk prior to a news conference at theCommission's headquarters in Brussels, Monday Jan. 27, 2003. (AP Photo/YvesLogghe) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 01 Feb 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7384/1/E-Dr-Tomislav-Sunic-lectures-in-New-York-Feb-2-2003.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂDr. Tomislav Sunic lecturesin New York New York Council of Conservative Citizens Action Alert 1/15/02ÂÂÂA LECTURE BY ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST DISTINGUISHED NATIONALIST INTELLECTUALS:ÂSEE TOMISLAV SUNIC IN NYC 2/2/03! The NY CofCC is proud to present a lecture by Tomislav Sunic who will speakÂon "Third-World Immigration: A Threat to Europe and Lessons for America" There will also be a panel discussion with many celebrated nationalist andÂpaleo-conservative writers and thinkers. Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 2. 2003 at 2:30pm. The event willÂbe held on the 10th Floor of the TRS Building 44 E. 32nd St. New York, NewÂYork. Admission will be $12.00. Refreshments will be served. Kenneth J. Schmidt CommunicationsÂDirector letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 26 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7383/1/E-Libya-to-Lead-UN-Human-Rights-Panel-.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂLibya Wins Leadership of Rights Panel Despite U.S. OppositionBy BARRY JAMES,ÂInternational Herald TribunePARIS, Jan. 20 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights, meeting in Geneva, elected Libya to its chairmanship today after the United States demanded and lost a vote.The United States insisted on a vote, which was the first since the commission was formed in 1946. The chairmanship is usually decided by consensus. It was apparently a move to embarrass Libya's supporters.But 33 countries voted for Libya. Only three - the United States, Canada and, reports said, Guatemala - voted no. Seventeen countries abstained, including seven members of the European Union. Diplomats said they did not want to offend African nations, whose turn it is under a rotating system to select the new leader.The vote means Libya will preside over the meeting, from March 17 to April 25, at which the commission will survey the human rights situation around the world.Libya has been accused of abducting and torturing opponents of its government. It has openly supported violent organizations like the Irish Republican Army, and it is held responsible for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people died.The Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has assiduously courted African nations with cash and political influence. He was a driving force behind the formation of the new African Union, even paying off some of the debts of the old Organization of African Unity, its predecessor.Libya, still not fully free from United Nations penalties that were imposed because of the Lockerbie bombing, was the only country nominated by the African bloc.The United States insisted on a vote, the State Department spokesman Richard A. Boucher said, because Libya's "terrible conduct" should not be rewarded.The United States has just rejoined the commission after losing its seat in 2001 in a secret vote of member countries.The American ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Kevin Moley, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the outcome. "A country with this record does not merit a leadership role," he said.ÂHuman rights advocates said the election of a country that has not had a free election since Colonel Qaddafi seized power in 1969 put the credibility of the rights panel at stake.Earlier, in a statement, Human Rights Watch said Libya's rights record over three decades had been "appalling." Amnesty International also has expressed concern that about 150 opponents of the government who are facing trial in Libya later this month will not receive a fair hearing.The Libyan representative to the Human Rights Commission, Najat al-Hajjaji, said in a speech after her election that she would rely on the body's collective wisdom and that she would avoid "as far as possible" making decisions on a personal basis.---------------Larry Cirignano, Esq.CatholicVote.orgPO Box 70695Washington, DC 20024609-781-0090 cell202-318-0789 fax----------------- letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 26 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7382/1/E-Dr-Tomislav-Sunic-lectures-in-New-York-Feb-2-2003.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂDr. Tomislav Sunic lecturesin New York New York Council of Conservative Citizens Action Alert 1/15/02ÂÂÂA LECTURE BY ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST DISTINGUISHED NATIONALIST INTELLECTUALS:ÂSEE TOMISLAV SUNIC IN NYC 2/2/03! The NY CofCC is proud to present a lecture by Tomislav Sunic who will speakÂon "Third-World Immigration: A Threat to Europe and Lessons for America" There will also be a panel discussion with many celebrated nationalist andÂpaleo-conservative writers and thinkers. Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 2. 2003 at 2:30pm. The event willÂbe held on the 10th Floor of the TRS Building 44 E. 32nd St. New York, NewÂYork. Admission will be $12.00. Refreshments will be served. Kenneth J. Schmidt CommunicationsÂDirector letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 26 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7385/1/E-CROATIAS-IMPARTIALITY---Croatia-neutral-State.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂCroatia-neutralState?Ph. D. Andelko MilardovciPolitical Science Research Center, Zagrebwww.cpi.hrÂÂÂÂÂÂCROATIA BETWEEN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, WESTERN BALKAN AND IMPARTIALITY1. EU INTEGRATIONSince international acknowledgement in 1992 until today, the Croatian foreign policy the object are European integrations. That object has been emphasized and is emphasized by former Government and by new coalition government. Despite that, until recently the Government didn't manage to achieve inter -party agreement on European integration Strategy, and it was accomplished at the end of 2002 by acclamation of Declaration in Croatian Parliament. Impartially from what may be the best results in Stabilization and association process, comparing with other countries, Croatia didn't find itself among ten new candidate countries in EU Eastern enlargement process. At Copenhagen Summit Croatia was not traded as a country which could be in enlargement process with Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.ÂThat prompted Croatian political elite on diplomatic action and acclamation of Declaration and undergoing of application for full membership by March 2003.The application has domestic and foreign political reasons.Domestic political reasons are related to forthcoming elections. In a case of acceptance, Government of the Prime-ministerRacan would achieve a great success in foreign policy which could probably have impact on forthcoming elections. But, in a caseÂOf subtraction this Government will have to bear consequences and the question of alternative strategy for the future will be opened.The good side of the application is that it will show a real position of Brussels who will have to give its final answer, either positive or negative.ÂPositive answer based on intern consensus, would ask for development of integration strategy with precise dynamic, distribution of tasks, distribution actor roles, budget and cost of integration, benefits of integration for Croatia, losses and obligation by referendum.In a case of negative answer the government will have to develop the scenario to avoid contra-productive effects of ten to fifteen years by the time Croatia become full EU member.That time should be used on developing an Alternative or our own concept of impartiality. That concept will be discussed among leading Croatian intellectuals on Seminar "Croatia-neutral State?" which will be held on 23rd January 2003 in Bezanec Castle in HrvatskoZagorje.2. GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION, IDENTITY AND POLITICAL REALISMPositive and negative Scenario of Croatian future and her position in the globalized world has to be determinate by her geopolitical situation, which is constant in domestic and foreign politics. It is a permanent fact which has to be taken as dependent in programming and implementation of future scenario.According to that, it is possible to identify Croatia as a country between Central Europe, Mediterranean and Balkan. Three components identify her geopolitical and cultural identity: Central European, Mediterranean and Balkan component, of which geographicallyBalkan has a smallest impact.Until January 3rd 2000 the emphasis was on first two components but after arrival of coalition Government the priority was given to a Balkan component. Objections to an old Government were that it favored European integration, Central European and Mediterranean identity but it acted totally Balkanian. New Government, on the other side to has emphasized cooperation with Balkans as an integrated part of Stabilization and accession process and the Mediterranean and Central European geopolitical and cultural component where put in a second plan and a priority was given to cooperation with Western Balkan countries (In economy, culture, sport and etc).In the political language by officials in Brussels Croatia is treated as a part of Western Balkan region. Since 1997 until 2000 in "European herald" magazine Croatia is mentioned as an integrated part Western Balkan region, Yugoslavia minus Slovenia plus Albania. In this region exist interweave between Western (EU and U. S. A.), Russian and Islamic interest. EU foreign politics treats this region as one. The object of Stabilization and association Agreement is implementation of stabilization in the region and association, if it ever became possible. The EU politics does not take into account the results of each individual country. It is occupied with the collective approach. Individual accession model, as it seems, will not be easily accepted. The reasons why Croatia didn't entered in first enlargement group in Copenhagen are strictly political. The Western Balkans is treated as Europe's "black hole", the region without established rule of law and with great problems with corruption, organized crime, illegal migrations and trafficking of human beings. It is treated in this way and actually isolated so that it doesn't undermine EU construction, and in attempt to prevent eventual effects of the "black hole" on her system EU is building a stronger politics towards Balkan countries and barbarians who could undermine the EU principals.Finally, in all Scenarios of EU Future, either official or of think tanks, Croatia is seen as Western Balkan country. These are some of the examples, Western Balkan and a new European responsibility. Strategic paper presented at special meeting "Club of three and Western Balkans" (Brussels 29 - 30, June 2000); CARDS assistance Program to the Western Balkans - regional strategy paper 2002 - 2006 (European Commission. Forward studies unit. Horizontal issues). Western Balkan in 2004. Assistance, cohesion and new European borders. The paper by independent institute ESI - Berlin was presented to Javier Solana on November 5th 2002 in Brussels. Taken into account, Scenario confirm thesis of political reasons of Croatian exclusion from Copenhagen enlargement process and a collective, instead of individual approach to accession, if ever becomes plausible.ÂESI Scenario anticipate crisis in Western Balkans 2004 caused by reduction of assistance. In a part of Scenario " European Union and the crisis 2004" the Western Balkan countries are hardly taken into account in a view of future EU enlargement, and the evidence of that approach was shown in Copenhagen treatment of the Balkans. It is stressed that:»From 2004 to 2006, most countries in the region will receive relatively little EU aid, whatever political or institutional reforms they undertake and irrespective of their progress up the Stabilization and Association ladder. Unless something changes, there will also be little argument for taking the needs of the region seriously in the next programming cycle (2007-13). The Balkans will continue to depend on the development and humanitarian aid budget, and will find itself competing with the countries of the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East and with new crisis areas as they emerge around the globe.Without a serious commitment from the European Union, the Western Balkans will find itself increasingly isolated from the developments unfolding all around it, from Slovenia, through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, and south to Greece. Its capacity to join the European project will only decrease over time. While in the enlarged Europe, the new goals will be economic cohesion, development and labour mobility, in the Balkans the focus will narrow to issues of crime, corruption and border management. If this is Europe's only response to the crisis of 2004, then the most probable future of the Balkans is to remain an island of instability in the heart of Europe, exporting migrants and importing peacekeepers. (ESI, November 2002, p. 20). »EU foreign politics has common standards of "Europeanization" of new potential candidate countries and developed regional politics. One of these regional politics is toward Western Balkans. But, either Croatia hasn't developed clear strategy whose objectives are European integrations neither it comply prerequisite for full membership, partly because it's own fault and partly because of existing scenarios of EU future.ÂThe question here is: What can we do in a case they don't accept our application for full membership and we subtract scenarios which tend to relate Croatia and her own future with a future of Western Balkan? Therefore, alternative scenario must be developed including acclamation of permanent impartiality on Constitutional basics.Â3. IMPARTIALITYIf the application for full membership is going to be subtracted, and if the Government is rejecting a concept which tends to relate Croatia with Western Balkan scenario, an alternative strategy of extrication from the Balkans must be developed. This strategy should necessary include acclamation of impartiality as a concept of self- reinforcing, building institutions based on rule of law, implementation of common European standards and best practice, anti-participation in war conflicts, abstention from NATO membership, and reinforcement of Constitutional statute which forbids any association with former Yugoslavian countries, and promotion of peace by Republic of Croatia.ÂIn a political history term impartiality had deferent meanings, but always resulting from constellation of power and relations. Since establishment of international relations between the states in 1648 it was interpreted as abstention from conflicts and taking parts in violations, respect of sovereignty and independent foreign politics for example, freedom of choice in leading its own foreign politics.ÂThe system of impartiality is changing through the centuries, especially after a fall of Berlin wall. With globalization of politics the old concept of impartiality has changed, and gradually is defined in new context of power and relations.ÂThe right on impartiality, in terms of globalized politics, has to be maintained, as a choice of a freedom. For example: Croatia has never been forced to join EU and NATO, but EU scenario relates it to Western Balkan. Impartiality, hence, means a freedom of choice which defines our own future. Any declared impartiality should be acknowledged by international community, and in that case Croatia should "experience" second international acknowledgment if declare neutrality.As I said, through the history impartiality was result of constellation of power and relations. Examples are: Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Finland and Ireland. Switzerland is an example of permanent, Constitutional based impartiality. Austria is an example of impartiality created as a result or consequence of 2nd World war. Since 1955 until 1994 Austria experienced total impartiality. That time was used on institutional building and self-reinforcing, and at the end Austria joined EU. Austria is not a NATO member, but is candidate country and is pleading for redefining of impartiality under new conditions. Sweden, Finland and Ireland are all EU members but not NATO members. Therefore, in globalized world there are still some neutral states, and some countries are neither members of EU or NATO. Perfect example is Switzerland.According to that, if Croatia currently can not become full EU member, and there is no need to enter NATO, as senseless organization, it should declare neutrality related to future conflicts and permanent impartiality.Â"Permanent neutrality is clearly different from neutrality by the fact that permanent neutrality is characteristic of the state as a subject of international law, as defined by Constitution and international Agreement, and opposite, term neutrality is related to war." (Source: Vladimir Ibler, International civil law dictionary, Zagreb, Informator, 1987, p. 319). Raymond Aaron has also written about different types of impartiality in book "Peace and war among the nations" (Zagreb, Golden marketing, 2001, p. 548.)The idea of freedom of choice and peace are in foundation of impartiality. So if Croatia is going to declare impartiality it won't be in any relation with isolationism. Impartiality is based on the assumption of freedom of choice to integrate, according to national interests, in those global institutions in which, for example, Switzerland is a member, but is not a member of European Union and NATO. Finally, impartiality exclude isolationism. Croatian concept of impartiality in globalized world, should therefore, be the concept of institutional self reinforcing, comparative with EU standards, based on rule of law so that Croatia in time became a desirable EU partner.Since the end of bipolar structure of the world and fall of Berlin wall NATO has became an institution occupied with planning its own purpose. In NATO strategy1999 it is stressed that a role of NATO is a protection of North-Atlantic alliance countries. Whom from? Who is a global enemy today? It is also stressed that NATO's second role is managing the crisis caused by NATO to vindicate its purpose. Beside that, after a Fatherland war, Croatia is not longer willing to participate in wars and wish to declare itself as Republic of peace. Parallel with that Croatian membership in NATO would be senseless since NATO is interested only in the military bases in Mediterranean, as a place for protection of capital interests, interests of foreign companies, and as a source of equipment and goods, and trained soldiers for artillery meat. Croatia should offer military bases and in exchange should receive a expensive equipment, bordels, prostitutes, infectious diseases, drugs, military police and "State within the state", from NATO. The fact is, there is no any country who could pose a threat to Croatia besides NATO, and NATO members for shore will not declare war to Croatia. Slovenia is not a NATO member, Italy, as old member, excludes that idea, and Hungary, after join European Union is not a question. The only threat could pose Serbia. But if Croatia has succeeded to organize army in the early 1990 and defend from Europe's third military forces at the time, it is not a question whether it could do that in the future with built military organization and well equipped army? Hence, there are no reasons for Croatia to become a NATO member. As a state which proclaims peace, based on impartiality, Croatia should develop politics towards Serbia to prevent threats.Impartiality includes strong economy institutions and membership in, according to national interests, global economy institutions. Globalization of economy and politics has greatly changed the concept of territorial sovereignty of European Union members.ÂIn the invitation for Seminar which is going to be held at the end of January 2003 it is stressed: "Today the nature of impartiality has changed especially in accordance with new nature of conflicts and threats in international relations. Strong integration processes and even stronger inter-dependence of the world and states progressively are changing the main principles of neutrality, as for example, the principal of sovereignty and national interests. Neutral states continually are changing their behavior in international relations in accordance with real neutrality, but they stay committed to basic idea which enable them a great freedom for actions".Globalization, as a main form in integrated the world, does not exclude impartiality, but impartiality needs to be adopted according to conditions in globalized world. Globalization is based on neo-liberalism, the idea of freedom, just as neutrality is based on idea of freedom. Hence, terms globalization and neutrality are not in contradiction if the right of freedom of choice, freedom of individual and society to choose its own future is respected. Our choice is a way towards European Union and if temporary we can't reach it and we don't want to be related with Western Balkan impartiality is a way for Croatian politics in globalized world. But we need International community to acknowledge this way and they will if Croatia suggests that option. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 22 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7387/1/H-Hrvatski-zakon-o-dijaspori-po-uzoru-na-Irsku-i-Izrael.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂDijaspora je danas jos vise izolirana od HrvatskeRAZGOVOR prof. Niko SOLJAK, PREDSJEDNIK INTERNACIONALNOG KLUBAHRVATSKIH ISELJENIKA, POVRATNIKA I INVESTITORADijaspora je danas jos vise izolirana od HrvatskeHrvatska dijaspora od Vlade i Hrvatskog sabora trazi donosenje zakona o dijaspori po uzoru na Irsku i Izrael, uvodjenje ministarstva za dijasporu, zastupljenost dijaspore u Vijecu HRT-a s tri clana, a u Hrvatskom saboru s 12 zastupnika, obustavu prodaje nacionalne imovine dok se ne donese novi zakon o privatizaciji, zabranu prodaje zemljista uz more i druge povrsine uz turisticke objekte te njegovo davanje u najam odnosno koristenje, donosenje zakona kojim kriminal u pretvorbi ne zastarijeva, smanjenje sudske takse, iznalazenje nacina povrata novca, izmedju 20 i 30 milijardi dolara, koji je iznesen iz Hrvatske u zadnjih 12 godina uz koristenje autoriteta Predsjednika RH koji je u predizbornoj kampanji obecao da ce Hrvatska znati sama vratiti taj novac, te izvjesce o novcu hrvatske dijaspore utrosenom u stvaranje i obranu Hrvatske...To su tek neki od zahtjeva Prvog sabora hrvatske dijaspore, odrzanog ljetos u Porecu u organizaciji tamosnjeg Internacionalnog kluba hrvatskih iseljenika, povratnika i investitora iz dijaspore. Trazeci odgovor na pitanje je li se bar koji od njihovih zahtjeva ostvario, razgovaramo za Slobodnu Dalmaciju s predsjednikom tog kluba prof. Nikom Soljakom.- Kada biste snagu Kluba izrazili clanstvom, kakva bi ona bila?Ona se ne moze izraziti kvantitativno, vec samo i iskljucivo kvalitativno buduci su nasi predstavnici "ambasadori" hrvatske intelektualne "kreme" diljem svijeta. Takvi intelektualni i moralni autoriteti hrvatske dijaspore kroz sva razdoblja svog zivota i rada u iseljenistvu, od stvaranja Hrvatske do danas, ostali su vjerni svojim principima i idealima.- Hocete reci kako iseljenici nisu skretali ni lijevo ni desno?Da, jer njih ne zanimaju ni stranka, ni stranacke aktivnosti, nego boljitak hrvatske drzave i hrvatskog naroda. I na tom su planu voljni dati sve od sebe. No cesto se povlace kada vide i osjete da ih se u Hrvatskoj ne uvazava vec dozivljava stranim i nepozeljnim tijelom. Pritom oni dozivljavaju razocaranje kada osjete nemogucnost postenog i korektnog ulaganja u svoju zemlju.- Koji je cilj Kluba osim postati spona izmedju iseljene i domovinske Hrvatske?Nas program je vrlo obiman i slojevit. Jedan od prioritetnih zadataka je objedinjavanje dijaspore u zemljama gdje zive i rade, u cilju prevladavanja njihovih medjusobnih podjela. A, na zalost, te podjele medju hrvatskim narodom prisutne su i u Hrvatskoj. Dijaspora je prijasnjih godina bila vezana uz HDZ, koji je jedini pridonio organiziranju hrvatske dijaspore u svijetu. Njihovi ideali su iz raznih razloga razbijeni jer je hrvatska drzava u medjuvremenu opljackana, nacionalno bogatstvo rastoceno, poduzeca upropastena, sirok narodni sloj osiromasen, uzak krug neposteno obogacen, tako da medju nasim iseljenicima vlada velika podijeljenost, nepovjerenje pa i antagonizmi.- Koliko Klub moze realno pomoci ujedinjavanju takve, kako rekoste, razjedinjene hrvatske dijaspore?Pokusavamo unutar pojedinih drzava stvoriti i postici to jedinstvo dijaspore da oni medjusobno pocnu kontaktirati, suradjivati i da donesu bar jedan dio konsenzusa odluka o tome kakvu Hrvatsku zele i sto oni mogu uciniti i napraviti da nam zaista bude bolje. Na tom putu valjalo bi postici minimum zajednistva s Vladom RH . Fali nam jedinstven i slozan pristup tom pitanju, kako u zemlji tako i u svijetu.- Nakon sto je HDZ dijelom iskoristio dijasporu za pojedinacna i stranacka bogacenja, ova koalicijska vlast i dalje ignorira nase iseljenistvo, kao da se boji njezina utjecaja i moguceg veceg participiranja u zivotu i radu na svim razinama i sferama djelovanja i stvaralastva u zemlji? Kako to komentirate?Pod vodstvom HDZ-a i Tudjmana, to treba priznati i ne zaboraviti, dobili smo samostalnu Hrvatsku, i ne slazem se da je u tom razdoblju iskoristena hrvatska dijaspora. Ona je bila svjesna da ima obvezu i zelju pomoci u radjanju i stvaranju svoje drzave, kao sto se i na referendumu za samostalnu Hrvatsku, a protiv ondasnje Jugoslavije, izjasnilo 94 posto hrvatskog zivlja. HDZ je uspio organizirati dijasporu, uz pomoc njezina novca organizirati prikupljanje oruzja za obranu RH, ali pritom nije nista radio na buducnosti stabilnog pravnog i moralnog sustava koji je trebao zamijeniti komunizam. Dijaspora se osjetila izigranom jer smo dobili siromasnu, nestabilnu i nesigurnu drzavu bogatih pojedinaca.Promjenom vlasti i dolaskom koalicijske, dijaspora je dosla u jos gori i nepovoljniji polozaj, jer su izgubljeni kontakti stvoreni u vrijeme HDZ-a, tako da je ona danas odvojena i izolirana od Vlade i drzave. Ocekivalo se da ce ta nova vlast prihvatiti dijasporu, koristiti njezine potencijale, kako intelektualne, obrazovne, materijalne i njezine usluge poput lobiranja u svijetu u korist Hrvatske. No, na zalost to se nije dogodilo.- Na Prvom saboru istaknuto je kako u svijetu danas zivi oko 2 milijuna Hrvata, kako je Hrvatsku u zadnjih 12 godina napustilo oko 400 tisuca obrazovanih mladih ljudi, te kako je nashvatljivo da i ova vlast takav golemi znanstveni i intelektualni te financijski potencijal ignorira. Sto bi trebalo uciniti?Pogledajte Irsku i Izrael, danas jedne od najbogatijih zemalja. Te su zemlje donijele zakone o dijaspori, stvorile maksimalne uvjete za povratak i financiranje svoje dijaspore. Hrvati su u tudjim zemljama danas afirmirani i cijenjeni strucnjaci, vrhunski intelektualci i znanstvenici te predstavljaju intelektualnu elitu u stranom svijetu. Njihovo znanje, ugled, veze, novac treba iskoristiti za razvoj i boljitak Hrvatske i sviju nas. Treba prvo donijeti Zakon o dijaspori koji ce omoguciti povratak nasim iseljenicima, zatim im omoguciti da sudjeluju u Hrvatskom saboru kroz svoje predstavnike, osigurati im bolje i povoljnije radne i profitabilne uvjete nego sto ih imaju u drugim zemljama, zbog cega ce sigurno biti zainteresirani vratiti se u svoju domovinu. -Vas se Klub cesto javlja priopcenjima kojima kritizirate rad Vlade, zelite sprijeciti daljnju rasprodaju "obiteljskog srebra", nastojite ojacati utjecaj dijaspore u Hrvatskoj, itd. Kakav je uopce ucinak tih vasih reagiranja?Pa ima ih, i to konkretnih. Trazili smo smanjenje sudske takse, i to je postignuto. Zahtijevali smo stopiranje prodaje tzv. turistickog zemljista, trazeci da se ono daje u zakup ili u koncesiju, sto su i sudovi prihvatili odbijajuci uknjizbu turistickih tvrtki kao vlasnika tog zemljista. Nesto se ipak dogadja.- I na kraju, kako se Klub financira?Nikako, svatko trosi svoj novac i svoje vrijeme sa zeljom da nesto dobro i vrijedno napravi za Hrvatsku. Od Vladina Ureda za udruge svake godine trazimo pomoc, no ni kune nam nisu odobrili, sto ne cudi budcci je sluzbena politika barem ove Vlade da nas ne treba financirati, vec "sasjeci u korijenu". Ni od Istarske zupanije nismo dobili ni lipu pomoci, jedino nam je Grad Porec lani dodijelio tisucu kuna. To je sve posljedica nerazumijevanja neznanja i nedostatka dobre volje da se saslusa druga strana.To nas, medutim, nije pokolebalo u daljnjem radu, a poglavito nije obeshrabrilo vodece hrvatske intelektualne i znanstvene autoritete u svijetu, poput prof. dr. Dolinara, dr. Paune, i dr. Jelineka iz Svicarske, dr. Billa i gospodina Covica iz Njemacke, gospode Valcica, Berama i Vugrincica iz Australije, dr. Tomica i dr. Jolica iz Kanade, dr. Kraljica iz Amerike, i brojnih drugih koji redovito daju svoj dragocjen i nemjerljiv doprinos. Te "ambasadore" Hrvatske u svijetu nista ne moze u tome pokolebati.Pise Branka ZUZICÂNismo Racanova "produzena ruka"- Nedavno se kanadska hrvatska zajednica oglasila priopcenjem kojim Vam osporavaju pravo na predstavljanje hrvatske dijaspore, inputirajuci vam da ste "novokomponirani" klub star samo dvije godine, pritom Vama osobno zamjerajuci da ste samo godinu dana boravili u inozemstvu, sto Vam ne daje legitimitet za predstavljanje hrvatske dijaspore koja desetljecima zivi s novim generacijama izvan Hrvatske. Kako to pojasnjavate?U tim napadima zrcali se hrvatski usud. Mnogi misle da sve pocinje samo od njih, a sve sto je od drugih ne valja i ne vrijedi. Znate vec dobro pricu o hrvatskom jalu. Nas klub nadzivjet ce nas i nove generacije, jer siri jednu hvalevrijednu i nuznu ideju o povezanosti Hrvatske i njezine dijaspore, nikoga ne iskljucuje i svakome otvara prostor suradnje radi veceg zajednistva. Treba vidjeti iz kojeg dijela kanadske zajednice Hrvata dolaze te reakcije. Spomenut cu izvrsnu suradnju s nasim predstavnikom iz Kanade Rudijem Tomicem, jednim od vecih kanadskih intelektualaca, zatim s Ivom Jolicem, urednikom iz Radio-Toronta, i brojnim drugima.- Pripisivalo Vam se cak da je Klub produzena Racanova ruka, zar ne?I to Vam govori u prilog duboke i tragicne hrvatske podijeljenosti. Kamo srece da smo produzena ruka vlasti u Hrvatskoj! Mi stalno trazimo kontakte s vlascu koju su legalno izabrali na izborima hrvatski narod i gradjani, radi pronalaska modus vivendi za opce dobro Hrvatske i njezina naroda, kako bi nam sutra svima bila bolje. Stoga i od ove vlasti trazimo vece postovanje i uvazavanje dijaspore i njezin veci doprinos u stvaranju njezina zajednistva. Pri tom naglasavam kako ja ne predstavljam Klub, vec ga u najboljem svjetlu, kao i njegov program, predstavljaju vodeci hrvatski intelektualci u Svicarskoj, Kanadi, Njemackoj, Cileu, Argentini, Australiji i drugdje. Mi nismo niciji zastupnici, vec zelimo artikulirati interese i potrebe hrvatske dijaspore prema Vladi, trazeci od nje da se konacno odredi spram iseljene Hrvatske, na obostranu korist i zadovoljstvo.(c) Sva prava pridrzana: SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, 1999-2002. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 19 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7386/1/E-Stephen-Schwartz-on-Konjics-crime.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂStephen Schwartz on Konjic's crimeBelow is an article written by Stephen Schwartz which appeared in the Daily Standard, a web publication of the Weekly Standard and concerns the murders in Konjic. Both Ante Cuvalo and the NFCA are mentioned in the article.A Crime in BosniaÂThe problem isn't local savagery or Islamic intolerance, it's Saudi money and Wahhabism.Âby Stephen SchwartzÂ01/16/2003THE WORD Konjic, pronounced "Konyitz," means "the little horse" in Bosnian, and the Bosnian town of Konjic, set among green mountains and virgin forests in the valley of the river Neretva, was one of the loveliest I had ever seen, when I first visited it in 1991. I was riding a bus from Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast to Sarajevo, when three teenaged girls came aboard, heading a little way up the road. They were beautiful, wearing headscarves, and one of them sat next to me. I asked her, in my halting Slavic (more Russian than anything else, then), the name of the place, and her voice was divine as she said, "Konjic." I spoke no more, and, of course, never saw her again. Later I supposed they must have been Muslim girls, and I mourned when I heard that terrible massacres had taken place in the town at the onset of the Bosnian war, the following year.ÂAfter the war, I began traveling regularly through Konjic, by car and bus as well as by train; the Bosnian rail system switches coaches there, and as an old railroader myself I was impressed, if negatively, to see the macho way the Bosnians worked coupling cars together, standing between the tracks in total disregard of their personal safety. Communism--protector of the workers, I thought bitterly. But there were other sources of sadness as well. Passing through so many times, I couldn't miss the broken minaret on one of the mosques, ruined by shell-fire. It's been a long time rebuilding, but that is another story.ÂThe Konjic countryside is still gorgeous. But on Christmas eve, less than a month ago, the horrors of the Bosnian war returned there. Three Croat Catholics, Andjelko Andjelic, 65, and his daughters Mara, 46, and Zorica, 27, were slaughtered in the nearby village of Kostajnica. A son, 30-year old Marinko, was seriously wounded. The family had been attacked by gunfire while putting up Christmas decorations.ÂThe victims were former refugees, who had returned to their homes, among many urged to do so by the international authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The perpetrator was caught and confessed without remorse. He was Muamar Topalovic, a 25-year-old Muslim from the region.ÂUnfortunately, the atrocities visited on the Andjelic family have proven unworthy of major attention by global media. Foreign observers will predictably fall into two groups: those who say all Bosnians are savages capable of living together, and those who say all Muslims are monsters unwilling to live with non-Muslims. Both would be wrong. The blood of the victims cries out for justice. But the finger of guilt points away from poor, suffering, martyred Bosnia--straight to Saudi Arabia and its worldwide network of extremists, adherents of the Wahhabi sect of Islam.ÂTopalovic, the killer, himself admitted membership in two Islamic extremist groups, both of them funded by Riyadh. They are the Active Muslim Youth, known by its Bosnian initials as AIO, and Jamaat al-Furqan, or the Community of Selection. In traditional Bosnian communities, Muslims join their Christian neighbors in celebrating Christmas and Christians and Jews join the Muslims in festivities at the end of Ramadan. But the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance has another vision for Muslims in Europe, America, and around the world. The three Croats slain in an obscure Bosnian village join the dead of September 11, of the Bali and Kenya bombings, and of all the other criminal acts carried out as a central element of Saudi international policy.ÂDr. Ante Cuvalo, an outstanding historian and advocate for Bosnian Croats, has accurately identified the problem. In recent attacks by Muslims on Croat Catholics, he writes, "in every case there is a Middle Eastern, mainly Saudi Arabian, connection. Under the cover of 'humanitarianism' the local Muslims are being 'converted' to the Saudi version of Islam, that teaches them that Bosnia is the land of Islam and for the Muslims only."ÂIslamophobes in the West may disagree, and wish to argue that all Muslims think this way, but Dr. Cuvalo knows better, since he has lived the Bosnian experience himself. He is also unafraid to say that some blame must be assigned to the United States, which has hesitated to "offend the Saudi rulers" by pressing a cleanup of Saudi charities and similar operations throughout the world. Furthermore, while Dr. Cuvalo notes that the Islamic leadership in Bosnia-Herzegovina has protested against the intrusion of Wahhabism into the country, it has not done enough to root it out and to defend an Islam that respects other faiths.ÂSimilarly, John Kraljic, president of the National Federation of Croatian Americans, sent a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell two weeks ago. He pointed out that "Saudi Arabia has been spending large sums of money to promote its brand of Islam and culture which is alien to Bosnia and Herzegovina." He warned that this is "detrimental to the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a mainstream European state."ÂTo their considerable credit, Bosnian Muslim journalists have taken the lead in exposing the Saudi hand in such terrorist acts. Mirsad Fazlic, writing in the weekly Slobodna Bosna (Free Bosnia), traced the history of the Active Islamic Youth (AIO), to which the murderer was affiliated. AIO has a single goal: spreading Wahhabism, in such a way that its members oppose not only the laws and constitution of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but the established Islamic community structure. I personally witnessed AIO's intrusion into Bosnian solidarity activities for Chechnya, in 2000.ÂFinancing of AIO has involved the Saudi High Commission for Relief to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the al-Haramain Foundation, and the al-Taiba Foundation, which came to Bosnia-Herzegovina promising to rebuild minarets and mosques like that in Konjic, but which have been identified with terrorist funding and cover. The Saudi High Commission office in Sarajevo was raided by the Bosnian authorities in early 2002, and a rich trove of evidence against Wahhabi-Saudi agents, taken in that action, has been turned over to Attorney General John Ashcroft. Bosnian police also raided seven al-Haramain offices, seizing evidence of major involvement in the funding of al Qaeda. On March 11, 2002, then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, with the acquiescence of the Saudis themselves, froze financial operations by al-Haramain's branches in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Somalia. Al-Haramain's Sarajevo office had come under the control of the terrorist Gamaa al-Islamiyya, or Egyptian Islamic Group, which spawned the "mad doctor" Ayman al-Zawahiri, chief assistant of Osama bin Laden, and murdered 62 people, 58 of them foreign tourists, at Luxor in 1997.ÂSaudi-based al-Haramain reportedly gave AIO some $55,000 from January 1999 to September 2001, but $400,000 more was funneled to the organization through Kuwait. Its ally, Jamaat al-Furqan, received $60,000 of al-Haramain's largesse between 1998 and 2002. When Bosnian financial authorities demanded to review AIO and al-Furqan's account books, they were told none existed. The groups were given seven days to produce authentic accounts, and claimed to have done so, although there are indications the books were cooked, or, rather cooked up quickly.ÂNo state action, whether by Bosnia-Herzegovina, the United States, or Saudi Arabia, can return the three dead from the Andjelic family to life. But for the real friends of the Bosnian Muslims, among whom I cede position to nobody, these incidents must be a summons to action. The U.S. government must be pressed on these issues: We must compel the Saudis not only to cut off funding for the international spread of Wahhabism, but to identify, arrest, and punish, or hand over to foreign courts, active agents of this pernicious ideology. The dead of Kostajnica remind us of our own American dead; we cannot leave a hole in our history involving Saudi involvement in September 11. Saudi Arabia still owes us a full and transparent accounting of the involvement of their subjects, however high in the monarchy, in the terror inflicted on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania 16 months ago. We cannot escape this responsibility, nor can they.ÂStephen Schwartz is the author of The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud From Tradition to Terror, and senior policy analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 19 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7389/1/H-Hrvatska---neutralna-drzava.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂHrvatska - neutralna državaHrvatska - neutralna država?U svom praznicnom broju Slobodna Dalmacija donosi tekst Hrvatska postaje neutralna država?. Iako je naš svenacionalni cilj Europska unija, u slucaju fijaska hrvatske prijave za punopravno clanstvo u EU, proglašenje neutralnosti nije samo realistican, nego gotovo imperativan treci put hrvatske politike - kaže se u clanku. Možda niste znali, ali vodeci hrvatski intelektualci, politolozi i novinari okupit ce se 23. sijecnja u zagorskom dvorcu Bežanec kako bi raspravljali o intrigantnoj temi "Hrvatska - neutralna država?" Glavni promotor te rezervne ideje je dr. Andelko Milardovic, voditelj Centra za politološka istraživanja uZagrebu.Âhttp://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20030106/temedana01.asp letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 06 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7388/1/E-NFCA-Letter-to-Powell-Re-Konjic.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂNFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036PHONE: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.comÂFAX: (202) 331-0050ÂFor Immediate Release: January 3, 2003NFCA CONDEMNS CHRISTMAS EVE ATTACK ON CROATSÂIN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA(Washington, D.C.). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) sent a letter to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell regarding the recent killings of three Croats as they were celebrating Christmas Eve in a village near Konjic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). The killings were carried out by an Islamic extremist who belonged to a supposed humanitarian organization active in BH financed by Saudi Arabia.In the letter, NFCA President John Kraljic expressed concern about the status of Croats in BH. Mr. Kraljic urged the United States to specifically demand that Saudi Arabia cease from providing or allowing its citizens to provide any further aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Kraljic noted that Saudi Arabia has been spending large sums of money to promote its brand of Islam and culture which is alien to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He noted that "such open proselytizing is detrimental to the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a mainstream European state and represents an open threat to the remaining Croatian Catholics in the country" and further raised the prospect that Al-Qaeda remained active in BH.Mr. Kraljic also noted that the United States deserves part of the blame for not promoting a policy which would defend the rights of Croats in BH. While the NFCA does not endorse or support any political party in either Croatia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Kraljic noted that America's policy of ignoring the Croatian Democratic Union of BH (HDZ BH), which has consistently won the support of the Croat electorate in BH by wide margins, has "left Croats defenseless before the political onslaughts of Serb and Islamic organizations in that country."Mr. Kraljic further pointed out that no American aid has been specifically directed to assure the return of Croat refugees and displaced persons in BH. In his letter, he urged that such aid be targeted "to assist Croat returnees to prevent further losses among Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina."Copies of the letter have been sent to the Chairmen of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and the House of Representatives' International Relations Committee as well as to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.The NFCA is a national umbrella organization whose members have approximately 130,000 members. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 03 Jan 2003 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7390/1/E-The-Hague-is-thus-failing-to-respect-the-sovereignty-of-Croatia.html Distributed by CroatianWorldÂNo Respect For Young CroatianDemocracyÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSleepwalking in the BalkansGrace Vuoto President Bush has thus far done an admirable job in the war on terrorism, but in the Balkans he is asleep at the wheel. The president has been so preoccupied with combating terrorism and attempting to revive a sluggish economy, that he has neglected an area of strategic necessity which has revealed twice in the 20th century that it will be ignored only at dire peril. The problem in the Balkans is that the war-crimes tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands, for the former Yugoslavia is running roughshod over the basic principles of justice and fair play it was mandated to enforce. Instead of restoring calm and order by patiently identifying those who committed war crimes during the Croat-Serb conflict (1991-95), the tribunal is behaving in a sloppy and high-handed manner likely to spark tensions once again. Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor, is presiding over an office that is out of control and drunk with power. Rather than undertaking the slow, difficult and painful process of identifying each and every soldier or paramilitary fighter who committed an atrocity, the prosecutor's office has issued broad and vague indictments against leading Croatian generals such as Ante Gotovina and Janko Bobetko. These men are not accused of a specific crime but simply of "command responsibility" for isolated crimes that took place during major military operations. This is akin to indicting a police chief for an act of police brutality perpetrated by a subordinate simply because the chief has "command responsibility" over his unit. This prosecutor would be laughed out of every courtroom in the Western world. Furthermore, The Hague is treating Balkan countries as though they were second-rate fiefdoms. In an attempt to stifle the groundswell of criticism that is emerging against Mrs. Del Ponte's office, members of her staff such as spokeswoman Florence Hartmann have sought to influence and intimidate news agencies in Croatia in order to prevent publication of condemnatory articles - especially if these articles are written by Western journalists. The Hague is thus failing to respect the national sovereignty of this newly independent nation and is badly damaging all efforts to establish freedom of the press in this young democracy. Moreover, The Hague is now rearing its ugly head toward the United States. Investigators have begun to make inquiries into the American role in Operation Storm, the August 1995 offensive launched by Croatia that effectively ended the Croat-Serb war. Despite the recent denials by the State Department, it is well known by all who have observed this scene closely that the United States had ultimate "command responsibility" over Operation Storm. Washington gave the operation the green light and provided Zagreb with vital military and intelligence assistance such as the use of unmanned drones and encryption gear. Does this mean we will soon face the humiliating prospect of American officials being dragged before the tribunal? Will our generals be treated with the same contempt? Will our journalists be intimidated when they criticize The Hague? If this scenario is unacceptable to Americans, then why should the Croatian people accept it? And of course, we must ask Mrs. Del Ponte: Who has "command responsibility" over her office? How do we obtain redress for the incompetence and misuse of power committed by her staffers? It is clear that Mrs. Del Ponte must resign; the charges against the generals must be dropped immediately; and a mechanism must be established to curtail the arbitrary power of The Hague. American leadership is required. Mr. Bush came to power pledging humility in foreign affairs: he must demonstrate this by protecting the rights of weaker nations and calling to account this arrogant court. If the Bush administration does not act soon, nationalist sentiment will be inflamed in the Balkans once again. Furthermore, the president's indifference is alienating allies who will be vital in the war on terrorism. Also, by allowing Mrs. Del Ponte and her staffers to run wild, international law is being undermined. Finally, America's reputation is at stake: Are we so self-centered that we appeal to the principles of international law and seek international cooperation only when we are in desperate need or do we genuinely care to establish a fair and just community of nations based on protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty? Grace Vuoto is a professor of European history at Howard University.Source: http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20021230-87318664.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 30 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7395/1/E-BOOM-TIME-FOR-ARMS-DEALERS-AND-THE-BALKAN-MAFIA.html BOOM TIME FOR ARMS DEALERS AND THE 'BALKAN MAFIA'?Hrvatski Vjesnik (Australia) - The New GenerationEnglish Supplement6 December 2002 The Serb arms for Iraq scandal and a Balkan crimeconference in London have revealed the ongoing failureof international policy in the South East Europeregion, especially in regard to Croatia. Dogmaticregional policies based on apparent nostalgia for theformer Yugoslavia have not only been an abjectfailure, but could in fact pave the way for criminalactivity and further security concerns for theinternational community. A rethink is required. The Serbian firms Orao in Bosnia-Herzegovina andYugoimport in Serbia have been doing business withIraq; supplying Iraq with weapons in what appears tobe an extensive trade. Furthermore, there are concernsthat information provided by the Yugoslav military onthe NATO Kosovo campaign has assisted the Iraqimilitary in dealing with US and British aircraftenforcing the no-fly zone. General Wesley Clark, thecommander of the Kosovo campaign has expressedparticular concern over this.He is right to be concerned; for Serbia can still dodamage. NATO currently has a regional policy for the"Balkans" as outlined by Lord Robertson in his speechon 24 June. Unbeknownst to many, Serbia has a key rolein formulating this policy by being a full member ofNATO's two key policy committee's on the matter; theSouth East Europe Security Steering Group (SEEGROUP)and the South East Europe Common Assessment Paper onRegional Security Challenges and Opportunities(SEECAP). No doubt the Serb military now have a betterinsight into NATO - and thus US/UK - military thinkingthan they did before.Given the Serb's role in arming Iraq, and thepossibility of war involving US/UK forces, it is nonetoo intelligent to have the Serb military at thecentre of NATO policy making. Serbia should beunceremoniously jettisoned from SEEGROUP and SEECAP.As can be seen, regional military thinking is not inthe West's interest. But despite the failures of theprevious two Yugoslav states, the dogma that dictatesthat the ex-Yugoslav countries should be re-united insome way is strong.The International Crisis Group (ICG), which hasinfluence on policy making, builds on such dogma inits latest report on Macedonia. ICG advises both theEU and NATO to turn Macedonia into some kind ofregional security centre. The Krivolak militarytraining centre is proposed as a possible regionaltraining centre. No doubt the recent Macedonianinitiative on training centres with Albania andCroatia was largely inspired by this ICG idea.Part of the rationale for making Macedonia thisregional security centre is that Yugo-nostalgic dogmaagain. ICG says, ".. unlike Bulgarians or Romanians,most Macedonians can communicate with Serbs, Croatsand Bosnians in their own language, and have otherbonds and more frequent contacts with their formercountrymen."Serbia has proved itself to be an unreliable securitypartner; they have been arming Saddam Hussein. The ICGhave themselves done a report on this; but dogma getsin the way of the obvious conclusion that "regionalcooperation" may assist countries such as Serbia thatare in league with states like Iraq.Indeed, for the project of creating a West Balkanstructure of some kind, Serb transgressions areroutinely overlooked. So far, Serbia has not faced anyreal sanctions over the arms scandal; in fact theCouncil of Europe's delay in admitting Serbia isprimarily about the lack of speed in adopting a newconstitution with Montenegro, rather than suchtrifling matters as arming Saddam Hussein orsheltering war criminals such as Ratko Mladic.Indeed, the British Foreign Office's sanctions againstCroatia for not handing over General Bobetko to TheHague - whilst leaving Serbia alone for worse - lookmore hypocritical and foolish than ever. It certainlyis not in the British interest; Serbia suppliesmilitary aid to Iraq, whom British troops may end upin a war with whilst Croatia stops such aid byimpounding the Boka Star, the ship carrying militarysupplies to Iraq. Who is Britain's real ally here?Then we have Balkan organised crime. A recentconference in London - reported all over the world -was held to discuss the matter. British Home SecretaryDavid Blunkett stated that "The Balkans have becomethe gateway to Europe for organised criminals". TheIndependent reported that Albanian crime gangs aretaking over London's vice trade. Furthermore, it wasreported that Bosnia-Herzegovina was a major transitroute for illegal immigration.Remarkably, EU regional policy will facilitate allthis crime.As I written before, the EU has a Stabilisation andAssociation Process, which involves all members of theformer Yugoslavia minus Slovenia plus Albania - the"West Balkans". Articles 11-14 of the Stabilisationand Association Agreement (SAA) Croatia signed withthe EU clearly state that agreements must be madebetween the SAA that includes matters such as: a freetrade area, mutual concessions concerning the movementof workers and capital. All of which will assist armsdealers, illegal immigration rackets, terrorists, vicegangs and any other organised crime racket you canthink of.Bizarrely, Croatia appears to be going along withthis. At the recent NATO summit, Croatia agreed towork closely with Albania and Macedonia - damagingCroatia's image no end - in the future. The Albanianpresident called for "free movement of people". TheCroatian presidential adviser Tomislav Jakic said thatthe countries would jointly seek to abolish currentvisa restrictions. Given Croatia's far superioreconomy to the other SAA states, the movement ofpeople will be a strictly one way process.Currently, Croats are not featuring in the headlines.It is not Croat gangs that running prostitutionrackets in London. It is not Croats dominating thearming of Saddam Hussein. Yet, by forcing a defacto"open borders" policy onto Croatia in relation to itsneighbours, Croatia will not only suffer the effectsof crime gangs, but these people will have a newjumping off point into Europe. The internationalcommunity no doubt will provide some assistance inpreventing criminals from moving into the EU, but thefact is with more opportunities provided for criminalsto move into Croatia, there will be that many morecoming into the EU.Further, Croatian association with the "West Balkans"will do Croatia damage; fewer people will wish toinvest in country associated with politically unstableSerbia and Macedonia. It may even effect tourism.Image is all; Croatia may be relatively crime free butby being closely associated with the crime ridden"Balkans" tourists may start going elsewhere. Animpoverished Croatia will be less able to combatcrime, again not in the West's interest.The international community must abandon its regionalpolicy at once. These countries should be treatedindividually on their merits. By insisting on somekind of federation in the region, criminal activitywill be the main beneficiary. Criminals will be ableto extend themselves far more into Croatia -and thusinto the neighbouring EU. Dogma thus takes precedenceover reality, with abysmal results.The international community's regional policy in SouthEast Europe is a disaster for the future. It currentlyhelps countries such as Serbia to arm dubious statessuch as Iraq, and it will help Balkan crime gangs toflourish in Western Europe. The effect on thecountries of the region will be disastrous.But is sanity prevailing? As I conclude this, it isreported that in Vienna, the EU commissioner forenlargement, Guenther Verheugan, has stated thatCroatia under no criteria belongs to the WesternBalkans and should be excluded from it. Further,Croatia should be viewed as a possible candidate forthe second round of enlargement. The Austrianchancellor is agreeable on this as well.Croatia is likely to apply for EU candidate status; aWall Street Journal article pointed out that thiswould force the EU to choose between individualaccession to the EU or the West Balkans as a group.The EU and the international community should useCroatia's application as an opportunity to quietlyditch the whole regional cooperation/West Balkansconcept. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 15 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7392/1/E-Why-is-Croatia-not-in-the-first-wave-of-countries.html ÂWhy is Croatia not in the first wave?JANE'S FOREIGN REPORT:ÂAn article in "Jane's Foreign Report" asks, "Why is Croatia not in the first wave of countries due to enter the European Union in 2004?" According to most economic indicators, the article says Croatia "is actually ahead of several of the current candidates for EU accession in 2004." Several EU officials in Brussels "would rather have Croatia in the union than, for example, the ever-problematic Romania." So, the article asks, "What is the problem?""The answer is simple," it says: "EU politicking. In the 1990s, while other Central European countries were beginning to gear up for their North Atlantic Treaty Organization and EU membership, Croatia was otherwise engaged. There was the unfinished business of the war, which only ended in 1995. In addition, Croatia's unpopular authoritarian ruler throughout the 1990s, Franjo Tudjman, worried the international community with his expansionist designs on Bosnia.ÂAfter Tudjman's death in 1999, Croatia began "making up for lost time" under the leadership of Ivica Racan. "It is now in the World Trade Organization and in NATO's Partnership for Peace Program.... [Since] 2000, Croatia has also been cooperating, much better than previously under Tudjman, with the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague."ÂThe article predicts that Racan's coalition will be victorious in general elections next year. And this "should speed up Croatia's return to favor as Southeastern Europe's top hopeful, on course for EU entry."Â(RFE/RL's Dora Slaba contributed to this report.)http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2002/11/20112002172654.asp letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 15 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7391/1/E-PREVLAKA-Croatia---Croatia-regained-control-of-all-of-its-borders.html ÂPrevlaka,CroatiaU.N. peacekeepers take down the U.N. flag for the last time during the handover ceremony at southern Adriatic peninsula of Prevlaka, near ancient city of Dubrovnik, December 15, 2002. After the ceremony Croatia assumed its sovereignty over Prevlaka for the first time in the past 12 years. REUTERS/Nikola SolicÂAP World PoliticsU.N. monitors leave strategic Prevlaka peninsula on Croatia's southÂSun Dec 15, 8:20 AM ETBy DARKO BANDIC, Associated Press WriterÂPREVLAKA, Croatia - Croatia on Sunday regained control of all of its borders when the United Nations ended its mission on the southern peninsula of Prevlaka.ÂThe U.N. flag was lowered 10 years after U.N. military observers were deployed on the tiny but strategically important peninsula to secure a de-facto buffer zone between the wartime enemies: Croatia and the smaller Yugoslav republic ofMontenegro. (Op-ed : de-jure, not de-facto, BufferZone? Please, someone should answer this with the letter)Last week, Croatia and Yugoslavia agreed on the future of Prevlaka, solving one of the key disputes stemming from the 1991 war which erupted when Croatian Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav army, rebelled against Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia.ÂFor years, Yugoslavia disputed Croatia's right to control Prevlaka because it forms the tip of Yugoslavia's commercially and militarily important Boka Kotorska Bay.ÂThe U.N. recognized Prevlaka as a part of Croatia, but kept its monitors there before the two countries reached an agreement.ÂThe U.N. Security Council decided in October to disband the mission by Dec. 15, and the two countries subsequently agreed that Prevlaka remain Croatian territory, while Montenegro got control of the waters.ÂDue to remaining security concerns, both sides of the border will remain demilitarized.ÂThe accord was an interim solution pending a comprehensive settlement between the countries also dealing with other issues left unresolved since the war.ÂThe area is still mined, and police on Sunday prevented some 150 people from nearby villages, some of whom waved Croatian flags, from reaching the peninsula. Several local families lay claim to the land there. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 15 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7394/1/E-Croatia---Parliament-gave-Croat-soldiers-the-green-light-to-Afghanistan.html ÂParliament agrees to send 44 soldiers to AfghanistanÂZAGREB, Croatia - Parliament gave Croat soldiers the green light Thursday to serve in the U.S-led peace mission in Afghanistan. Although some critics expected stiff opposition, the initiative to send 44 Croat policemen to the war-ravaged country won support from 104 lawmakers in the 151-seat legislature. Twenty-one were opposed, one abstained, and the rest were absent. The soldiers will depart after New Year's day and serve in a German brigade in the capital Kabul, helping to "develop security structures," said Deputy Minister of Defense Zlatko Gareljic. The six-month mission will cost the government some 22.5 million kunas (US$3 million). A member of NATO's Partnership for Peace, Croatia is eager to show that it supports the U.S.-led war on terror and is militarily equipped to deserve NATO membership. Some smaller nationalist parties opposed the decision, arguing that the country, which emerged from a bloody war for independence in 1995, had a moral obligation not to expose its soldiers to possible further suffering. President Stipe Mesic, the army's supreme commander, has the right to veto the parliament decision, but he has previously voiced support for the move. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 12 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7393/1/E-Former-Dubrovnik-mayor-testifies-at-Milosevic-trial.html ÂFormer Dubrovnik mayor testifies at Milosevic trialWed Dec 11, 8:56 AM ETBy TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The former mayor of Dubrovnik, once known as "the pearl of the Adriatic," told Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites)'s war crimes tribunal Wednesday that artillery barrages from forces under the control of the former Yugoslav president pummeled his historic city into rubble in the fall of 1991. "When I climbed on the ramparts on Dec. 7, I couldn't find a single house that hadn't been damaged, or that didn't stand next to a house where the roof was destroyed," said the mayor, Pero Poljanic. Dubrovnik was severely damaged by shelling from Serb and Montenegrin gunners, who Poljanic said deliberately targeted the town's historic center - an area designated as a world heritage site by the U.N. Milosevic, who is defending himself at the U.N. Yugoslav tribunal, had no chance to cross-examine the witness before the court adjourned for one week. The next session was delayed because the same judges in the Milosevic case are convening for a special three-day hearing next week to listen to arguments in the sentencing of former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic. Court spokesman Jim Landale said the next Milosevic hearing may also take up some "technical questions." That could indicate the three judges may discuss Milosevic's health and the prosecution's request to impose a defense lawyer on the reluctant defendant. But Landale cautioned against expecting major changes in the conduct of the trial. Milosevic suffers from heart trouble and high blood pressure. His bouts with the flu and fatigue have disrupted the trial by several weeks since it began in February. Judges already have reduced the number of court days in each two-week period from 10 to eight. Milosevic underwent a cardiac examination in November but refused to take a psychological exam to determine his ability to withstand the rigors of the lengthy trial, now expected to continue into 2004. Milosevic faces indictments for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo while he was in power in the 1990s. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 12 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7396/1/E-Prevlaka---Whats-the-deal.html Prevlaka back in CroatianHands? Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula (right) and his Yugoslav counterpart GoranSvilanovicCroatia, Yugoslavia Sign Landmark Border DealÂTue December 10, 2002 09:46 AM ETÂKONFIN BORDER CROSSING, Croatia (Reuters) - Croatia and Yugoslavia signed a landmark border deal on a disputed Adriatic peninsula Tuesday.The agreement will pave the way for a quick end to a 10-year-old U.N. peacekeeping mission there.The Prevlaka peninsula lies on Croatia's southernmost border with Montenegro, which together with Serbia makes up Yugoslavia.The strip of land, a couple of miles long and jutting into the Adriatic, is of strategic importance because it controls access to the spectacular, fjord-like Boka Kotorska bay, Montenegro's major deep seaport.Under the deal, both countries will keep the area demilitarized and have joint sea police patrols, although the peninsula will be part of Croatian territory.Yugoslav navy ships will be able to sail through the channel leading into the bay, but will not be allowed to stop, conduct military training or any other military activity in the area."This deal is a big step in normalizing relations (with Yugoslavia). But it has more than bilateral importance.... It contributes to regional stability," Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan told reporters in Zagreb after the deal was signed.The peninsula has been monitored by a small U.N. observing mission since 1992, following Croatia's secession and war for independence against Yugoslavia in 1991.Croatia has always seen Prevlaka as part of its territory. But Belgrade, under former President Slobodan Milosevic, wanted the area to remain part of Yugoslavia, mostly because of its strategic importance.The deal -- which also includes a temporary agreement on police and customs jurisdiction, de-mining and new rules governing border crossings -- was signed by Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula and his Yugoslav counterpart Goran Svilanovic.Both are members of reformist coalitions that came to power in 2000 and moved to restore ties disrupted by the 1991-95 wars."With this deal, this area stops being a point of conflict and becomes a point of cooperation," Picula said.The deal takes effect immediately, while a detailed agreement including the final border on land and sea will be negotiated at a later stage.The United Nations is scheduled to end its tiny mission on the peninsula -- used as a missile test site during the communist era -- on December 15. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 10 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7397/1/E-Mr-Blair-had-hopeful-words-for-a-questioner-from-Croatia.html ÂTony BlairMr Blair had hopeful words for a questioner from Croatia asking about the country's hopes of joining the European Union.ÂHe said it was exciting for such countries to have the prospect of joining the EU should they meet the necessary requirements.ÂAsked about his most memorable moment as prime minister, he said it was the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.ÂPaying tribute to the World Service, Mr Blair said it played "an absolutely crucial role" in the world.ÂA week of special programmes are being planned to show how the service has developed - both technically and creatively - over the last 70 years. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 06 Dec 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7399/1/E-We-have-a-Dept-of-Defense-War-why-not-a-Dept-of-Peace.html  ÂPeace should be profitable (op-ed, NB) Department of Peace Subject: Petition in support of a Dept. of Peace ÂThis independent citizen s initiative to create a United States ÂCabinet-level Department of Peace was launched in the United States of America on September 18, 2002. It was initiated to help reduce ignorance and suffering and to expand knowledge and justice in our world. Please  sign this petition below. ÂRationale: We are familiar with war. We are not very knowledgeable about peace, which is defined as the cessation or absence of war. That indicates what peace is not but not what peace is. Peace is something more than the cessation of hostilities. If we exist in a state of repressed fear, we cannot call that peace. True peace, like war, is a symptom. While war is the culmination of our competitive excesses, peace is symptomatic of that which is constructive, cooperative, and nurturing. Whereas war is the most debilitating addiction by which we suffer, peace represents the most wholesome expression of the spirit by which we are sustained. As a species, we are beginning to realize that we are each a part of a system of relationships that embrace our families, friends, neighbors, business associates, groups and organizations, community, nation, and whole family of nations. No single object in nature exists independently. It is apparent that there is no constructive place for hostilities in this pattern. ÂWe simply do not have the time, resources, or energy to waste fighting Âwith each other. We have serious problems on this planet. There are now 6.2 billion of us. We are increasing at a rate of 80 million a year. Each week we have approximately 1,538,000 more of us to feed, clothe, house, educate, employ, transport, government, protect, and keep healthy.  Â It s Time to get serious about peace. ÂWe have a Department of Defense (formerly Department of War). Why do we not have a Department of Peace? In fact, a bill was introduced on July 11, 2001 by U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace. This bill embodies a broad-based approach to peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution at both domestic and international levels. The Department of Peace would serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and help to create the conditions for a more peaceful and secure world. ÂA brief summary of the Department of Peace legislation follows. To read the entire bill, go to Rep. Dennis Kucinich s web site, http://www.house.gov/kucinich/index.htm, and click on  peace. ÂA SUMMARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE LEGISLATION: Â1. Establish a cabinet-level department in the executive branch of the ÂFederal Government dedicated to peacemaking and the study of conditions that are conducive to both domestic and international peace. 2. Headed by a Secretary of Peace, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. Â3. The mission of the Department shall: hold peace as an organizing Âprinciple; endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to Âexpand human rights; strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking; promote the development of human potential; work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution; and take a proactive, strategic approach in the development of policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict and structured mediation of conflict. Â4. The Department will create and establish a Peace Academy, modeled after the military service academies, which will provide a 4 year concentration in peace education. Graduates will be required to serve 5 years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution. Â5. The principal officers of the Department, in addition to the Secretary Âof Peace will include; the Under Secretary of Peace; the Assistant ÂSecretary for Peace Education and Training; the Assistant Secretary for Domestic Peace Activities, the Assistant Secretary for International Peace Activities; the Assistant Secretary for Technology for Peace; the ÂAssistant Secretary for Arms Control and Disarmament; the Assistant ÂSecretary for Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution; the Assistant Secretary for Human and Economic Rights; and a General Counsel. Â6. The first day of each year, January 1st will be designated as Peace ÂDay in the United States and all citizens should be encouraged to observe and celebrate the blessings of peace and endeavor to create peace in the coming year. ÂContact Information: The coordinator for this project is Joseph (Joe) R. ÂSimonetta, Senior Editor of the World Business Academy Â(www.worldbusiness.org) and author of Seven Words That Can Change the World (Nov 2001, Hampton Roads Publishing). Mr. Simonetta s diverse background includes having been a U.S. military officer (Army artillery,1996-68). His web site is www.joesimonetta.com. His email address is Âjrsimonetta@comcast.net. ÂDIRECTIONS: Â1. Add your name, state, and country to the list below. Â2. Forward (cut and paste is best) this petition to others. Â3. If you are the 100th person on the list, do the following: Âa. Send a copy of the list to lisa.casini@mail.house.gov (Lisa is on ÂCongressman Kucinich s staff) and to Joe Simonetta at jrsimonetta@comcast.net. Âb. Keep the petition going. Âc. Eliminate all the names that you have sent to Casini and Simonetta. Âd. Send out the petition with your name, state, and country first Â(it s okay that you ve signed twice). ÂADD YOUR NAME, STATE, AND COUNTRY TO THE PETITION FOR A U.S. DEPARTMENT ÂOF PEACE: letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 25 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7398/1/E-Loss-of-Helen-Delich-Bently.html TELL THE TRUTH COMMITTEEPO BOX 2932WASHINGTON, DC 20013-2932For Immediate Release: Contact: Erik MilmanNovember 18, 2002ÂTELL THE TRUTH COMMITTEE IS SUCCESSFUL IN HELPING DEFEAT HELEN BENTLEY IN MARYLAND'S 2ND DISTRICTThe Tell The Truth Committee was very successful in a one monthgrassroots campaign and media effort that informed the voters of theMaryland 2nd Congressional District about Helen Delich Bentley's pastrecord in Congress and all about her ties to Serbian expansionism. Thiseffort spearheaded by Maryland resident, Steve Rukavina and with thefinancial support of the NFCA network of friends clearly contributed toher defeat.Members of the Tell The Truth Committee attended candidates forums anddebates and passed out literature to the voters that detailed Mrs.Bentley's past record in Congress which includes significant politicalsupport of past Serbian President and accused war criminal SlobodanMilosevic and his ethnic cleansing campaign. The Tell the TruthCommittee also staged a successful protest at a Rudy Giuliani fundraiserfor Mrs. Bentley that generated significant TV news coverage. The TellThe Truth Committee sent packets that contained documentation andsupporting information that detailed her past unethical activities toall key media contacts. These activities and the personal contact withindividual members of the media resulted in four unfavorable articlesabout Mrs. Bentley that appeared in Maryland newspapers.The unfavorable media coverage along with the Tell Truth Committeegrassroots activities helped increase her negative rating among thevoters by nine percent in late October and also caused the Bentleycampaign to lose focus. During that same time frame, Dutch Ruppersbergeropened up an eight point lead after trailing her by two points inSeptember. "We believe that the bad publicity generated by Tell TheTruth Committee cost Mrs. Bentley four or five percentage points in thepolls which was about the margin of victory for her opponent. Thisnegative press for Mrs. Bentley helped sway thousands of voters awayfrom her candidacy and contributed to her 17,000 vote loss on electionday. Our effort clearly shows how even a low budget media campaign witha small number of activists telling the truth, can make a hugedifference in a congressional election." said Steve Rukavina, the Chairof the Tell The Truth Committee.The Tell The Truth Committee is very proud that we were able inform theMaryland voters about the truth of Helen Bentley's congressional supportin the early 1990s that assisted the Serbian war machine. This effortcontributed to her defeat. The success created by this independentcommittee could not have happened without the active participation ofmany Croatian American, Albanian American, Jewish American, and IrishAmerican human rights activists. These activists truly made adifference in a congressional race of utmost interest to the CroatianAmerican community. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 25 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7401/1/E-NATO-Photo-Op---Croatian-President--USA-President.html As NATO (news - web sites) expansion moves to include former Soviet-bloc nations, President Bush (news - web sites) joins the leaders ofMacedonia, Croatia and Albania for a photo at he Congress Center in Prague, Czech Republic, as the summit concludes, Friday, Nov. 22, 2002. Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski, Albania's President Alfred Moisiu, President Bush,and Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7400/1/E-Croatian-President-visits-Sri-Lanka.html ÂCroatian President visits Sri LankaPresident of Croatia Stjepan Mesic is now in Sri Lanka on an official visit to the country. The President of Republic of Croatia accompanied by Madam Milka Mesic arrived at BIA yesterday on a 3 day official visit to Sri Lanka.ÂThere will be a civil reception to the visiting Head of State on Monday, November 18 at the Colombo Town Hall at 10.15 a.m. with the participation of Mayor of Colombo Prasanna Gunawardena along with Government Ministers, Western Province Governor, Chief Minister Western Province and Members of the Colombo Municipal Council.Âhttp://origin.sundayobserver.lk/2002/11/17/new50.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7405/1/E-Club-of-Croatian-Immigrants---LAND-not-to-be-sold-but-leased.html ÂCroatianLand for lease ONLYThe International Club of Croatian Immigrants, Returnees and Investors held its first general meeting on 23-24 May 2002. Among the recommendations and requests submitted to the Government and Parliament of the Republic of Croatia was a plea to halt the sale of, and rescind agreements that inlcude the sale or gifting of large tracts of land as part of development projects. As part of this request it is envisaged that development projects be restructured such that Croatia's national interests and wealth are protected.ÂItem 5 of the Diaspora's List of Recommendations reads:5. That land on the coastline and other areas for project development not be sold but leased to the owners of the projects.ÂWithout regard to the Diaspora's warning and pleas City Mayors together with the elected district party's concurrence have gifted thousands of square meters of land along the coast to project owners without compensation giving them freehold title to large tracts of valuable land. The most extreme example is in Istra where the City Mayor of Porec, Mr Pino Maras, in a secret legal agreement between the cities of Porec, Rivijera and Agrolagune, gifted a few thousand square meters of extremely valuable land along the coastline within the limits of the city of Porec, and other project developments of considerable value. Unfortunately the ability to take advantage of loopholes in the law and current laws which gives them the right to effect these agreements directly affects the Croatian people. The Croatian Diaspora urgently requests:1. That the Government, Parliament and Ministry of Law of the Republic of Croatia urgently move to rescind the sale of, gifting of, and similar transactions that have effectively transferred ownership of Croatian national wealth into the hands of project development owners.2. That laws are quickly passed along the lines recommended by the Diaspora to halt the freehold sale, gift or surrender of land as part of development projects with the recommendation that the land in these deals are structured along leasehold terms thereby protecting Croatia's national wealth.ÂIt is important to remember that the land that is part of a development project is worth a lot more than the development project itself. In Porec, the land along the coast, even a kilometer from the coast, sells for $100 to $150 Euros per square meter. The thousands of square meters of enormously valuable land that individuals in government have gifted to project development owners, often worth two or three times the value of the development or project, is in and of itself a criminal act against Croatia's youth and future generations. The land for a large development project should never be sold freehold, instead it should be leased or rented, thus preserving the national wealth that was created by Croatians for future generations and should be preserved as Croatian national wealth in perpetuity.ÂWe seek that the Croatian Government urgenly move to protect Croatian national interests. We appeal to the media and other communication mediums to unite, to raise their collective voices against those who govern and rule in the name of the people but who act against the interests of those same people. Impertinent individuals who do not protect Croatian national interests have to be stopped. One cannot allow them to gift, sell off and commit national wealth that was not authorised by the people. Misappropriating land crosses every measure of rationality. We must say 'Enough' to this behavior. A worthwhile comment made by a gentleman from America comes to mind. 'A million three hundred work in Croatia. If all of them stayed at home and were paid to do nothing, with good leadership the wealth that Croatia has could provide everyone with a 50% better standard of living.' So he asked 'What are you in Croatia doing to yourself and your people?' The selloff and gifting of Croatia's national wealth must be stopped if we want to preserve the sovreignity of the Croatian nation and its national identity.We pray that the Diaspora's voice is heard and taken into account and that efforts are made to save what we can save.Porec, 4 November 2002Club CoordinatorNiko Soljak, Prof. Ing.dijaspora@hi.hinet.hr letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 18 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7403/1/E-Peraica-wins-in-Cook-County-IL.html ÂPeraica wins Cook County Baord seat.By Mickey Ciokajlo, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporters Colleen Mastony and StanleyZiemba contributed to this reportNovember 6, 2002Despite Tuesday's strong Democratic tide, Republicans retained their five seats on the Cook CountyBoard, including a victory in a hotly contested race in the western suburbs.Republican Tony Peraica, who beat 14-year incumbent Al Carr in the March primary, spent tens ofthousands of his own money to beat his well-financed and well-connected Democratic opponent, RonaldSerpico, the Melrose Park mayor."I'm filled with exhilaration," said Peraica, who had 53 percent of the vote with 99 percent ofprecincts reporting. "I'm humbled by the whole experience."In two other closely watched County Board races, Republican incumbents Carl Hansen and PeterSilvestri held off aggressive challenges from rising Democratic prospects.Most of the change coming to the County Board next month was set in motion in March, when primarychallengers toppled five incumbents, including Carr.While results of the primary were dramatic, most observers expect Board President John Stroger, whowon a third term Tuesday over Republican Christopher Bullock, to retain his clear majority.In addition to Stroger, Sheriff Michael Sheahan, Assessor James Houlihan, Clerk David Orr andTreasurer Maria Pappas easily won re-election against little-known opponents.The race for Carr's west suburban 16th District seat drew interest because of its potential to be aswing district. In the other four districts where challengers beat incumbents in the primary, thechallengers faced little or no opposition Tuesday.The contest between Peraica, 45, a Riverside lawyer, and Serpico, 50, the mayor of Melrose Park,turned ugly with each questioning the other's character and ability to lead.Peraica beat Carr with the help of Betty Loren-Maltese's Cicero Township GOP organization. But withLoren-Maltese convicted of federal corruption charges and awaiting sentencing that group switchedits support two weeks ago to Serpico, saying Peraica and some of his tactics turned off voters.Peraica said many Cicero precinct captains quietly supported him. Despite losing the partyendorsement, Peraica won nearly 48 percent of the vote.In the county's 9th District, Republican Peter Silvestri, a two-term incumbent, held off a stiffchallenge from Democrat Robert Martwick, 36, son of longtime Norridge Township Democraticcommitteeman. With 97 percent of the votes in, Silvestri led with 54 percent.In the northwest suburbs, Republican Carl Hansen easily cruised to an eighth term on the CountyBoard by taking nearly 60 percent of the vote against Brian McPartlin, a young Democratic challengerwho waged a high-profile campaign.In other races of local interest, unofficial results showed Democrat Kevin Joyce winning the 35thHouse District seat from longtime incumbent Anne Zickus (R-Palos Hills).Joyce is the son of Jeremiah Joyce, 19th Ward Democratic powerbroker and friend of Chicago MayorRichard M. Daley.A new legislative map took the district into Chicago and Zickus had an uphill fight."It's really hard bucking the Chicago Democratic machine," Zickus said after conceding the electionto Joyce. "You just can't fight City Hall. We're going to lose our suburban voice in stategovernment."In the north and northwest suburbs, Democrat Elaine Nekritz, a non-practicing attorney fromNorthbrook, beat Republican Mary Childers, a former alderman from Des Plaines, in the 57th HouseDistrict with nearly 55 percent of the vote.Nekritz had raised more money than Childers by roughly 10-1 since June.The race was wide open because it did not draw an incumbent and because the district was carved fromthe territories of three state legislators after the 2000 census.State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan (R-Des Plaines) won a sixth term with more than 61 percent of the voteagainst Democrat Barbara Jones, a school board member and part-time Cook County prosecutor.State Sen. Wendell Jones (R-Palatine) beat Democrat Michael Minton, an Inverness lawyer, in the 27thSenate District.Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribunehttp://chicagotribune.com/archives letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 18 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7402/1/H-Treci-put-Hrvatske-Vanjske-politike.html ÂTreći Put HrvatskeVanjske Politike proglasiti neutralnost na 25 do 30 godina... Budućnost Hrvatske trebalo bi se temeljiti na razvijenodemokratskoj, pravnoj i socijalnoj državi, razvijenom tržišnomgospodarstvu te dobrim odnosima s cijelim svijetom. Ako već ne možeprije 2020. godine u EU, a ne želi biti dijelom "Treće lige Zapad", ondabi trebala proglasiti neutralnost na 25 do 30 godina, kao Austrija. Tobi vrijeme valjalo iskoristiti za osnaživanje institucija, pravnoga igospodarskog projekta. Tako osnaženoj ne bi joj trebale EU integracije sneizvjesnim rezultatom, bez izračuna cijene prihoda i rashoda ireferenduma, kao ni ulazak u NATO."Ni bruxellska daleka utopija, ni zapadni Balkan, već neutralna pravna,demokratska i snažna gospodarska država uključena u svijet."Anđelko Milardović: "Treći put hrvatske vanjske politike"(Fokus) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 18 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7407/1/E-Annan-to-visit-Croatia.html  Annan to visit Croatia 06 Nov 2002 23:47 Annan to visit Bosnia, Croatia, Yugoslavia UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visits Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia later this month as part of a nine-day trip to Europe, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The trip begins Nov. 17 with a series of official visits to Balkan states, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Annan goes first to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and then to the Yugoslav capital Belgrade and Croatia. The secretary-general then travels Nov. 21 to the Netherlands, where he is to receive an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University. He wraps up his trip with an official visit to France, returning to U.N. headquarters Nov. 26. Bosnia has been bankrolled and supervised by the international community since its 1992-1995 war that gave rise to the term "ethnic cleansing." The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslav republic is preparing to shut down by the end of the year and turn over its main project -- the creation of a professional multiethnic police force -- to the European Union. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7406/1/E-Croatian-president-arrives-on-a-five-day-visit-to-INDIA.html Croatia - India 10 YearsCroatian president arrives on a five-day visitCROATIACroatian president arrives on a five-day visitNEW DELHI, NOV 12 (PTI)Croatian President Stejpan Mesic arrived here today on a five-day state visit during which the two countries will sign agreements on enhancing cooperation in agriculture, export credit and guarantees and explore ways to further consolidate their economic and political ties.The focus is expected to be on economic cooperation. Twenty prominent Croatian businessmen are accompanying Mesic who is coming here at the invitation of President A P J Abdul Kalam. Mesic's delegation also comprises several ministers.Mesic will call on Kalam and hold wide-ranging discussions with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee besides meeting other Indian dignitaries. There will be a full review of political relations as also exchange of views on regional and international issues of mutual concern.He will participate in joint business meetings being organised by CII and FICCI in New Delhi and Mumbai. He will also visit Agra and Jodhpur.India attaches considerable significance to its relations with Croatia which has emerged as an important access point for Europe.Relations between India and Croatia have traditionally been close. New Delhi is attaching considerable significance to the first state visit between the two countries that also marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.While Indian exports to Croatia includes textile yarn, coffee, tobacco, readymade garments, footwear and carpets, main imports from that country comprise steam turbines, wool and other animal hair, textile and leather machinery and musical instruments.RELATED STORIEShttp://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=96767 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7404/1/E-NATO---Croatia-has-been-the-greatest-single-force---by-M-Raguz.html ÂCroatia has been the greatest single forceDear CROWN:One year later, the HIR puts the NATO/Balkans piece on its website. Slow recation, but in effect, timely, given the Prague Summit at the end of the month.ÂRegards, MilesBalkans in NATO: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and YugoslaviaÂVITOMIR MILES RAGUZ--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Croatia has been the greatest single force in helping resolve the constant conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and as such, should be rewarded with membership in NATO. NATO will also benefit from the addition of Croatia s powerful army. Recently, Croatia was included in Partnership for Peace (PfP), a preliminary step to NATO membership, but a firmer commitment to allow it to join the organization is necessary. Croatia was instrumental in stopping the 1995 violence in BiH with its Operation Storm, allocation of funds, and acceptance of refugees, but unfortunately, its positive role was overshadowed by the unpopular government of Franjo Tudjman and by several decisions of the Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Meanwhile, BiH is not ready for NATO membership, primarily because of its two-army setup; possible solutions to this dilemma are a unified army (heavily opposed by both sides) or complete demobilization on the model of Costa Rica  this neutrality seems the best alternative for BiH.BALKANS IN NATO:ÂCROATIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, AND YUGOSLAVIAVITOMIR MILES RAGUZThe next round of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion is due in Fall 2002 at the Prague Summit of the NATO members heads of state. Not surprisingly, the debate over candidates is already in full swing. However, almost all of the debate has focused on the so-called Vilnius Nine Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia named after the Lithuanian capital where their leaders met last year to begin lobbying their cases.Three European states Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and Yugoslavia were not invited to Vilnius. At the time, they had not met the internal stability requirements to participate. Consequently, they are generally overlooked in the present discussions. Since then, however, all three have voted into office new Western-leaning governments, one for the first time, and thus they deserve a closer look either as candidates for NATO membership or as countries where NATO can play an enhanced stabilizing role.Croatia was recently included in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, the antechamber for eventual NATO candidacy. This is a significant boost for the region s basic security. The advancement of Western security policy in the region should not stop there, however. Croatia should move on to the next stage, not only because it deserves to, but also for the benefit of regional security.Only two European states now remain without a formal relationship to NATO: BiH and Yugoslavia. BiH presents both a challenge and an opportunity to NATO. With more than 20,000 NATO troops in the country, the Western alliance should seriously consider how it can use those troops and its substantial influence to permanently stabilize BiH, thereby obtaining a long-desired exit for itself. Given the recent political developments in Belgrade, a similar opportunity for advancing Western interests may lie in Yugoslavia as well, for the first time in a decade.ÂCroatiaCroatia s recent inclusion in the PfP program is long overdue. Since we often speak of NATO membership as a reward, the delay here is curious, as perhaps no new state deserves this honor more than Croatia. Since the breakup of the Warsaw Pact, Croatia has done more to benefit Western interests than any other new democracy. The smooth transformation of Zagreb politics from one-party monolith to multi-party government was indeed a welcome harbinger for democratization in the region, but Croatia s positive role in the region predates the January 2000 elections.To begin, Croatia saved BiH. In the summer of 1995 its military operations, named Operation Storm, ended a carnage Europe had not seen since World War II a humanitarian catastrophe for which the West could not muster an appropriate response. The Western capitals often unfairly take credit for this turnaround; in fact, the peace in BiH came only once the Croatian Army (HV) had established a new balance of power in the region by its summer operations. Everything that followed, from the first exercise of NATO air power to the Dayton-Paris peace agreement, was a filling-in of a diplomatic puzzle. All along, the United States and its allies have been looking for a force other than themselves that could check Serbian and Bosnian Serb adventurism and produce a military balance on which realistic settlement could be built. Maybe such a force is now emerging: Croatia, wrote The Washington Post three days before Operation Storm commenced. At the end of the operation the Post added,  The Croatians argue they are not the problem but the solution; they claim to have created a new regional  balance on which  proper peace talks with the Serbs can begin. This line has been enthusiastically adopted by the American government, which is under pressure to show that the quiet political support it extended to Croatia had a legitimate purpose of promoting a negotiation in Bosnia. Richard Holbrooke, the main US diplomatic broker in Dayton, makes a rather unflattering reference to the HV in his peace negotiations diary as  junkyard dogs, typical to his style, but he adds that Zagreb had Washington s unsaid support in its endeavors in BiH out of desperation, as the only alternative to the risk-averse West.One military analyst at the time noted that the turnaround in Bosnia was 80 percent the doing of the HV, 15 percent of the Bosnian Croat militia (the HVO), and 5 percent of the Bosnian Muslim militia (the ABiH). Interestingly, Britain s leading commentator, Martin Wollacott, later concluded in The Washington Times that the Croatian military victories in 1995 changed the fortunes for BiH, while the Western diplomatic initiative that followed only protected the Serbs.ControversiesCroatia s positive role that year has been overshadowed by the often confusing and unpopular policies of its past government, led by Franjo Tudjman. However, the recent political changes in Zagreb allow for a reconsideration of Croatia s role without having to refer to its previous leaders style of governing and understanding of democracy.Croatia s positive role has also been overshadowed by two recent decisions in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY): Blaskic and Kordic, in which Croatia was found to have been involved as an aggressor in BiH in 1993. These decisions, however, are unlikely to stand the test of time, and should be reversed. The ICTY judges disregarded the case law on this issue, which required  command and control of a country s forces in foreign territory. The decision also included a spurious argument that, while Croatia s own forces were neither present nor involved in fighting in central Bosnia, its forces stationed further south in Herzegovina forces that were securing the isolated Croatian cities of Dubrovnik and Split relieved the Bosnian Croat militia from fighting the Bosnian Serb militia, thus allowing these forces to engage the Bosnian Muslim militia in central Bosnia.In fact, the ICTY does not even have the mandate to decide on the question of international conflict, which is the domain of the International Court of Justice. The decisions in the two cases say more about ICTY than about the conflict in BiH. The ICTY appears to be more focused on creating new international criminal law, often far different from present international and any domestic law, rather than on dispensing justice and promoting truth and reconciliation inBiH.This type of convoluted but policy-driven common wisdom about Croatia is not new. For instance, the view that Croats joined the Axis en masse in World War II, while the Serbs were the sole members of the Allied Partisan movement in the former Yugoslavia, was promoted for five decades. The objective was to discredit and discourage Croat self-determination, which threatened the stability of the favored communist regime of Tito and its unitary Yugoslavia. However, a reconstructed history of World War II shows that the Croats, and not the Serbs, initiated and provided the top leaders and disproportionate number of soldiers to the anti-fascist movement.The politicized description of Croatia s role in BiH in 1993 will not endure as long. It should take historians much less time to deconstruct the present fallacy than it took them to disprove the one from World War II. In addition, the International Court of Justice may play a role should Zagreb seek a ruling there. Similarly, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in BiH which is about to emerge will bring forth new evidence removed from emotions and the logic of war.The truth is that Croatia was indeed involved in BiH, though not out of altruism or expansion. Like most states that act across borders, it was pursuing its own security interests. For Croatia this meant limiting the costly refugee outflow from BiH, and, most importantly, protecting its sliver-like Dalmatian coast. Zagreb s control of the coast ran on average less than 10 miles inland, stretching 250 miles from Dubrovnik to Zadar. These and other key population and economic centers were un-defendable other than from neighboring Herzegovina.Zagreb thus supported and financed the Croat-majority entity in BiH, called Herceg-Bosna, as an indispensable buffer zone. At the outset this zone was the only form of resistance to Belgrade s gains in BiH. Many point out correctly that if there had been no Herceg-Bosna in 1992, there would be no BiH today. Zagreb allocated about 10 percent of its military budget for the needs of Herceg-Bosna. Moreover, it allowed its ports, airports, and roads to be used for the benefit of the ABiH. Zagreb even served as a broker, with the blessings of Washington, in the arming of Sarajevo by the regime in Tehran.No less important, Croatia minimized the migration effects on the stability of Europe by keeping one quarter of all BiH refugees in Croatia, while at the same time housing an equal number of its own displaced persons. It spent in excess of US$1 billion dollars for the care of refugees alone. Only Germany and perhaps Sweden spent more.Four years later, during the Kosovo crisis, Croatia opened its airspace to the NATO alliance no questions asked. It could have demanded a substantial consideration, given its strategic importance for over-flights and the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tourism and shipping revenues due to the air raids. One London investment bank estimated the loss at US$1.5 billion, a sum equal to seven percent of the country s GDP. The Western alliance spent hefty amounts to stabilize the other countries in the region for hard-currency losses due to NATO intervention. However, Croatia camecost-freeCroatia is BiH s principal security partner. Two-thirds of BiH s border is with Croatia. It is the primary transit country for international forces and supplies to this landlocked country, and Croatia s many ports and roads along the Adriatic are BiH s lifelines to the outside world. Bringing NATO to its borders will enhance BiH s attractiveness to investors and stabilize its trade routes. This is true for both of BiH s entities, the Federation and the Republika Srpska. The latter s capital, Banja Luka, is only a two-hour drive from Zagreb, a substantial European trade and communication center that BiH still lacks. From this perspective, the long-term security of BiH and the region would be best served if NATO leaders took the next logical step and included Croatia among the next round of new members.ÂBosnia and HerzegovinaWhile Croatia is now on the road to membership, BiH remains handicapped even for PfP association, primarily because it has more than one army: the Serb army and the Muslim-Croat army. The latter is segregated below the battalion level. For NATO to accept a country with multiple armies would be a precedent that it is not ready to accept. Recently NATO has encouraged the three sides in BiH to form a unified army. The Serb side is not ready to accept this solution, seeing it as a fundamental revision of the Dayton peace agreement. The recent political rebellion of the Croat community and the withdrawal of the Croat component from the Muslim-Croat army, only adds to the complexity of the BiH problem.The Croat walkout, which was prompted by election-law changes rather than military matters, points to the problems caused by back-door revisions of Dayton that are intended to centralize the state. The Western powers now favor such a policy in general, although it has proven to be destabilizing in the short term. Moreover, the history of BiH tells us that centralization also fails in the long term. Contrary to popular wisdom, decentralization is a much more viable and stabilizing policy for BiH, a position that was argued convincingly by BiH s former defense minister, Miroslav Prce, in the Winter 2001 issue of the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs.Just as Croats turned away from Sarajevo because of new election laws, the Serbs would also just as quickly turn away from state institutions if any attempt to centralize the BiH armed forces materialized. The Bosnian Serb opposition to this model compels us to look for other solutions.Alternative SolutionsThe formation of three territorial guards with common command authority, combined with the demobilization of heavy weapons, may eventually become acceptable for all three sides. With this solution, a NATO umbrella and sub-regional non-aggression treaties between BiH and its two neighbors, Yugoslavia and Croatia, may be necessary to maintain stability. This should be the first phase of a substantial decrease in military spending in the Balkans.Other solutions are also on the table, including proposals to demobilize BiH altogether; to restructure the country s security needs along the Costa Rican model; or to reduce the two existing armies into two small professional armies. The last option is either a unified army, which is unacceptable to the Serbs, or two armies, which is unacceptable to NATO and the Croats.ÂMany also point out that complete demilitarization is more likely in BiH than a unified army. Complete demilitarization would certainly be most beneficial to BiH taxpayers. They are already overburdened with post-war reconstruction costs, and the experience of the recent war certainly calls into question whether spending for arms has any purpose at all.More importantly, ordinary BiH citizens, unlike the governing elites, dismiss outright the thought of a unified army. They argue that if it came to war with either Yugoslavia and Croatia, local Serbs and Croats would abandon ship either to fight alongside one of the two, or sit idly by until their own homesteads became endangered. As pointed out in 1999 by Jacques Klein, the UN special envoy for BiH to the Council of Europe, too many BiH citizens still have a problem identifying or associating with BiH. This reality is simply not conducive to crafting ambitious national-defense programs.As an alternative to a unified or divided army, BiH may be able to adopt the example set by Costa Rica. The Costa Rica model would require complete demobilization, a NATO umbrella, and non-aggression agreements with neighbors. It would be coupled with an expanded police force, border police, and state disaster-relief corps. This solution has worked for Costa Rica for 50 years, and it may offer the best prospects for BiH.ÂNATO would be wise to consider how it can use its enormous resources and moral force to move BiH to follow Costa Rica s direction. It is difficult to see how BiH can pursue any other model, given the extraordinary amount of resources it currently wastes on military spending. BiH now spends 40 percent of its budget for defense, compared to Europe s average of around two percent. Clearly, there is no room to maneuver here, nor will the opportunities for international subsidies continue for much longer.BiH s future lies in a neutrality similar to that of Costa Rica. Moreover, future NATO membership is only theoretical, since the Serb side has the constitutional right of veto on this issue, and it has not expressed interests beyond the PfP association. But NATO can provide BiH with a future, thus enhancing the region s stability by being realistic rather than chimerical. The latter policy will force NATO to remain stationed and active in BiH for decades. The former will stabilize BiH using its own economic resources, free of arms that could be used to ignite passions, and create an early exit opportunity for NATO.ÂYugoslaviaAfter facing the might of NATO over Kosovo, it seems improbable that Yugoslavia would want to join the Western alliance at all. The new leader of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, has never addressed this issue directly. However, his public discourse on the subject of NATO intervention suggests that he would want to sue NATO for damages and war crimes before considering a partnership. Belgrade s traditional affiliation with Russia is also a crucial factor. In short, Yugoslavia may prefer neutrality. This is consistent with recent remarks from Kostunica s cabinet. His aides suggested that PfP association would be acceptable, but membership would be out of question.However, a group of Yugoslav army officers, led by wartime general Momcilo Perisic, have called not only for Yugoslavia s membership in the PfP, but also for early NATO membership. This may be a window of opportunity for the West, if it is willing to offer carrots and exercise patience. However, as Perisic is considered a war criminal in both BiH and Croatia, a more credible partner in Belgrade will be needed.ÂOne of the carrots that would be welcomed concerns the upgrade of the ICTY. Belgrade is not very happy with the ICTY s work so far, but neither is anyone else in the region. This regional discontent may make it easier for the Western powers to reform the ICTY to the pre-1995 standards of international law.ÂBelgrade will look for other incentives as well, in particular regarding reconstruction assistance. Further, it will seek to gain advantages for the Serbs in Kosovo, to continue special relations with the Serb entity in BiH, and an early EU candidacy, which is something that Belgrade would treasure much more than NATO membership.On the military side, the Belgrade elite will most likely prefer to keep an open-door policy to Moscow for historical and religious reasons. The Tito-style strategy of  equi-distance was very profitable for the former Yugoslavia, and the new Yugoslavia is likely to play the same game. But Serbia s  quasi-neutrality (that is, its de facto economic alliance with Brussels coupled with military cooperation with Moscow) need not raise suspicions in the region, especially if Romania and Bulgaria are granted early membership.ÂVilnius 6+2+4ÂWith the expansion of the European Union and NATO to Eastern Europe as far as the Baltics and the Black Sea, the new Balkan states no longer play the strategic role for the Western powers that the former Yugoslavia enjoyed during the Cold War. Back then, the former Yugoslavia was a territorial and political dividing line between the East and the West, an ideological splinter in the Warsaw Pact, and a staging ground for covert operations. This is no longer the case.Some argue that the new Yugoslavia will still remain a strategic point of interest for the West, given its close relationship to Moscow. Surely Yugoslavia can be grouped with the  Russia-sensitive sub-group of the Vilnius Nine, along with the Baltics, Romania, and Bulgaria. But the new Yugoslavia s importance declines as its neighbors to the east, Romania and Bulgaria, become members.ÂCroatia belongs in a sub-group with Slovenia. By admitting either country, NATO gains an ideological surrogate whose military preparedness is top-notch, even if their strategic importance is minimal. NATO experts say that relative preparedness of both countries matches that of Spain when it joined in 1982.ÂCroatia also comes with important advantages over Slovenia. Expanding NATO membership to Croatia aids the stability of the fragile Balkans. At the minimum, it secures supply lines to BiH. NATO also gets a winning combat-experienced army into its ranks. Policy-makers will probably not overlook the popular support for NATO membership that runs at 70 percent in Croatia, compared to 50 percent in Slovenia. Croatia has done the yeoman s task for the West for at least a decade. It should get the recognition that it is due.Finally, BiH can probably be grouped with Albania, Macedonia, and Slovakia. All will require costly programs to rationalize or upgrade their armed forces to Western standards; all should be pursued with equal vigor. Even if these countries are of little global strategic value, they are important because without NATO leadership they may fall prey to regressive political and economic forces that are inherently destabilizing. The situation in BiH offers a historic opportunity to transform the present international administration into a viable state, allowing the Allies to draw down and redirect the huge resources they have invested into BiH over the years.ÂVitomir Miles Raguz was Ambassador of BiH to the E.U. and NATO from 1998-2000.Vitomir Miles Raguz was Ambassador of BiH to the European Union and NATO from 1998 to 2000.Âhttp://hir.harvard.edu/back/article.php3?art_id=raguz2233&fulltext=1 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7409/1/E-Bell-Helicopters-of-Texas-sold-parts-to-Serbia-during-a-UN-embargo.html When Serbia was involved in a genocidal war using helicopters, Bell Helicopters of Texas sold them parts!Serbia's Deadly Choppers - Bell Helilcopters Sold Parts to MilosevicPacific News ServiceBy Lucy KomisarÂBell Helicopters of Texas sold parts to Serbia during a U.N. armsembargo, areport to the war crimes trial of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic shows. The Milosevic regime, writes PNS investigative reporter Lucy Komisar, paidthrough a secret offshore financial network that included a byzantine web of global tax havens.ÂAt a time when Americans are concerned about U.S. corporate corruption, atribunal in The Hague has revealed another shadowy deal with internationalreverberations. Bell Helicopters of Texas sold parts to Serbia during a U.N.arms embargo, when Serbia was involved in a genocidal war using helicopters.The regime of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic paid through a complex, secretoffshore financial network.On June 5, 1998, Serbia paid Bell $154,785 for spare parts for helicopters.At the time, Serbia was in dire need of working helicopters to use inKosovo. In that war, some 8,000 to 10,000 Kosovars died.During the embargo, Milosevic got what he needed -- helicopter parts,weapons, oil and millions of dollars of other supplies through an intricatenetwork of shell companies and secret bank accounts that spread from theoffshore financial center Cyprus through Greece and some 50 other countries,including the United States.The Bell sale was revealed in June by Morten Torkildsen, an investigator forthe U.N. International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. His report on thesecret financial network that allowed Serbia to evade the embargo waspresented as evidence at Milosevic's war crimes trial, in session now.In a telephone interview, a spokesman for Bell Helicopters in Fort Worth,Mike Cox, said, "The parts we sold were fuselage parts for civil andcommercial aircraft. There were no weapons involved."Cox said Bell checked with the Commerce Department and "were told we were incompliance." However Marise Stewart, director of international governmentrelations in Washington for Textron, which owns Bell, said: "We don't haveto check with anybody. In the case of a civilian commercial aircraft orparts sale, there's no requirement for clearance or review."Was there any discussion inside Bell about the wisdom of selling the partsto Serbia, then conducting a genocidal war? "There would be no reason to discuss the advisability of a commercialcivilian sale, unless you think the customer is not going to pay," said Stewart.Helicopters are civilian and military dual-use equipment. Civilian chopperscan be retrofitted for military use. The Bell 206B, which carries fivepersons, is an observation helicopter, used by police departments. The Bell212, which carries fifteen, is the famous Huey of the type used in theVietnam War. It is designed as a transport but is easily and commonlyconverted to military use. The parts sold to Serbia were for both types of Bell helicopters."The U.S. adds arms to its Hueys," said Mark Hiznay of Human Rights Watch."Serbia had its own weapons industry and could easily do the same." Serbia may well have changed the Hueys in just that way. RadomirMarkovic, head of the Serbian State Security (SDB) branch -- the secret police --toldHague Tribunal interrogators, "We needed to secure foreign currency reservesto provide the SDB with the equipment it needed -- guns for [SDB] helicopters." He said the equipment arrived and was installed on thosehelicopters.Stewart said Bell had no "legal requirements to look behind the customer's ultimate intention or motivation."The Serbs started their campaign in Kosovo in February and intensifiedfighting in late May. News reports noted Serbian forces used tanks andhelicopters against ethnic Albanian villages. Bell signed its contract in June.There has been no admission or proof that helicopters fitted with the newspare parts were used in military operations either as gunships or to carrytroops or war material. What is certain is that the Serbs went to extremesto disguise their Bell purchase. The Hague investigator, a Norwegianforensic auditor, reported that the transaction was handled by theCyprus-based Abridge Trading Ltd. Bank documents show that Abridge's primaryfunction was purchase of military equipment for Serbia.Abridge was part of a covert Serb network that included eight shellcompanies with accounts in Cyprus banks that arranged weapons shipments fromfirms in Israel, Russia, Germany and the United States. Investigators at theU.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control believe that at least $1billion was moved out of Yugoslavia through Cyprus Banks to global tax havens."In my career, I have never encountered or heard of an offshore financestructure this large and intricate," said Torkildsen, the auditor.Why did Serbia and Bell do the deal though this offshore company if theydidn't want to hide the sale? Bell declined to answer whether therequest for the sale came directly from Abridge or the Serbian government andwhat it knew or found out about Abridge.ÂKomisar lkomisar@msn.com is a New York journalist who writes aboutinternational bank and corporate secrecy letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 09 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7408/1/E-Few-more-insights-from-mastercrooks.html "U.N. forces were persuaded to allow him to interview local staff before they were hired. In this way he could reject any candidate who did not agree to spy for him. "Former intelligence operative says Milosevic masterminded Croatian war AP World Politics Former intelligence operative says Milosevic masterminded Croatian war Tue Oct 29,12:22 PM ET By DANIELA VALENTA, Associated Press Writer THE HAGUE, Netherlands - A former Yugoslav spy testified to the U.N. war crimes tribunal Tuesday that Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) commanded, armed and supplied Croatian Serbs in 1991 and tried to block a speedy end to the war in Croatia. Slobodan Lazarevic, a Serb from Belgrade who said he was an undercover agent for the army intelligence agency KOS for more than 30 years, said his main task during the war was to gather information on U.N. forces and Croatian troops, and to recruit U.N. personnel as spies. Lazarevic said he appealed to the patriotic Serb nationalism of potential recruits among the local U.S. staff, but used threats when necessary. He also paid for information from international U.N. personnel, particularly "military observers, the radio room, anybody who's available." Some non-Serbs volunteered information because "they believed in the Serbian cause," he said. Milosevic has claimed he had no connection with Serbs rebels during the war for Croatian independence from Yugoslavia, and cannot be held responsible for war crimes committed by Serb forces there. But Lazarevic testified that the Serb rebel leaders were under Milosevic's control and that all officers, supplies and weapons came from Serbia. As an example of Milosevic's influence, Lazarevic said delegations of Croatian Serbs went to Belgrade for instructions before every international peace conference, four of which he attended. Their instructions from Milosevic's Cabinet were always the same - not to agree to any plan that would bring peace to Croatia, he said. If the delegates were cornered into agreeing to a peace proposal, they were to sign any deal conditionally, pending approval of the Serb assembly in Croatia, he said. That approval would never come. Lazarevic said Milosevic's regime intended to keep the war going to divert attention from Yugoslavia's economic problems and civilian unrest in Serbia. "As long as you had these brethren fighting for bare survival in Croatia, the public eye would be on (them)," Lazarevic said. Speaking in fluent English, Lazarevic said KOS hired him during his language studies at the University of Sarajevo in 1968. He was a covert operative for intelligence assignments against anti-communist student groups, Yugoslav emigres in Australia and Britain, and the National Olympic Committee during the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo. Milosevic is conducting his own defense against 66 counts of alleged war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo during the 1990s. Lazarevic, who was ostensibly a Serb army liaison officer with international organizations in Croatia, said U.N. forces were persuaded to allow him to interview local staff before they were hired. In this way he could reject any candidate who did not agree to spy for him. "If they refused, they would be discredited and not permitted to work for the U.N.," Lazarevic said. Lazarevic also said his task was to unnerve the international forces and create a "psychosis of fear." He said Serb soldiers planted mines on a soccer field where U.N. soldiers were scheduled to play a friendly match against a local team. The Serbs "discovered" the mines minutes before the game and blamed "Croatian terrorists" who infiltrated the Serb-controlled area. Another time, he said Serbs blamed Croatian terrorists for a mine they planted which blew up their own railway. Prosecutors said Lazarevic, who testified under his own name, has been relocated from Yugoslavia to an undisclosed country and has been given a new identity. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 09 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7410/1/E-Anthony-JPeraica-Wins-Cook-County-Commissioner---16th-District.html ÂAnthonyJ.Peraicahttp://www.peraica.comÂCook County Commissioner -- 16th DistrictToday, Cook County government is in a state of crisis. The budget is fast-approaching $3 Billion annually. Themoney for this budget is primarily raised from one source: taxes. While most people understand the need fortaxes and our duty as citizens to help fund our government, no one likes to be taken advantage of. Our taxes aretoo high, because the budget is too high. And the budget is too high for all the wrong reasons: waste; patronage;unnecessary employees, departments, and "consultants". All of these contribute to make your tax bill an unfairburden upon you and your family. When elected your commissioner, I will fight to bring fairness to Cook Countygovernment.How am I going to do this? By eliminating waste. My first priority will be the Forest Preserve District, where Iwill press for a complete audit of the budget and expenditures, and the imposition of a balanced budget. The mostimmediate means to accomplish this goal is to abolish the Forest Preserve Police force, which unnecessarilydrains millions of tax each and every year. I will vehemently oppose any further tax giveaways from the Countyto the District. The District must also return its focus to its reason for being: the acquisition, preservation, andmaintenance of open spaces. The District must acquire the land the taxpayers have already given it to acquire.For too long, the District has operated primarily to justify its own existence, and has forgotten that primaryfunction. Finally, I will continue my push to bring the District directly into county government, which will makeyour commissioners directly responsible to you for the performance of the District on Election Day.I will apply a similar approach to county government as a whole. Duplication of services by local governmentsand the County is a tremendous and unnecessary drain on our tax base. Where a county department providesservices already provided by local government, it must be eliminated. I have long argued for the privatization ofcounty golf courses. While this has finally been done, it is only the tip of a very large iceberg. The county payrollÂis too big. Many functions of county government can be performed by the private sector, both more efficientlyand for fewer tax dollars.ÂCertainly not least, I will fight to bring ambulatory care and other County services directly to residents of theÂWestern Suburbs. It is simply unfair for suburbanites to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a hospital whichthey have no reasonable access to. Suburban residents are paying for health care, and it is only fair that they getwhat they have already paid for. If you have any concerns to share, please call me any time at (708) 443-5554.Main Office3339 South Halsted StreetProfessional Building Suite 1-AChicago, Illinois 60608(773) 890-1001Southwest Branch Office5130 South Archer AvenueChicago, Illinois 60632(773) 735-1700 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 06 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7415/1/E-A-New-Conflict-in-Bosnia-Herzegovina-by-Brian-Gallagher.html ÂHrvatski Vjesnik (Australia) The New Generation English SupplementÂ25 October 2002ÂA New Conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina?Brian GallagherI recently visited the city of Mostar inBosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Mostar is in the Muslim(Bosniak) - Croat Federation half of BiH, and sawextensive fighting during the war, first during theSerbian attack and then in the Croat-Muslim war. TheCroats are numerically outnumbered by the Bosniaks,who effectively control Federationstate institutions.ÂWhat I found was a real cause for concern; a push forethnic hegemony by the Federation government againstthe Croats. The Federation government is attempting toappropriate the country's most successful company,Aluminij (Aluminium) from the Croats. Disturbinglystill, massive arms dumps have been discovered inBosniak East Mostar.I visited the Aluminij factory. Aluminij wasseverely damaged by the Serbs in 1992. The localCroats rebuilt the company. Currently it employs 850Âpeople, the company is 60% owned by the workers, thegovernment having a stake of 35%.ÂAluminij produces 50% of all BiH exports and hasforged partnerships with companies in America and theEU such as Daimler Chrysler and Fiat and could expand.This is an incredible feat to have occurred in BiH.All the more so when one considers that the initialfunding to rebuild the company came from Croatia; thegovernment and the international community contributednothing.ÂThe importance to the region of Aluminij cannot beunderestimated; 30,000 people are employed directly orindirectly by the company. Further, revenue for allBiH is provided by Aluminij's use of stateelectricity.Incredibly, the Federation government - and certain oftheir international supporters - wish to put this atrisk. They want to takeover the company, claimingirregularities in its privatisation, and complainingabout its 'mono-ethnic' workforce, stating thatnon-Croat workers who lost their jobs during the warhave not been re-employed. Mono-ethnic companies inBiH are as a result of the war; Aluminij is hardlyunique. Other, less profitable 'mono-ethnic' employersare left alone.ÂNonetheless I asked the Deputy Director of the companyabout this. He informed me that the company hadcomplied with the relevant laws on the matter. Manyex-employees had found other work and thereforelegally Aluminij were not obliged to take them back;this was all on file.ÂHe also pointed out that many ex-employees - includingCroats - only wanted their jobs back when it becameknown that Aluminij were paying the highest wages inthe country rather than just after the war, when wageswere rather less.The Federation government avoids mentioning how theworkforce built it up from nothing; giving theimpression that a profitable company was somehowstolen from BiH in some kind of mafia scam.Independent audits have sided with the company, muchto the government's displeasure. The latest audit didindeed make some criticism over the original change ofownership and made suggestions over dealing withex-employees. But in light of all the relevant facts,it recommended the ownership structure should stay asit is; the auditors presumably realising thegovernment's agenda to be less than honourable.ÂInternational arbitration is now being advanced.The Federation's incompetence is demonstrated by theKuwaiti investment in a Bosniak factory in Zenica.Rather than turn it into the next Aluminij, theinvestment has come apart due to mismanagement - muchto the fury of the Kuwaitis. Many Bosniaks may loosetheir livelihoods. In contrast to successfulAluminij, the government are not concerned with whathas happened.The deputy director of Aluminij gave me his opinion asto what is behind the takeover attempt; theÂgovernment wish to use the profits - currentlyreinvested- to pay off pensioners, strikers etc. towin electoral support amongst its constituency.There can be no doubt that Aluminij would be destroyedin the event of a takeover; causing unemployment andscaring off international investors from BiH. Theeffect on Croat-Muslim relations would be devastating- and unpredictable.It's no secret that the Croats are the mosteconomically active group in BiH. It's also no secretthat they do not get much international aid. Furhter,the intenational community has shown little regard forCroat views,often acting against them, such as thenotorious 2000 election rule change whichdisadvantaged the Croats elected representatives, theCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ).Despite all this, Aluminij has flourished and thereare many small businesses in West Mostar and the restof Croat Herzegovina, in stark contrast to the rest ofthe country. This also illustrates the reason for thepopularity of the HDZ; why should Croats vote for thepoverty inducing policies of the internationalcommunity's favoured political parties?ÂThe international community often justify theiractions by dubious claims that Croat areas are mafiadominated and run; if true, the mafia are doing arather better job than the federation government orthe international community in producing economicgrowth!ÂRecently, NATO found a massive quantity of arms inBosniak East Mostar in various locations, includingfactories. The weapons included approximately 10,000mortars, illegally produced since the war. TheFederation government - put in place by theinternational community in 2000 - obstructed theinvestigation into the matter. There are suggestionsthat Bosniak leaders have some involvement with thearms stockpiles. It seems that some people havedifferent ideas about the uses of factories than theAluminij workforce.Paddy needs to deal swiftly with the conflict in theFederation. He has identified both creating a goodbusiness climate and dealing with terrorism aspriorities. Paddy should visit Aluminij at once andlend the company his support; the deputy director ofAluminij informed me that Paddy is welcome to visit atany time. This would help reassure both the Croatsand international investors in BiH. Paddy would dowell to examine the reasons for Aluminij's success,and replicate it throughout BiH.If Paddy is serious on terrorism he will need to dealfirmly with the arms issue - no matter who itembarrasses.A spot of devolution and decentralisation is alsorequired. Power needs to taken away from Sarajevo andgiven to local communities. It could take the heat outof the current situation. It should also be done incentralised -and ethnically pure - Republika Srpska;it would help refugees return if they knew they couldexercise power at a local level.Longer term, the Croats need an institutional stake inBiH; the current situation is simply not sustainable,especially if Croats continue to produce the mostwealth. Croats will not want to subsidise the moribundBiH state, and it would help prevent the rest of thecountry exploiting them. For BiH to survive, it needsto reach a point where none of the three nationalitieshave power over each other.For the moment, the current political conflict betweenCroats and Bosniaks is a very real problem which couldescalate. Paddy needs to resolve it, and soon.The above article, written exclusively for 'The New Generation' by Brian Gallagher, was written prior to the October elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina.© Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7414/1/E-Belgrade---Baghdad-axis.html Belgrade - Baghdadhttp://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=37&NrSection=6&NrArticle=7639&ST1=body&ST_T1=wir&ST_PS1=1&ST_AS1=0&ST_LS1=0&ST_max=1ÂÂ29 October 2002Yugoslavia: The Iraqi Affair Heats UpBanja Luka and Belgrade take the international spotlight over alleged dealings with Iraq.BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, and BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina--Yugoslav authorities found themselves in the line of fire last week after a Belgrade company was linked to illegal arms dealings with Iraq.ÂAfter October's inspection of Orao, located in Bijeljina in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia, the international community concluded that the factory had assisted Iraqi military experts through Belgrade's Jugoimport SDPR company, which imports and exports arms.ÂThe same company was unsuccessfully targeted by NATO during the 1999 air strikes against Yugoslavia. NATO hit instead the Chinese Embassy, claiming the error was due to bad intelligence.On 26 October, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo sent a diplomatic protest letter, its second. In its first letter, the U.S. government had threatened sanctions against Bosnia if it failed to identify those responsible for the alleged dealings with Iraq."This puts you in the position of assistant to Iraqi forces. The fact that SFOR [Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina] found documents in the Orao factory now calls into question the credibility of Republika Srpska," read the second letter.In October, Britain's Sunday Times and the Belgrade daily Blic published stories about the Yugoslav and Bosnian companies' illegal dealings with Iraq; both companies were alleged to have violated the UN arms embargo against Iraq.ÂIn Republika Srpska, the Banja Luka daily Nezavisne novine published two documents found by SFOR at the Orao facility. The first document, translated from Arabic into English, said that in October 2000, Belgrade's Jugoimport company signed a contract with a Baghdad company called Al Bashair for $8.5 million.ÂThe second document contained correspondence between Jugoimport and another Baghdad company called IBN Firnas. In the correspondence, the director of Jugoimport's branch in Baghdad, Krsto Grujovic, asks the company's Iraqi partners to hide all evidence that Orao and Jugoimport have been dealing with Iraq in case of a UN inspection.On 25 October, a Republika Srpska Defense Ministry special commission released a statement to the press admitting that it had discovered evidence at the Orao factory that proved the company was conducting illegal business with Iraq. Earlier, the ministry had said there were no such documents.A few days later, the government of Republika Srpska called a special session to discuss the crisis. During that session, the director of Orao, Milan Prica, and two high-ranking Republika Srpska Army officials were suspended. On 28 October, Republika Srpska Defense Minister Slobodan Bilic resigned along with the chief of the Republika Srpska Army, Novica Simic.In Belgrade, the Yugoslav Defense Ministry, which is responsible for approving all types of military cooperation, denied the accusations. Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic, who is also the president of Jugoimport's board of directors, likewise denied any knowledge of assistance to Iraq, stating that there were no documents suggesting any kind of cooperation. Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic also denied any knowledge of the issue.Still, the detailed account of the companies' cooperation with Iraq published in Blic had an unexpectedly strong impact. Following the publication of the British and Yugoslav articles, the Yugoslav government sacked Jugoimport head Jovan Cekovic and Yugoslav Army General Ivan Djokic, who also serves as assistant to the Yugoslav defense minister. Djokic was responsible for controlling the movement of arms and military equipment.Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic--Serbia's two greatest political rivals--offered different perspectives on the recent crisis.ÂAccording to Djindjic, the Iraqi affair is seriously damaging the country's international image. Djindjic pointed to the lack of civilian control over the Yugoslav Army as a grave problem.ÂKostunica, on the other hand, said that though he condemned the violation of UN sanctions and though the Iraqi affair was significant, he doubted it would damage Yugoslavia's image. Kostunica called on those responsible to be brought to justice, referring to Jugoimport's illegal dealings as "hazardous and highly irresponsible business moves."ÂKostunica also said that the Iraqi affair was being used to attack Yugoslav institutions and his own political career, referring to criticism from political parties within the ruling Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) coalition, led by Djindjic.ÂNenad Canak, president of the Vojvodina regional parliament, publicly stated that Kostunica should be held responsible for the crisis.ÂIn the meantime, Serbian media have continued to publish daily speculations on the Iraqi affair.ÂThe Belgrade daily Danas published a story saying that Republika Srpska counterintelligence chief Vanko Djukic was personally involved in the affair. Djukic disappeared four months ago. Fifteen days after his disappearance, he reportedly contacted his colleagues from the United States, saying he would never return. Danas claims that it has information that two employees and some microfilm disappeared along with Djukic.Â--by Dragan Stojkovic in Belgrade and Dragan Stanimirovic in Banja Luka.We want your feedback.If you have comments on this, or any other TOL article,please email us at react@tol.czÂÂCopyright © 2002Transitions Online. All rights reserved. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7413/1/E-Croatiafocuscom.html www.Croatiafocus.comÂÂDear friendsI am delighted to announce the launch of www.Croatiafocus.comÂÂÂÂThe purpose of www.croatiafocus.comÂis to bring you a different perspective onthe international issues facing Croatia. The articles you will find heretake a closer look at Croatia's relations with organisations such as theEuropean Union and NATO. The articles analyse the actual documents andpolicies of Euro-Atlantic institutions.ÂYou can also find a section regarding the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina.ÂIf you have a website, then please feel free to place a link to croatiafocus.com on your links page.YoursÂBrian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7412/1/E-Ovcara---An-Unpunished-Crime.html ÂOvcara - An Unpunished CrimeZagreb, October 19 (HINA) - Exactly ten years ago, the world press learned ofthe discovery of a mass grave in Ovcara near Vukovar, in which, woundedCroatians from the Vukovar Hospital were buried by Serbian paramilitary forceswith help of the Yugoslavian army. Dr. Clyde Snow, a U.N. expert for forensicmedicine, announced news of the mass grave's discovery. In October of 1992, hevisited the Ovcara region and found numerous human remains in the mass grave.This corroborated with eyewitness accounts of the disappearance of peopleduring the evacuation of wounded Croats and patients at the Vukovar Hospital.After the occupation of Vukovar, serbian paramilitary forced and theYugoslavian army killed wounded Croats, hospital staff, and civilians from theVukovar hospital on October 20, 1991. Because of the obstructions of thepuppet Serb quasi-government in the occupied Croatian regions, exhumations ofthe victims in the mass grave started only four years later, on September 1,1996. In 40 days of work, experts of the Intrnational Hague Tribunal for WarCrimes and the organization of "Doctors for Human Rights", exhumed the remainsof 200 victims. Among them was the body of Sinisa Glavasevic, the legendaryjournalist for Radio Vukovar, who reported on the heroic defense of Croatiansoldiers and the suffering of Vukovar by Serbian aggression.ÂEven though the discovery of the mass graves in Ovcara were the first completeevidence of war crimes during the wars in former Yugoslavia, caused by Serbianaggression, the Hague Tribunal has yet to this day not brought any of thoseaccused of this crime to trial. The head of the Serbian quasi-government inVukovar, Slavko Dokmanovic, prior to the trial's start, committed suicide inthe Hague Tribunal's prison, the process for Mile Mrksic has not even begun,because of his extradition is remains a formal statement of guilt, whileVeselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic have not even been extradited, eventhough the indictment against them was served seven years ago.Translation courtesy of Marko Puljic. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7411/1/E-Mesic-in-Egypt.html ÂÂCroatia& Egypt10 Years of diplomatic relationsPresident Stjepan Mesic is visiting Egypt and has in the courseÂof the visit awarded a medal to the Croatian honorary consulÂin Egypt, Moustaffa El Naggara for his special contributionÂto the development of economic cooperation between Croatia andÂEgypt. Mesic said at the ceremony that this year marks 10 years sinceÂthe establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.ÂThe Association of Writers and Poets of Egypt has handed toÂthe Croatian president a medal for special honors in the developmentÂof cultural and friendly relations between Croatia and Egypt. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Nov 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7416/1/E-5-Arguments-against-the-British-Foreign-Office.html  5 Arguments against the British Foreign Officewww.antegotovina.comÂ23.10.2002Mr. Gallagher`s Commentary : 5 Arguments againstBritish Foreign OfficeBritain has suspended ratification of the Croatia - EUSAA agreement and postponed a trip by Prince Andrew toCroatia, demanding that Croatia hand over GeneralBobetko. This is all utterly hypocritical and I amsurprised that Croatia has been so lenient on thematter. A couple of British news reports have followedthe British Foreign Office (FO) line, talking up thepossibility of international sanctions. Fortunatelyboth the EU and the United States appear not to betaking action, leaving Britain isolated on the matter.Being British, perhaps I can give some advice on howto ensure Britain`s position remains uninfluential. Ihave assembled 5 arguments Croatian politicians,media, institutions and its people should use:1. Britain is being hypocritical because it is notproposing any sanctions against Serbia, a country thatdoes not, unlike Croatia, bother co-operating at allwith The Hague. Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Pontehas demanded Serbia hand over Ratko Mladic, whom sheclaims is being protected by the Yugoslavia military.ÂEleven indictees roam freely in Serbia. The HagueTribunal President has just reported Yugoslavia fornon-co-operation to the United Nations SecurityCouncil. Britain is effectively protecting peoplesuch as Ratko Mladic by drawing attention away fromSerbia and onto Croatia.ÂThe question must be asked again and again: Why noBritish sanctions against Serbia?2. If Britain is demanding that Croatia hands peopleover to The Hague, why do no t British military forcesin Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately arrest all indicteesstill at large such as Radovan Karadzic? Why isCroatia expected to arrest indictees but not Britain?3. Britain is not impartial. The British FO supportedthe Serbs throughout the war, maintaining the armsembargo that allowed atrocities such as Vukovar andSrebrenica to occur. It is in the FO`s interest thatthe Croatia Chief of Staff ends up in The Hague sothat they can claim they were right all along. Theyclaimed that "all sides were equally guilty". Whatbetter way of `proving` this than the indictment ofthe former Croatian chief of staff? Britain is notimpartial and its sanctions should cease.4. The Hague Tribunal has assembled a Council ofAppeals to hear Croatia`s case. Britain is in factinterfering with a legal process.5. Croatia should demand an apology from Britain forits behaviors during the war. Croatia won`t get it,but it should help put Britain on the back foot.The British FO is not popular in Britain; justrecently a foreign minister has had to apologise forBritish diplomat`s "lack of co-ordination" in supportto families of British victims of the terroristbombing in Bali. Furthermore, the British peopledespise hypocrisy. If the above arguments are usedstrongly and repeatedly, Britain`s position may lookuntenable, and the FO may face criticism from Britishvoices.All Croatian officials dealing with Britain shouldimmediately read the recent British book by BrendanSimms, "Unfinest Hour: Britain and the destruction ofBosni a". This book sold very well in Britain and hadmany favourable reviews. It describes Britainsappalling pro-Serb role in the war inBosnia-Herzegovina. In particular, Simms describes theshocking role of the FO in the whole business. Thebook`s favourable reception attests to the decency ofmany British people.ÂThe indictments against Bobetko and Gotovina are verymuch in the FO` s interest - they can use them to saycritics like Simms and others such as MargaretThatcher were wrong. The FO will say that the Croatchief of staff was a war criminal and Operation Stormwas nothing more than an `ethnic cleansing` exercise.The whole business has served a useful purposehowever; it demonstrates that British policy isprecisely the same as in 1991 - pro-Serb. BrendanSimms points out that many in the higher echelons ofthe FO are still pro-Serb. Only the naïve andpolitically motivated believe past British criticismof Croatia has had anything to do with the quality ofCroatian democracy.The British FO is not sparing Croatia criticism;Croatia should respond in the same way.Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 29 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7419/1/E-2-Paddya-articles-and-IHT-article-recommending-dividing-BiH.html Brian Gallagher fromLondon2 Paddya articles in the Guardian and FT. Also attached is article from International Herald Tribune, calling for division of BiH which has caused much comment.King PaddyÂHe used to lead a small British political party. Now he's running a European country. Julian Glover joins 'high representative' Paddy Ashdown on his mission to save war-torn BosniaÂFriday October 11, 2002The GuardianÂIn the heart of Europe a British politician is governing a country whose language he hardly speaks. He enjoys an autonomy and authority which Queen Victoria's colonial administrators would have envied. Everybody knows him there. Everybody looks up to him. Everything centres around him. And yet Britain has almost completely forgotten him.ÂWhen I walked into the dusty studios of Radio Mostar late last month, Paddy Ashdown, the International High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, was on his way. There were bullet-holes in the lift door and the town outside was partly in ruins but Ashdown hardly seemed to notice. The former Liberal Democrat leader has never been one to shy from gunfire, and now, brow furrowed, eyes narrowed and jacket tossed over his shoulder, he strode into the studio as Bosnia's boss to beg and berate his people. "The question is simple," he says through his interpreter. "Will you join Europe or will you be left behind as the stagnant pool of the Balkans?" It is not the only time in the day Ashdown uses the phrase "stagnant pool". It visibly shocks his audience. But he aims to shock. Complacency, he says, has failed.ÂAnyone who watched Ashdown lead the Liberal Democrats will recognise the sense of mission. He seems to have twice the energy and twice the passion of a man whose biggest job before now was leadership of a small British political party. You almost feel that post was a practice run for saving a nation.ÂAnd Bosnia needs a saviour. Though the Balkan war came to a halt almost seven years ago, the Dayton agreement that silenced the guns did not end the country's pain. The world has poured in some £33bn, including military costs, but signs of war are everywhere, even in central Sarajevo, a city of blasted tower blocks and scarred houses. Despite 12,000 Nato troops, organised crime thrives.ÂPolitical life too is in a rut: still trapped in obstructionism and the nationalist language of the war. The tangled peace settlement left Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country with the population of Scotland, with 13 prime ministers - one for every 175,000 citizens - 57 political parties and perhaps 4,500 politicians (no one knows the full number). Public workers go unpaid. Corruption is a growth industry.ÂFour months ago, Ashdown arrived to sort out the mess. His predecessors had been bureaucrats; he promised action. But can one man rescue a nation?ÂThe man himself appears to have his doubts. At dawn, as we leave his modest offices - four or five storeys, potted geraniums in the yard - in his black armoured BMW, he wearily predicts the day ahead. Judges will complain they are unpaid, farmers will say they have no land and weeping mothers will be unable to return to their burned-out homes. "Bosnia has been ruled by the Ottomans, the Hapsburgs and the communists," he says. "So it's not surprising that the people regard me as just another Hapsburg governor, someone they should petition to get their problems solved." But beneath a weary shrug about getting 1,000 letters a week, there is a hint of pride.ÂThe petitioning goes on all day from frustrated people with insoluble problems who have never before had a chance to speak to someone important. He looks sorry at their plight.ÂCaught in commuter traffic on Sarajevo's main highway - nicknamed sniper's alley because of its past exposure to Serb guns - Ashdown's official car halts by packed trams shuddering along grass-covered tracks. There are bullet holes everywhere and the first snows of winter have reached the mountaintops. A far cry from pavement politics in Yeovil. Yet Ashdown is still on the campaign trail. On October 5 Bosnia went to the polls in an election that its new ruler described as "a last chance". Though he uses verbal formulas to avoid being seen to back individual politicians - "ghosts of the past", "reformers", "this election is about the future" - it was clear enough who Ashdown supported: "Any individual who will produce what I want - a state on its way to Europe." But the results of the poll showed the scale of his task. Turnout fell to a post-conflict low of 55% and nationalist parties outperformed moderate rivals who had been running Bosnia-Herzegovina for the past two years. Some interpreted the result as a slap in the face for the international community. But Ashdown only redoubled his determination to get his message of reform to every corner of the country.ÂNothing - not Marshall Tito nor five years of war - has prepared the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina for the Ashdown campaign machine. A mix of confidence, charisma and sheer momentum, it stuns voters who have never heard of a spin doctor or soundbite. "Why do you keep repeating the same thing?" asks one local journalist who hasn't yet come to terms with what it means to be on message.ÂAt a public meeting in the Serb town of Trebinje, Ashdown runs in, throws his mobile across the room to an aide and demands questions. The audience, big sullen people who have had to cope with war, capitalism and democracy all in a decade, are first shocked, then encouraged to complain about their position. This is a new kind of politics for Bosnia.ÂI put it to Ashdown that there are similarities between what he tried to achieve in British politics and what he is doing here. "You could say we're putting into practice the 1992 Liberal Democrat manifesto," he says as I perch in the back of his car and a policeman salutes by the roadside. "It's about the devolution of power, investment, European integration and coalition building."ÂAmong his problems is the military's persistent failure to capture the two most wanted war criminals in the country, Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic. Karadzic, says Ashdown, "is wandering in the company of goat-herds and exercising his baleful curse on this country" - but will be caught. Later, rumours circulate that he is hiding in the hills somewhere beneath the flight path of the aged Slovenian airforce helicopter Ashdown takes home that night.ÂHis authority as high representative is ill-defined but not far short of absolute. A sort of unelected monarch watching over troublesome politicians, he can effectively sack anyone, appoint anyone and arrest anyone he believes to be obstructing peace - and has done so, courting controversy earlier this year by removing one of the country's deputy finance ministers and dismissing a string of judges. One observer compares his powers to those of Charles II.ÂAre these powers a democrat should have? The answer sounds practised. "My job is to abolish my job," he says. "It has a Gilbert and Sullivan title and powers that should make a liberal blush." Was he blushing? If so I did not notice it.ÂBut Ashdown knows well enough that democracy has not worked: this month's election only brought further political paralysis and he understands he can only achieve economic and legal reforms if he forces new laws through without the approval of the country's many parliaments. "It was a mistake to bring democracy here before the rule of law and it's a mistake we've repeated in Kosovo," he says. He implies that action will be taken on crime and economy with the election out of the way, whether the winners like it or not.ÂThe danger is that Ashdown's high profile will only make the country more dependent on international leadership. By now we are driving fast down an empty limestone valley in the autonomous Republika Srpska and the official convoy has acquired a police escort with flashing blue lights. Ashdown gets agitated. "Can't we get rid of the police?" he asks. "I hate that sort of thing." The car is sent away.ÂThis turns out to be the most encouraging visit of the day. Stolac, a hot, dry agricultural town in the middle of nowhere, was the scene of some of the worst atrocities in the war - the sort of place where neighbours blew the roofs of each others houses by pouring petrol onto an upstairs carpet and waiting for the vapours to reach a lighted candle on the ground floor. Croat forces flattened the local mosque and drove out the Muslim population. In the past year some have begun to return.ÂAshdown visits an agricultural cooperative which exports herbal oils to Britain. It is a small scheme but a good one - multi-ethnic and with 500 active members. Behind the crowd that gathers around Ashdown, an elderly Bosnian Muslim husband and wife attempt to rebuild the ruins of their house, the man slowly breaking concrete with a builder's hammer.ÂThe return of most refugees to their homes has been the triumph of postwar reconstruction. "We've invented a new human right here, the right to return after a war," Ashdown says. "It's absolutely astonishing, a huge success by Bosnians and the international community that has gone unrecognised."ÂBut his visit to Mostar had suggested that success is only partial. Before the war it was a mixed town: now it is a divided one. "I always get depressed when I get to Mostar. We have made less progress here than elsewhere," he says.ÂWe turn a corner and he leaps out of the car and into a glitzy hotel for a meeting with local aid workers. Ashdown tells his staff that their jobs will end soon. Mostly young, idealistic westerners, they look anxious. Gently, he eases them towards the thought that outsiders cannot stay forever, or even for long. "I'm keen to get the international community onto a glide path to something different," he tells me afterwards. "What we have now is near imperialism. We need to move from a quasi-protectorate to something more acceptable."ÂIt is hard not to be won over by Ashdown's commitment. In a day we travel 250 miles by car and helicopter over rough mountains. He has no lunch and hardly time for a coffee and a cigarette. He has been doing this for four months, with only a week's break. Why do it, I ask. "Bosnia gets under your skin. It's certainly got under mine." A moment later, as we round a corner into a vast, pine-clad valley, he points through the window. "We're just going past one of my houses. I've bought a patch of land by the lake." His wife Jane is with him in Sarajevo. The couple have started to learn Serbo-Croat.ÂAshdown insists this is his last job. "After this I'll retire to my garden." But in a country where division looks certain to block leadership from within, could there be room for an outsider to dream of leading it to the European future in which he so strongly believes? Only a daydream, no doubt, but it is hard to follow him for long without suspecting he has dreamed it too.ÂFinancial TimesPaddy Ashdown | Friday, October 11, 2002OHR related ArticlesÂArticle by the High Representative, Paddy Ashdown: "Bosnia wants change not nationalism"The results of the general election last weekend in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been described as a swing back to nationalism - a vote for the parties that fought the Bosnia war. This makes good headlines at a time when the Balkans are finding it hard to make the news - but it is wrong.The result was a protest vote - or perhaps, given the low turn-out, a protest non-vote - against the reformist parties that have been in government during the past two years. It was not a vote for a return to the nationalism of 10 years ago.Bosnians' concerns are the concerns of people everywhere: jobs, criminal justice, hospitals and schoolsÂFirst, the situation today is completely different. Gone is the Serb-dominated Yugoslav National Army. Gone are the paramilitary groups. Gone are Slobodan Milosevic and Franjo Tudjman, who led Serbia and Croatia into war. Gone are the old party-controlled hate media. And even the nationalist movements that led the conflict have changed. They know as well as anyone that, seven years after the war, people want prosperity and normalcy, not conflict.Second, two of the three old nationalist parties saw their share of the vote decline in these elections. And when the final results are in, I believe the overall votes cast for all three of these parties will have dropped compared with the last election. So, hardly a surge of support for nationalism.Third, few reformist governments in eastern European countries are re-elected after a first term. Bosnia is, of course, unique because of its recent past. But the crucial difference is not to do with the war. It is that Bosnia's last government was voted out not for reforming too much but for reforming too little.Fourth, anyone who travelled the length and breadth of the country before the elections, as I did, and thinks that the mood of the country is sliding back towards nationalism simply has not been listening. I came across people who were frustrated with the way things were. When the average salary is Ù100 a month, yet the Customs administration loses Ù200m a year through fraud, who can blame them? Their concerns are the concerns of people everywhere: jobs, the criminal justice system, hospitals and schools. National issues have little or nothing to do with it.My fifth point is that the parties most involved in the last government lost the most votes. The closer they were to the centre of government, the more votes they lost. The party that saw its vote increase the most in these elections was a non-nationalist opposition party.Last, the issue that dominated this election campaign was not nationalism, division or demands for secession. It was reform. And this was reflected in the parties' messages. All of them, including the old nationalist parties, talked almost exclusively about how to provide jobs, tackle corruption and fight crime. It was the first election since the war not to be dominated by a big national question.That is why I do not believe Saturday's vote was a vote for nationalism. It was instead a vote for faster reform, for real change, for more progress. Ask any Bosnian the question: was the last government punished for changing too much, or for changing too little? - and the answer you get could not be clearer. The voters sent an unequivocal message to the politicians: stop messing about and get on with changing the country. That is what the parties have promised. Now it is time to do it.I believe the role of the international community in this process should be to spell out clearly the sort of changes this country needs if it is to attract foreign investment and one day meet the standards for European Union membership. These include: creating a stable and effective form of cabinet government; putting into place a proper revenue stream to wean the Bosnian state off international subsidies; reforming the political system to tackle corruption; and building trust in the legal system.These are only proposals. But they will be the test by which we measure the next government's commitment to transform Bosnia for the better. The formation of the next government should not be about individuals and parties but about programmes and actions. The old nationalist parties will have to work long and hard to demonstrate that they really have changed and are at last prepared to work in the interests of all citizens. Bosnia has no choice but to modernise. That is why I believe the next government must be a reformist one.The writer is the international community's High Representative for Bosnia-HerzegovinaCopyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.comÂTime to concede defeat in Bosnia-HerzegovinaÂWilliam Pfaff IHTÂThursday, October 10, 2002ÂThe Dayton accordsÂPARIS The electoral victory of nationalists last Saturday in Bosnia-Herzegovina suggests that it is time for the international community to make a serious re-examination of what is happening in that country, and of what eventual outcomes can reasonably be expected.The Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina is an artificial state improvised at the Dayton negotiations of 1995. It was imposed on the people of that unhappy country under American and NATO pressures, to stop interethnic slaughter.Three years of ghastly fratricidal war had followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's declaration of independence in April 1992, following a referendum boycotted by the Serbs of Bosnia. This was a new step in the dismantlement of Yugoslavia, inspired by Slobodan Milosevic's program to create a "Greater Serbia" at the expense of Croatia and Bosnia.Fighting immediately broke out, mainly instigated by the Serbian and Croatian communities bent on creating ethnically "pure" territories, with a view to union, respectively, with Serbia and with a newly independent Croatia.The Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina were the group that suffered most, but a major purpose of the attack was also to destroy cosmopolitan Sarajevo, a multiethnic city that was a center of liberal and tolerant political and cultural values.The siege of Sarajevo, and the ethnic cleansing that took place during the Serbian attempt to gain domination of the city and its region, provided the most appalling violence Europe had experienced since World War II.The European nations' irresolution and impotence in the face of this crisis seemed a frightening augury concerning the future of the European Union. The doubts then inspired about "Europe" have yet to be entirely dissipated.When the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization eventually intervened, in the summer of 1995, all of the parties were convoked to the U.S. Air Force base at Dayton, Ohio, where, sequestered, and under intense pressures, they were made to accept unwanted compromises.Bosnia-Herzegovina was divided into a Serbian republic composed of 49 percent of its territory, with an uneasy Croatian-Muslim Federation occupying 51 percent.A central government with members from the three groups was established, with modest responsibilities under UN and subsequent NATO supervision. That supervision was politically timid and failed to pursue war criminals or give energetic support to reform.Despite billions in international aid, the new state has not been a success. Living standards are low, the economy feeble, the unemployment level 60 percent. This has accelerated emigration of the young, mobile and talented. The country is being drained of its future.Last Saturday's elections for the multiethnic presidency, the legislature and the cantonal governments, were the first organized by the Bosnian authorities themselves since the war ended. With a low electoral turnout (55 percent), and final results yet to be announced, the three individuals apparently elected to the collegial presidency all represent the nationalist parties. A similar outcome seems apparent in the other votes.Compromises and coalitions will be necessary before the final complexion of the government becomes clear, but liberal, secular and multiethnic forces have lost. It now seems necessary for the international community to admit that the Dayton solution was not a solution. It was a way to end a war. It did not provide the foundation for a modern state. It did not offer a structure conducive to national reconciliation. It may be that the constructive response now is simply to concede the failure, to concede to the nationalists what the international community was mobilized to deny them.Accepting the fact that Bosnia-Herzegovina has, for practical purposes, already been ethnically cleansed, and accepting the consequences, now may be the only way to terminate this part of the problem of Yugoslav succession.This would mean the Republika Srpska's union with Serbia; union of the Croatian territories of the Croat-Muslim Federation with Croatia; and the Muslim territories made into a new state centered on Sarajevo, possibly as an internationalized city-state, with guarantees, possibly as an independent republic.The Serbian and Croatian nationalists would be politically disarmed, and would disappear into the larger communities to which they fought to belong - societies that now have been through the transition to democracy or are well on that road.Nationalist and integrist forces inside the new Muslim identity would survive, part of a community dominated by traditionally cosmopolitan Sarajevo. On the other hand, Muslim integrist forces in Albania and Kosovo might be strengthened and given new ambitions.This certainly is not a solution the international community has wanted, nor the surviving liberal forces inside today's Bosnia-Herzegovina. It amounts to a defeat for those forces.But the defeat is to a political artifice with a dim future. Democratic values may better prosper if Bosnia-Herzegovina is partitioned once again. Realism demands that this be discussed.International Herald Tribune Los Angeles Times Syndicate International Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 12 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7418/1/E-NFCA-Critical-of-US-on-General-Bobetko.html ÂNFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036PHONE: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.comÂFAX: (202) 331-0050ÂFor Immediate Release: October 12, 2002Media Contact: Joe Foley (tel: 301-294-0937)NFCA CRITICAL OF AMERICAN REACTION TO CROATIA'S RESPONSE TO INDICTMENT AGAINST GENERAL BOBETKO(Washington, D.C.). The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) released a letterÂtoday addressed to the United States State Department and copied to members of the US House ofÂRepresentatives' International Relations Committee and the US Senate's Foreign RelationsÂCommittee concerning the United States' response to the position take by Croatia with respect tothe indictment against General Bobetko brought by the International Criminal Tribunal for theÂFormer Yugoslavia (ICTY).In the letter, NFCA President John Kraljic stated that the NFCA "fully supports the stance takenÂby the Croatian government and that taken by General Bobetko" with respect to the indictment.ÂMr. Kraljic noted that while the indictment concerning General Bobetko charges him withÂresponsibility for the deaths of up to 100 Serb civilians, "no high-level Yugoslav Army officer hasÂever been indicted for any of the military actions taken by Serb and Yugoslav Army forces inÂCroatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina for command responsibility where over 200,000 Croats andÂBosniaks were killed."ÂMr. Kraljic described United States Ambassador Lawrence Rossin's public call for Croatia toÂfulfill all of its obligations with respect to the ICTY to be inappropriate with respect to GeneralÂBobetko and that it reflected "a fetishism for the letter of the law rather than its spirit."Mr. Kraljic contrasted this public pressure on Croatia to the lack of pressure placed on SerbiaÂwhich was actually forgiven two-thirds of its debt by the United States last week. Serbia, Mr.ÂKraljic pointed out, harbors a "half-dozen major Serbian war criminals, whose personal role inÂthe commission of genocide and war crimes is not in question." Mr. Kraljic quoted a statementÂmade by the ICTY's Chief Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, at the commencement of the CroatiaÂportion of the trial against Slobodan Milosevic where she described Yugoslavia's cooperationÂwith the ICTY as "fractious, difficult and unpredictable" and had charged Yugoslavia withÂpreventing the appearances by prosecution witnesses and denying access to archives despiteÂ"holding the key to irreplaceable elements of evidence."ÂThe letter stated that the "NFCA believes that in light of this recent response by the United StatesÂto Yugoslavia, the United States cannot in good conscience make demands on Croatia to followÂthe dictates of international bureaucrats." The letter also enclosed an excellent article recentlyÂwritten by Mr. Miles Raguz for the European edition of the Wall Street Journal concerning theÂunseemly public pressure being brought upon Croatia.The letter closed by asking the State Department to undertake "a strenuous evaluation of the workÂof the ICTY to determine whether it has achieved any substantial goals in its work to bring justiceÂto bear against those most responsible for the wars in the former Yugoslavia" and furtherÂrequested that "the United States sympathetically take into consideration Croatia's position andÂthose of the Croatian people in the question of the indictment of General Bobetko."The NFCA is a Washington, D.C.-based national umbrella organization that represents over 20ÂCroatian American groups and 130,000 members. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 12 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7417/1/E-Croatia-USmilitary-exercise.html ÂJoint Croatia-U.S. exercise"Phiblex 02"ÂA U.S. Navy hovercraft glides past the U.S. Marines helicopter assault ship USS Nassau during a joint Croatia-U.S. exercise "Phiblex 02" off the central Croatian Adriatic coast, October 4, 2002. Three large amphibious assault ships of the U.S. Marines joined the Croatian military to practise beach landings and navigation in shallow waters. REUTERS/Nikola Solic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 12 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7425/1/E-Milosevic-masterminded-ethnic-cleansing-in-Croatia-to-create-a-Greater-Serbia.html Milosevic Masterminded ethnic cleansing in Croatia to create a Greater SerbiaWorld - ReutersMilosevic Trial Hears of Croatia Serb AtrocitiesMon Oct 7, 9:54 AM ETBy Abigail LeveneÂTHE HAGUE (Reuters) - Serbs rebelling at Croatian independence whipped up a frenzy of hate that spawned massacre, rape and torture, the Slobodan Milosevic trial heard Monday.ÂAs prosecutors built their case that the former Serbian president masterminded ethnic cleansing in Croatia to create a Greater Serbia, a Croat former police investigator described an armed uprising by militant Serbs in the early 1990s.Â"Rebel Serbs took over territory by arming the population and placing road blocks on all roads leading to the area," said Djuro Matovina of Slatina in Western Slavonia, a part of Croatia seized by Serbs and retaken by Croats in a 1995 offensive.Â"Quite simply, they did not allow the institutions of the Croatian government to function there any longer."ÂMatovina, 53, described how inter-ethnic relations in his area deteriorated after Croatia held its first multi-party elections after 45 years of Communist rule in 1990.ÂTensions were fanned by the creation of a local branch of the nationalist Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) of Croatia and by graffiti with pro-Serb symbols and anti-Croat slogans, he said.ÂA founding rally for the SDS branch boasted hate-ridden speeches proclaiming there was no future for Serbs in Croatia.ÂSome at the rally bore pictures of Milosevic -- charged with crimes against humanity in Croatia in a vast three-pronged case that includes genocide in Bosnia and war crimes in Kosovo -- while others wore Serbian flags "like scarves."ÂMatovina described attacks on police stations, which he said were organized by the SDS. In one incident, a Croat trying to drive through the mob was knifed after his car was overturned.Â"He was stabbed and his stomach was cut so his intestines spilled out onto the road," the witness told the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, where ex-Yugoslav leader Milosevic has been on trial since February.ÂProsecutors say Milosevic, 61, gave political, logistical and military support to Croatian Serbs who grabbed territory and ejected non-Serbs, and exerted heavy influence over a Yugoslav Army that gradually became a force defending Serbs.ÂMilosevic, who has refused to appoint defense counsel, used his cross-examination of Matovina to accuse Croats of atrocities against Serbs -- pressing his case that Serbs were victims not aggressors during Yugoslavia's bloody break-up last decade.ÂMatovina was the third witness to appear in the Croatia case, which prosecutors launched on September 26 after closing their case on Kosovo earlier last month.ÂRAPEÂCiting witness statements from survivors, Matovina described a Serb-run camp set up in August 1991 where he said dozens of Croats were maltreated, tortured and some even killed.Â"We had a statement from one female witness who was kept there in a metal container, tortured and raped repeatedly."ÂThe court heard of a December 1991 massacre in the Croatian village of Vocin, where prosecutors say scores of Serb paramilitaries including the feared "White Eagles" swarmed in.Â"To all intents and purposes, they destroyed the whole of Vocin," said Matovina, who told the court 45 people were killed in Vocin and in neighboring villages.ÂThe headless bodies of one elderly couple were later found buried, he said. Their heads were found in fertilizer bags.ÂThe church in Vocin was shelled, and tons of explosive unleashed, destroying hundreds of houses and throwing the church roof two kilometers from the church itself, Matovina said.Â"Vocin resembled Hiroshima," he told the court.ÂMatovina also described a huge influx into Slatina of refugees fleeing Serb ethnic cleansing.ÂProsecutors plan to call a total 177 witnesses in a Bosnia and Croatia case that contains 61 counts covering 1991-5. The trial last week heard from a former moderate Serb politician from Western Slavonia and from Croatian President Stjepan Mesic. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7424/1/E-Annan-recommends-ending-Prevlaka-peacekeeping-mission.html Prevlaka ISCroatiaAP World PoliticsCiting progress between Croatia and Yugoslavia, Annan recommends ending Prevlaka peacekeeping mission by Dec. 31ÂTue Oct 8, 3:40 PM ETUNITED NATIONS - Welcoming efforts by Croatia and Yugoslavia to resolve their dispute over the Prevlaka peninsula, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) recommended ending the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the area by the end of the year.ÂIn a report released Tuesday, Annan urged the Security Council to extend the peacekeeping mission by another two months until Dec. 15 and then disband the mission comprising 27 military observers by Dec. 31.ÂThe Security Council is scheduled to discuss the Prevlaka mission on Thursday.ÂCroatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991. But Yugoslavia says the peninsula, which controls access to Yugoslavia's navy headquarters, historically has never been part of Croatia.ÂThe United Nations (news - web sites) has monitored Prevlaka - a 3-kilometer (two-mile) strip on an Adriatic peninsula - since Croatia and Yugoslavia agreed to the U.N. presence in 1992. The current observer mission began in January 1996.ÂThe United Nations recognizes Prevlaka as part of Croatia, but insists the two sides settle their dispute.ÂIn the report, Annan said, "I am encouraged by the commitment of the parties to resolve their dispute over Prevlaka" through diplomatic and political channels.Â"It is apparent ... that the parties are working in good faith with a determination to reach an interim agreement aimed at normalizing the situation on the ground at the earliest," he said.ÂIf Croatia and Yugoslavia reach a settlement before December, Annan said he would make a fresh recommendation to the Security Council to end the mission earlier.Â"It is my assessment that the closure of another chapter in the tumultuous recent history of the Balkans is within reach, and that Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are about to take another step towards normal, good neighborly relations," Annan said.ÂOp-ed"The United Nations recognizes Prevlaka as part of Croatia, but insists the two sides settle their dispute"What is there to settle? It is Croatian land. Period. Where are war reparations from Yugoslavia?Nenad BachEditor in chief letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7422/1/E-Get-Out-The-Vote-Assistance.html ÂBe Part of The PoliticalProcessIf any of you know of people who want to volunteer in the campaigns listed in the attachment below, please send them this email. 21st Century Democrats will provide transportation to these states, and lodging (see attachment for details)!!!!Lemme know if you have any "takers"THANKS, tomThomas A. AlbertDirector of Ethnic OutreachDemocratic National Committee430 South Capitol Street, S.E.Washington, DC 20003Phone: 202 863 8149Fax: 202 863 8063E-mail: albert@dnc.democrats.orgÂHello:My name is Reza Breakstone and I am the Get Out The Vote Director for 21st Century Democrats. I understand that you may be working with the coordinated campaigns throughout the country to get volunteers out to elections to Get Out The Vote. I just wanted to let you know that 21st Century Democrats will be providing transportation and lodging for anyone interested in traveling to Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, and South Dakota. We will be able to provide transportation from cities throughout the country including D.C., Chicago, Oklahoma City, and San Francisco. If you know anyone that may want to go out to these campaigns we will be more than happy to take them out. You can reach me at 202-626-5620. Our buses will be leaving Friday, November 1 and returning Wednesday, November 6. Please let me know if you know of any interested parties.ÂThank you,Reza Breakstone letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7421/1/E-Jerusalem-Post---Iraq-Serbia-military-cooperation.html ÂSerbia, Iraq forge secret military pactÂJerusalem Post -- 1999Monday, March 29, 1999 12 Nisan 5759 Updated Mon., Mar. 29 03:16Âhttp://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/29.Mar.1999/News/Article-2.htmlÂSerbia, Iraq forge secret military pactÂBy DOUGLAS DAVIS LONDON (March 29) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Iraq's Saddam Hussein have concluded a secret military pact that will enhance their abilities to withstand allied bombing raids, according to reports in London yesterday."We are aware of the reports that there is a connection between the Iraqi and the Serbian regimes," a British official said at the weekend. "We believe that they are accurate and based on good information. Obviously this is a cause for concern and demonstrates the sort of company that Milosevic is now keeping."A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Blair "is aware of these reports," adding: "Nothing would surprise us about Saddam or Milosevic."According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, Milosevic and Saddam have authorized their officials to work closely to fulfill their joint goal of shooting down aircraft flying bombing missions over Serbia and Iraq.The alliance was initiated with a visit to Baghdad by a Serbian military delegation earlier this month, shortly before NATO commanders last week launched Operation Allied Force. The visit, which marked the first steps in formalizing the Serbian-Iraqi alliance, was intended to explore ways in which the two countries could cooperate to their common advantage.The Serb delegation was headed by Serbian Deputy Defense Minister Lt.-Gen. Jovan Djukovic and followed a visit by Ivan Ivanovich, a Serb chemical and biological weapons expert, who arrived in Baghdad on March 9 to spend several days visiting Iraqi military facilities.In addition to conventional military sites, the delegation also visited an Iraqi pharmaceutical plant at Samarra, 170 kilometers from Baghdad, which UN weapons inspectors say is a chemical weapons production site.Middle East intelligence officials say both visits were authorized by Milosevic. The visits were also confirmed by the Foreign Office in London, where officials regard the growing cooperation between the two with alarm."It appears they have identified a common aim - to shoot down allied aircraft," a senior diplomat was quoted as saying. "Saddam and Milosevic see themselves as international outcasts who must support each other if they are to survive."In return for Serb assistance in rebuilding Iraq's air defenses and making its jet fighters airworthy, Saddam has reportedly agreed to provide Milosevic with oil and cash to sustain the Serbs' battered economy and its war effort.Since Iraq was subjected to a massive air bombardment by US and British aircraft during and after Operation Desert Fox last December, Saddam has been desperate to shoot down allied bombers and capture their pilots.The Iraqi air-defense system is currently based on obsolete SA-2 and SA-3 Soviet missile systems, which are no match for the sophisticated air power deployed by US and British fighters patrolling the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq.The Iraqis want Serbia to provide them with the advanced SA-7 anti-aircraft missile system, which was originally built to a Soviet design but has been upgraded by the Serbs and could seriously threaten allied warplanes. It is understood that Serb technicians are already assisting the Iraqis to prepare air-defense traps for allied warplanes.The Iraqis are also reported to be seeking Serb assistance to modernize their aging squadrons of MiG-21 and MiG-29 fighters. Serb technicians regularly serviced Iraqi MiGs before the current conflict, and there have been reports that, despite the current bombardment, Serbian military specialists are being assigned to work with the Iraqi air force.It is also believed that Moscow, which has condemned the NATO assault, will be more forthcoming - and more open - about its assistance to Iraq.**********Asia Times-- 2000Baghdad, Belgrade and Moscow gang up on WashingtonÂSTRATFOR.COMGlobal Intelligence UpdateWeekly Analysis April 19, 2000http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/BD20Ag02.htmlÂSummaryRussia has reportedly brokered a deal to upgrade Iraqi air defense systems. The weapons upgrades Iraq could receive are of the same type that may have downed an F-117 stealth plane over Serbia during Operation Allied Force. After a visit to Belgrade, Iraq's defense minister met his Russian counterpart in Moscow April 14. There is a substantial history of military cooperation among the three countries, and Iraq and Yugoslavia have recently indicated a possible alliance. The possibility of such an alliance, tacitly supported by Russia may be nearing reality and could threaten US policy.AnalysisIraqi Defense Minister Col Gen Sultan Hashim Ahmad arrived in Moscow April 14 and met with Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, reported Interfax. Prior to his arrival in Moscow, Ahmad was in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The past military cooperation among the three countries offers an explanation of Ahmad's travels. The three may be cooperating to create simultaneous crises for US policy.Prior to and during Operation Allied Force, Yugoslavia and Iraq maintained close military cooperation. A Yugoslav military delegation, headed by the deputy defense minister, visited Baghdad just before commencement of the Nato bombing of Serbia, according to a March 1999 Jerusalem Post report. Both nations, threatened by US warplanes, needed improved air defense systems. Serb technicians regularly serviced Iraq's Soviet-made MiG-21s and MiG-29s, according to the Jerusalem Post. The two nations also reportedly worked out a deal. In return for Yugoslavia rebuilding Iraqi air defenses, Baghdad would provide Belgrade with oil and cash to sustain the war effort.The Washington Times in March 1999 cited a US intelligence official who said that some of Iraq's integrated air-defense system, including surface-to-air missiles (SAM), was of ''Yugoslav origin'' and may have been sent from Russia via Yugoslavia. The paper also claimed that there were reports of limited contacts between Iraqi and Yugoslav air-defense officials several months prior to Operation Allied Force.During Operation Allied Force on March 27, 1999, a US Air Force F-117 stealth fighter-bomber went down over Yugoslavia. A US Pentagon official initially assessed that a Serb SAM hit the F-117, reported The Washington Times. The official said the plane apparently dropped below 20,000 feet, at which time the Serbs optically spotted the plane and launched either an SA-3 or SA-6 SAM. The report also cited several unnamed US sources, who speculated that Russia had helped upgrade Serbia's air defenses.The Times of London reported October 7 that Russia, in violation of an arms embargo, had actually supplied the Yugoslav army with new warheads, fuses and sensors for its SA-6 missiles. The Pentagon has still not officially disclosed its findings on what caused the F-117 to go down.Operation Allied Force stretched US forces to their limits. When the bombing campaign began in March 1999, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, stationed in the Persian Gulf, re-deployed to assist the war effort. Another carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk re-deployed from the Pacific region to cover the Persian Gulf - leaving the entire Pacific region void of a US carrier presence for 86 days. Additionally, many US warplanes stationed in Turkey to enforce the northern no-fly zone in Iraq were used for missions in Yugoslavia - leaving the northern no-fly zone under-patrolled.Recently, Iraq and Yugoslavia have expressed renewed enthusiasm in mutual cooperation. A Yugoslav delegation, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Maja Gojkovic, was in Baghdad March 28 and met with Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan, who expressed Iraq's eagerness to expand comprehensive cooperation with Yugoslavia.Iraq now appears to be looking to Yugoslavia and Russia to upgrade its air defenses. Interfax Russian News reported April 16, 2000, that Iraqi Defense Minister Col Gen Sultan Hashim Ahmad arrived in Moscow via Belgrade. In Moscow, Iraq's defense minister met with Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev.On the same day, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported that Russian military officials have brokered a deal with Belarus to rebuild Iraq's air defenses. The report stated that the Belarussian state-owned military hardware company, Beltechexport, agreed to upgrade Iraqi air defense systems. Under the deal, Beltechexport will upgrade Iraqi anti-aircraft guns as well as Iraq's SA-3 anti-aircraft missiles. Also, Iraqi air defense crews will reportedly be sent to Belarus for specialized training, where they will be familiarized with the latest Russian electronic warfare systems.If the report is true, it would not be the first time Iraq has attempted to upgrade its air defenses to threaten US and British warplanes. In 1998, the CIA uncovered a plot by Iraqi agents to secretly purchase Tamara - a special electronic warfare system made in the Czech Republic that can track radar-evading stealth planes like the F-117 and B-2 and may have been involved in the F-117 stealth shoot-down over Serbia.Military and technological cooperation between Baghdad and Belgrade poses potential simultaneous threats in two different arenas. Milosevic may simply be helping Iraq to give himself some leeway without launching his own crisis. However, if Iraq seriously threatened US warplanes while Milosevic simultaneously ignited a crisis in Kosovo, the United States would have serious trouble containing both crises. It is not certain that Saddam acting alone would want to shoot down US planes even if he could. There would be severe repercussions, such as the extensive bombing of palaces and military facilities. The real threat is dual-crises in Iraq and Yugoslavia.Russia is positioned to challenge US policies and has criticized the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia and the UN bombing of Iraq. The downing of the F-117 in Serbia was linked to reports that Moscow upgraded Yugoslav air defenses, and Russia is now reportedly behind Iraqi attempts to upgrade its air defenses. The possibility of an Iraqi-Yugoslav alliance tacitly supported by Russia is becoming more of a reality. The ramifications of such an alliance could result in simultaneous crises that threaten the safety of US forces and the maintenance of US policy in each region.(c) 2000 WNI, Inc. http://www.stratfor.com/Â___________________________________________________STRATFOR.COM 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025 Internet: http://www.stratfor.com/ Email: info@stratfor.comÂ********Center for Non-Proliferation Studies, California--2002http://www.nti.org/e_research/e1_yugoslavia_1.htmlÂIntroduction:Yugoslavia currently has no active nuclear weapons program, though it intermittently pursued both a nuclear energy and weapons program throughout the Tito regime. The former Yugoslavia is known to have produced a variety of chemical weapons, with a majority of the stockpile inherited by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), and there have been allegations of CW use in the former Yugoslavia. There is no evidence of a biological warfare program with the former Yugoslav republic or any of its successor states. It has acquired and developed short-range tactical rockets, and cooperated with Iraq on the manufacture of rockets and other military projects before Desert Storm. It extensively employs Soviet/Russian air defense missile systems.Nuclear:Yugoslavia currently has no active nuclear weapons program. From the early 1950s through the mid-1970s, Yugoslavia intermittently pursued both a nuclear energy and weapons program. The regime of Josip Tito, primarily driven by a desire for international status rather than security concerns, initiated the program in the late 1940s. Belgrade collaborated with Norway -which had an advanced nuclear research program-until Tito deactivated the weapons program in the early 1960s. After India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, Yugoslavia restarted its weapons program to "compete" with its rival for leadership of the nonaligned movement. Limited financial resources and indifference among the nuclear scientists working on the program brought it to an end in 1987 without ever producing a functioning weapon. In August 2002, 48 kilograms of 80% highly enriched uranium was transferred from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences near Belgrade to a processing plant in Dmitrovgrad, Russia. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia acceded to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has not formally acceded to the NPT (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia joined the NPT after independence).Biological:There is no evidence in the open literature of the existence of a biological warfare program within the former Yugoslav republic or any of its successor states. The former Yugoslavia signed the Geneva Protocol in 1929. The FRY, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Slovenia are all states parties of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC).Chemical:The former Yugoslavia is known to have produced a variety of chemical weapons (CW). The majority of stockpiled CW is believed to have been inherited by its successor, the FRY, which consists of Serbia and Montenegro. Reports indicate that the former Yugoslavia's Army produced large quantities of sarin (30 tons), sulfur mustard, phosgene, the incapacitant BZ (allegedly a stockpile of 300 tons), and tear gas. At least four chemical warfare production facilities have been identified in Serbia: Prva Iskra in Baric; Miloje Blagojevic in Lucani; and Milojie Zakic and Merima in Krusevic. There have been allegations that CW was used in the area of the former Yugoslavia, with both Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats alleging that Bosnian government forces used chlorine during the conflict in Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs used BZ against Moslem refugees in July 1995, and of the FRY Army having used BZ against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. The former Yugoslavia signed the Geneva Protocol in 1929. In April 2000, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).Missile:Yugoslavia has acquired and developed short-range tactical rockets and anti-aircraft systems, including the 262mm M-87 Orkan multiple rocket launcher, produced at the Vogosca facility north of Sarajevo. Timer fuses for the rocket are produced at the Binas facility. Prior to Desert Storm, Yugoslavia worked cooperatively with Iraq in the latter's efforts to manufacture this rocket indigenously. Belgrade and Baghdad have cooperated on other military projects, including Iraq's transfer of production plans for the Al-Taw'han medium-range air-to-air missile and Yugoslavia's reported assistance with Iraq's Al-Samoud ballistic missile. There are unconfirmed reports that Serbia had a ballistic missile development program during the 1990s, which it may have abandoned due to financial constraints. Yugoslavian air defenses extensively utilize Soviet/Russian short-range surface-to-air missiles (SAM), and Belgrade used the SA-2 SAM as a ballistic missile during the recent Balkan conflicts. Other medium-range missile systems employed by Belgrade include the Russian-made FROG-7 and the Swedish RBS-15F air-to-ship missile. Yugoslavia is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2002 by MIIS.Â*********GulfSecurityReport.com17 February 2001 GSR010217http://www.gulfsecurityreport.com/gsr/GSR010217.htmÂAIRSTRIKES ON IRAQÂThe US and British airstrikes on Iraq on16 February were undoubtedly a high-risk strategy. Washington and London will have been all too aware of the criticism that they would face. President George W Bush may have felt a need to show that he intends to get tough with Saddam Hussein, but he will have a hard time trying to convince the international community that the strikes were more than just trying to complete the unfinished business of a decade earlier. The airstrikes come at a time of high tension in the Middle East and there is a very real chance of a backlash on the Arab street. The fact is Saddam has secured much popular support in the Arab world as a champion of the embattled Palestinians. In the eyes of Washington and London, an emboldened Saddam is posing a greater threat to regional security especially as international sanctions are eroding and Iraq appears to have improved its air defence capabilities. In a worst-case scenario, Israel might launch an airstrike against Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon that could result in a large-scale civilian loss of life. If this happened, Saddam would again offer support to those confronting Israel, and he would again challenge the US and British in the Gulf. Washington and London would then face an even more vigorous popular backlash if they tried to contain Saddam by force. Basically, if the US and British wanted to degrade Iraq's air defence capability and issue a warning to Saddam to "stay in his box", they may have decided it was better to do so now rather than wait for Arab-Israeli violence to escalate further. US and British aircraft apparently faced an increased threat as Russia and the Serb-dominated Yugoslavia are said to have helped improve Iraq's air defences. While the new government in Yugoslavia may want to improve ties with the West, there are Serbian elements keen to maintain ties with Baghdad. Vojislav Seselj, head of the Serb Radical Party, visited Iraq in mid-February [2001]. The Pentagon said 24 US and British strike aircraft - including F-18s, F-14s,F-15s and British Tornados were used in the mission. Six aircraft were reportedly British, while the total air package was about 70, and included aircraft providing jamming, electronic counter-measures, suppression of any enemy air defences, command and control, and tanker aircraft. The aircraft used were not long-range bombers, but reportedly aircraft based in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as well as from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman. Iraq said that two civilians were killed and more than 20 others were wounded in the attacks. The attack required White House approval as the targets were outside the air exclusion zones. Normal US rules of engagement enable aircraft to strike targets that threaten them inside the no-fly zones. The Pentagon also indicated that such strikes are not unprecedented: the last time US aircraft went north of the 33rd parallel was during Desert Fox in December 1998, and the last time US aircraft went south of the 36th parallel was in October 1999. The reasons given for the airstrikes were summed up in a Pentagon press briefing. "The military operation was conducted because the Iraqi air defences had been increasing both their frequency and the sophistication of their operations. Both the frequency and the more sophisticated command and control of their operations had yielded an increased threat to our aircraft and our crews," said director for operations of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant General Greg Newbold. The increased sophistication reportedly included all types of air defence systems: surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artillery, and what was described as "something like an unguided missile system." In the attack, four command-and-control nodes north of the 33rd parallel and one to the south were targeted. It is noteworthy that some of the radar systems destroyed were said to be capable of reaching well into the no-fly zones, while the attacking aircraft used standoff munitions and never went north of the 33rd parallel. The airstrikes will ensure that forthcoming visit to the region by US Secretary of State Colin Powell will attract some popular hostility. The five-day visit begins on 23 February and will take in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. GCC leaders will be compelled to make some decisions regarding Iraq: do they improve ties with Saddam or support Washington's attempt to reinvigorate efforts to oppose the Iraqi leader? President Bush has demonstrated his resolve to be tough on Saddam and he appears keen to offer further help to the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC). The INC has said it supports the "no-fly" zones and has called for them to be extended to offer further protection to minorities. However, the airstrikes risk undermining the prospects of the exiled INC obtaining support inside Iraq. A few INC members are due to receive weapons training in the US in the next few weeks. Previously the US has offered "non-lethal" assistance to them. Some US officials have described the training as aimed at enabling the INC to protect its non-lethal activities in Iraq. However it is described, it is an acknowledged step up in the type of training being offered to the INC. The INC members are due to receive their training in College Station, Texas, from former police, military and special forces personnel. The contract for the training is said to be worth $98,000 to the private Guidry Group, and forms part of a $4 million aid package. [GSR010203] The Iraqi opposition may come to expect more, especially with President Bush's new appointment of Paul Wolfowitz as deputy defence secretary. Whilst out of office during the Clinton administration, Wolfowitz tried to persuade the White House to arm, train and, significantly, provide air cover for Iraqi rebels. Under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act, the US has set aside $97 million for arms and military training for the INC. However, to date the US has spent less than $500,000 on non-lethal activities. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7423/1/E-Citizens-for-Peraica-to-Hold-Fundraiser.html  Citizens for Peraica to Hold FundraiserÂFriday October 18Citizens for Peraica will be holding a fundraiser and banquet at the WilliamTell Restaurant in Countryside, starting at 7:00 p.m. This is a lastfundraiser for Anthony Peraica before the November 5th elections. Pleasecome out and show your support for one of our own. For more information, orto inquire about being a campaign volunteer or poll watcher can call AnthonyPeraica's campaign office at (708)443-5554 or send email via http://www.peraica.com. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 10 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7420/1/E-NFCA-Calls-on-ICTY-to-Hear-Genocide-Evidence.html  NFCA CALLS ON ICTY TO HEAR EVIDENCE CONCERNING GENOCIDE AGAINST CROATS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINAÂNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036PHONE: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.comÂFAX: (202) 331-0050For Immediate Release: October 10, 2002Media Contact: Joe Foley (tel: 301-294-0937)(Washington, D.C.). The National Federation of Croatian Americans releasedaletter sent by its President, John Peter Kraljic, to Claude Jorda, thePresident of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), concerningthe determination of Carla del Ponte, the Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY, not topresent evidence in the Slobodan Milosevic trial concerning his responsibility forthe commission of genocide against the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Milosevic has been indicted for genocide against both the Croats andBosniak-Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Chief Prosecutor, however,recently stated that time restraints placed on the length of the trial by theTribunal will force her to only present evidence of genocide committed against the Muslim-Bosniaks.In his letter, Mr. Kraljic noted that "to allow evidence of genocidecommitted against the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina to remain in the archives ofthe ICTY and not to allow it to be presented to the Tribunal and to the world at large inthe name of efficiency and speed will work a great injustice to the thousands of Croatsmercilessly killed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina."Mr. Kraljic further wrote that it was inconceivable to attempt to segregatethe Muslim-Bosniak and Croat victims of the same genocidal plan to exterminatenon-Serbs from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Mr. Kraljic requested that the Tribunal "order the Prosecutor to presenther case of genocide against the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the pendingtrial of Mr. Milosevic and, if necessary, to grant the Prosecutor additional time toallow her to present her case." Copies of the letter are being circulated to the US StateDepartment and to members of the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate and theInternational Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives.Separately, Mr. Kraljic called on institutions in Croatia and Bosnia andHerzegovina to send their protests concerning the Chief Prosecutor'sdecision to the Hauge. "I am surprised that there has not yet been much public reaction inCroatia to this decision by the Chief Prosecutor. It should be remembered that Milosevicwas not charged with committing genocide in Croatia itself. I fear that there is areal possibility that if genocide charges concerning the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina arenot presented now, we may face the possibility that the ICTY will one day closeits doors and will never have had the opportunity to determine whether Croats were victimsof genocide. We owe it to those Croats who were killed and to the properinterpretation of the history of the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to force theICTY to hear the evidence. The NFCA's letter is not enough. We need pressure frompeople, decision makers and institutions in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere."The NFCA is a Washington, D.C.-based national umbrella organization thatrepresents over 20 Croatian American groups and letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 10 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7426/1/E-Croatian-American-running-for-US-Congress---SUPPORT-HIM.html ÂAnton Srdanovicfor US Congresswww.AntonForCongress.comÂCroatian American running for Congress in New York's 14thDistrictÂ(Manhattan, Astoria, etc)Fundraising on SaturdayOctober 19th 7-11 PMMusic & FoodÂatCroatian Center 502 W. 41st Street, New York CityFor more info Call Tanya Srdanovic at (203) 368-4056 or/andemail her Tanya@AntonForCongress.comÂÂFriends of Anton Srdanovic122 East 83rd StreetNew York, NY 10128Phone: (212) 831-6774E-mail: info@antonForCongress.comOp-edCroatiansneed to be better represented in the political arena. Well, don't say thatsomeone of Croatian decent doesn't have guts to run for the office. It's now upto you to support his candidacy. With money, promotion, and whichever way youcan.ÂNenad BachEditor-in-ChiefGet InvolvedThese are hiscampaign issues: The Issues Pro-Growth Fiscal Conservative  Eliminate the Death Tax  Remove Trade Tariffs that Hurt Consumers  Double the Maximum Loss Deduction to $6,000 Improve our Security  Supports the Strategic Defense Initiative  Fight for Adequate Funding for our Defense Agencies  Eliminate Unnecessary Pork Barrel Military Projects Energy Policy  Ensure Our Power Needs are Met  Reduce Our Reliance on Foreign Oil  Support Research for the Energy Sources of the Future  Pro-Choice  Education Reform  Supports School Choice for ALL Americans, not Just the Wealthy E-Mail here: info@antonForCongress.com Or call: 212 / 831 - 6774 Our forefathers did not see serving in the House of Representatives as a career like so many of today's politicians. I want to be your representative and use my business experience to eliminate unnecessary expenditures. I will focus on security issues and, with my engineering background, provide critical analyses of proposals. With my Wall Street experience, I will tackle issues facing our economy. Moreover, I will put my power utility industry experience to good use in building an energy policy. Say no to the status quo. Let's work together to secure a better, safer and more prosperous future. Please support me with your vote on November 5th because together we will make a difference. Get Involved This is a grass roots campaign and therefore we need help from people like you! Please drop us a line by e-mail or call ... it's that easy! Volunteer activities include: Handing out literature Participate in rallies Help with mailings Organizing fundraising events Having fun and meeting new people! E-Mail here: info@antonForCongress.com Or call: 212 / 831 - 6774  letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 05 Oct 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7427/1/E-Prince-Andrews-Croatia-visit-is-under-review.html ÂPrince Andrew's Croatia visit is under reviewÂA planned visit by Prince Andrew to Croatia later this week is under review, the Foreign Office says.A spokeswoman says the review will determine whether or not this is a suitable time for a member of the Royal family to visit the country.Prince Andrew is due in the Balkan country from Wednesday to Friday.A British embassy official in Zagreb said: "The final decision on whether Prince Andrew will come to Croatia as scheduled or not will be given at the beginning of the week, most probably on Monday."It's not known if a possible change to plans is in response to Croatian reluctance to hand over wanted war crimes suspect General Janko Bobetko to the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague.In Sunday's edition of the Croatian daily Jutarnji List the paper claimed the cancellation of the visit would be the start of a campaign of western sanctions against the country because of the rejection of the extradition request.Croatia claims there is no need to extradite the general as he did not commit any war crimes and had led a "legitimate military operation to free occupied Croatian territory".The Prince is due to open a new British Embassy building in Zagreb on Wednesday - and also to inspect the Croatian naval base of Lora in the Adriatic port of Split on Thursday.He's also scheduled to meet Croatian President Stipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan.Story filed: 14:02 Sunday 29th September 2002http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_680593.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 29 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7428/1/E-Gen-Janko-Bobetko.html ÂGen. Janko BobetkoOp-edPeople treat you the way you treat yourself. Other nations willtreat us the way we treat our own people. Our war was freedom driven andsuccessful. There are not too many questions that should be asked. Even more,mercy was our strength. Imagine if our soldiers did what they really felt freeingKrajina. Oppression breeds hate. We passed this test with flying colors aftercenturies of terror against us. When someone raise a hand against you they losealmost all rights. We want war reparations from Serbia and a special status forour Croatian minority in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro ! We won the war.We ask questions ! Period.Nenad BachEditor in chief, CROWNPrime minister: Croatia will not extradite wartime army chief to the U.N. courtÂMon Sep 23, 1:40 PM ETBy EUGENE BRCIC, Associated Press WriterÂZAGREB, Croatia - Croatia's prime minister said Monday his government will not extradite a wartime army chief to the U.N. war crimes tribunal, even at the risk of international sanctions.ÂPrime Minister Ivica Racan told reporters that his Cabinet concluded "we cannot act upon the arrest warrant" for Gen. Janko Bobetko, which was officially delivered to the government earlier in the day by the court in The Hague ( news - web sites), Netherlands.Â"We will not budge from this position and we will pursue all means at our disposal  legal, political and diplomatic" to oppose the indictment, Racan said. The indictment charges Bobetko, 83, with commanding a 1993 operation in which at least 100 Serbs were killed.ÂRacan said the government would officially respond to the tribunal later this week.ÂRacan's remarks reflect a shift in his pro-Western government's dealings with the court and the foreign governments that support it. Up to now, Croatia has said it was committed to full cooperation.ÂBut the indictment against Bobetko, the leading figure of Croatia's 1991 war for independence and the highest-ranking Croat to be accused of war crimes, has caused an uproar in this country of 4.5 million, where Croat fighters are widely regarded as national heroes.ÂWar here erupted in 1991, when the country's Serbs, backed by the Yugoslav army, took up arms to rebel against Croatia's secession from former Yugoslavia. The rebels then seized a third of the country, territory that Zagreb recaptured four years later.ÂBobetko is charged with crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.ÂTribunal prosecutors claim that Bobetko knew his troops were killing Serbs and devastating their villages in a Serb-dominated area known as the Medak pocket, and failed to prevent or punish the crimes.Â"Our fight was just and legitimate," Raccan said, adding: "No one has a right to incriminate our struggle for independence, not even The Hague tribunal." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 28 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7432/1/E-NFCA-Works-to-Increase-Funding-to-Croatia.html ÂNFCANATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036PHONE: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.comÂFAX: (202) 331-0050ÂFor Immediate Release: September 25, 2002Media Contact: Joe Foley (tel: 301-294-0937)APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ACTS ON REQUEST TO INCREASE U.S. FUNDING FOR CROATIAWASHINGTON, D.C. - On September 12, 2002, the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives marked up and passed legislation entitled the "Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, 2003." A provision added to the Committee's Report -- under the heading "Assistance for Eastern Europe and the Baltic States" -- provides an additional $25 million above the President's budget request of $495 million for this region for Fiscal Year 2003. As the Committee Report to the Bill reads, "The increase above the budget request is intended for additional assistance for Montenegro, the Baltic States, Croatia and regional efforts to solidify democratic gains through the National Endowment for Democracy and other institutions." The funding measure is now on its way to the Floor of the House of Representatives and eventual approval by the full U.S. Congress.National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA) President John Kraljic said that this potential increase in economic assistance for which Croatia is eligible "will help to aid the sustained stabilization and general expansion of the economy of Croatia. The NFCA in Washington, along with its lobbying firm, Foley Government and Public Affairs Inc., plans to continue to strongly support and play an active public affairs role on such important funding legislation and international affairs initiatives affecting Croatia in Washington with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Congress, and other Federal entities," Kraljic added.Kraljic also cited the strong support of U.S. Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, and George Radanovich (R-CA). Both Members of Congress petitioned the Committee to expand this significant international economic assistance program and to include additional funding for Croatia, a remarkable achievement in light of the increasingly tight budget situation in Washington. Kraljic noted that: "It is time for Croatian Americans to now write to their Congressional Representatives and ask them to protect this additional funding for Croatia as it moves through Congress. We must also ask our Members of Congress to vote to pass the Bill when it comes to the House and Senate Floors this Fall and ask their Congressional colleagues to support the legislation (please contact your Member of Congress at 202-225-3121)."Kraljic further noted that the fight for increased aid is only half the battle. "We are also concerned that the money be spent wisely and not be used to provide funding to organizations that do not have Croatia's best interests at heart. The NFCA will continue to fight on this front as well to protect the interests of Croatians on this matter."The NFCA is a Washington, D.C.-based national umbrella organization that represents over 20 Croatian American groups and letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 27 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7431/1/E-This-is-simply-the-lamest-excuse-I-have-ever-heard.html FOR HOW LONG SHALL WE TOLERATEDear All: Earlier this week Brian Gallagher sent word out to some of us that the Prosecutor would not seek to prove the genocide charges against Slobo with respect to the Croats of BH. This AP story from today confirms Brian's detective work where we read the following:Â"Prosecutors say time restraints have forced them to limit the scope of their case, and they will no longer attempt to prove genocide against Bosnian Croats, part of their initial allegation.``We shall prove the genocide charges related to the crimes committed by Milosevic against the Bosnian Muslims,'' prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said Wednesday. ``We cannot deal with all the crimes committed in Bosnia.''This is simply an outrage and the lamest excuse I have ever heard. One thought - some of us have been writing to del Ponte. Perhaps instead of the Prosecutor we should write to the Tribunal itself (Ibelieve the Tribunal's spokesman is James Lansdale) protesting this act and asking that in the name of BH's Croat victims the Tribunal take it upon itself to ask the Prosecutor how much time would be needed to prove its case re genocide against Croats.This is important as I believe there are no other charges concerning genocide against Croats whether in Croatia or BH which have been brought against anyone else (except possibly Karadzic and Mladic). John KraljicOp-edWhere is the discussion for WAR REPARATION? Where are our rightsin Vojvodina and Montenegro? Who will PAY for destruction of our country? Theseare the questions that should be raised over and over. Then these"Genocide" questions would never in doubt. What is Croatian Governmentdoing about these issues?NBMilosevic Faces Next Stage of TrialBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFiled at 2:20 a.m. ETTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- U.N. prosecutors face their greatest challenge yet in the next stage of Slobodan Milosevic's trial: proving allegations that he orchestrated a campaign of genocide to achieve Serbian supremacy in Bosnia.Prosecutors open their case on the 1991-1995 wars in Croatia and Bosnia Thursday when landmark proceedings resume at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal after a two-week break.In coming months, they plan to call 177 witnesses to back up charges that Milosevic masterminded a scheme to wipe out the Muslim population in the worst crimes in Europe since the Holocaust.The evidence: telephone intercepts, statements from Milosevic's close political associates, party documents, military directives and testimony from survivors of massacres by Serb soldiers.The prosecution took nearly 100 days of court hearings and 124 witnesses to present the first part of their indictment against Milosevic for the Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1998-1999.Judges have set a deadline of May 16 for prosecutors to present the remaining 61 counts of war crimes against the former Yugoslav -- and Serbian -- strongman, covering every violation of international law in the court's statute.While the crimes in the second indictment seem more obvious and widespread -- the tribunal has already convicted a Bosnian Serb general of genocide in Bosnia -- it will be harder to prove Milosevic's involvement.``It is more difficult because he was not the head of the country at war,'' said Judith Armatta of the Coalition for International Justice. ``He was the president of Serbia, not Yugoslavia'' at the time, she said.Because there was no formal chain of command linking Milosevic to the crimes, prosecutors need to show that he was part of ``a joint criminal enterprise,'' which planned and coordinated systematic attacks of non-Serbs, she said. They need to show his intent and knowledge of the crimes.``You have to prove his hands-on role and that Milosevic came to power on the back of Serb nationalism over a period of time and used that to achieve his goal of a 'Greater Serbia,''' Armatta said.The crimes in Kosovo logically fell under Milosevic's responsibility because, as president, he was also the commander in chief of the forces committing atrocities, tribunal officials have said. But in Bosnia, the burden of proof is tougher.Prosecutors allege that as the president of Serbia, one of the six republics that made up the Yugoslav Federation, Milosevic exercised power over the entire region by transforming formerly multiethnic Yugoslav institutions into Serb-dominated instruments of war.Milosevic assumed control of police units and the Yugoslav army, purged political opponents and illegally armed pockets of rebel Serb nationalists to fuel a fight along ethnic lines, prosecutors allege.Under his command, those military forces set up ``concentration-style'' camps where prisoners were tortured, raped and murdered. The ``ethnic cleansing'' policy virtually wiped out the non-Serb population in large regions of Croatia and Bosnia and led to the killing of thousands.Hundreds of thousands more refugees fled to neighboring countries, many of them never to return.Prosecutors say time restraints have forced them to limit the scope of their case, and they will no longer attempt to prove genocide against Bosnian Croats, part of their initial allegation.``We shall prove the genocide charges related to the crimes committed by Milosevic against the Bosnian Muslims,'' prosecution spokeswoman Florence Hartmann said Wednesday. ``We cannot deal with all the crimes committed in Bosnia.''When prosecutors finish, Milosevic will present his defense case before the panel of three tribunal judges. The 61-year-old has refused the help of a court lawyer and has conducted his own cross-examinations, working though weekends and court recesses.The pressure became measurable this year when hearings were postponed twice for two weeks when Milosevic had the flu and high fever.More recently, doctors warned that Milosevic is at serious risk of a heart attack and the court ordered that the daily proceedings be broken up by a four-day weekend every two weeks. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 27 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7430/1/H-Povelja-o-moru-hrvatskom---poziv-na-potporu-i-potpis.html ÂPovelja omoru hrvatskomDragi Svi,Âu petak 20. rujna 2002. u 10.00 sati prije podne, u Zlatnoj dvorani Hrvatskog instituta za povijest, u Zagrebu u Opatičkoj 10. svečano će se potpisati Povelju o moru hrvatskom kojom tražimo tri stvari.l. nema promjene granica Republike Hrvatske: ni pedlja zemlje ni kapi mora tuđinu,2. zahtjevamo od Hrvatskog sabora da proglasi isključivi gospodarski pojas (exclusive economic zone) na koji Hrvatska ima pravo i s kojim dobija gotovo 60.000km2 Jadranskog mora u svoja suverena prava i jurisdikciju,3. nema prodaje hrvatske zemlje i hrvatskih dobara.Povelju su pripremali hrvatski intelektualci D. Zvonimir Šeparović, akademici Vladimir Ibler i Nenad Cambi, profesori dr Marko Branica,Institut "Ruđer Bošković", dr Antoaneta Požar-Domac, mons. Slobodan Štambuk, biskup bračko-hvarsko-viški, predsjednik Vijeća za pomorce HBK, dr Ivbo Babić, biv. rektor Sveučilišta u Splitu, dr Ivona Marasović, Oceanografski institut Split, dr Igor Fisković, dr Paula Durbešić, dr Šime Meštrović.Očekuje se da će na svečanosti među prvima potpisati:Akad. Ivo Padovan, HAZU, Igor Zidić, predsjednik Matice hrvatske, dr Mirko Valentić, ravnatelj Hrvatskog instituta za ppovijest, prof. Jasna Helena Mencer, rektorica Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, prof.Damir Magaš, rektor Sveučilišta u Zadru,, prof. Bernardin Peroš, prorektor Sveučilišta u Splitu, Ivo Vrdoljak, voditelj Mare Nostrum Croaticum, dr Ante Rendić-Miočević, ravnatelj Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu, prof. Ivo Rendić-Miočević, povjesničar Zadar/Rijeka, prof. Milan Bertoša, Pula, dr Adam Benović, Dubrovnik, prof-. hrvoje Kačić,Zagreb/Dubrovnik, prof. Ivna Bućan, Udruga Lijepa naša Kaštela/Split, prof. Branimir Lukšić, župan spšlitsko-dalmatinske županije.Povelju su podržali i predstavnici strukovnih udruga Hrvatske:Petar Baranović, udruga ribara,Lenko Garbin, udruga brodara, Zadar,Zlatko Sarić, Sabor otočana.U prilogu imate integralni tekst Povelje o moru hrvatskom.Ako ste suglasni sa našim zahtjevima molimo Vas javite to na moj e-mail i tako ćete i Vi postati potpisnikom Povelje.Povelju ćemo s našim brodarima, mornarima i ribarima odnijeti na krajnju crtu gospodarskog pojasa Hrvatske da bismo dokazali svijetu i susjedima da, ne samo da se ne mogu nadati ustupcima Hrvatske u pitanjima kopna i morskih granica, već da ćemo uzeti ono što nam pripada prema Konvenciji o pravu mora iz 1982. godine.Za inicijativnu skupinu koja je pripremila PoveljuDr Zvonimir Šeparovićzvonimir.separovic@zg.tel.hrÂPOVELJA O MORU HRVATSKOMPrije 25 tisuća godina more je bilo 96 metara ispod sadašnje razine kada počinje njegovo dizanje i nastanak Jadranskog mora. Od stoljeća sedmog na njegove su obale došli Hrvati. Mali rukavac planetarnog oceana, hrvatski dio Jadrana, svjetski je uzorak čarobne ljepote i čudesne ljudske kulture klesane u kamenu. Zahvaljujući moru Hrvati su odavno postali građani svijeta, mornari u lađi koja uči skromnosti i strpljenju u plovidbi prema vječnosti. Paluba svjedoči mjeru koliko smo mali i slabi, dok nam pučina potvrđuje koliko smo veliki i važni.Povijest Hrvata na moru ukratko je povijest borbe za održanje na svojim obalama i u svojim vodama. Sve do naših dana.Mi smo prva generacija koja je san pretvorila u stvarnost, svim žrtvama tisućugodišnjeg križnog puta dala smisao, a mudrosti predaka priznanje: hrvatska se lađa 22. svibnja 1992. godine, ravnopravna s drugima, usidrila pred zgradom Ujedinjenih naroda, a naš barjak, jednak ostalima, objavio je svijetu: «Imamo Hrvatsku!»Republika Hrvatska, kao međunarodno priznata, suverena, nezavisna država, članica Ujedinjenih naroda, ostvaruje svoja suverena prava u međunarodno priznatim granicama, u skladu s međunarodnim pravom i običajima, na kopnu i moru.«Božićnim Ustavom» iz 1990. naglašen je suverenitet Republike Hrvatske koji je «neotuđiv, nedjeljiv i neprenosiv», Hrvatska «ostvaruje, u skladu sa međunarodnim pravom, suverena prava i jurisdikciju u morskim područjima i u podmorju Jadranskog mora izvan državnog područja do granica sa susjedima(članak 2.),«oružane snage štite njezin suverenitet i neovisnost i brane njenu teritorijalnu cjelovitost»(članak 7.), «»more, morska obala i otoci, zračni prostor, rudno blago i druga prirodna bogatstva, ali i zemljište, šume, biljni i životinjski svijet i drugi dijelovi prirode, nekretnine i stvari od osobitog kulturnog, povijesnog, gospodarskog i ekološkog značenja, za koje je zakonom određeno da su od interesa za Republiku, imaju njezinu osobitu zaštitu»(članak 52)Republika Hrvatska je obalna i pomorska zemlja, koja ima raskošno lijepu, razvedenu, bogatu obalu i svoje modro more kojim uranjamo u sredozemnu kolijevku kulture čovječanstva. Naša kamena naselja, katedrale i zidine, brodovi za ribare i kapetane,»skalinade» maslinika i vinograda, dokaz su našeg postojanja i kulture.Posebnu su povijesnu vrijednost imali statuti naših gradova i otoka, koji su uređivali odnose među ljudima i u zajednici, posebno vrijedni u onome po čemu su drugačiji i bolji od običaja svoga vremena. Korčulanski statut iz 1214. određuje reciprocitet u odnosu prema susjedima s druge strane granice, a posebno uređuje spašavanje na moru, zabranjuje otimanje onoga što je u moru poslije brodoloma nađeno. Dubrovački statut iz 1272. zabranjuje ropstvo (…»kada rob stupi na dubrovačku lađu postaje slobodan čovjek»). Poljički statut iz 1440. godine propisuje da će se izdajice «u našoj zemlji kada tko predaje sebe i naše zemlje drugom gospodaru protiv volje ostalih plemenitih ljudi»prognati.Hrvatska pod tuđinskom vlašću nikada nije uspjela do kraja razviti i zaštiti svoje vrijednosti na moru.Republika Hrvatska nije iskoristila pravo koje je dobila Konvencijom o pravu mora iz 1982. da uvede svoj isključivi gospodarski pojas na Jadranu. Istina učinjen je prvi krupan korak u tom smjeru. Pomorskim je zakonikom iz 1994. godine rečeno: »U svome gospodarskom pojasu i u epikontinentskom pojasu Republika Hrvatska ostvaruje suverena prava i jurisdikciju radi istraživanja, iskorištavanja, zaštite očuvanja i unapređivanja prirodnih morskih bogatstava, uključujući bogatstva na morskome dnu i u morskom podzemlju te radi obavljanja drugih gospodarskih djelatnosti. Republika Hrvatska štiti more od onečišćenja, čuva i unapređuje morski okoliš» (članak 6. Pomorskog zakonika). Ovime je zakonodavac još 1994. godine pokazao da uviđa važnost isključivog gospodarskog pojasa, ali on nije proglašen. U ovom trenutku u Saborskoj je proceduri prijedlog za uvođenje gospodarskog pojasa, međutim, Vlada nije ispunila svoje obveze i tako se postupak ne može okončati.Hrvatska je međunarodnopravna doktrina (Ibler, Rudolf, Degan, Vukas, Seršić, Barić-Punda, Grabovac, Perišić, Lakoš, Lulić, Turkalj i dr.) bez rezerve za uvođenje isključivog gospodarskog pojasa u Republici Hrvatskoj.ÂPravo proglasiti i imati gospodarski pojas «za Hrvatsku predstavlja jednu jedinu mogućnost da ona ostvari određenu, prostorno ograničenu pravnu ekspanziju u nenaseljeni prostor - more. Takva ekspanzija temelji na zemljopisnim činjenicama i na pozitivnom međunarodnom pravu. Radi se, dakle, o mirnom i nedvojbeno dopustivom proširenju vlasti obalne države. A takvu legalnu i legitimnu «ekspanziju» ostvarilo je do sada najmanje stotinu obalnih država, a da u svezi s tim nije zabilježen niti jedan prosvjed nekog subjekta međunarodnog prava uperen protiv takve «ekspanzije» (akademik Vladimir Ibler: Pravo Republike Hrvatske da proglasi svoj isključivi gospodarski pojas, Rad HAZU, 1996)ÂU gospodarskom pojasu obalna država ima suverena prava radi istraživanja i iskorištavanja, očuvanja i gospodarenja živim i neživim prirodnim bogatstvima morta i podmorja, te glede drugih djelatnosti radi ekonomskog istraživanja i iskorištavanja gospodarskog pojasa, kao što je proizvodnja energije korištenjem vode, struje i vjetrova. Osim toga ona ima jurisdikciju glede podizanja i upotrebe umjetnih otoka, uređaja i naprava, znanstvenog istraživanja i zaštite morskog okoliša. Obalna država ima pravo optimalno iskorištavati živa bogatstva u svom gospodarskom pojasu - ona određuje cjelokupni dopustivi ulov koji ona smije sama izloviti, ako za to ima mogućnosti. Ako to ne može, ona mora sporazumima, uz naknadu, dati drugim državama pristup višku dopustivog ulova. Glede neživih prirodnih bogatstava gospodarskog pojasa u Konvenciji o pravu mora nema bilo kakvih ograničenja suverenih prava obalne države.Prema tome, proglašenje isključivog gospodarskog pojasa, VELIČINE 60.000 KM2, je naše suvereno pravo . To pravo ne zastarijeva, ali, nema razloga odlaganju odluke o proglašenju jer danomice nastaju enormne štete posebno u ribljem fondu, arheološkim dobrima pod morem i u morskom okolišu. Dok se neopravdano čeka i odlaže odluku bez pravog razloga, drugi nemilosrdno pljačkaju i osiromašuju veliki dio Jadranskog mora na kojeg bismo imali suverena prava i jurisdikciju, da smo proglasili isključivi gospodarski pojas.Ova je Povelja rezultat razmišljanja učenih ljudi koji su zabrinuti sadašnjim stanjem stvari i koje hoće promijeniti.ZABRINUTI SMOnajnovijim pojavama ugrožavanja suvereniteta Republike Hrvatske na moru i kopnu, na pojedinim graničnim točkama, od Pirana do Neuma i Prevlake,zabrinuti pojavama pljačke prirodnih, gospodarskih i kulturnih vrijednosti, zabrinuti pojavama rasprodaje hrvatskih nacionalnih vrijednosti, a u želji da se ostvari sva prava koja nam kao suverenoj obalnoj i pomorskoj zemlji pripadaju, obraćamo se hrvatskoj javnosti, Hrvatskom Saboru i Vladi Republike Hrvatske sa slijedećimZAHTJEVIMA:1.Granice Republike Hrvatske nitko ne smije dovoditi u pitanje, one nisu i ne smiju biti predmetom pregovaranja, trgovanja ili arbitriranja. Ono što smo priznanjem Hrvatske dobili samo su ostaci ostataka (reliquie reliquiarum) povijesne Hrvatske.Ni pedlja hrvatske zemlje, ni kaplje hrvatskoga mora.2.Republika Hrvatska, kao obalna i pomorska zemlja, ima pravo na isključivi gospodarski pojas na Jadranskom moru, i to, kako ističe dr Adam Benović: u dnu, na dnu, u vodi i na površini, dakle četiri puta 60.000 km2 morskoga blaga.Hrvatski sabor treba najhitnijeÂPROGLASITI ISKLJUČIVI GOSPODARSKI POJASna Jadranskom moru u skladu sa Konvencijom o pravu mora iz 1982. godine i Pomorskog zakonika Hrvatske iz 1994. godine, čime će se znatno proširiti suverena prava i jurisdikciju Republike Hrvatske, u skladu sa normama međunarodnog prava.3.Zabraniti otuđivanje i svaku prodaju obale i mora u bilo kojem obliku. Naše su obale i naše more opće nacionalno dobro s kojim se ne smije raspolagati i trgovati. Moramo ih sačuvati za ovu i buduće generacije.Ovom se Poveljom hoće očuvati ono što imamo i steći ono na što imamo pravo«More je jedna velika Božja oranica, poručio je pomorcima na Svetog Nikolu 1997. biskup bračko- hvarsko-viški mons. Slobodan Štambuk, predsjednik Vijeća za pomorce pri Hrvatskoj biskupskoj konferenciji. Zove nas na istraživanje dubina i upozorava da se ne smijemo tek na plićacima zaustavljati..More je najstariji i najsačuvaniji ljudski put i potrebno je zaista otvorenih očiju, a ne kao slijepi putnik morem putovati. Otvorena oka i otvorena srca, kao veliki i sveti zaštitnik pomoraca sv. Biskup Nikola.»Ove je godine u jednom intervjuu poručio:»Niti jedan izvor, pa ni Jadran, ne bi smio biti na «raspolaganju» samo ovoj našoj generaciji. Mi smo odgovorni za budućnost čistog i plodnog Jadrana. Sve države koje imaju more i te kako ozbiljno moraju doraditi svoje zakone i strogo ih provoditi ako žele da more ostane izvor zdrave hrane i za buduće naraštaje…Zamišljam more ne samo kao zanimljivu «sliku života», već kao «fakultet života i duhovnosti».Ovu Povelju o moru hrvatskom simbolično ćemo odnijeti s našim brodovima daleko na pučinu, do crte naših suverenih prava koja nam je svijet dao, a Hrvatski Sabor treba čim prije proglasiti. Da ne bude kasno!Ovu Povelju potpisuju svi kojima je do mora hrvatskog i suverene Republike Hrvatske u njenim međunarodno priznatim granicama.Povelju su već pozdravili znanstvenici, akademici i profesori, brodari i pomorci, otočani i ribari, oni koji more poznaju i istražuju, kao i oni koji od mora i za more žive.Obnovi, Gospodine,/lice hrvatske zemlje Tvoje/A Hrvati neka u kolo rukom o ruku/Granice tisućljetne Hrvatske označe.Pošalji Duha Svetoga, Gospodine, i obnovi lice hrvatske zemlje Tvoje»(iz pjesme Vere Valčić «Duhovi 1991.»)Označimo rukom o ruku, kako hrvatska pjesnikinja reče, tisućljetne granice Hrvatske.ÂI našim potpisom.U Zagrebu, 20. rujna 2002. godine, u Zlatnoj dvorani u Hrvatskom institutu za povijest, Opatička 10 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 27 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7429/1/E-Hold-the-Hague-accountable---Who-guards-the-guardians.html Hold the Hague accountable (WashingtonTimes)Jeffrey T. Kuhner Since ancient Greece, one of the central questions in Western political life is: "Who guards the guardians."This is especially pertinent regarding the international criminalÂtribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague. The tribunal wasÂcreated in 1993 by the UnitedNations Security Council; it was charged with the responsibility ofÂbringing to justice those who committed war crimes during the violentÂbreak up of Yugoslavia. Sadly, The Hague has been a disappointment: The prosecutor's office has engaged inabuses of power and issued flawed indictments that pose a threat to U.S.Ânational interests. The most obvious example of the tribunal's incompetence is theÂcurrent trial of former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic. This has beenÂa public relations disaster for The Hague, as Mr. Milosevic has put the prosecutor's office on theÂdefensive, charging that he is the victim of a Western smear campaign. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the Butcher of Belgrade masterminded the ethnic-cleansing campaigns in Croatia, Bosnia andKosovo, the prosecution has so far failed to document Mr. Milosevic's numerous crimes. These includethe destruction of Vukovar, the massacre of more than 7,000 civilians atSrebrenica, the savage shelling of Sarajevo, and the murder of countless ethnic Albanians,whose graves are now being discovered all over Serbia.The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte - like mostEuropean leftists - is uncomfortable with the notion of moral absolutes. She refuses to acknowledge thatMr. Milosevic in particular, and the Serbs in general, bear the brunt of responsibility for the war crimes committed in the Balkans. Hence,she is looking for an ethnic scapegoat to offset the complaints from Belgrade that her office isdemonstrating "bias" against the Serbs. Mrs. Del Ponte believes she has found it in the Croats.In June 2001, the prosecutor's office issued an indictment for Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina on charges that he exercised "commandÂresponsibility" over a 1995 military operation in which Zagreb recovered territories seized by rebel Serbforces during Croatia's successful drive for independence in 1991. TheÂoperation resulted in the mass exodus of 150,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia. The United Statessupported the offensive because it rightly concluded that Croatia wasÂpivotal to altering the strategic balance of power in the Balkans. The operation not only restoredCroatia's territorial integrity, but also paved the way for the DaytonÂpeace agreement that ended the war in neighboring Bosnia. The Gotovina indictment is deeply flawed; it is also revolutionary in its implications for international criminal law. Thetheory of "command responsibility" violates thebasic tenet of the definition of a war crime - the principle of personal responsibility for one's actions. The Croatian general is notaccused of individually committing or ordering atrocities; he is simply guilty of being in "command" whenalleged war crimes were committed. The ultimate goal of the indictment is not only to punish the Croatsfor exercising their legitimate right to self-defense, but to make war itself a crime. Rather than dropping the charges against Gen. Gotovina, Mrs. DelPonte's office is now examining whether to expand the indictment toÂinclude high-ranking U.S.officials - such as former President Bill Clinton - on the grounds thatthey exercised ultimate "command responsibility" for the operation. Troubled by the implications of the Gotovina indictment, theState Department has asked the prosecutor's office to transfer cases involving Croatian military officialsback to the domestic courts in Zagreb. But Mrs. Del Ponte continues to thumb her nose at the United States, demanding that Gen. Gotovina bearrested and sent to The Hague to face trial. Furthermore, the prosecutor's office is abusing its powers. ICTYspokesman, Florence Hartmann, has directly lobbied journalists and media outlets in Croatia,demanding that pro-Gotovina coverage be dropped. She has sought to bully and intimidate reporters asking about the ICTY's basis for theÂGotovina indictment. Mrs. Del Ponte is now requesting that her mandate as chiefÂprosecutor be extended past its September 2003 expiration deadline untilÂMr. Milosevic's trial is over.Instead of renewing her mandate, the Bush administration should demandan independent investigation of Mrs. Del Ponte's office for its abusesÂof power, its unethical indictment of Gen. Gotovina and its utter incompetence in prosecutingÂthe greatest mass murderer of the late-20th century. At the very least, the United States should use its veto at theU.N. Security Council next year to block Mrs. Del Ponte's reappointment.ÂWashington must hold The Hague accountable for its actions. If it doesn't, who will? Jeffrey T. Kuhner is an assistant national editor at The Washington Times. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 27 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7433/1/E-VUKOVAR-UN-intervention-too-late---The-Washington-Times.html ÂUNIntervention inVUKOVAR too lateVUKOVAR, Croatia - The exquisite old baroque Danubian city of Vukovar seemed almost too perfect for the neighborhood. It developed centuries ago in a very unusual and delicate manner for a small city in the Balkans, when traders from the north of Europe plied the Danube River southward, carrying not only goods to trade on these unknown peripheries of Europe but carrying the refined music of "Europe," its arts and architecture to the "wild" southern Serbs. Vukovar was an outpost - a plains' Salzburg, a little Prague, a faraway Tallinn. Even two centuries ago, its exquisite Baroque streets were lined with the best shops, with an impressive opera house and with a legendary hotel acclaimed across a Europe that always sniffed at "the Balkans." In fact, Vukovar was too perfect for the Balkans - and when the Serbs turned away from the other cities they had left in ruins after the first four months of the war they began in June 1991, they turned on this lovely Croatian Roman Catholic city with a special destructive vehemence. It was the same vengeance they would wreak on Bosnian Muslim Sarajevo, another Balkans jewel that, to them, didn't "belong." It was the special vengeance of the mountain people of the Dinaric Alps, united under Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic against the cultured and tolerant "European" elites of the valleys and plains. Later, historians would define Vukovar that terrible fall as "Croatia's Stalingrad." The pattern of attack on the Danubian prize was the common one that the Serbs had been employing in their march across Bosnia and Croatia and their unsuccessful attempt to take Slovenia at the beginning of the war. The Yugoslav army provided the heavy weapons and infantry support to local Serb paramilitaries and the local Serbs, almost all of whom immediately turned on their neighbors in what they now grotesquely called "self-cleaning." The horrors seemed to grow as the Serbs took town after town, with no resistance from the unarmed and terrified local populations - and surely with hardly an outcry from the world, whose representative spokesmen were flocking sheepishly to conference after conference, begging the Serbs to tell them what they really wanted in order to stop fighting - and saying over and over in world forums that the Serb forces were too strong for them to fight. In Vukovar, the Serbs offered safe transit to hundreds of Croats who had, in their terror, taken refuge in a hospital. When on Nov. 9, 1991, the Yugoslav army entered the hospital (after promising U.N. representatives that they would not) and the Croats emerged, almost all were murdered or taken away to be executed in quonset huts that still stand today. But this is a story about another fall day in Vukovar, this one eight years later in 1999. This story carries the entire saga of international governance still a step further, to the morning after and to what happens to an already victimized people once the war is over and they supposedly had been "saved." That beautiful fall day, a small group of foreign journalists had been driven by bus to the former museum building of Vukovar, courtesy of the office of the late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman. Five local officials, four men and one woman, sat at a long table in a lovely salon of the museum, which was itself filled with photos of the diabolical destruction of the town that lay in the snow just outside the windows. "In 1997, the Croatian government adopted a national reconciliation program," began Vladimir Stengl, a handsome, grey-haired man with a perpetually sorrowful look who was Vukovar's Croatian mayor, "and its main task is to establish trust and confidence." But soon the journalists' questions turned to talk of justice for the thousands of victims there, many of them still buried in undiscovered mass graves; and at this point, the mayor added sadly, "Unfortunately, the butchers of Vukovar are walking free on the streets of Yugoslavia - [Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko] Mladic, [Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan] Karadjic - because they are out of our control and the international community is unable to arrest them." The leading Serb official at the table, Milos Voinovich, a little man with darting black eyes, immediately and coldly objected to the discourse. He did not want any words like "butchers" or "war criminals" to be used. "I am a lawyer," he proclaimed to the group, "a member of the judiciary. That is why I avoid using such words. This must be proven by a court." Since in the ferocity of the siege, more explosive devices fell on Vukovar in three months than during the entire Second World War - and since so many of the defenders of the historic city were young boys and girls, who fought as young people do, heroically - most of the city lay by then in shards and pieces. But one plot of land was spanking clean and neat: the Serb cemetery built by the attackers for their fallen. The monuments of marble graves have atop them, in stone, the hats of the hated World War II Serb Chetnik fighters. But despite the Serb destruction and despite the fact that the Serbs blew up a group of Croat houses to build the cemetery, the Croats, who won the area back in 1995, were not permitted to remove the monuments. In that same spirit, the Serbs changed the name of one of Vukovar's lovely old avenues from the name of a Croatian leader to the name of his assassin. That could not be changed, either, because the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe declared it could not. The OSCE had immediately decreed that nothing should be changed for at least five years because it would hurt the Serbs' pride and might damage the reconciliation process they so insisted upon. Later, back in Zagreb, I discovered that one of the reasons for the considerable tension that bleak day in the museum was because the Serb official so offended by talk of "war criminals" was indeed a lawyer. In fact, he was the head of the Supreme Court in Vukovar, and it was he, during the siege, who was first in charge of choosing those to be taken to concentration camps and those to be killed. The international organizations would not even allow the Croats to look for the lost bodies of those still-missing young men and women - that would set back the process of "reconciliation" because telling the truth about the war would "remind the Serbs of the war" and make them more recalcitrant about "reconciling." "Two thousand people killed in Vukovar," a top aide to President Tudjman said afterwards, sadly, voicing typically what many Croats felt, "and you are faced with huge emotions growing up from the graves. And nobody's punished. How can I reconcile people when we do not have the satisfaction that somebody is punished for it all?" But this new free-floating international mentality prided itself on being, above all, "non-judgmental," talking constantly of "reconciliation" instead of "justice," as though reconciliation were as simple as saying that everybody is guilty, so let's just get on with it and have the right thoughts. Thoughtful psychological analysts like Prof. Slavin Letica, the respected Croatian writer and intellectual, argued that these supposedly well-meaning foreigners, who were by then setting down the principles for international governance in foreign crises from Croatia to Indonesia to Rwanda, with their alphabet soup of organizations, had become "post-national" human beings, "ciphers with no emotions." To them, he went on, "people who still have emotions and who still talk in terms of right and wrong, good and evil, nation and patriotism" are "tribal." "Emotions and patriotism are [seen as] retrograde," he said. "Borders like these historically fearsome ones in the Balkans are unfashionable and simply must be changed, attitudes must be purified. These are the men and women of a borderless world." I personally remember, in 1992 in Zagreb, being told by the deputy Croatian defense minister, "If you take away a people's right to defend themselves, then you're morally responsible to defend them." But the international governance world did not feel this way, and neither did the European and American militaries, even though even the U.N. Charter's Article 51 guarantees every people the right to defend itself. Yet when the rebuilt and reinvigorated Croatian army struck out in the summer of 1995, stunning the world by retaking the Serb-occupied Krajina and then heading toward the north to retake East Slavonia, the first response from the United Nations and from virtually all the Western world capitals was that they could simply never do it. The Clinton administration, which had predicted the Krajina would not fall, stopped Croat forces from taking East Slavonia, which most probably would have successfully ended the war. "With hindsight," the author and historian William Shawcross writes, "Vukovar can be seen as the last moment at which NATO forces might have intervened to stop the fighting and to halt Yugoslavia's fall into the abyss. But - there was no political will to undertake such difficult action. Instead the paths of diplomacy and humanitarianism were followed."Back to WorldGeorgie Anne GeyerÂThe Washington TimesÂAll site contents copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc.http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020811-24444994.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 03 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7436/1/H-Hrvatsko-nacionalno-vijece.html Hrvatsko nacionalnovijeceHrvati u SRJ se pripremaju osnovati Hrvatsko nacionalno vijece. To ce biti parlament hrvatske nacionalne zajednice kojemu ce drzava prepustiti odredjene ovlasti s podrucja sluzbene uporabe jezika, medija, kulture i prosvjete. Osnivanjem HNV hrvaqtska nacionalna zajednica u SRJ postaje politicki narod, subjekt u politickom smislu.Podrobnije na www.dshv.orgÂPROSIRITE OVU VIJEST PO CIJELOMU SVIJETU!Bela Tonkovic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 01 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7435/1/H-TURSKA-1957---HRVTASKA-200.html Turska 1957Hrvatska 200?ÂRe: NYTimes.com Article: Turkey Abolishes Death PenaltyÂMoj prijatelj i kolega je sa cijelom obitelji otac,majka i stero djece, (najstarija 6.lijecnica bila je udata i ostala je u Zagrebu) odselili su u Tursku 1957.g.Vec u to vrijeme "zaostali" Turci davali su povlastice povratnicima ili vlastitim drzavljanima-(oni su bili rodjeni u Pljevljima) kada su se useljavali u Tursku tako da su im oprostili porez-malim poduzetnicima na 5 godina,a onda neznatno povecali slijedecih 5 god.Dakle Turska je vec onda znala da ce na taj nacin privuci natrag u zemlju male poduzetnike koji ce razviti tamo svoj biznis i unijeti novac koji su zaradili u svijetu.Mi smo puno blesaviji.Jos uvijek treba bezbroj potvrda,oderu te porezom,a da i ne govorim da su ukinuli cak i one povlastice za povratnike koje je dala bivsa Juga.Da ne govorim o tome da se moira potkupiti razne cinovnike i cinovnicice kako bi dali svoj blagoslov kod bilo kakve transakcije.Zalosno ali istinito. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 01 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7434/1/HE-SUPPORT-OurJANET-ROBERT-for-Congress.html ÂHelp our JANETROBERT to be elected for CongressMinessota's 6thDistrictÂhttp://janetrobert.comÂJanet Robert for CongressP.O. Box 624, Stillwater, MN 55082.Phone: 763-712-4951Fax: 763-421-8071E-mail: jrobert@janetrobertforcongress.com JANET ROBERT Vrlo Zgodna Prilika da Amerikanci Hrvatskog Podrijetla se"ODUZE" jednoj VELIKOJ ZENI VELIKOG SRCA Mary Robert!Vec 30 godina od kako sam bio pocascen prilikom da upoznam Gosp. Mary Morgitch Robert u St.Louis,Mo.. Gdja. Robert je majka 11ero dijece.Uvijek je bila aktivna u pomaganju Hrvatske Zupe S. Josip-a u St.Louis-u kao i mnogih drugih dobrotvornih stvari. Ona je uvijek donirala i to radi i dan danas pomagajuci Croatian Scholarship u California te je pomagala i skolovala mnoge decke i djevojke u St.Louis-u Hrvatskog podrietla. Kad je poceo rat u Hrvatskoj ta DIVA Velikog Srca je pomogla mnoge Hrvatice i Hrvate u nevolji,. Koliko se sijecam je darovala pok. Kardinalu Kuharicu $50.000.00, isto toliko Kardinalu Puljicu,Biskupu Komarici mislim $25.000.00 i tako redom. Donirala je lijepe sume novca i za NFCA i CAA, bit cu slobodan i reci da je donirala milione dolara za Humanitarne pomoci i za Hrvate u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini. Ona je danas 83 godine .Jedna njezina kcer, Janet Robert, se natjece za Congress women u Minnesota State. Ovo nam je sad vrlo zgodna prilika, svima nama Hrvatima ili Amerikancima Hrvatskog podrietla, da kazemo VELIKO HVALA Gdji. Mary Robert, da svi pomognemo njezinoj kceri Janet Robert da dobije za Congresswomen. Ujedno bi imali jos jedan glas u Congress-u vise uz George Radanovich i Dennis Kucinich. Sad nam je zgodna prilika da svi koji mozemo poslati Janet Robertnovcanu pomoc u bilo kojem iznosu,$5.00-$10.00-$20.00-$50.00-$100.00 i vise pa neka to posalju na njenu dolje prilozenu adresu. Sto nas vise to ucine to bolje. Ne samo iz financijskih razloga negol i iz moralnihrazloga. Dali postoji mogucnost da mi Hrvati toje Amerikanci Hrvatskog Podrijetla , u iducih 10 godina, nadjemo nacina da jos 10 Amerikanaca Hrvatskog podrietla postanu Congressmani. Mislim da bi se i CAA i NFCA morali dobro zamisliti na toj temi. Bilo bi jako unosno da se u svakoj Hrvatskoj koloniji formira po nekoliko osoba koje ce uzeti i probati skupiti novcanu pomoc za Janet Robert. Ja obecajem da cu to uciniti ovdje u Cleveland-u za Janet Robert i Tony Peraica koji se natjece za Cook County Commissioner-a. Sto god skupimo poslat cemo pola-pola za Janet Robert i Tony Peraica. Kad budete pisali checks onda to napisite na:JANET ROBERTfor CongressP.O.Box624Stillwater,Mn.55082Corporate contributions su zabranjene zakonom. Pomozimo nasu JANET ROBERT Anthony Dizdar Cleveland Oh. A longtime Minnesotan, Janet Robert has put public service and working to better her community at the heart of her personal and professional life. From her service as a volunteer with United Way to her work as a City Council Member in the town of Oak Park Heights, Robert has earned a reputation as a common sense leader who gets the job done.ÂCurrently, Robert runs her own independent law practice where she serves as counsel to several non-profit organizations. Among the groups benefiting from Robert's representation are the St. Croix Valley Girls' Volleyball Association, the St. Croix Animal Shelter and Friends of the Stillwater Parks.In addition to her independent legal work, Robert served as a Member of the Oak Park Heights City Council. Among her accomplishments is the establishment of a prairie restoration project in Oak Park Heights, the creation of a committee to develop a pedestrian and bicycle trail system in the city, and the founding of the Party in the Park to foster better community spirit and goodwill.ÂRobert is currently active with the law enforcement community serving as citizen member of the Washington County Community Corrections Advisory Committee. As past Chair, Robert has provided leadership and a citizen's perspective on offender accountability and ways to create cost effective and cost efficient services. Under Robert's leadership the department's focus was shifted from offenders' rights to victims' rights, probation data was updated statewide and shared with other counties, and supervision of offenders was improved.ÂRobert also served on the Municipal Revenue Committee of the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities where she worked to find strategies for shifting communities away from the property tax and how to deal with the impact of energy deregulation. In addition, she served as a citizen member of the Minnesota Department of Transportation Design Review Committee where she represented the city of Oak Park Heights in discussions over the St. Croix River bridge design.ÂRobert has been an active community volunteer working with the Family Violence Network, the United Way, co-founding the Hope House of St. Croix Valley, and co-founding St. Croix Valley Christians in Action, Car Care Saturdays. She is also a member of the Stillwater Rotary.Robert attended Notre Dame University and received her law degree from St. Louis University. Currently, she lives in the Stillwater area with her son Paul who attends St. John's University in Collegeville, MN.Janet Robert for CongressP.O. Box 624, Stillwater, MN 55082.Phone: 763-712-4951Fax: 763-421-8071E-mail: jrobert@janetrobertforcongress.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 01 Sep 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7437/1/E-Goldhagen-v-Pius-XII.html This is a hefty piece defending Pope Pius. The author also takes time to defendStepinac (and Croatia)BrianÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂGoldhagen v. Pius XIIRonald J. Rychlak-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Copyright (c) 2002 First Things 124 (June/July 2002): 37-54.Tendentious attacks on Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) are nothing new. Indeed, they have become commonplace. Yet Daniel Goldhagen s recent 27,000 word essay for the New Republic,  What Would Jesus Have Done? Pope Pius XII, the Catholic Church, and the Holocaust (January 21, 2002), calls for special attention. Based upon his forthcoming book, A Moral Reckoning (Knopf), Goldhagen s essay is noteworthy both for the breathtaking scope of its claims and the air of righteous indignation that infuses it. Not content to argue that Pope Pius did less to save the Jews than he should have, as many other scholars have done, Goldhagen goes much further to attack Pacelli as an anti Semite and the Church as a whole as an institution thoroughly, and perhaps inextricably, permeated by anti Semitism. In fact, he even argues that  the main responsibility for producing this all time leading Western hatred lies with Christianity. More specifically, with the Catholic Church. Such charges demand a thorough response.In his most recent book, Hitler s Willing Executioners, Goldhagen asserted that blame for the Holocaust should be placed on ordinary Germans and their unique brand of anti Semitism. When contemporary historians from both sides of the Atlantic challenged him on this point, he eventually conceded that he had underestimated how factors other than anti Semitism helped lead to the Third Reich s crimes.  I skirted over some of this history a little too quickly, he said. He has skirted again.Goldhagen s article is based on no original historical research. It is entirely dependent on secondary sources that are written in English. This contributes to what can only be judged an inexcusable number of errors, small and large. Several of the dates he provides relating to the establishment of European ghettos are wrong (one by more than fifty years). He is also wrong (by three decades) about the beginning of the process for Pius XII s beatification, and he is wrong about the date that the so called  Hidden Encyclical was made public. He is wrong in calling the concordat with the Holy See  Nazi Germany s first international treaty. He is wrong to say that the Belgian Catholic Church was silent; it was one of the first national churches to speak out against Nazi racial theories. He is way off base to suggest that German Cardinals Michael von Faulhaber and Clement August von Galen were insensitive to or silent about Jewish suffering. Goldhagen says that Pius XII  clearly failed to support the protest of the French bishops, when, in fact, he actually had it rebroadcast on Vatican Radio for six consecutive days. He charges that Pius XII never reproached or punished Franciscan friar Miroslav Filopovic Majstorovic for his evil actions in Croatia, when, actually, the so called  Brother Satan was tried, laicized, and expelled from the Franciscan order before the war even ended (in fact, before most of his serious wrongdoing). Goldhagen also misidentifies the role of Vatican official Peter Gumpel (who is the relator or judge, not the postulator or promoter, of Pius XII s cause for sainthood), and he is wrong to say that Gumpel was designated by the Vatican to represent it at a meeting with the recently disbanded Catholic Jewish study group. He seems unaware that Catholic scholars on that committee disassociated themselves from statements issued by their Jewish counterparts following its collapse. He identifies the much admired king of Denmark during the war as Christian II; it was Christian X. He refers to Pope Pius XI as having been Cardinal Secretary of State; it was actually his successor Pope Pius XII.ÂA few embarrassments like this might be accounted for by positing carelessness. However, Goldhagen s graver errors each and every one of which cuts against Catholics and the Pope reveal something much more troubling at work in his essay.The 1942 Christmas StatementGoldhagen s efforts to trivialize and diminish Pope Pius XII s famous 1942 Christmas statement and its clear denunciation of Nazi ideology are representative of the one sided, biased approach that permeates his work. In the 1942 statement, Pius said that the world was  plunged into the gloom of tragic error and that  the Church would be untrue to herself, she would have ceased to be a mother, if she were deaf to the cries of suffering children which reach her ears from every class of the human family. He spoke of the need for mankind to make  a solemn vow never to rest until valiant souls of every people and every nation of the earth arise in their legions, resolved to bring society and to devote themselves to the services of the human person and of a divinely ennobled human society. He said that mankind owed this vow to all victims of the war, including  the hundreds of thousands who, through no fault of their own, and solely because of their nation or race, have been condemned to death or progressive extinction (emphasis added).ÂIn making this statement and others during the war, Pius used the word stirpe, which according to Zanichelli s Italian and English Dictionary can mean stock, birth, family, race, or descent, but which had been used for centuries as an explicit reference to Jews. British records (British Public Records Office, FO 371/34363 59337 [January 5, 1943]) reflect the opinion that  the Pope s condemnation of the treatment of the Jews and the Poles is quite unmistakable, and the message is perhaps more forceful in tone than any of his recent statements. The Dutch bishops issued a pastoral letter in defense of Jewish people on February 21, 1943, making express reference to the Pope s statement.ÂMoreover, a well known Christmas Day editorial in the New York Times praised Pius XII for his moral leadership in opposing the Nazis:No Christmas sermon reaches a larger congregation than the message Pope Pius XII addresses to a war torn world at this season. This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. . . .ÂWhen a leader bound impartially to nations on both sides condemns as heresy the new form of national state which subordinates everything to itself; when he declares that whoever wants peace must protect against  arbitrary attacks the  juridical safety of individuals ; when he assails violent occupation of territory, the exile and persecution of human beings for no reason other than race or political opinion; when he says that people must fight for a just and decent peace, a  total peace  the  impartial judgment is like a verdict in a high court of justice.A similar editorial from the Times of London said:A study of the words which Pope Pius XII has addressed since his accession in encyclicals and allocutions to the Catholics of various nations leaves no room for doubt. He condemns the worship of force and its concrete manifestation in the suppression of national liberties and in the persecution of the Jewish race.Obviously, in contrast to what Goldhagen would have us believe, everyone knew to whom the Pope was referring, including the Axis powers.According to an official Nazi report by Heinrich Himmler s Superior Security Office (the Reichssicher­ heits­ hauptamt) to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop s office:In a manner never known before, the Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order. . . . It is true, the Pope does not refer to the National Socialists in Germany by name, but his speech is one long attack on everything we stand for. . . . God, he says, regards all people and races as worthy of the same consideration. Here he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews. . . . [H]e is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.ÂAn American report noted that the Germans were  conspicuous by their absence at a Midnight Mass conducted by the Pope for diplomats on Christmas Eve following the papal statement. German Ambassador Diego von Bergen, on the instruction of Ribbentrop, warned the Pope that the Nazis would seek retaliation if the Vatican abandoned its neutral position. When he reported back to his superiors, the German ambassador stated:  Pacelli is no more sensible to threats than we are. ÂVatican RadioGoldhagen asks rhetorically:  Why, as a moral and practical matter, did [Pius XII] speak out publicly on behalf of the suffering of Poles, but not of Jews? No good answer. He then quotes a Vatican Radio broadcast of January 1940, trying to make the point that the Vatican was concerned only about Polish Catholics and could not spare a good word for Jews. In doing this, he badly misrepresents the truth.ÂAs an initial matter, the quote cited by Goldhagen does not limit itself to Christian Poles. It merely refers to  Poles. Of course, writings of that time sometimes distinguished  Poles and  Jews, using the former designation to refer to Polish Christians, but this was far from always the case. Moreover, Goldhagen implies that Jews were never mentioned on Vatican Radio. This is simply false.Goldhagen seems to have taken his Vatican Radio quote from Pierre Blet s Pius XII and the Second World War. That book presents itself as a synopsis. Had Goldhagen actually researched the Vatican Radio transcripts from January 1940 (the month upon which he focuses) he would have found that Jews were indeed expressly and clearly identified. A key passage states:A system of interior deportation and zoning is being organized, in the depth of one of Europe s severest winters, on principles and by methods that can be described only as brutal; and stark hunger stares 70 percent of Poland s population in the face, as its reserves of foodstuffs and tools are shipped to Germany to replenish the granaries of the metropolis. Jews and Poles are being herded into separate  ghettos, hermetically sealed and pitifully inadequate for the economic subsistence of the millions destined to live there.Even Michael Phayer (another critic of the Pope) quotes this explicit defense of Jews in his book The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930 1965 (which is listed as one of the books that Goldhagen reviewed for his essay). On October 15, 1940, Vatican Radio denounced  the immoral principles of Nazism, and on March 30, 1941 explicitly condemned  the wickedness of Hitler. These broadcasts were among the first to break the news of the Nazi persecutions, but they were not the only such stories on Vatican Radio. They continued throughout the war.The Catholic faithful heard these broadcasts and reacted accordingly. French priest rescuer (and later Cardinal) Henri de Lubac paid tribute to the Pope s radio station in his book Christian Resistance to Anti Semitism, describing the profound impact it had upon the French resistance. Similarly, Father Michel Riquet, S.J., an ex inmate of Dachau who was recognized for saving Jewish lives, stated:  Pius XII spoke; Pius XII condemned; Pius XII acted. . . . Throughout those years of horror, when we listened to Radio Vatican and to the Pope s messages, we felt in communion with the Pope in helping persecuted Jews and in fighting against Nazi violence. ÂThe Hidden Encyclical and Summi PontificatusEarly in his essay, Goldhagen discusses the so called  hidden encyclical. The story here is that in June 1938, more than a year before the outbreak of World War II, when Eugenio Pacelli was Vatican Secretary of State, Pope Pius XI commissioned a draft papal statement attacking racism and anti Semitism. Unfortunately he died before it was completed. According to Goldhagen, Pius XI drafted it, Pius XII buried it, and it remained hidden until it was published in France in 1995.This story, if true, would help to support Goldhagen s depiction of Pius XII as a villain. But it isn t true. For starters, there never was an encyclical or even a draft encyclical. Pope Pius XI asked for a paper from Fr. John LaFarge, S.J. The thought was that this might one day be used as the basis for an encyclical. LaFarge was not an expert theologian or historian, so he sought help from two other priests, one from France and the other from Germany. This resulted in three different papers, one written in French, one in English, and one in German.ÂThe source upon which Goldhagen relies, Georges Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky s The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI, deals with the French and the English papers, but not the German one. That book also makes clear that contrary to what Goldhagen reports Pius XI was not the author of any of the documents. In fact, as that book further makes clear, there is no evidence that either he or Pius XII even saw these documents. A copy was sent to Pius XI, but by that time he was already gravely ill. When it was found after his death, there were no notations suggesting that he ever reviewed it. The book also explains that the paper disappeared immediately after Pius XI s death, and the men who were working on the project believed (indeed were certain) that Pius XII had not seen it. He therefore could not have buried it. Finally, this matter was made public in 1972 by the National Catholic Reporter and again in 1973 by L Osservatore Romano, not in 1995 when Passelecq and Suchecky s book came out.The primary author of the German draft, Professor Gustav Gundlach, S.J., helped Pius XII with his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, which was released on October 20, 1939, just after the outbreak of war. Not surprisingly, Summi Pontificatus (which expressly mentions Jews and urges solidarity with all who profess a belief in God) contains language that is similar to the paper on which Gundlach had worked. In fact, Fr. LaFarge wrote in America magazine that it was obvious that Summi Pontificatus applied to the Jews of Europe. He was concerned only that Americans might not realize that it also applied to racial injustice in the United States.Because Goldhagen limited his research to a single and incomplete source, it is not surprising to find that his comments only magnify the errors about the  hidden encyclical. (A much better book on the subject, edited by Anton Rauscher, recently appeared in Germany.) What is very surprising is that Goldhagen neglects even to mention Summi Pontificatus.ÂIn January 2002, documents from the personal archive of General William J. ( Wild Bill ) Donovan, who served as special assistant to the U.S. chief of counsel during the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, were made public and posted on the Internet by the Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion. In a confidential report documenting Nazi persecution of the Church, prepared for the Nuremberg prosecution, the situation surrounding Summi Pontificatus is discussed as providing grounds for a separate count against the Nazis. The report notes that priests who read that document were reported to the authorities and that Nazi officials stopped its reproduction and distribution. This Encyclical, wrote Heinrich Mueller, head of the Gestapo in Berlin,  is directed exclusively against Germany, both in ideology and in regard to the German Polish dispute; how dangerous it is for our foreign relations as well as our domestic affairs is beyond dispute. Reinhard Heydrich, leader of the SS Security Office in Warsaw, wrote,  This declaration of the Pope makes an unequivocal accusation against Germany. The New York Times headline declared:  Pope Condemns Dictators, Treaty Violators, Racism; Urges Restoring of Poland. Allied forces later dropped 88,000 copies of it behind enemy lines for propaganda purposes.ÂThe ConcordatIn 1933, the Holy See and the German government signed an agreement that assured the Church s ability to hold services and function in general in the coming years. Goldhagen misleadingly reports that  Pacelli hastened to negotiate for the Church a treaty of cooperation, the concordat, with Hitler s Germany. He also incorrectly adds that this was  Nazi Germany s first international treaty. ÂGoldhagen was probably fooled by James Carroll s Constantine s Sword. Carroll artfully states that the concordat was Nazi Germany s first bilateral treaty. In fact, the Four Powers Pact between Germany, France, Italy, and England preceded the concordat s signing. Moreover, Hitler s representatives were fully accredited and recognized by the League of Nations and took part in the disarmament discussions in Geneva, which also came before the signing of the concordat. The Soviet Union on May 5, 1933 (more than two months before the concordat was signed) renewed a trade and friendship agreement with Germany, and on that same day the British Parliament voted to accept an Anglo German trade agreement. In other words, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the whole League of Nations accredited the new German government before the concordat was signed. Carroll may have been technically correct, if misleading. Goldhagen is just plain wrong.Goldhagen is also wrong to assert that a  secret annex gave the Church s approval to German rearmament. The concordat merely states that if Germany were to revive its army, Catholic soldiers would have access to chaplains. That is a matter of protecting the sacraments, not approving rearmament. For Goldhagen to transform it into something nefarious is explicable only as part of his determined effort to defame Catholics and the Pope.The aforementioned recently released confidential report from the Nuremberg prosecution confirms that the concordat was a  Nazi proposition. The Nazis accepted terms that the Church had previously proposed to Weimar, but which Weimar had rejected. The Nazis told the Vatican that the choice was to accept those terms (which assured that the Church would be able to function) or face severe persecution. In fact, to prove that they were serious, the Nazis severely persecuted German Catholics in the weeks leading up to the concordat. In a private conversation with the British chargé d affaires to the Vatican, Pacelli said that the choice was  an agreement on their lines, or the virtual elimination of the Catholic Church in the Reich. The concordat, of course, came during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI. Like David Kertzer (The Popes Against the Jews), Goldhagen argues that Pius XI was an anti Semite. This is a rare allegation. Pius XI is usually presented as the good, outspoken Pope, in contrast to the  silent Pius XII. Not only did Pius XI condemn racism in major statements issued in 1928, 1930, and 1937, but on September 6, 1938, in a statement which though barred from the Fascist press quickly made its way around the world, he said:Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites.ÂIn January 1939, the National Jewish Monthly reported that  the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where fine humanitarian statements by the Pope [Pius XI] have been issuing regularly. When he died the following month, the Nazi press denigrated him as  Chief Rabbi of the Western World. Despite the ludicrous claim that Pius XI was an anti Semite, Goldhagen twists the facts around so that he can  blame Pius XII for drafting the concordat (which, of course, ultimately was the responsibility of the sitting Pope, not Secretary of State Pacelli). He also  blames Pius XII for drafting the 1937 anti Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge.Mit brennender SorgeOf all Goldhagen s outrages, none is less comprehensible than his depiction of the great encyclical Mit brennender Sorge the Vatican s powerful denunciation of German fascism and racism as an anti Semitic screed. Mit brennender Sorge, issued by Pope Pius XI when Pacelli was his Secretary of State, is one of the strongest condemnations of any national regime that the Holy See has ever published. It condemned not only the persecution of the Church in Germany, but also the neo paganism of Nazi racial theories. The encyclical stated in part that:ÂWhoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds.It took direct aim at Hitler and Nazism, saying:ÂNone but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are  as a drop of a bucket (Isaiah 11:15).The encyclical also praised leaders in the Church who had stood firm and provided a good example. It concluded that  enemies of the Church, who think that their time has come, will see that their joy was premature. Unlike most encyclicals, which are written in Latin, Mit brennender Sorge was written in German. It was dated and signed by Pope Pius XI on Passion Sunday, March 14, 1937, but it was smuggled into Germany, distributed to all parishes, and read from the pulpits on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937.The only reason Mit brennender Sorge was read to anyone was because the Nazis were caught off guard. It was not published in German newspapers. An internal German memorandum dated March 23, 1937 called the encyclical  almost a call to do battle against the Reich government. The prosecution report for the Nuremberg trials explained the measures that the Nazis took in retaliation: all available copies were confiscated, twelve printing offices were closed, those convicted of distributing the encyclical were arrested, and the Church affiliated publications that ran the encyclical were banned. Later on, the mere mention of the encyc­ lical was made a crime in Nazi Germany.ÂThe day following the release of Mit brennender Sorge, the Völkischer Beobachter carried a strong counterattack on the  Jew God and His deputy in Rome. Das Schwarze Korps called it  the most incredible of Pius XI s pastoral letters; every sentence in it was an insult to the new Germany. The German ambassador to the Holy See was instructed not to take part in the solemn Easter ceremonies, and German missions throughout Europe were told that the German government  had to consider the Pope s encyclical as a call to battle . . . as it calls upon Catholic citizens to rebel against the authority of the Reich. ÂThe persecution of Jews, unfortunately, did not lessen; it got worse following the release of Mit brennender Sorge. This reaction is but one of many examples of Nazi retaliation against Jews and Christians that Goldhagen denies ever happened. His attempt to convert this strong papal statement into an anti Semitic, pro Nazi screed is simply incredible.ÂMystici Corporis ChristiGoldhagen also misrepresents Pope Pius XII s 1943 encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi. Since this was primarily a letter on theology, it contained no express references to Hitler or the Nazis. Still, it was an obvious attack on the theoretical basis of National Socialism. As Israeli diplomat Pinchas E. Lapide wrote in Three Popes and the Jews:  Pius chose mystical theology as a cloak for a message which no cleric or educated Christian could possibly misunderstand. In Mystici Corporis Christi, Pius wrote:  The Church of God . . . is despised and hated maliciously by those who shut their eyes to the light of Christian wisdom and miserably return to the teachings, customs, and practices of ancient paganism. He wrote of the  passing things of earth, and the  massive ruins of war. He offered prayers that world leaders be granted the love of wisdom and expressed no doubt that  a most severe judgment would await those leaders who did not follow God s will.Pius appealed to  Catholics the world over to  look to the Vicar of Jesus Christ as the loving Father of them all, who . . . takes upon himself with all his strength the defense of truth, justice, and charity. He explained,  Our paternal love embraces all peoples, whatever their nationality or race.  Christ, by his blood, made the Jews and Gentiles one,  breaking down the middle wall of partition . . . in his flesh by which the two peoples were divided (emphasis added). He noted that Jews were among the first people to adore Jesus. Pius then made an appeal for all to  follow our peaceful King who taught us to love not only those who are of a different nation or race, but even our enemies. Mystici Corporis Christi also strongly condemned the forced conversions (to Catholicism) that were then occurring in Fascist Croatia, which Goldhagen wrongly claims enjoyed Vatican support.Vatican Radio used the encyclical as the basis for a broadcast that stated:  He who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and in conflict with God s commands. The 1919 LetterAt the center of Goldhagen s anti Catholic thesis is the piece of evidence that John Cornwell centrally relied upon in his deeply flawed book, Hitler s Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. It is a letter, written in 1919 by Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, when he was papal nuncio in Munich. That year, Bolshevik revolutionaries temporarily took power in Bavaria. Many foreign dignitaries left Munich, but Pacelli stayed at his post and became a target of Bolshevik hostility. On one occasion, a car sprayed Pacelli s residence with machine gun fire. Another time, a small group of Bolsheviks broke into the nunciature, threatened Pacelli at gunpoint, and tried to rob him. Yet another time, an angry mob descended on Pacelli s car, screaming insults and threatening to turn the car over.ÂWhen the Bolsheviks seized power, there was valid reason for concern. Their leaders occupied the royal palace and began operating what might best be described as a rogue government. Of particular concern to all diplomats in Munich was that the Bolsheviks violated the sovereign immunity of foreign missions and representatives. Two legations were invaded, and a car was requisitioned from another. The Austro Hungarian Consul General was arrested without cause and held for several hours.Alarmed by this behavior and concerned for the safety of people under his charge, Nuncio Pacelli sent his assistant, Monsignor Lorenzo Schioppa, to meet with the leaders of the new government. Schioppa, accompanied by a representative from the Prussian legation, met with the head of the Republic of the Councils of Munich, Eugen Leviné. Their purpose was to force Leviné (incorrectly identified as Levien in the later report),  to declare unequivocally if and how the actual Communist Government intends to recognize and oversee the immunities of the Diplomatic Representatives. The meeting did not go well. The only  commitment that the representatives could get from Leviné was that the Republic of Councils would recognize the extraterritoriality of the foreign legations  if, and as long as the representatives of these Powers . . . do nothing against the Republic of the Councils. Schioppa was warned that if the Nuncio did anything against the new government, he would be  kicked out. Leviné made it clear that  they had no need of the Nunciature.  Pacelli wrote a letter back to Rome, reporting on this meeting. John Cornwell translated a few sentences from that letter and set them forth as  proof that Pacelli was an anti Semite. The key passage, as translated by Cornwell (and accepted uncritically by Goldhagen), described the palace as follows:. . . a gang of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like all the rest of them, hanging around in all the offices with lecherous demeanor and suggestive smiles. The boss of this female rabble was Levien s mistress, a young Russian woman, a Jew and a divorcée, who was in charge. . . . This Levien is a young man, of about thirty or thirty five, also Russian and a Jew. Pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, hoarse voice, vulgar, repulsive, with a face that is both intelligent and sly.To Cornwell and Goldhagen, these words (taken from Schioppa s report to his superior, Pacelli) prove that Pacelli was an anti Semite.In truth, however, this translation is grossly distorted. It uses pejorative words, instead of neutral ones that are more faithful to the original Italian. For instance, the most damning phrase in the translation,  Jews like all the rest of them, turns out to be a distorted, inaccurate translation of the Italian phrase i primi. The literal translation would be  the first ones or  the ones just mentioned. (Therefore Goldhagen s statement that  the Communist revolutionaries, Pacelli averred, were  all Jews is wrong. The word  all appears only in the Cornwell/Goldhagen mistranslation.) Similarly, the Italian word schiera is translated by Cornwell as  gang instead of  group, which would be more appropriate. Additionally, the Italian gruppo femminile should be translated as  female group, not  female rabble. Finally, the Italian occhi scialbi should be translated as pale (asky, livid) eyes, not  drugged eyes. This letter was published in its original Italian in 1992. Church historian John Conway an Anglican and a distinguished scholar reviewed the book in which it was included for the Catholic Historical Review. Neither he, nor anyone else at that time, suggested that the letter was anti Semitic. When the entire letter is read in an accurate translation, it is not anti Semitic. The tone of anti Semitism is introduced only by Cornwell s dubious translation.Many Bolsheviks were cultural Jews, of course, though alienated from the Jewish faith and very often from their own families. Pacelli (and Schioppa) were perfectly well aware of this. They perceived the threat to the Church as a threat from Bolshevism, not Judaism or Jews as such. It should also be noted that the message was written fourteen years before Hitler came to power and the Jewish persecution began. At this time, the people being described were not victims, but leaders of a revolutionary and oppressive regional government.ÂRather than using unfair translations and fabricating an argument, Goldhagen could have looked to direct, relevant evidence from that same period. During World War I, the American Jewish Committee of New York petitioned the Vatican for a statement on the  ill treatment suffered by Jewish people in Poland. The response came on February 9, 1916 from the office of the Secretary of State, where Eugenio Pacelli was by absolutely every account working hand in hand with Cardinal Secretary of State Gasparri. It said:The Supreme Pontiff . . . as Head of the Catholic Church, which, faithful to its divine doctrine and to its most glorious traditions, considers all men as brothers and teaches them to love one another, he never ceases to inculcate among individuals, as well as among peoples, the observance of the principles of natural law and to condemn everything which violates them. This law must be observed and respected in the case of the children of Israel, as well as of all others, because it would not be conformable to justice or to religion itself to derogate from it solely on account of religious confessions. The Supreme Pontiff at this moment feels in his fatherly heart . . . the necessity for all men of remembering that they are brothers and that their salvation lies in the return to the law of love which is the law of the gospel.This response was published in the New York Times on April 17, 1916 under the headline:  Papal Bull Urges Equality for Jews. It also appeared in Civiltà Cattolica on April 28 of that year, and in the London Tablet on April 29. Goldhagen, of course, fails even to mention it.ÂPapal Efforts in ItalyAmong the secondary sources on which Goldhagen relies is Susan Zuccotti s controversial book Under His Very Windows. Zuccotti found that Catholic clergy and lay persons defied the Nazis and the Fascists by providing food, clothing, and shelter to Jews and other refugees throughout Italy. As a result of these efforts, while approximately 80 percent of European Jews perished during World War II, 85 percent of Italian Jews survived Nazi occupation. Despite this, Zuccotti gives no credit to Pope Pius XII, allegedly because she could not find written evidence of a directive from him to the Catholics in Italy. Goldhagen expands this to say that  there is no evidence of the Pope s guiding hand. The identical argument is used by Holocaust deniers to absolve Hitler of responsibility for the death of six million Jews. They too point out that there is no  written evidence of Hitler s guiding hand, much less of a direct order.While Zuccotti is anything but friendly toward Pius XII, and though she overlooks much evidence in his favor, she actually identifies very substantial evidence of the  Pope s guiding hand. For instance, she discusses a bishop who made a presentation during the war while he held in his hands a letter from Pius directing Catholics to protect Jews. (Zuccotti discounts this report only because other witnesses did not see the actual text of the letter.) She writes about the nuns who said the Pope ordered their convents opened to Jewish refugees. Zuccotti discusses a letter from A. L. Eastman, of the World Jewish Congress, thanking the Pope for helping free imprisoned Jews. She quotes the papal nuncio in Vichy, praising Pope Pius XII for condemning the persecution of Jews and others. She notes gratitude from Jewish people to the Pope following the war. She mentions thanks given to the Pope from Jewish chaplains. At other points along the way she brings up other evidence, including more letters of thanks from Jewish people and testimony from the future Pope Paul VI regarding his efforts on behalf of Jewish victims as having been made at the direction of Pope Pius XII.ÂIt is true that Zuccotti refuses to believe that there was much papal involvement in rescue efforts, but that is her extremely grudging interpretation of the evidence. Yet she admits that Catholic rescuers  invariably believed that they were acting according to the Pope s will. Her principal argument is that there is no written evidence. Certainly there is a wealth of other types of  evidence of the Pope s guiding hand. Goldhagen s claim that Zuccotti has  devastated Pius XII s reputation goes far beyond anything that the historical facts justify.Using Zuccotti s argument, Goldhagen wildly charges that Pius  did not lift a finger to forfend the deportations of the Jews of Rome. In addition to voluminous other evidence to the contrary, there is proof showing this to be false in Adolf Eichmann s memoirs, which were released after the Zuccotti book was written. The memoirs confirm that following the notorious roundup on October 16, 1943, the Vatican  vigorously protested the arrest of Jews, requesting the interruption of such action. ÂAt Eichmann s 1961 trial, Israeli Attorney General Gideon Hausner said in his opening statement that  the Pope himself intervened personally in support of the Jews of Rome. Documents introduced in that trial also confirm Vatican efforts to halt the arrests. In rejecting Eichmann s appeals, the Israeli Supreme Court expressly noted the Pope s protest regarding the deportation of Hungarian Jews. Jewish historian Michael Tagliacozzo (himself a survivor of the Roman raid) explained:ÂThe documents clearly prove that, in the early hours of the morning, Pius XII was informed of what was happening and he immediately had German Ambassador von Weizsäcker called and ordered State Secretary Luigi Maglione to energetically protest the Jews arrest, asking that similar actions be stopped. . . . In addition, by his initiative he had a letter of protest sent through Bishop Alois Hudal [delivered by Fr. Pfeiffer] to the military commander in Rome, General Rainer Stahel, requesting that the persecution of Jews cease immediately. As a result of these protests, the operation providing for two days of arrests and deportations was interrupted at 2 p.m. the same day.ÂInstead of the 8,000 Jews Hitler requested, only 1,259 were arrested. After examination of identity documents (the type routinely provided to Jews by Church officials), over 200 of them were released. From then on, the Germans did not conduct another major roundup in Rome. Such evidence overwhelms Goldhagen s argument regarding an alleged lack of papal involvement.ÂThe Soviet German WarLike many other papal critics, Goldhagen claims that the Pope favored the Germans in their war against the Soviet Union. The historical record does not support this charge. It is true that in the early and mid 1930s, Hitler and Mussolini were seen by many world leaders (including some officials of the Holy See) as the best defense against the spread of communism. This was, after all, the time of Stalin s show trials and other measures of mass terror. And it was long before the worst Nazi atrocities. Moreover, it is now clear that Church leaders were right to fear communism. After the Allied victory, the Soviets expanded their sphere of influence (and their persecution of the Church) throughout most of Eastern Europe, including half of Germany. They murdered millions of people.Despite his concern over the spread of communism, however, Pius was neither blind to other threats nor unable to recognize virtue in the Soviet people. As early as 1926, at the direction of Pope Pius XI, then Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli attempted to secure a concordat with the Soviet Union. In 1942, Pius told Fr. Paolo Dezza. S.J. (made a cardinal in 1991):  The Communist danger does exist, but at this time the Nazi danger is more serious. They want to destroy the Church and crush it like a toad. When the Axis sought to have him bless the German  crusade into the godless Soviet Union, he refused. In April 1943, Hungarian Prime Minister Nicholas de Kallay met with Pius XII. He recorded:His Holiness brought up the matter of conditions in Germany. He depicted the conditions prevailing in Germany, which fill him with great sadness, in dramatic words. He finds incomprehensible all that which Germany does with regard to the Church, the Jews, and the people in occupied territories. . . . He is quite aware of the terrible dangers of Bolshevism, but he feels that, in spite of the Soviet regime, the soul of the large masses of the Russian people has remained more Christian than the soul of the German people.In fact, by cooperating with Franklin Roosevelt s request to support extension of the lend lease program to the USSR, Pius actually gave economic and military aid to the Soviets. (Later, his repeated appeals on behalf of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg again revealed his ability to look beyond the  Communist issue.)ÂThe recently disbanded Catholic Jewish study group found that the evidence does not support the conclusion that Pius favored the Germans over the Soviets. It is no longer surprising that Goldhagen fails to mention this. However, it does seem shocking that Goldhagen quotes the notorious pro Nazi Bishop Franz Justus Rarkowski without mentioning that: 1) he was virtually forced upon the Church by the Nazis (under the threat of having no military ordinary or military chaplains); 2) the Church banned Rarkowski from participation in the German episcopacy; 3) Vatican Radio under Pius XII explicitly denounced Rarkowski; and 4) Vatican Radio declared that:  Hitler s war is not a just war and God s blessing cannot be upon it. The German Catholic ClergyGoldhagen is particularly critical of the Catholic clergy in Germany. He makes the sweeping and indefensible claim that  the great majority of Catholic military chaplains  weighed in on the side of the perpetrators, condoning and blessing their crimes. . . . This virtually unknown and unmentioned chapter of the Catholic clergy s role in the Holocaust has barely been investigated. In fact, this subject has been extensively analyzed and interpreted by contemporary German historians, but their findings do not support Goldhagen s conclusion.ÂCatholic clergy were among the first people in Germany to recognize the threat posed by the Nazis. In 1930, the bishops of Berlin and Westphalia condemned the Nazis in pastoral letters. In the spring of 1931, the Bavarian bishops also condemned National Socialism and described it as heretical and incompatible with Catholic teaching. Similar statements were made by bishops in Cologne, Paderborn, and the upper Rhine.ÂThe report from the Nuremberg prosecutor s office outlines dozens of cases where Catholic priests were persecuted due to their opposition to the Nazis. It also shows that the Nazis took steps to silence the Church:ÂOn 28 October 1935 the Propaganda Ministry imposed censorship before publication on all Church periodicals, and on 30 November 1935 this was extended to all writings and picture material multigraphed for distribution. After 1937, the German Catholic bishops gave up all attempts to print their pastorals, and had them merely read from the pulpit.ÂOf course, sometimes it was impossible even to read statements from the pulpit. The Bavarian bishops pastoral letter of September 4, 1938 was confiscated and forbidden, as was the pastoral letter of the Bishops Conference of Fulda, dated August 19, 1938.ÂGoldhagen charges the German clergy with collaboration in turning over genealogical records to the Nazis. What he does not mention is that much of this information was already available to the Nazis by virtue of the German census. To the extent that information was uniquely in the hands of the clergy, and was demanded by the Nazis (under severe threats, one might add), the collaboration of the German Catholic clergy was far from wholesale. As early as 1946, Monsignor J. Neuhäusler, who himself was imprisoned in Dachau, published a massive series of primary documents demonstrating extensive Church resistance to Nazi anti Semitism, including refusal to hand over genealogical records. The pastoral letters of the German bishops (which were misrepresented in Guenter Lewy s The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, on which Goldhagen seems to rely) have now been published in full. They vindicate Albert Einstein s famous statement in 1940 that the only organization in Nazi Germany that spoke out against evil was the Church.Goldhagen s campaign of character assassination against Catholic people goes well beyond Popes Pius XI and Pius XII, but his targets among the German clergy are very poorly chosen. Declassified documents from the OSS show that American intelligence during the war knew well that two of the German Catholic leaders Goldhagen focuses upon (Cardinal Faulhaber of Munich and Bishop von Galen of Münster) were particularly strong in their opposition to the Nazis. (The formerly secret documents are collected in American Intelligence and the German Resistance to Hitler, edited by Jürgen Heideking and Christof Mauch.)In the 1930s, Cardinal Faulhaber wrote Secretary of State Pacelli, describing the persecution of the Jews as  unjust and painful. In 1935, at an open meeting, Nazis called for him to be killed. In February 1936, the police confiscated and destroyed one of his sermons (this happened twice again the following year). On October 25, 1936, members of the Hitler Youth hurled insults at him as he was entering his car. In August 1938, the Nazis searched his office. In late November 1938, after he had given a speech, a uniformed detachment arrived in front of his residence and threw stones at the windows. They shouted  Take the traitor to Dachau and shattered window frames and shutters. In May 1939, demonstrations against Faulhaber took place throughout Bavaria, and posters were hung saying:  Away with Faulhaber, the friend of the Jews and the agent of Moscow. After the war began, Faulhaber cited Pius XII s encyclical Summi Pontificatus in an address condemning Nazis, resulting in a headline reading  Cardinal Faulhaber Indicts Hitlerism in the London Tablet.ÂAfter the war, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of the leading American voices for the Jewish cause, called Faulhaber  a true Christian prelate who  had lifted his fearless voice in defense of the Jews. In fact, Wise felt that Faulhaber had been a much better friend to the Jews of Europe than had Pastor Martin Niemoeller.Bishop Galen also took a leading role in opposing Nazi racial laws. On February 9, 1936, he made a public anti Nazi speech at Xanten Cathedral. In response, the Nazis charged that Galen was trying to shelter  the corrupters of our race. Galen also helped Pius XI draft the anti Nazi encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. Later, Pius XII sent Galen a letter praising his  open and courageous pronouncements and telling him that letters he had mailed to the Holy See laid the groundwork for the 1942 Christmas message. Upon his death, the regional association of the Jewish communities wrote to the Capitular Vicar in Münster, saying:  Cardinal von Galen was one of the few upright and conscientious men who fought against racialism in a most difficult time. We shall always honor the memory of the deceased Bishop. Goldhagen notes Galen s protests against the euthanasia program, but he argues that the Nazis did not retaliate against him and asks why the German bishops and the Vatican did not  rally behind Bishop Galen. In fact, on December 2, 1940 well before Galen s famous sermons against euthanasia Pius XII published an official Vatican statement in the Catholic press that unequivocally condemned the killing of  life unworthy of life. This decree went into every diocese in Germany, and was favorably and publicly commented on by the German bishops. On March 9, 1941, in a public sermon, Cardinal Konrad von Preysing (whom Goldhagen wrongly portrays as a critic of Pius XII) made reference to Pius XII,  whom we all know I should say from personal experience as a man of global horizons and broadmindedness [who] has reaffirmed the doctrine of the Church, according to which there is no justification and no excuse for the killing of the sick or of the abnormal on any economic or eugenic grounds. Other German bishops followed suit, culminating in (not beginning with) Galen s famous sermons of July and August of 1941.ÂTo compound his errors, Goldhagen charges that Galen s protests were successful in ending the euthanasia program and that the Nazis did not retaliate. In fact, the euthanasia campaign was not ended, but continued under greater secrecy until the end of the war. Moreover, as one of Galen s successors, Richard Lettmann, the Bishop of Münster, explained:  After having preached these sermons the Bishop was prepared to be arrested by the Gestapo. . . . The Bishop was deeply dejected when in his place twenty four secular priests and thirteen members of the regular clergy were deported into concentration camps, of whom ten lost their lives. The Nuremberg prosecution report also shows that Galen was at times forbidden to speak to the public or to give blessings. In fact, as a result of his outspokenness, Galen s diocese suffered a far higher death rate than most others. None of these crucial facts are mentioned by Goldhagen.ÂCardinal Adolph Bertram of Breslau, also singled out by Goldhagen, first expressed his opposition to National Socialism in 1930, when he refused a religious funeral for a well known Nazi official. In a widely publicized statement, he criticized as a grave error the one sided glorification of the Nordic race and the contempt for divine revelation that was increasingly taught throughout Germany. He warned against the ambiguity of the concept of  positive Christianity, a highly nationalistic religion that the Nazis were encouraging. Such a religion, he said,  for us Catholics cannot have a satisfactory meaning since everyone interprets it in the way he pleases. In response to Bertram, the Nazi press cited some of Pope Leo XIII s pronouncements about the relations of practicing Catholics to political parties to bolster the argument that Catholics could be National Socialists. Secretary of State Pacelli then ordered a lengthy article to be published in the Vatican newspaper correcting the Nazis distortions of Leo s pronouncements, and saying that a Christian should not belong to any political party which works against Christian ideals.Goldhagen also makes the allegation that Bertram scheduled a Requiem Mass upon Hitler s death. In point of fact, this is what we know: Bertram was elderly and ill when the war ended. When he died (just weeks later), his papers included a handwritten order scheduling a Requiem Mass for all Germans who died in the war, including Hitler (who was originally reported to have died while fighting), and for the protection of the Catholic Church in Germany. This order was never sent, and the Mass was never held. Bertam s personal secretary later reported being unaware of this paper or any such proposed order. In fact, the order itself was crossed through with two broad strokes. In other words, the evidence suggests that someone (perhaps Bertram, but perhaps not) considered scheduling a Requiem Mass but that Bertram canceled it. Goldhagen here seems to have been misled by Klaus Scholder s A Requiem for Hitler: And Other New Perspectives on the German Church Struggle. The cover of that book shows part of the order, but omits the portion showing that it was crossed through. Once again, Goldhagen s sloppy reliance on secondary sources has led him to make a serious mistake.On a related note, Goldhagen asserts that the Polish ambassador pleaded with Pius in vain for the Jews, and that by 1944 Pius XII was so  sick of hearing about the Jews that he got angry with the ambassador. Goldhagen gives no documentation for this charge. This is hardly surprising, since it is untrue. Pius XII was upset about reports the ambassador was receiving from people outside of occupied Poland who, relying on erroneous information, complained that the Pope was doing too much for Jews, but not enough for Poles. The Polish ambassador to the Holy See during the War was Kazimierz Papée, whose 1954 Pius XII i Polska (Pius XII and Poland) discussed Pius XII s wartime policies and said that he agreed with them. That record is comprehensively analyzed and supported in Papée s book, of which Goldhagen makes no mention.The French BishopsGoldhagen says that Pius XII  clearly failed to support the protest of the French bishops. This is yet another falsehood. At the direction of the Pope, the protests were broadcast and discussed for several days on Vatican Radio. Statements such as  he who makes a distinction between Jews and other men is unfaithful to God and is in conflict with God s commands were broadcast into France, in French, on Vatican Radio. Pierre Cardinal Gerlier, a French Catholic bishop who condemned Nazi atrocities and deportation of the Jews, explicitly stated that he was obeying Pius XII s instructions when he made these statements (Australian Jewish News, April 16, 1943).ÂWhen the deportations began from France, Pius issued a formal protest to Head of State Marshal Henri Pétain, instructed his nuncio to issue another protest, and recommended that religious communities provide refuge to Jewish people. In fact, the American press reported that the Pope protested to the Vichy government three times during August 1942. The result of the protests, unfortunately, was that they angered Vichy leader Pierre Laval, and he reaffirmed his decision to cooperate in the deportation of all non French Jews to Germany. (This is yet another example of the retaliation that Goldhagen says did not take place.) On August 6, 1942, a New York Times headline proclaimed:  Pope Is Said to Plead for Jews Listed for Removal from France. Three weeks later, a headline in the same paper told the story:  Vichy Seizes Jews; Pope Pius Ignored. ÂThe Canadian Jewish Chronicle ran the following headline on September 4, 1942:  Laval Spurns Pope 25,000 Jews in France Arrested for Deportation. In an editorial dated August 28, 1942, the California Jewish Voice called Pius  a spiritual ally because he  linked his name with the multitude who are horrified by the Axis inhumanity. In a lead editorial, the London Jewish Chronicle said that the Vatican was due a  word of sincere and earnest appreciation from Jews for its intervention in Berlin and Vichy. Stephen S. Wise wrote in 1942:It appears to be more than rumor that his Holiness Pope Pius XII urgently appealed through the papal nuncio to the Vichy government to put an end to deportations from France, and the appeal of the Pope is said to have been reinforced by petition and protest from the Cardinal Archbishops of Paris and Lyons. . . . If such papal intervention be factual, then Pius XII follows the high example set by his saintly predecessor, whose word in reprobation of anti Semitism,  spiritually we are all Semites, will never fade out of the memory of the people which does not forget but forgives.In August 1942, Archbishop Jules Gérard Saliège, from Toulouse, sent a pastoral letter to be read in all churches in his diocese. It said:  There is a Christian morality that confers rights and imposes duties. . . . The Jews are our brothers. They belong to mankind. No Christian can dare forget that! The Vatican newspaper L Osservatore Romano praised Saliège as a hero of Christian courage, and when the war ended Pope Pius XII named him a cardinal.ÂGoldhagen quotes the recent statement of some French bishops (not the French bishops as he mistakenly reports) in which they confessed to the failings of French Catholics during the war. But that statement was critical only of those areas and dioceses in France that fell prey to anti Semitism. As with the 1995 statement from German bishops, there was no criticism of Pope Pius XII or the Holy See.ÂPapal Efforts in HungaryEven Goldhagen has to admit that Pius XII intervened in Hungary, but he attempts to diminish the importance of the Pope s actions by suggesting that his famous open telegram protesting Jewish deportations was isolated and late. Again, the facts are against Goldhagen or, more to the point, he has set himself against the facts. Jenö Levai, the great authority on Hungarian Jewry, who had direct access to primary archival evidence, documented the Church s rescue efforts in his appropriately titled Hungarian Jewry and the Papacy: Pius XII Was Not Silent.Almost from the first day following the March 1944 invasion of Hungary, Papal Nuncio Angelo Rotta worked to help improve the treatment of the Jews. He issued baptismal certificates and passports that enabled thousands of Jews and converted Jews to leave Hungary. The Holy See also informed other nations about the conditions in Hungary, and this brought international pressure on the Hungarian government. Rotta made several oral protests regarding anti Jewish decrees, and on behalf of Pope Pius XII he was the first foreign envoy to submit a formal written protest. Shortly thereafter, Rotta received a letter of encouragement from Pius in which the Pope termed the treatment of Jews as  unworthy of Hungary, the country of the Holy Virgin and of St. Stephen. From then on, Rotta regularly protested against the treatment of the Jews and the inhuman character of the anti Jewish legislation.On June 25, Pius himself sent the well known open telegram to the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklas Horthy. Goldhagen acknowledges this telegram, but it is worth quoting:Supplications have been addressed to us from different sources that we should exert all our influence to shorten and mitigate the sufferings that have for so long been peacefully endured on account of their national or racial origin by a great number of unfortunate people belonging to this noble and chivalrous nation. In accordance with our service of love, which embraces every human being, our fatherly heart could not remain insensible to these urgent demands. For this reason we apply to your Serene Highness appealing to your noble feelings in the full trust that your Serene Highness will do everything in your power to save many unfortunate people from further pain and suffering.Pius XII also sent a telegram to Hungarian Cardinal Justinian Serédi asking for support from the Hungarian bishops. Serédi responded by issuing a statement of his own. It said:ÂWe would forfeit our moral leadership and fail in our duty if we did not demand that our countrymen should not be handled unjustly on account of their origin or religion. We, therefore, beseech the authorities that they, in full knowledge of their responsibility before God and history, will revoke these harmful measures.This strong statement, issued pursuant to a request from the Pope, was read publicly in the Catholic churches until Nazi authorities confiscated all copies.On June 28, Archbishop Francis Spellman of New York broadcast a strong appeal to Hungarian Catholics deploring the anti Jewish measures, which, he said,  shocked all men and women who cherish a sense of justice and human sympathy. These measures were, he said,  in direct contradiction of the doctrines of the Catholic faith professed by the vast majority of the Hungarian people. He called it incredible  that a nation which has been so consistently true to the impulses of human kindness and the teachings of the Catholic Church should now yield to a false, pagan code of tyranny. Time magazine reported:  This week listeners at Europe s thirty six million radio sets might have heard New York s Archbishop Francis Joseph Spellman preaching civil disobedience. The Archbishop s . . . broadcast . . . eloquently urged Hungary s nine million Catholics to disobey their government s new anti Semitic decrees. The Allies dropped printed copies of it over Hungary. Spellman later confirmed that he had made the statement at the express request of Pope Pius XII.Admiral Horthy complained to the Germans that he was being bombarded with telegrams from the Vatican and others and that the nuncio was calling on him several times each day. In the face of these protests, Horthy withdrew Hungarian support from the deportation process, making it impossible for the Germans to continue. Horthy s reply cable to the Pope said:  It is with comprehension and profound gratitude that I receive your cable and request you to be convinced that I shall do all within my power to make prevail the demands of Christian humanitarian principles. Horthy agreed to work against the deportations, and he even signed a peace agreement with the Allies. For once it appeared that Pius XII s pleas on behalf of the victims might actually have had a positive effect. The Germans, however, would not be dissuaded by mere words.ÂThe Germans arrested Horthy in October, put Hungary under the control of Hungarian Nazis, and the deportations resumed. The Pope and his representatives then made many more protests to German authorities, issued a report documenting the Vatican s work with the Jews of Hungary, and encouraged Catholics to help the victims. In October, Pius joined in an effort to raise money to support Hungarian refugees, urging the faithful to redouble their efforts on behalf of all victims of the war, regardless of their race. Almost every Catholic church in Hungary provided refuge to persecuted Jews during the autumn and winter of 1944.On November 10, 1944, Nuncio Rotta protested to the German foreign ministry, saying that  from a humanitarian perspective but also to protect Christian morality, the Holy See protests the inhumane attitude adopted toward the Jews. When Nazi officials suggested that Jews were merely being sent to Germany to work, not for any evil purpose, Rotta sarcastically responded:ÂWhen old men of over seventy and even over eighty, old women, children, and sick persons are taken away, one wonders for what work these human beings can be used? . . . When we think that Hungarian workers, who go to Germany for reasons of work, are forbidden to take their families, we are really surprised to see that this great favor is granted only to Jews.The nunciature in Budapest had been bombed and half destroyed, communications with the Vatican were extremely difficult, and the lives of those Catholic officials still in the city were in constant danger. Nuncio Rotta sent a message to Rome asking what to do. The reply from Pope Pius was:  If it is still possible to do some charity, remain! ÂThe Germans were finally forced out of Budapest two days before Christmas, 1944. Despite the terrible losses that had taken place during their occupation, most of the Jews in Budapest were saved from the gas chamber.The World Jewish Congress, at its December 1944 war emergency conference in Atlantic City, sent a telegram of thanks to the Holy See for the protection it gave  under difficult conditions to the persecuted Jews in German dominated Hungary. Similarly, the American Jewish Committee sent an expression of deep thanks to Pius and Cardinal Luigi Maglione for having helped stop the deportations from Hungary. On May 25, 1945, Nuncio Andreas Cassulo informed the Vatican:[Chief] Rabbi Safran has expressed to me several times . . . his gratitude for what has been done for him and for the Jewish community. Now he has begged me to convey to the Holy Father his feelings of thankfulness for the generous aid granted to prisoners in concentration camps on the occasion of the Christmas festivities. At the same time, he told me he had written to Jerusalem, to the Chief Rabbi [Herzog], and also elsewhere, in America, to point out what the nunciature has done for them in the time of the present difficulties.Chief Rabbi Safran also told other Jewish leaders about the Catholic Church s efforts to protect Jewish people. Apparently, however, no one told Goldhagen.Slovakia and CroatiaIn attempting to implicate Pius XII in the atrocities carried out in the Nazi satellite states of Slovakia and Croatia, Goldhagen again makes many inexcusable errors. He mentions the work of Livia Rothkirchen, a respected authority on the annihilation of Slovak Jewry, but he fails to mention that in documenting and appropriately condemning the savageries committed by anti Semitic Slavs, Rothkirchen emphasizes that they were done in spite of, not because of, Pope Pius XII. In fact, she concludes her major work on the subject with the statement that the several letters of protest delivered by the Vatican during the years 1941 1944  prove sufficiently that the Vatican objected to the deportation of Jews from Slovakia. ÂGoldhagen suggests that Vatican actio letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 26 Aug 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7439/1/E-The-Big-Story---AnteGotovinaCom.html Distributed by CroatianWorldMr. Gallagher's Commentary - www.antegotovina.comÂ30.7.2002The Big StoryBrian GallagherÂIn 1995, a documentary was screened in the UK regarding Croatia`s Operation Storm. TheÂdocumentary had an anti-Croat bias, and detailed American assistance to Croatia in aÂdisapproving manner. Amongst many pieces of information, a former deputy commander of theÂUS army in Europe informed us that Croatia would not have taken its actions without "explicit"Âapproval from the United States. It was also alleged that a meeting was held on Brioni islandÂbetween a Croatian General and a representative of Military Professional Resources IncorporatedÂto discuss MPRI`s role in the upcoming Operation Storm as well as confirmation from GeneralÂMartin Spegelj of US involvement. Further, the bias of the documentary raises questions aboutÂwhy the UN were portrayed in a sympathetic light, despite their known pro-Serb stance.ÂThe Croatian World Congress (CWC), a UN affiliated NGO, recently submitted a p! aper to theÂCarla Del Ponte - the Hague Prosecutor - and the UN, outlining much evidence from the mediaÂabout US support for Operation Storm. The CWC thesis is that if General Gotovina is guilty ofÂethnic cleansing, then so is the United States. The CWC pointed out that it believed that neitherÂthe United States nor General Gotovina or indeed Croatia itself was guilty of any such crime.ÂThe document is comprehensive. However, I was surprised that there was no mention of the UKÂdocumentary "Secret Warriors", part of the then documentary series "The Big Story" which wasÂscreened in 1995. Fortunately, I have a video copy of this documentary. Viewing it, it was clearÂthat there is much evidence here of US military and intelligence assistance to Croatia that appearsÂto have been overlooked.ÂThe documentary begins by detailing American spy plane activity. It relates how AmericansÂappeared on Brac in November 1994, guarded by plain clothes Croat policemen. A tourist hotelÂwas specially opened for them. A daily routine was described of the Americans travelling to theÂlocal airstrip. GNAT 750 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) flew from the strip. David Fulghum ofÂAviation Week, considered this to have been a "Tier 1" CIA observation programme.ÂA former US Marine Colonel, Lt.Col. Roger Charles, who had a military intelligence role in theÂPentagon co-ordinating the US UAV programme, also gave his opinions on the matter. He statedÂthat given the Croatian involvement in helping the American team on Brac, there could be noÂdoubt that the Croats were receiving intelligence themselves from the UAV programme. SuchÂintelligence would be vital to the Croatian military.ÂFormer Croatian Defence minister Martin Spegelj also took part. He sated that he could almostÂguarantee that such information was made available to the Croatians and Bosnians, which, withÂtheir own information was used for Operations Lightning and Storm.ÂThe documentary then turned its attention to the role played by Military Professional ResourcesÂIncorporated (MPRI), the private US company which provides top level military advice to clientsÂby retired elite US military personnel.ÂMPRI apparently were based in a building in the Croatian Military Academy in Zagreb. The BigÂStory team were shown around the academy. That MPRI`s activities were in line with US policyÂwas shown when the Big Story asked the Colonel guiding them about the MPRI area. The ColonelÂ- secretly filmed - informed then that they could not be allowed into the building because "itÂwould have to be cleared by Ministers Susak and Perry". Perry being the US Secretary of DefenceÂat the time.ÂThe Big Story also claimed that top MPRI representative, Carl Vuono, a former US Army Chief ofÂStaff, met with General Zvonimir Cervenko, - described as the architect of the Croat offensive - onÂthe island of Brioni a few weeks before Operation Storm. It was alleged that the purpose of theÂmeeting was to see how MPRI could support Operation Storm. The source of the meetingÂinformation was, apparently, from within the Zagreb academy, which seems curious.ÂThe importance of American involvement was underlined by two of the documentary`sÂparticipants. Martin Spegelj stated that MPRI assistance to Croatia was "fundamental toÂeverything". Extremely significant, were the words of General Charles Boyd, former DeputyÂCommander US Army Europe 1992-95. He clearly stated that the Croatian offensives could notÂhave taken part without the "explicit" approval of the US Government.ÂThe documentary did not mention General Gotovina at all, which is a bit odd given the HagueÂprosecutor`s apparent belief of his masterminding - with "others" - all the crimes he is chargedÂwith.ÂRegardless of the anti-Croat tone of the documentary, all the above does confirm that OperationÂStorm was effectively a joint operation with the United States, who gave it the nod. If theÂOperation Storm was used as an ethnic cleansing exercise, than logically the US was directlyÂinvolved. Such an allegation is absurd of course. It is very well known that the Serb leadersÂorganised the evacuation of their own people in order to shore up the Serb position in Kosovo andÂBosnia-Herzegovina. The Hague tribunal is very well aware of this - the prosecutor mentionedÂthe plan in the opening of the Milosevic trial.ÂSomething must be said about the tone of the documentary, which was highly anti-Croat. CrimesÂagainst Serbs - which indeed are to condemned - were detailed. The United Nations peacekeepersÂwere regarded as impartial, kindly people. There was no mention of the fact that one third ofÂCroatia was occupied. No mention of the ethnic cleansing of over 200,000 Croats or the slaughterÂof up to 20,000 of them that Serbian forces had committed. Nothing of how the Serb leadershipÂorganised the evacuation of their own people.ÂThere was certainly no mention of the UN`s mandate of returning refugees, of re-integratingÂterritory or of disarming military forces. This was no doubt due to the fact that the UN failed toÂcarry out its mission.ÂRemaining Croats continued to be ethnically cleansed and murdered under the UN`s nose. Indeed,Âthe UN allowed the `Krajina` Serbs to bombard Croatian cities and even to invade Bosnia toÂattack Bihac - itself supposedly UN protected.ÂAll this contrasts somewhat with the picture of the UN portrayed in The Big Story. If The BigÂStory considered the US to have been involved in a `massacre`, then surely it must also considerÂthe UN complicit in mass murder and ethnic cleansing on far greater scale then the US? PerhapsÂthey missed the real Big Story.ÂBy its use of selective facts, the programme - broadcast on a station that has a public service remitÂ- failed to inform its viewers of the full context of events, and thus why Operation Storm tookÂplace. No doubt because the viewers would have sympathetic to the US actions. One alsoÂwonders whether the Croats who gave of their time to the documentary were told it was going toÂbe hostile to Operation Storm.ÂThe timing of the documentary was also curious - during the Dayton talks. Dayton was anÂAmerican affair. No doubt this chafed with many in the UN and indeed London and Paris. TheirÂpolicy was effectively to legitimise Serb gains; foiled by the Americans. One wonders who it wasÂwho tipped off the The Big Story about US involvement, and what their interest was.ÂThe biased tone of the documentary was demonstrated by its last words, uttered by someoneÂcalled Jeffrey Laurenti, of the United Nations Association. Of the Croats he said, "Americans nowÂcannot restrain them. They`ve created a little monster, and these guys are ready and raring toÂgo". The fact that Croatian Army has not been in action since those words were spokenÂdemonstrate clearly the mentality of this documentary.ÂWhatever the motives of the documentary, it does provide evidence of the US involvement inÂOperation Storm, further demonstrating the Gotovina indictment to be a disguised attack againstÂthe United States, as well as being supportive of the UN position - and thus effectively being inÂthe interest of those that wanted a Greater Serbia.Â(C) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 05 Aug 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7438/1/E-Serbia-thretens-Croatia-with-arms---Storm-2003.html Yugoslavia says it will not withdraw its forces from the border with CroatiaSTORM 2003 ?Op-edAre they asking for another Storm? Croatia should take it's own land as soonas possible. War REPARATIONS would stop them in EVEN thinking of attackinganybody EVER. International body should make sure that Serbia (Yugoslavia), ifhaving them at all, keep their arms 75 Kilometers from Croatian border. PERIOD.They produced terror and misery in the last century, therefore should be placedin a position of military inferiority. With a law or with a force, whatever ittakes. Get a life !Nenad BachCROWNFriday, 2 August, 2002, 15:16 GMT 16:16 UKÂYugoslavia sticks to its gunsYugoslav soldiers still patrol, seven years after the warÂYugoslavia says it will not withdraw its forces from the border with Croatia despite calls for the area to be demilitarised.ÂYugoslav Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic was responding after an appeal by Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan for troops to be removed.ÂThis follows an incident where Yugoslav soldiers fired on a boat carrying Croatian officials towards a disputed island on the River Danube.ÂThe island is controlled by Yugoslavia, but Croats have property claims there.ÂSarengradska Ada - an uninhabited island of forests and fields covering about 900 hectares (2,220 acres) - is one of a number of disputed border areas.ÂYugoslavia is planning to replace its troops along the border with a new security force, but this has been delayed.ÂCorrespondents say Sunday's incident is an indication of how tense relations between the two countries remain, despite a recent diplomatic thaw.ÂStalled plansÂThe Yugoslav foreign minister rejected a call for troops to be removed from the Sarengradska Ada area, saying that in line with regulations it will be secured by the army.ÂIvica Racan: Not satisfied with personal apologyMr Svilanovic said plans to replace the army with a special force, perhaps border police, had been put on hold while negotiations continue over the future of the two republics which make up Yugoslavia - Serbia and Montenegro.ÂThe existing federation is due to be replaced at the end of the year by a new union.ÂNo-one was hurt in Sunday's incident, and the Croats involved were released after being interrogated. Croatian officials said they had been on their way to the island on a trip pre-arranged with Serbian representatives.Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic phoned his Croatian counterpart to offer a personal apology for the incident, but Mr Racan said this was not enough and demanded a public apology.ÂCroatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, leading to a bitter conflict with Serbs within Croatia who were opposed to the secession.ÂCroatia also backed forces opposed to Serbia in the Bosnian war.ÂYugoslavia has controlled Sarengradska Ada since war broke out, but people from Sarengrad, in eastern Croatia, say it belongs to Croatia. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 05 Aug 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7440/1/HE-US-and-Israel-backing-Croatia---SAD-i-Izrael-na-strani-Hrvatske.html ÂIzrael i SAD na strani generala GotovineIsrael and USA DefendsGeneral GotovinaÂSUD I POLITIKA: HRVATSKI ZAPOVJEDNIK OPTUŽENU HAAGU STEKAO SAVEZNIKE KOJI TIME BRANE I SEBEIzrael na strani generala GotovineTko bi mogao donedavno i pomisliti da ce Izraelci i Amerikanci cvrsto stati iza haaškog bjegunca generala Ante Gotovine, daleko jace i intenzivnije nego što je iza njega stala vlastita država. Svima je jasno: i medunarodno pravo je relativna stvarPoznato je da je politika stvar interesa, a kad se interesi udruže, nacija i država nemaju nikakve veze, cak i neke nespojive stvari postaju i te kako zajednicke. Tko bi mogao donedavno i pomisliti da ce Izraelci i Amerikanci cvrsto stati iza zasad jedinoga hrvatskoga haaškog bjegunca generala Ante Gotovine, daleko jace i intenzivnije nego što je iza njega stala vlastita država.Svima je bilo jasno da je pitanje medunarodne pravde relativna stvar, a sada bi domacim politicarima trebalo postati jasno ono što je svakom pravniku poznato još sa fakulteta: da je i medunarodno pravo takoder relativna stvar.Pitanje je aktualizirala polarizacija interesa oko stalnog medunarodnog kaznenog suda, ali i mogucnosti da osim vojnika budu procesuirani americki politicari u sklopu sadašnjeg suda za ratne zlocine na podrucju bivše Jugoslavije u Haagu.Obrana iz The Jerusalem PostaMogucnost procesuiranja na Stalnom kaznenom sudu osim Amerikanaca muci i Izraelce koji ratuju više od tri desetljeca, a prema svemu sudeci nastavljaju rat do daljnjega. Tako The Jerusalem Post opravdava izraelsko odbijanje stavljanja autograma na ratifikaciju Rimskog statuta za stvaranje Medunarodnog kaznenog suda (MKS) i to rijecima:"Ako još itko sumnja u to da je izraelska vlada postupila mudro kada je odbila ratificiranje, onda bi trebao zapamtiti imena Ante Gotovine i Jonathana Randala, dvojice veoma razlicitih muškaraca koji imaju veoma slican problem".Isti list za ilustraciju objašnjava kako je Gotovina general HV-a koji je vodio operaciju Oluja koja je ucinkovito okoncala srbijansko-hrvatski rat, a Randal je umirovljeni reporter Washington Posta koji je od haaškog tribunala (ICTY), UN-ova tijela koje ce zamijeniti MKS, dobio sudski poziv kako bi pružio dokaze protiv jednog bosanskog Srbina. Ti slucajevi, tvrde Izraelci, ilustriraju potencijal za politicku i moralnu neodgovornost pri MKS-u.ÂOno cega se hrvatski dužnosnici u interesu države nisu dosjetili da plasiraju barem neslužbenim kanalima u javnost, jednostavno plasira nitko drugi do Izrael! Tako, isti list objašnjava kako Gotovinu terete za zapovjednu odgovornost za napad koji je rezultirao bijegom dvjesto tisuca Srba i ubojstvom njih 150 iz podrucja Krajine."Znaci li to da je on proveo operaciju s ovim ciljem na umu? Teško: Gotovina nije optužen za zlocine koje je sam pocinio, a svi dokazi upucuju na to da je Operacija Oluja pažljivo osmišljena uz pomoc Amerikanaca, tako da se civilnom stanovništvu da dovoljno vremena da pobjegnu iz tog podrucja i da se tako minimalizira broj žrtava.Gotovinin zlocin je zapravo taj što je organizirao kampanju u kojoj je korištena golema vojna sila kako bi se ispunio vojni cilj", objašnjavaju svijetu i nama iz The Jerusalem Posta.ÂMedutim, otkud vjetar interesa puše jasno je iz sljedeceg dijela teksta istog autora: "U slucaju generala Gotovine to znaci zatvor zbog toga što je bio uspješan vojni dužnosnik koji je dobio svoje bitke izbjegavši prouzrociti masovne civilne žrtve. Možemo samo zamisliti što bi ovo znacilo za Izrael s obzirom na nedavno provedene vojne akcije protiv palestinskog terorizma; karantenu za Izrael i stalnu opasnost od uhicenja za naše vojno osoblje i rezerviste kada putuju u inozemstvo".Nespretni HaagSpomenutim Amerikancima, poznatijim pod sintagmom "svjetski policajci", nikako ne odgovara mogucnost da itko od njihovih državljana bude procesuiran izvan SAD-a, a kako se brane interesi svoje zemlje, cak i kad su u suprotnosti s bilo kakvom zdravom logikom, Hrvati trebaju uciti od njih.Strah da ce americki dužnosnici i vojnici biti procesuirani zbog sudjelovanja u UN-ovoj mirovnoj misiji nadilazi prijetnju Bushove administracije za ukidanjem mirovne misije u Bosni konstatirali su americki novinari i zakljucili kako je prijetnja samo dio spora u koji je ukljucen UN-ov Stalni Kazneni sud koji je nastao po modelu Haaškog suda za bivšu Jugoslaviju.Najbolnija cinjenica je vijest kako Haaški tribunal razmatra jesu li osnovane optužbe protiv bivšeg predsjednika Clintona i njegovih suradnika zbog pomaganja i podupiranja operacije Oluja.Cijelu lavinu pokrenuo je Hrvatski svjetski kongres (HSK) kada je glavnoj tužiteljici Carli del Ponte uputio podnesak o postojanju informacija koje ukazuju na kršenje medunarodnog prava, zahtijevajuci od nje pokretanje istrage protiv Billa Clintona i ostalih visokih dužnosnika njegove administracije zbog "pomaganja i podupiranja hrvatskog generala Ante Gotovine i hrvatske vojne akcije poznate pod nazivom operacija Oluja".U to se uklopio nespretan odgovor glasnogovornice Tužiteljstva Florence Hartmann na pitanje o mogucnosti otvaranja istrage protiv Amerikanaca: "Mi radimo temeljem istrage koja je u tijeku".ÂUz bivšeg americkog predsjednika na popisu se nalaze i imena bivšeg savjetnika za nacionalnu sigurnost Anthony Lakea, njegova zamjenika Samuela Bergera, veleposlanika Richarda Holbrooka i bivšeg americkog veleposlanika u Hrvatskoj Petera Galbraitha. U podnesku HSK navedene su uglavnom javne cinjenice koje su opcepoznate, a ukazuju na to da je Amerika pomagala i podržavala operaciju Oluja.Pet dana prije pocetka te operacije u britanskom The Observeru objavljeno je kako su americki dužnosnici Hrvatima dali "zeleno svjetlo", što je i sadašnji predsjednik RH indirektno potvrdio u razgovoru za njemacki Der Spiegel, 7. kolovoza 1995. godine. U istom podnesku navedeni su i clanci magazina Newsweek u kojima je objavljeno kako je CIA uspostavila svoju bazu unutar vojne baze HV-a kraj Zadra.Odgovornost UN-a[See the attached file]Tamo su bile bespilotne letjelice kojima je snimana cijela operacija Oluja, a videozapisi su prenašani u Pentagon. Te snimke CIA je davala upravo generalu Gotovini radi što uspješnijeg provodenja akcije.ÂAmerikanci su uz obavještajnu potporu pružali i zracnu potporu akcije jer su prvog dana Oluje napali položaje Srba u blizini udbinskog aerodroma, stoji u dopisu HSK. Ta nevladina udruga pri UN-u tvrdi kako su, ako je general Gotovina kriv, krivi i Amerikanci koji su ga pomagali i podupirali, ali je podnesak Carli del Ponte upucen s namjerom da ukine optužnicu protiv Gotovine.Taj primjer "prinudnog" solidariziranja Izraela, Amerike, i ostalih zainteresiranih strana oko slucaja Gotovina vjerojatno je samo pocetak polarizacije mišljenja oko interesnih sfera vezanih uz primjenu kaznenog prava u medunarodnim okvirima.Uskoro bi netko mogao u sklopu svojih interesa, a možda i trebao, potegnuti pitanje kaznene odgovornosti UN-ovih snaga koje su, kako svi dobro znamo, cuvale muslimanske enklave Srebrenicu, Focu i Goražde u istocnoj Bosni.Svojim necinjenjem definitivno su pridonijeli da srpske snage neometano ubiju desetak tisuca Bošnjaka. Zbog toga je, recimo u Nizozemskoj, vlada koja je bila svjesna moralne odgovornosti dala ostavku. A postoji li i kaznena odgovornost za omogucavanje zlocina, još nitko nije upitao Carlu del Ponte.Bisera LUŠIC i Neven PAVELICÂCORIC: AKO SU KRIVI NAŠI, KRIVI SU I AMERIKANCIU telefonskom razgovoru za Slobodnu Dalmaciju, predsjednik Hrvatskog Svjetskog Kongresa, dr. Šimun Šito Coric objasnio je kako smatra da ce podnesak tužiteljici u kojem se za kršenje medunarodnog humanitarnog prava optužuje bivša americka administracija skinuti ljagu s operacije Oluja i dokazati kako nije bila rijec o etnickom cišcenju.- Ta akcija dovela je do Daytonskog sporazuma i to je prva pobjeda protiv Miloševiceva režima. Ako su navodi iz optužnice protiv Gotovine istiniti, onda nema sumnje da treba suditi i Amerikancima jer su s njime sudjelovali u istom poslu, kazao je dr. Coric i dodao kako je stav HSK da hrvatske snage i americki dužnosnici ne bi trebali biti predmetom haaških optužnica, jer su tom akcijom uspostavili preduvjete potrebne za potpisivanje Daytonskog sporazuma i izravno pridonijeli završetku rata.JEFFREY KUHNER, ZAMJENIK GLAVNOG UREDNIKAWASHINGTON TIMESA, O HAAŠKOJ ISTRAZI:Zapovjedna odgovornost za Oluju je na - ClintonuS obzirom na to da je prvi objavio podatke o mogucnosti da Haaški sud pokrene istragu oko uloge Clintonove administracije u akciji Oluja, kontaktirali smo zamjenika glavnog urednika Washington Timesa, Jeffreya Kuhnera. On nam je precizno odgovorio kada je i kako dobio potvrdu od strane haaškog tužiteljstva o pitanju provodenja istrage oko bivše americke administracije.- U petak 7. srpnja oko otprilike 1:30 poslijepodne po ovdašnjem vremenu pitao sam Florence Hartmann namjerava li tužiteljstvo optužiti Billa Clintona i ostale americke dužnosnike o pitanju operacije Oluja i njezin tocan odgovor bio je: Mi radimo na temelju istrage koja traje. Zatim je naglo prekinula razgovor.Sada pak tvrdi da nikada to nije rekla, što je potpuna laž. Razgovarali smo ponovno u srijedu 10. srpnja u isto vrijeme i rekla mi je da je ljudi oko nje smatraju krivom zbog komentara koji je dala. Stoga, ona sada ocito osjeca potrebu da demantira ono što mi je ranije kazala.Želim biti potpuno jasan: Mi u Washington Timesu ponosni smo na cinjenicu da radimo u jednoj od najutjecajnijih i uvaženih novina na svijetu i nikada ne bih nikoga krivo citirao ili iskrivljavao rijeci bilo koga. U potpunosti stojim iza svoje price - naglašava Kuhner.On smatra da je podnesak Hrvatskog svjetskog kongresa stavio ured glavne tužiteljice u Haagu u svjevrsnu klopku: ako potvrde da se vode istrage oko dužnosnika Clintonove administracije, navuci ce na sebe bijes službenog Washingtona. Ako, pak odbiju istraživati ulogu americke administracije oko americke pomoci akciji Oluja, onda ce mnogi od americkih saveznika u Europi biti uznemireni jer ce biti vidljivi dvostruki standardi.- Kljucna uloga Washingtona u davanju politicke i diplomatske pomoci u operaciji Oluja nije javna tajna samo u Washingtonu, nego i u svim europskim metropolama - tvrdi americki komentator.Na temelju njegova istraživackog rada, a tu ukljucuje i razgovore s visokim hrvatskim casnicima, americkim dužnosnicima, Srbima iz Knina i djelatnicima hrvatskih nevladinih organizacija, Kuhner pojašnjava da postoje vrlo jasni problemi oko optužnice za generala Antu Gotovinu.- Teorija da general Gotovina može biti optužen na temelju zapovjedne odgovornosti predstavlja presedan za americke kreatore vanjske politike. Jer u krajnjoj liniji, Clintonova administracija dala je zeleno svjetlo za pokretanje akcije Oluja. Ako itko nosi tu krajnju "zapovjednu odgovornost", onda je to Clintonova administracija - rezultan je americki novinar.Â- To predstavlja znacajan rizik za americke nacionalne interese i sposobnost službenog Washingtona da ostvari svoje ciljeve. Takoder, akcija Oluja nije bila samo legitimna obrambena operacija hrvatske vojske da bi vratila podrucja koja su okupirali Srbi, nego je u velikoj mjeri pridonijela ostvarivanju americkih interesa u regiji, poražavajuci Miloševicevu ideju o stvaranju etnicki ciste velike Srbije - procjenuje Jeffrey Kuhner.THE GAZETTE - MONTREAL - MONDAY, JULY 22, 2002U.S. backed Croatian general's offensiveJEFFREY KUHNER_____________General Gotovina is not a war criminal, but a patriot who helped to secure Croatian territorial integrity.ZAGREB - Croatia is in the midst of a political and economic crisis. The current rulers, a center-left coalition elected in early 2000 on a platform of economic reform, have been a disappointment to most Croat voters. The popularity of Socialist Prime Minister Ivica Racan has dropped dramatically in recent months, leaving many analysts here predicting that early elections will be called this fall or next spring at the latest.Many observers hoped that the election of Racan's leftist coalition would lead to a Quiet Revolution in Croatia. The current government was swept into power, riding a wave of popular enthusiasm that sought to end the country's growing international isolation during the 1990s, when it was governed by the late President Franjo Tudjman.ÂBut Racan's regime has failed to implement the free-market reforms needed to stimulate the sluggish economy. In fact, the economic situation has worsened since the Tudjman years. Unemployment has doubled to nearly 25 per cent, foreign investment has dried up and the government has failed to scale back the bloated bureaucracy.But more important for many voters has been the coalition's decision - not yet implemented - to hand a Croatian General over to the Balkans war-crimes tribunal in the Hague. General Ante Gotovina's case has been largely overshadowed by the trial of former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic, but it could in the end be far more consequential.It has already caused mass outrage here and triggered a political crisis, and it raises the possibility that former president Bill Clinton and other top U.S. officials will be facing war crimes charges as well.Gotovina was indicted in June 2001 by the prosecutor's office at The Hague on charges that he exercised "command responsibility" over a 1995 military operation that resulted in the expulsion of 150,000 ethnic Serbs from Croatia. On Aug. 4, supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forces launched a massive, three-day military offensive known as Operation Storm, which recovered territories that had been occupied by rebel Serbs after the Croatia's drive for independence in 1991.Gotovina is not accused of committing or ordering war crimes, but simply of being in charge when alleged atrocities were committed. By this standard, the United States, which provided military and technical assistance to Operation Storm in order to deliver a decisive defeat to Milosevic's genocidal goal of forging a "Greater Serbia," is also guilty.Washington's involvement in the operation was not only legitimate, but significantly advanced U.S. interests in the region by putting an end to Serbia's expansionist ambitions. Yet American support and approval for the military offensive means the indictment against Gotovina could lead to the prosecution before The Hague tribunal of Clinton and other high-ranking U.S. officials on charges of having command responsibility for alleged war crimes that were committed during the operation. The prosecutor's office is now examining whether to investigate Clinton and former ambassador Richard Holbrooke for their role in Operation Storm.The Bush administration has become increasingly concerned with the implications of the Gotovina case for U.S. officials. They are now urging that the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, send back cases involving Croatian military officials to the domestic courts in Zagreb. But Del Ponte has refused to co-operate, demanding that Gotovina be arrested and sent to The Hague. That would be a mistake.Gotovina is not a war criminal, but a patriot who helped to secure Croatia's territorial integrity from the clutches of Serbian revanchism. Even Serbian human-rights activists who have looked into Operation Storm believe that the indictment against the general is unjust.Most of the crimes that were committed - the murder of 500 civilians, the looting of property and the burning of 400,000 homes and barns - happened after the operation, when the recovered territories fell under the control of local police forces. Moreover, the local Serbs who remained behind after the operation have testified that most of the crimes were perpetrated by returning civilians - not by the Croatian Army.Contrary to its expectations, Zagreb's decision to hand Gotovina over to the tribunal has not bolstered its pro-Western credentials; rather, it has shaken the Croatian public's confidence in the government's ability to defend the country's war heroes. Vowing to protect the general at all costs, nationalist parties have been making substantial gains in the polls in recent months. Racan would be wise to reverse himself and demand that Del Ponte drop the Gotovina indictment. If not, he faces the possibility of spending the rest of his political career on the opposition benches.Jeffrey Kuhner is an assistant national editor at The Washington Times. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 01 Aug 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7441/1/E-Croatia-New-Math-NEEDS-RESPONSE.html http://www.worldpress.org/Europe/641.cfm From the August 2002 issue of World Press Review (VOL. 49, No. 8) Croatia: New Math Katarina Subasic World Press Review correspondent A Croation woman holds aloft a picture of late Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in a Oct. 20, 2001 protest in Zagreb (Photo: AFP). Croatia's 2001 census indicates a sharp drop in the Serb population, prompting commentators across the political spectrum to speculate about the cause of the decline. Some blame the nationalist designs of Serbs themselves, while others fault Croat chauvinism. Before war broke out in the former Yugoslavia in 1991, Serbs comprised 12.6 percent of Croatia's 4.7 million population. Since then, the total population has fallen to 4.4 million, and the share of Serbs has dropped by nearly two-thirds, to 4.5 percent. This supports the view that there was a deliberate expulsion by government forces: the first, in May 1995, when the army took over Serb-held territory in eastern Croatia, and the second, in August of that year, in central Croatia. Slobodna Dalmacija's Josip Jovic attempted to cast the census numbers in the best possible light (June 5). He wrote that Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan "gave the best definition of the situation" when he said that "those who started the aggression [Serbs] ought to have expected an exodus." Zagreb has accused Serbia of supporting Croatian Serbs to instigate conflict before Croatia's declaration of independence in June 1991. But Srecko Jurdana of Nacional suggested that one should not paint all Serbs with a broad brush (May 28): "[I]t seems that ethnic reduction is officially regarded as a kind of deserved collective punishment, despite the fact that it involves many Serbs who had nothing to do with provoking the war." Yet in analyzing the cause of the population drop, Jovic returned to the question of blame: "Many Serbs did not want to reveal their nationality, seeking to hide or change it after all that happened" during the war. He added: "To be a Serb in Croatia was not pleasant for a while. Maybe it still isn't. But isn't that a result of [their] support of an extremely anti-Croatian program?" Such fear itself is worrisome, wrote Globus' Inoslav Besker (June 7): "Allowing fear (or shame) to suppress nationality in the census or expanding minority rights on the basis of [census] data is truly vile, even if malice is unintended and not proof of [late President Franjo] Tudjman's onetime aim of reducing the Serbs in Croatia to 3 or 4 percent." In an effort to explain the census results, the government has presented documents allegedly seized after the Croatian army regained control in Krajina, a formerly Serb-held territory in central Croatia. According to Novi List, the documents indicate that Serbs left Croatia after beingÂorganized by their leaders and before Croatian troops arrived. Yet, commented Novi List columnist Jelena Lovric (June 7), the government version "carefully notes events on the Serb side, but it neglects all known evidence that the Croatian regime [at the time] had a detailed plan that it carried out to reduce the number of Serbs in Croatia." By taking such a selective approach to historical evidence, Lovric wrote, the current regime "defends Tudjman's policy and hides his crimes."  OP-ED Underneath are the contacts. Please write a letter to this two email addresses in a civilized way, with the facts and good questions. Where is the census for Croatians who left Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia. Most of the Serb population in Croatia was of military occupation forces source. Since they lost the war they left. They left alive, not like 250.000 people who died in this war from their hands. If there was no occupation and Serbian dictatorship in Croatia for 80 years there would be 0.5 - 1 % of Serbs in Croatia. Same as Croatians in Serbia.ÂFurthermore, there was no official apology of Serbs in Croatia to the Croatian people. There is no conversation of WAR REPARATIONS. Yes, we want war reparations from Serbia. As soon as possible. If they can not pay in hard currency, they have tanks and plains (that abused their neighbors for decades) electricity and minerals. There is a way if there is a will.I would like to see an article and essay about that subject. And census of how many Croatians left Vojvodina alive. Also adjectiv "A Croation" is incorrect. It should be "A Croatian" (that is under the picture) Nenad Bach Editor in Chief (212) 375-1575 phone(212) 982-6968 faxTeri Schure - publisher tschure@worldpress.orgÂAlice Chasan - editor achasan@worldpress.orgÂcheck: http://www.worldpress.org/contact.htm letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 15 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7444/1/E-THE-WASHINGTON-TIMES-Balkans-tribunal-turns-to-Clinton.html THE WASHINGTON TIMES - http://www.washingtontimes.com/ July 8, 2002 Balkans tribunal turns to Clinton By Jeffrey T. KuhnerÂZAGREB, Croatia - The Balkans war crimes tribunal is examining whether charges are warranted against former President Clinton and his aides for supporting a 1995 military offensive by Croatia that recaptured territory then held by rebel Serbian forces.The Croatian World Congress sent a letter last week demanding that Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), open a criminal investigation into Mr. Clinton and other top officials of his administration for "aiding and abetting indicted Croatian Gen. Ante Gotovina in a 1995 Croatian military operation known as 'Operation Storm.'" When asked if the prosecutor's office plans to indict Mr. Clinton and U.S. officials, Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for Mrs. Del Ponte, said: "We are working on the basis of an ongoing investigation." Besides Mr. Clinton, others named in the complaint are former National Security Adviser Anthony Lake, former Deputy National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith. Fears that American officials and soldiers will be prosecuted for participating in U.N.-backed peacekeeping efforts lie behind the Bush administration's threat to scuttle the present U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. The threat is part of a dispute involving a separate but similar U.N. tribunal, the International Criminal Court, which was modeled after the ICTY and opened its doors last week. Both courts are based in The Hague. The Balkans court angered U.S. officials two years ago when it acknowledged it was looking into a similar complaint against NATO commanders for their role in the 1999 U.S.-led bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. Court officials said at the time they felt obliged to look into all complaints placed before them, but they dropped the matter after a preliminary investigation. Gen. Gotovina was indicted by the ICTY in June 2001 on charges that he exercised "command responsibility" over a military campaign in which 150 Serbian civilians were killed. Secretly supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forces launched a massive three-day military offensive - known as "Operation Storm" - on Aug. 4, 1995, in which Croatia recovered territories occupied by rebel Serbs following Zagreb's drive for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The Croatian World Congress, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that advises the United Nations, said it believes neither Gen. Gotovina nor Clinton administration officials are guilty of war crimes. However, it said that if Mrs. Del Ponte insists on prosecuting Gen. Gotovina, then American officials should be prosecuted in the interests of "evenhanded justice" because they played a pivotal role in aiding the general's campaign in Operation Storm. The Croatian World Congress said the U.S. administration gave the green light for the operation and provided diplomatic and political support for it. But the NGO stressed that "the most just outcome would be to withdraw the indictment against Gen. Gotovina." The possibility that the Gotovina case will lead to U.S. officials being indicted by the ICTY worries some lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the House Committee on International Relations, said in a May 29 letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that at committee hearings on the ICTY, "Testimony was presented at our hearing questioning the factual basis for this indictment. "It was brought to our attention that the ICTY may investigate U.S. officials for potential command responsibility in connection with Operation Storm." Mr. Hyde said the ongoing investigation in the Gotovina case poses "risks" that U.S. officials would be prosecuted by the "U.N. tribunal for formulating or carrying out U.S. government policy." Gen. Gotovina, 48, was the military commander of Sector South of the operation that was responsible for the capture of the city Knin. He is also accused by the prosecutor's office at The Hague of overseeing the ethnic cleansing of 150,000 Serbs in Croatia who fled the military assault. He is currently in hiding, his whereabouts unknown. The United States provided military and technical assistance to Operation Storm in order to deliver a defeat to then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's goal of forging an ethnically pure "Greater Serbia."Croatian World Congress H.S.K.ÂNGO Member of the United Nationshttp://www.crowc.org letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 11 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7443/1/E-US-lends-support-for-Croatia-to-prosecute-war-crimes-at-home.html ÂU.S. lends support for Croatia to prosecute war crimes at homeÂBy EUGENE BRCIC, Associated Press Writer , Wed Jul 10,ÂZAGREB, Croatia - The United States voiced support Wednesday for the Croatian government's efforts to win the transfer of court cases pending against its nationals at the U.N. war crimes court back into the hands of its own justice authorities."We have agreed to work hand in hand to transition the justice issues back to Croatia," said Pierre-Richard Prosper, the U.S. envoy for war crimes issues.It was not immediately clear if and to what extent the American initiative was previously discussed with prosecutors in The Hague ( news - web sites), Netherlands, where the international tribunal is located.It was set up in 1993 to prosecute suspects indicted for war crimes committed during the bloody wars following the gradual disintegration of former Yugoslavia starting in 1991.The expression of U.S. support for the Croatian government in its struggle to prosecute its own war crimes suspects came only ten days after Washington made clear it does not want to recognize a newly established International Criminal Court, insisting on immunity for its own nationals.The new international tribunal was established on July 1 to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in cases where countries are unwilling or unable to dispense justice.The U.S. defied international pressure and refused to ratify a treaty setting up the court, arguing that it would expose American soldiers, diplomats or others to politically motivated prosecution."The idea of an international criminal tribunal is a noble idea, but the problem we have with the ICC is that it is a process that is unchecked and does not have sufficient safeguards in place to ensure that it is a fair, credible and non-politicized process," Prosper said.Although he did not specify, Prosper said that certain flaws in The Hague tribunal contributed to the U.S. decision to oppose the ICC."(There were) oversights that allow us to take a decision that we are taking today, to transition the justice back to the state, to work hand in hand with Croatia and to create the partnership that will bring the full sovereignty rights back to the country," Prosper said.Two Croat army generals so far have been indicted in The Hague for atrocities against minority Serbs, while Croatian media have speculated that several other indictments are looming at the end of summer.In a tangible sign of support, Prosper said a team of American experts would be dispatched this fall to Croatia to help the local justice system handle war crimes cases at home."The U.S. is pleased and satisfied with the level of cooperation Croatia has shown the tribunal," Prosper said. "We believe that Croatia has been a leader in the region and is well on the way toward putting the war crimes issue behind them." letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 11 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7442/1/H-DrMarko-Tarle-Izborni-sustav---2.html Veliki Tin Ujevic rece: »Mi smo išli putem, put je bio dug/ kasno opazismo, da je taj put krug«.Izborni sustav - Drugi dioMARKO TARLEIz neslužbenih izjava politickih vrhovnika i objavljenih stranackih priopcenja, prilicno se jasnim cini stav današnje politicke pozicije u odnosu na izborni zakon za predstojece, izgleda prijevremene, parlamentarne izbore.Raspravljat ce se samo o broju izbornih jedinica i stupnju otvorenosti izbornih lista. Razmjerni izborni sustav, sa znacajkama i rezultatima koji su ga u nas dosad pratili, ostat ce, cini se, neizmijenjen.Poziciji se, dakle, svida model koji je potvrdio još predsjednik Tudman, ona bježi od zakona prema kojem se pred narodom mora potvrdivati pojedinac, a ne kolektivitet stranke. Jedino HSS koketira s vecinskim sustavom i to, izgleda, zbog velikog broja istaknutih lokalnih dužnosnika. Ni oporba nije digla glas protiv razmjernih lista.Treba sagledati što to zaista znaci, kakav se parlament može konstituirati slijedom takvog izbornog zakona, kakva se vlada iz takvog Sabora može izvesti, kako može djelovati tako izabrana vlast. Grcevito držanje noktima za proporcionalne liste odaje koliko vecinski sustav ugrožava pozicije svih današnjih politicara.Nije teško pretpostaviti kako ce izgledati strukture vlasti nakon novih izbora razmjernim sustavom. Bit ce samo poneko novo ime, no »princip je isti, sve su ostalo nijanse«. Dobro nam poznati stranacki vode, pozicijski i opozicijski, kreirat ce »društvene igre« uz malo promiješane karte.Sve smo to vec iskušali, kako u prvih deset, tako i u ove dvije i pol godine. Živjeli smo iz godine u godinu sve lošije, uz mnoštvo obecanja o izlasku iz krize. Zašto bi nepromijenjen izborni sustav dao bitno razlicit ishod: odgovorniji parlament, kreativniju vladu i nekorumpirano društvo? Najava visokog postotka apstinencije najbolji je odgovor na to pitanje.Nova igracka i zamka za lakovjerne su »otvorene izborne liste«. Zanemarimo li nesnalaženje mnogih biraca u tim izbornim novostima, manipulacije s preskocima u zaokruživanju kandidata nece biti jedina politicka igra. Prijelazi iz parlamentarne u izvršnu vlast bit ce, prema dosadašnjim iskustvima, široko korišteni za politikantske smicalice i osobnu korist, te za promjenu sastava Sabora prema nahodenju politickih celnika.Ukratko, ne vjerujem da ce nas nedace, do kojih su dovele razmjerne liste, sutra mimoici zbog otvorenih izbornihlista. Dosta nam je »Gulivera rijeci i Liliputanaca djela«ÂSvima nam je dosta rijeci iza kojih ne stoji akcija ili, citirajuci našeg velikog publicista, dosta nam je »Gulivera rijeci i Liliputanaca djela«. Zar nismo citali i culi kako se Stjepan Radic suprotstavio svima u Saboru, ostavši u manjini, no i kako se uskoro pokazalo da je bio potpuno u pravu! Ima li danas u vlasti takvih ljudi?Nažalost, nema ih, a trebamo ih više no ikad. Ne zamijeni li podosta današnjih politicara mjesta s protagonistima nove civilizacije, nema poboljšanja u našim životima još dugo, dugo vremena.Kakav izborni sustav može donijeti nove ljude i istinske promjene?Vecinski, bar u udjelu kojim je bio zastupljen na izborima 1990. Uz polovicu zastupnika na listama stranaka, recimo sljedbenike politickih ideologija, socijalno-demokratske, populisticke, seljacke, liberalne i tako dalje, biracko tijelo treba birati i pojedince, iza kojih stoji osobni životopis, profesionalni i politicki uspjesi ili neuspjesi, društveni ugled i neokaljano ime.Kandidat, ali i njegov zamjenik, stajat ce pred biracima, slušati njihova pitanja, izlagati im osobne stavove, obrazlagati im što i kako kani poduzeti, reci im kako ga pozvati na odgovornost, pa i smijeniti, ako iznevjeri obecanja. Takav pojedinacni kandidat ne mora biti clan neke politicke stranke, nego pojedinac, pripadnik društvene udruge, koja, ako to izborni zakon zahtijeva, preraste u politicku stranku.Vecinski kandidat mora osobno steci povjerenje biraca i njima biti izravno odgovoran, za razliku od onoga s liste koji ulazak u Sabor zahvaljuje najužem stranackom vodstvu, pa se nužno mora ponašati poslušnicki.ÂPrijede li vecinski izabrani kandidat u izvršnu vlast, u Saboru ga zamjenjuje neposredno izabrani zamjenik. Nad kandidatima izabranim vecinskim sustavom stranacki mocnici nemaju ingerencija sve dok izabranik poštuje gradanski moral i lojalnost svojoj zajednici, a posebno svojim biracima.Uvodenje vecinskog sustava u izborni zakon jedini je nacin da u Sabor, a potom i u vladu, udu ljudi sposobni oduprijeti se politikantskim smicalicama stranackih vodstava, glasovati po savjesti, a ne za probitke pojedinaca ili interesnih skupina, boriti se za prosperitet, a ne za održanje dotadašnjeg stanja. Sve to stranacka stega onemogucava izabraniku s liste.To je ujedno i društveni ispit zrelosti za hrvatsko biracko tijelo, jer se jedino tako briše jadikovka »nemamo pravog izbora, svi su oni jednako loši, nema poštenih politicara«. Uz vecinski izborni sustav pred biracko ce tijelo, siguran sam, izaci stotine danas malo poznatih pojedinaca sa svježim idejama o duhovnom i gospodarskom ozdravljenju naroda i države.Nema uopce sumnje da bi odziv biraca bio mnogo veci no u slucaju razmjernog izbornog sustava. Tek bi tako na glasacima bila puna odgovornost za sastav Sabora ivlade.U svibnju 1990. glasali smo prema izbornom zakonu koji su nam skrojili reformirani komunisti, smatrajuci da samo tako izbjegavaju prigovore o namještenim izborima, da samo tako izbori imaju atribuciju potpune demokraticnosti. Zar su ova vlada, ovaj Sabor i današnji politicari manje vjerni demokraciji no ona komunisticko-jugoslavenska vlast iz 1990. godine?Nemajmo iluzija, petorka bi nas sve neizmjerno iznenadila pristankom na vecinski izborni sustav, jer on znaci ne samo rastanak s apsolutnom kontrolom vlasti, nego i pomak prema novom, modernijem putu društvenog razvoja. Mnogi su od njih ljudi starog kova, starih navika i zasada, bez dovoljno znanja potrebnih za izgradnju informatickog društva.ÂPa kako onda doci do izbornog zakona koji je preduvjet za poštenije pravosude, procesuiranje korupcije i kriminala, rast gospodarstva i zapošljavanja, za svjetlo na kraju tunela?Prije tridesetak godina americki je predsjednik Nixon morao, želeci se riješiti upornog istražitelja u aferi Watergate, otpustiti cetiri celnika ministarstva pravosuda, jer nisu htjeli provesti neprihvatljiv predsjednikov nalog. Javnost je pobjesnjela pa su Bijelu kucu i Kongres tog vikenda preplavila tri milijuna pisama, brzojava i telefonskih poziva s jednom rijecju: »Odlazi«!Tek su tada politicari predsjedniku okrenuli leda, pa je Richard Nixon dao ostavku. Javnost je smijenila najmocnijeg covjekasvijeta. Mislim da i u nas javnost mora odigrati presudnu ulogu, jer je rijec o sudbini cijelog naroda.Referenduma o izbornom zakonu zacijelo nece biti. Zato bi svaki gradanin koji smatra da se sljedeci izbori trebaju održati na vecinski nacin morao to priopciti celnicima Sabora, vlade, pa i dnevnom tisku, i to elektronickom poštom, telefaks-porukom, pismom ili brzojavom. Pa cak i osobno, licem u lice.Vjerujte, prema starim Latinima, glas naroda je i glas boga.Izborni zakon iz 1990. doveo je na scenu ljude koji su zadatak tog doba uspješno proveli. Zakon iz 2000. nije uspio dovesti na površinu politicare za uspješno provodenje društvenih promjena. Ne izborimo li se sada za vecinski sustav bit cemo, bojim se, osudeni na ponavljanje društvene lekcije od 1990. do danas.Veliki Tin Ujevic rece: »Mi smo išli putem, put je bio dug/ kasno opazismo, da je taj put krug«.Želimo li nastaviti to nesretno kruženje?Autor je doktor znanosti, znanstveni konzultant, publicist iz Zagreba letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 11 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7447/1/E-Croatian-president-plans-to-visit-Libya.html ÂPresident MesićCroatian president says he plans to visit LibyaÂZAGREB, Croatia - Croatia's president said Monday that he has accepted an invitation from Moammar Gadhafi to visit Libya sometime in the near future.Stipe Mesic said the invitation was extended during a brief meeting Sunday with Gadhafi's son, Seif el-Islam, was was in Croatia on a private visit.A date for the visit has not been set yet, Mesic told Croatia's state-run radio.Mesic said that "good relations" with Libya - the first non-European nation to recognize Croatia as an independent state in early 1992 - should lead to greater economic cooperation.Mesic refused to comment on the U.S. government's decision to keep Libya on a list of countries it says supports terrorism, stressing that Croatia must act in its own economic interest."Croatia's economic interest is to find markets for its goods," he said, adding that doing business with Libya would create thousands of jobs for Croatians.Mesic, apparently suggesting that Libya is no longer an enemy of the West, emphasized that Gadafi eventually allowed two of its citizens to be tried for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight that killed 270 people.Mesic also said that a recent decision to cancel a dlrs 12 million deal with Iran - also on Washington's list of countries supporting terror - at the request of the United States would have no bearing on future deals with Libya."These are not identical cases," Mesic said.Mesic's connection to Libya apparently dates back to the 1980s, when he headed an architectural firm that built there. Several construction companies from the former Yugoslavia, which Croatia belonged to until 1991, did business in Libya.Âhttp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020701/ap_wo_en_po/croatia_libya_1 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 05 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7446/1/E-Croatian-Prime-Minister-Resigns.html ÂIvica RačanCroatian Prime Minister ResignsBy Snjezana VukicZAGREB, Croatia. Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan resigned Friday in a political maneuver apparently aimed at forcing a rival party out of his coalition government.Racan informed his Cabinet ministers that he resigned during a closed government session Friday morning, HINA reported. The resignation triggers the collapse of the 30-month-old governing coalition."The fate of the citizens of our country is more important than mine or anyone's political career, and that's why I resigned today," Racan said in a televised address to the nation. His resignation was triggered by several political disputes with the Social Liberals, the second-largest party in his five-party coalition, he said."I admit that the citizens were right in thinking in the past few weeks we devoted too much time to our internal political discussions instead of solving their problems," he said. "Such a behavior endangered everything positive that we have achieved. "At that moment, I had to say that we cannot work that way any longer."Racan also said that he was ready to form a new government, in a new composition, "if I get support from the president."The Liberals' leader, Drazen Budisa, said outside the government building that his party "has now again become a political opposition."President Stipe Mesic will now nominate a prime minister designate – widely believed to beRacan, who then will have 30 days to form a new Cabinet and get it approved by parliament.Racan has indicated he plans to form a new government without the Social Liberals by including several smaller parties. Analysts believe that strategy will garner enough votes in parliament to get the new Cabinet approved.If parliament does not approve the new government, new elections would be called.The current Cabinet will continue its work until a new government is formed, Racan said.The move is not expected to create a new crisis and could lead to a Cabinet that is more stable than the five-party coalition that in January 2000 replaced the nationalists of the late President FranjoTudjman.Racan's government has launched political and economic reforms, moving Croatia closer to the European Union and NATO. But its internal fights, particularly between Racan's Social Democrats and Budisa's Liberals, have taken much of their time, slowing down or stymieing the government's work.The pro-Western government's popularity has eroded with its failure to revive the economy, reduce the 23-percent unemployment rate and improve living standards.To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27610-2002Jul5.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 05 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7445/1/H-Sto-je-za-drzavu-u-tranziciji-najvaznije---MARKO-TARLE.html  Autonomnost male i siromašne nacije i njena nepovezanost sa svijetom vode izravno u propastHrvatska je locirana na jednom od krajeva osovine koja zapocinje u Bosni, a završava u Pjong Jangu. Logistika americke i europske vojske smještene u susjedstvima, istocno od nas, dobrano prelazi preko našeg teritorija, pa ovisi o stabilnosti našeg društvaMARKO TARLETijekom života u Jugoslaviji, koji je ogranicavao naša prava formalnim i neformalnim instaliranjem manjinskih grupa kao stožera društvene moci, u Hrvata je rasla želja za vlastitom državom u kojoj ce puška i novac biti u hrvatskoj ruci, državom za koju ce »svi sokolovi život dati«, a u kojoj ce »samo Bog stolovati iznad hrvatskog Sabora«.To se odredenje ocitovalo u rezultatima referenduma u proljece 1991. Prohujale su godine, naši snovi su postali stvarnost, i zato se to teže otrežnjavamo od davnih zabluda o dosezima suverenosti hrvatske države.O cemu je zapravo rijec? Prije devedesete gledali smo položaj Hrvatske u svijetu iz naše perspektive, iz rakursa vlastitih želja i nada, a ne prema našim realnim mogucnostima i narodnim znacajkama, razmatrajuci samo naše interese, a ne misleci da ih i oni jaci od nas, takoder, imaju.ÂDanas se otrežnjavamo, pocinjemo shvacati naše slabosti i civilizacijske domete, no cesto zaboravljajuci globalne promjene, a posebno one poslije devetog rujna: borbu protiv »carstva zla« zamijenio je globalni sukob s »osovinom zla«.ÂNa ovim je prostorima tijekom hladnog rata Broz mogao birati srednji put, te zato cak biti i honoriran, danas nam George W. Bush ne ostavlja takve mogucnosti.ÂGeopoliticki položaj, na srecu ili ne, vrlo cvrsto determinira stav svjetskih mocnika prema Hrvatskoj. Zato je politikantsko opsjenarstvo zahtijevati naš samostalni put u buducnost, i to upravo danas, kada smo napokon, prvi put u povijesti, svrstani na stranu gospodara svijeta.ÂHrvatska je locirana na jednom od krajeva osovine koja zapocinje u Bosni, a završava u Pjong Jangu. Logistika americke i europske vojske smještene u susjedstvima, istocno od nas, dobrano prelazi preko našeg teritorija, pa ovisi o stabilnosti našeg društva.Gospodari svijeta imaju danas jasne i znacajne interese na Balkanu, a imat ce ih vjerojatno još dugo. To objašnjava razlike izmedu nas i, recimo, Litve, Šri Lanke ili Urugvaja, kod kojih nema izravno ukljucenih americkih interesa, osim stvaranja zajednicke civilizacijske baze.ÂMoramo naci svoje pravo mjesto u svijetu koji tek sada oblikuje nekoliko novih temeljnih postulata. Novi svjetski poredak inaugurira danas imperijalni suverenitet supersile u kojemu cak i Europska unija ne igra jednu od prvih violina.U današnjem svjetskom sustavu sasvim je ocito distanciranje novog globalizma od neoliberalizma, te dosadašnje idejne potke amerikanizma. Ideološka alternativa neoliberalizmu postaje neki novi oblik totalitarizma: društvena i osobna sigurnost dobivaju, i to cak konsenzusom, prednost pred ljudskim pravima.ÂDanašnja postrujanska globalizacija stvara preduvjete za eliminaciju multikulturalizma, tog kamena temeljca zapadne liberalne demokracije, što se dogada usporedno u Americi i Europi. Zasade medunarodne ljevice dovele su do nekih visokih dostignuca dvadesetoga stoljeca, kao što su antirasizam, dekolonijalizacija, prava žena i djece, te obrazovni i kulturološki egalitarizam, a to se sve poslije rujna 2001. stavlja u drugi plan.Uz gospodarske neuspjehe, i u toj cinjenici treba tražiti uzroke sloma lijeve politicke misli diljem Europe. Strah od terorizma dovodi desna politicka strujanja za kormilo vlasti.ÂNe treba pritom zaboraviti da samo lijeva misao može iznjedriti sustav antiglobalizacije, alternativnu politicku organizaciju globalne protocnosti, koja bi mogla ugroziti vitalne interese razvijenih nacija i svjetskog kapitala.Novi svjetski poredak ugraduje u svoje premise neke od postulata Samuela Huntingtona, a posebno tezu da je terorizam stvorio svijet neogranicena rizika, i to bez mogucnosti njegove potpune kontrole.Slom komunistickog društva dogodio se ne samo zbog gospodarskih razloga, nego i zbog prodora informacija o životu izvan »carstva zla«. Pretpostaviti je da ce se rezervati u kojima se rada današnji terorizam postupno reformirati stupanjem na scenu novih i obrazovanijih generacija opcinjenih Internetom, elektronickom poštom, globalnom komunikacijom, informacijom i znanjem.ÂToga se i boje nosioci moci u tim regijama, pa je njihov terorizam zapravo usmjeren prema prevlasti u njihovom civilizacijskom krugu. Važan globalni poticaj za slom takvih težnji je održavanje veza i dijaloga medu civilizacijama.U sklopu novih politickih odrednica važno je prepoznati i razlikovati cinitelje globalna znacenja od onih lokalne provenijencije: malena i slaba društva pate, pa i nestaju, ako jaki i mocni nisu u njima prepoznali svoj interes, neki oblik bliskosti, ili globalnu važnost.Jasno je danas više no prije godinu-dvije, da puna autonomnost male i siromašne nacije i njena nepovezanost sa svijetom vodi izravno prema propasti.ÂNaš zemljopisni položaj na pocetnoj tocki osovine zla pobuduje izrazit interes mocnika za nas, a mi to nedovoljno iskorištavamo.Kako bi se trebala postaviti Hrvatska u novim globalnim uvjetima?ÂPonajprije mora slijediti rijeci Franje Asiškoga, koji rece kako treba imati strpljenja i podnijeti ono što ne možemo mijenjati, zatim hrabrosti u pokušajima promjene onoga što možemo mijenjati, ali ponajprije mudrosti u razlikovanju tih dviju razlicitosti.ÂMi se danas u Hrvatskoj, potaknuti od medunarodnih institucija, tek borimo za snošljivost, multikulturalnost i manjinska prava, a svijet vec hrli, i to bez opceg koncenzusa, u nove oblike globalizacije.ÂNaša je suverenost zbog toga realno reducirana: nismo mogli zaokružiti svoj teritorij bez privole, pa i pomoci supersile, ne možemo vratiti u svoje krilo Prevlaku prije nego se prociste odnosi izmedu Crne Gore i Srbije, namecu nam se ugovori sa Slovenijom, valutu moramo držati na stabilnoj razini, nema financijske pomoci za privredu dok ne stavimo pod stranu kontrolu sve što u nas vrijedi, kako to isto ne bi mi sami potkradali i korupcijom uništili.Mnoge naše promašaje, one koji mogu voditi prema destabilizaciji države i regije te ugroziti interese gospodara svijeta, pomalo ispravljamo prema njihovim nalozima: ucinkovitost pravosuda, organizaciju vojske i policije, socijalna prava.ÂPritom nema primisli da sve to što smo prisiljeni provoditi ne služi i nama samima, da po svojoj volji to ne bi trebali uraditi. Pri tom je jedino katastrofalna sveopca rasprodaja banaka i nepovratan odljev hrvatske akumulacije prema profitabilnijim lokacijama.A što nam to onda ostaje na raspolaganju za potpuno slobodno upravljanje?ÂMnogo toga, a zapravo sve ono što je za državu u tranziciji najvažnije: smanjivanje nezaposlenosti, gradnja stanova, poticanje izvoza, socijalna skrb, razvoj poljoprivrede, ucinkovitost školstva, permanentno obrazovanje, procvat znanosti, informatizacija društva, unapredenje kulture, zaštita okoliša, reforma prostornog uredenja, mijenjanje civilizacijskih navika i obicaja. U svemu tome je ostalo malo politike, tu ne treba politikantstva.A kako to danas radimo?Loše, amaterski, birokratski, neodlucno, neznalacki. Sve što trebamo sami uciniti vrlo je strucan posao. Mislim da je jasno tko ga treba voditi: ljudi s jasnim dokazima o strucnosti. Prema medunarodnim kriterijima.A danas ih je u našoj vlasti malo. To nam je zadatak o temi što i kako mijenjati na predstojecim izborima.Autor je doktor znanosti, znanstveni je konzultant i publicist. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 05 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7448/1/H-Croatia-Cancels-Deal-With-Iran.html ÂÂÂCroatiaCancels Deal With IranThe Associated Press, Wed 19 Jun 2002 ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - Following aU.S. request, Croatia has canceled a $12 million deal with Iran to buildamphibian military patrol ships, local media reported Wednesday.``Croatia gave up a business deal with a Middle East country, worth severalmillion U.S. dollars,'' because of cooperation with the U.S.-ledanti-terror coalition, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told a parliamentcommittee Tuesday.Picula did not identify the country, but the Vecernji List newspaper, citingunidentified government officials, said Wednesday that Croatia was supposed tobuild amphibian military patrol ships for Iran worth $12 million. Washington has offered another deal, worth about $10 million,as a sort of compensation, Picula told a committee in charge of foreign policy.Picula, who was asked whether the country of 4.5 million people suffered anyeconomic damage for siding with the United States in its war on terror, declinedto say more on either deal. The Vecernji List said the boats were to be armed withcannons and heavy machine guns. Iran apparently opted for Croatia because two ofits shipyards have military-oriented capabilities and because its boats wereknown to be of high quality.The deal would have been a desired financial injection for Croatian shipyardsand the entire economy, ruined by war, corruption and failure to seriouslycompete on Western markets. In January, President Bush said Iran, Iraq and North Koreawere part of an ``axis of evil.' letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 03 Jul 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7449/1/E-Krsko---Nuclear-Plant-in-Dispute.html   EVENING NEWS 26.6.2002. PM and Deputy Express Opposite Views on Krsko Agreement Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan expressed dissatisfaction with the statement made by the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS)that it will not vote for the ratification of a Croatian-Slovene agreement on the jointly-owned nuclear power plant Krsko. Racan said before the meeting the coalition had reached an agreement on the plant several days ago and that he could not comment on the fact that the HSLS was now opposing it until the meeting ended. Racan recalled the current situation with Krsko. Croatia does not own or manage the plant and it can use electricity from it under Slovenia's conditions, he said. This is why the Croatian government has been advocating the signing of the agreement with Slovenia. After the agreement is signed, it will be possible to decide "if the plant will be given away for one kuna, or sold", he said. Before Racan arrived at the meeting, Budisa explained to reporters the reason his party was against the ratification of the agreement, signed by the two countries late last year. He said the HSLS considered two articles of the agreement contentious. The first article is Article 10, which gives Slovenia the possibility to decide about Krsko's closure on its own, while Croatia remains obliged to care for the disposal of nuclear waste. The other contentious article is Article 16, which stipulates that Croatia can be left without its ownership share in the plant, without stating the concrete reasons due to which this can happen.   Krško Nuclear Plant letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 28 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7450/1/E-Remembering-the-War-in-Dubrovnik.html Remembering the War in Dubrovnik.Hrvatski Vjesnik (Australia) New Generation SupplementNo. 922 21 June 2002Brian GallagherI recently visited Croatia, taking the time to visit Dubrovnik. The city was as beautiful as ever.ÂWhat caught my eye was a paperback book entitled Dubrovnik in War, published by MaticaÂHrvatska - Dubrovnik. This was the 2001 imprint of a book printed during the war and contains aÂnumber of essays on the war, but primarily carries many shocking photographs of war damage.ÂAnother item that caught my alert eye was an excellent thirty minute video on the same topic wasÂalso prominently available. It simply showed scenes from the war on Dubrovnik, withoutÂnarration. The video clearly showed the attacks for what they were: Barbaric attacks on aÂdefenceless city. Simply put, war crimes.The book and video were prominently on display in a number of shops on the Stradun, along withÂother similar material. This is a good thing. There is a great effort to try and forget the war andÂcreate an illusion of "equal guilt", as opposed to the truth of Serbian expansion effectively backed byÂcertain Western nations.The book and video would no doubt be regarded by some as "relentless propaganda". That was aÂterm recently used by a notorious extreme left wing Croat journalist- whose Yugo-nostalgicÂlifework appears to be to create the illusion of equal guilt - to describe why Croats are suspicious ofÂSerbs, and vice versa.The book and video clearly show why some people may still be suspicious of Serbian intentions.ÂIndeed, given Dubrovnik's - and Croatia's - role in European history, such suspicion should beÂshared by all, not just Croats.No doubt many tourists who purchased these items will have been shocked by the photographsÂand footage of the war; incontrovertible evidence of who the aggressor was and that these eventsÂreally did happen. Such events should not be forgotten for political convenience.ÂIt is a testimony to the independent spirit of Dubrovnik that such items are on prominent display;Âright in the faces of any visiting international officials who promote the "all sides equally guilty"Âline, extreme left-wing journalists and those that supported Serbian aggression.Neither item was expensive; I recommend the purchase of both to anyone visiting Dubrovnik.(c) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 27 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7452/1/E-CAROL-S-MARINOVICH-KANSAS-CITY-MAYOR-AT-US-CONFERENCE.html ÂCarol S. Marinovich, Mayor of Kansas Citywww.wycokck.org/mayor/ mayor2.htmlÂÂÂÂCarol S. Marinovich is the Mayor of Kansas City, KS. Population 146,866 Phone (913) 573-5010 Mayor's e-mail address:Âmyrcarol@toto.net city's web site: http://www.wycokck.orgÂBy Melanie Fonder - WEnews correspondentMADISON, Wis. (WOMENSENEWS)--She doesn't want to sound sexist, but Mayor Catherine Melchert believes thatwomen mayors do their jobs a bit differently than do their male counterparts."I think that women probably bring the hearts and souls out of our community a little more," Melchert, the mayor ofBartlett, Ill., told a panel of her peers at an early-morning meeting of women mayors at the U.S. Conference of Mayorsearlier this month.About 50, or about 17 percent, were women were among the approximately 300 mayors attending mayors' meeting lastweek. More than 1,000 mayors are members of the mayors' conference and about 20 percent are women. The conferenceconducts leadership training for its members and works to strengthen cooperation between officials at the city, stateand national levels.Melchert and many other women mayors believe to win and retain public office they have to put greater emphasis ontheir strengths as problem solvers. And one of their big problems now is the lack of women in the leadership ranks of themayors' conference. While women do have leadership positions within the mayor's conference, their numbers aresmaller than many members of the conference would like them to be. The paucity of females in leadership does not bodewell for women who are trying to leverage their experience as mayors to run for state or national posts.The issue is one of concern to the Women Mayors' Caucus, a group within the mayors' conference designed to encouragewomen mayors to fully develop their leadership roles. The caucus was founded in 1983 by now-U.S. Sen. DianneFeinstein when she was mayor of San Francisco, but her rise in politics has been the exception rather than the ruleamong women mayors.Mayor Thalia Kay of Pemberton, N.J., said that while the women mayors had done much to change the reality of the"good ol' boys' club," the fact that there had only been three women to serve as president of the 70-year-old mayors'conference was troubling. Not until 1981 was a woman--then-Mayor Helen Boosalis of Lincoln, Neb.--elected the firstfemale president of the group."We've got to do something," Kay said. "Wherever you go, people will still rush to shake your husband's hand and say,'Mayor.'"11 Women Are Among 52 Conference LeadersFour women mayors serve as trustees on the conference's 22-member executive committee and eight women--one ofwhom is stepping down at the end of the month--serve on the 30-member advisory board. The president of the groupmust serve first on the advisory board and then move to the executive committee in order to even have a chance of beingelected president. Both the committee and the board are the starting point for the mayors in determining their publicpolicy positions and lobbying efforts in Washington. Getting to know representatives on Capitol Hill is often a boon tomayors who later run for Congress.J. Thomas Cochran, executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, told the women that they must run for keypositions within the mayors' conference to ensure that the group's leaders represent its membership."While we're doing homeland security, there are other things we have to do to keep this nation strong and keep citiesstrong," Cochran said. "We need good women on our board."Members at the meeting elected Shelia Young, mayor of San Leandro, Calif., as the caucus interim chair. Her hometownis in Alameda County, across the bay from San Francisco. Mayor Sara Bost of Irvington, N.J., stepped down from theposition as chair with a year to go in her term and decided not to run for re-election as mayor. Bost, the first AfricanAmerican to chair the women's caucus, made her decision to retire from both positions following federal corruptioncharges brought against her earlier this year. Bost has entered a not guilty plea and the trial date is uncertain.Others who attended the meeting said it was difficult to juggle the demands of public life with family and that taking onanother role would only exacerbate that problem. Kay noted that some women officeholders step down when theybelieve they have accomplished what they set out to do when they ran for office."I think we're more focused on how we get it done rather than power brokering," Kay said.Women Mayors Needed to Connect with Women in CongressStill, women mayors who talk with their counterparts in state and federal government about common policy goals aremore likely to rise through the ranks of the mayoral leadership, Cochran said. The mayors' conference often takes stanceson urban issues that can have a great impact on the state or federal level, he said."We need to get back a strong relationship with women senators and House members," Cochran said. "I think if we'vegot 40 or 50 women mayors working with 13 senators we'll get something done."Mayor Thalia Kay, from New Jersey, noted how her former Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman broke the glassceiling on the state government level there. Whitman is now head of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Bushadministration. Kay also noted that longtime N.J. Republican Rep. Marge Roukema is retiring this year, thinning theranks of women politicians in the state.Similar to the mayor's conference, not enough other women are volunteering to take over the leadership roles, accordingto Kay.In addition to encouraging each other to run for leadership positions within the conference, Arlene Mulder, mayor ofArlington Heights, Ill., said women mayors should utilize each other more than twice a year at conference meetings. Partof that ongoing dialogue, she said, should include travel to other cities to discuss strategies against problems in theirown cities, including how to run for re-election.Still, for all that needs to be done, 75-year-old Evelyn Lord, mayor of Beaumont, Texas, remembers when women andpolitics did not quite mesh the way they do today. Now, Lord says, strong bonds between women mayors have aidedwomen who go from city hall to state politics and even Congress."I can remember the time when women did not help each other," Lord said. "Women back then had to compete so hard tobe in the rat race. Now they realize they can help each other on the way up."Melanie Fonder is a freelance writer and former staff writer for The Hill, a weekly newspaper that covers Congress. She'sco-author of a new book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government."For more information:U.S. Conference of Mayors: - http://www.usmayors.org/ÂWomen Mayors' Caucus: -Âhttp://www.usmayors.org/uscm/about/affiliate_organizations/elected_affiliates/women_m.htmlÂNational Women's Political Caucus: - http://www.nwpc.org/ÂSource: http://www.womensenews.orgÂCarol S. MarinovichMayor/CEOÂUnified GovernmentÂTerm of Office: April 1997-April 2001, April 1, 2001-April, 2005ÂPersonal InformationMarriedEducationÂBishop Ward High School, 1968ÂB.S. in Education, Saint Mary College, 1972ÂM.S. in Education, University of Kansas, 1980Occupation (Past)Mayor of the City of Kansas City, Kansas, April 1995 to September 30, 1997ÂKansas City, Kansas City Council, 1989-1995 (Councilwoman, District 2)ÂCoordinator, Special Education, Unified School District 500 Wyandotte Special Education Cooperative, 1981-1995ÂEducator, August 1972-June 1981ÂCivic ActivitiesÂLeague of Kansas Municipalities Governing BoardÂU.S. Conference of MayorsÂChildren's Miracle Network Board of DirectorsÂChair, Juvenile Corrections Advisory BoardÂMetropolitan Arts Council Board of DirectorsInternational Women's FoundationÂPartnership for Children Board of DirectorsÂMid-America Regional Council 2nd Vice PresidentÂGreater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, 1996 to presentÂKCK Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, 1997 to presentRosedale Development Association MemberPresident of the League of Kansas Municipalities Governing Board, 2000ÂVice President of the League of Kansas Municipalities Governing Board, 1999ÂMember, Fannie Mae National Advisory Council 1997-1999ÂAdvisory Board of the Kansas City Year 2000ÂCoalition, 1998-1999 Convener, State of Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority Judicial District 29, 1998ÂNational League of Cities, Community and Economic Development Steering Committee, 1998ÂKansas Development Finance Authority, Board of Directors, 1997-1999National League of Cities, Public Safety and Crime Prevention Steering Committee, 1996-1997ÂAttorney General's Committee on Brighter SunshineÂPast President, Kansas City, Kansas Women's Chamber of Commerce, 1987-1995ÂPast President, Kansas City, Kansas Administration & Supervisor's AssociationÂLeadership 2000 (Graduate of first class, 1987)ÂCivic Leadership Training Council, Inc., Board of DirectorsÂAssociation of Aid Physically Impaired Children of KCK (Member of Advisory Board)Avenue Area Inc. (Board of Directors)Economic Opportunity Foundation, Inc. (EOF) Board of TrusteesSalvation Army Advisory BoardÂRecognitions/AwardsÂ1999, Ingram's of Kansas City's Most Influential Business Women's AwardÂ1999, Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award from the National Boy Scouts of AmericaÂ1998, Distinguished Leadership Award Recipient, National Association for Community LeadershipÂ1995, First woman elected Mayor of Kansas City, KansasÂ1994, YWCA Hearts of Gold Award HonoreeÂ1994, Santa Fe Trail Council of Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction RecipientÂ1990, Listed in Who's Who in Government Services1990, Recipient of the "Hats Off Salute" Award to women who have made a difference in thecommunityÂ1989, First woman elected to the Kansas City, Kansas City Council © Unified Government - 701 North 7th Street - Kansas City - Kansas - 66101 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 25 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7451/1/E-Lord-Roberston-in-Zagreb-for-NATO-and-Regional-Stability.html ÂNATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson right, talks with Croatian President Stipe Mesic during the RegionalStability and Co-operation meeting of NATO, Croatia and south-eastern Europe, held in the Croatian capitalZagreb, Monday June 24, 2002. (AP Photo/Hrvoje Knez)ÂSpeech by NATO Secretary General Lord Robertsonat the international conference on"Regional Stability and Cooperation: NATO, Croatia and South-East Europe"Zagreb, Croatia - 24 June 2002President Mesic,Excellencies,Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to be here. Let me begin by thanking the Croatian Institute for InternationalÂRelations and the Croatian Atlantic Club for organising this important conference, and the Friedrich EbertStiftung for sponsoring it together with NATO. Some of the most knowledgeable and influential people on security in South-East Europe are gathered heretoday. Your discussions will contribute to our common goal of fostering stability and cooperation in this region,a region that is so often referred to as "troubled". Calling South-East Europe "troubled" has become a habit to many commentators, especially from outsidethis region. But it is becoming a rather outdated label. Because if South-East Europe is not yet a haven oftranquillity, the region is certainly much less troubled today than it was even a year ago, when I last visitedCroatia. Then, for example, it was not at all certain that the ethnic Albanian community in Southern Serbia wouldÂaccept a peace plan offered by the Belgrade authorities. There were frequent outbursts of violence inKosovo, calling into question the elections due to be held in the province later that year. And in Bosnia, eruptions ofextremist activity directly challenged both the Dayton Peace Agreement and the country's legitimateinstitutions. Just 12 months ago, these were all very real security concerns, with potentially far-reaching consequencesfor the entire region and beyond. And NATO was working hard to deal with them, together with its Partners -keeping the peace through robust operations, and applying strong political pressure on all parties to live up theirinternational responsibilities, and to work for diplomatic solutions to disagreements. However, the most immediate crisis was the tense stand-off between ethnic Albanian rebels and theÂGovernment of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Fortunately, learning from our experience elsewherein South-East Europe, we had seen this crisis coming style="mso-spacerun: yes"> And through early andconstant engagement, NATO was able - together with the EU and the OSCE - to avert an all-out civil war, andpersuade the two parties to reach a political agreement. NATO proved that early and timely intervention can make a real difference. And it then continued toÂcontribute to security by assisting in the collection of weapons, and by providing support for EU and OSCEmonitors. As a result, the security environment has improved significantly over the past year or so. And it hasÂimproved not just in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but throughout South-East Europe. In sum, asrecently noted by both NATO Foreign and Defence Ministers, prospects for a brighter future throughout theregion are much improved. The NATO Allies have obviously been encouraged by this positive change - not least because it showsÂthat their efforts have started to pay off. Slowly but surely, a region once notorious for brutal conflict is enjoyingdeepening stability and developing democracy, and is steadily getting closer to European and Euro-Atlanticinstitutions. Which is a net advantage to this region, to Europe, and to international security more broadly. The generally more positive picture has also allowed the Alliance to decide on a rationalisation of itsÂoperations in South East Europe, and a more regional approach to specific aspects of those operations. Afterconsultation with non-NATO troop contributing partners, Allies have decided on a series of changes to SFORand KFOR aimed at providing a smaller, lighter, more mobile and flexible force posture, one that will be morecost effective and better able to meet current challenges. This decision by the Alliance - which will be implemented over time - is a sign of success. It reflects theÂpositive change that is clearly visible throughout the region. And it is grounded in the belief that localÂpopulations and institutions will continue to take more responsibility for their own security, stability andÂprosperity. Which is, of course, as it should be. The Alliance is determined to continue to play its full role in the achievement of the internationalÂcommunity's objectives. It will place a greater emphasis on engaging the countries in the region politically -- incooperative security mechanisms such as the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and Partnership for Peace. Andit will continue to lead sizeable contingents of forces in Bosnia and in Kosovo - forces that will focus even morestrongly on the current security challenges in the region. The challenges I am referring to are of a regional, cross-border character, and hence require a forcefulÂcooperative response. They include the illegal movement of people, arms and drugs; criminal and terrorist gangsfeeding from such criminal activities; and the way these gangs encourage both criminal aggression and ethnicand political violence. This is not a new task for NATO. For several years, KFOR has detected, disrupted and deterred theÂtransfer of people and materiel along Kosovo's borders and internal boundaries. The Alliance has also beenworking with governments throughout the region to help them address border security issues. And in the wakeof 11 September, our troops have clamped down hard on terrorist cells. The Alliance will increase its efforts in these areas in the future. Because they are areas that are crucial toÂthe security of South-East Europe, and that of the wider Euro-Atlantic community. And because they are areasin which NATO has proven that it can make a difference -- building on its practical experience and expertise inthe field, working together with civil authorities and other international organisations, and fostering thecommon approach clearly required to meet those common challenges.Ladies and Gentlemen, Despite the achievements of countries in the region and the international community, there is still muchÂto be done - first and foremost by regional governments. They are primarily responsible for getting their housein order, for offering their populations a better future, and anchoring their countries in the Euro-Atlanticcommunity. Certainly the biggest variable in this regard is the future course of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.ÂThis country's transition to genuine democracy and responsible international behaviour has contributed greatlyto the progress this entire region has seen over the last few years. Moreover, implementation of theEU-brokered deal on redefining the relationship between Serbia and Montenegro is moving forward. In line with its more responsible, cooperative foreign policy, Yugoslavia's relations with NATO have alsoimproved significantly. The Belgrade authorities have taken a generally very pragmatic - and therefore helpful-- approach to working with the Alliance on resolving important issues, such as the plight of the ethnicAlbanians in Southern Serbia, and the participation by Kosovo Serbs in last year's elections. The Alliance has also welcomed Yugoslavia's interest in joining Partnership for Peace, and offered to workwith the country's leadership in making the necessary progress to achieve this objective. From NATO'sperspective, this must include full and continued cooperation with the International Court for the FormerYugoslavia; democratic reform and control of the military; full and transparent implementation of the DaytonPeace Agreement; as well as support for the international community's efforts in Bosnia. In weighing its options, Yugoslavia might well take a cue from Croatia. Because Croatia has shown that itis possible for countries in the region to break with a troubled past, and pursue a truly forward looking policy. Croatia has made impressive progress in its reform efforts these last few years. And it has done so byÂmaking good use of the opportunities offered by the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, Partnership for Peace,and its Intensified Dialogue with NATO on membership questions. Croatia has also shown itself to be a responsible regional player. It has supported the internationalÂcommunity's efforts to enhance stability and security in this part of the world. It has made an effort to assistneighbouring Bosnia with its own, much more difficult, reform process. And it has been a key player in a rangeof broader, regional initiatives, on which I will say more in just a minute. All this bodes well for Croatia's participation in NATO's Membership Action Plan. Because the MAP alsorequires seriousness and commitment. The NATO Allies are looking forward to receiving Croatia's first AnnualNational Programme, and to reviewing Croatia's progress next Spring as the first concrete steps in Croatia'smove towards membership.Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my firm belief that the future stability and security of South-East Europe will depend critically on theÂwillingness of the Governments in the region to deepen and broaden cooperation with their neighbours. The Alliance has long regarded inclusive, transparent attempts at regional cooperation as importantÂbuilding blocks in the overall Euro-Atlantic security architecture. Which is why NATO has been eager to assistthe development of such regional cooperation initiatives - in the Baltics, the Caucasus, as well as in South-EastEurope. Here in this region, in the context of the EU-sponsored Stability Pact for South-East Europe, NATO hasÂhelped to set up programmes to assist discharged officers make the transition from military to civilian life, andprojects to close military bases and convert them to civilian uses. These programmes are aimed at very concretechallenges, that all the countries in this region face to varying degrees. That, more than anything else, explainstheir success. In other areas, NATO's has played more of a facilitating role. This applies to the South East EuropeÂSecurity Cooperation Steering Group - or SEEGROUP - through which the countries of the region themselvessupport the various cooperative processes at work. And it applies to the South East Europe CommonAssessment Paper on Regional Security Challenges and Opportunities -- or SEECAP - which sets out commonperceptions of security challenges, and identifies cooperative answers to them. SEECAP is notable because for thefirst time, participating countries explicitly say that they do not perceive each other as a threat. NATO has been keen to promote these regional initiatives, as well as others with a less specific securityÂfocus, such as the Regional Centre for Assistance and Disaster Relief that has been set up in this country. Croatia has taken a very constructive approach to regional cooperation. It has been an active proponentÂof various initiatives, open to sharing information, and keen to learn from the experiences of others. Take for example the recent firefighting exercise, "Taming the Dragon". It was a major regional exerciseÂresponding to a major hazard common to every country in the region: wildfires. It was jointly planned andconducted by Croatia and the Regional Centre for Assistance and Disaster relief. 1100 personnel from 19countries participated, including every country in South-East Europe. Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a singleteam, comprising both entities. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia also sent official representatives. All in all, "Taming the Dragon" was the largest civilian Partnership for Peace exercise ever. It was anÂextraordinary success, not least because Croatia did an outstanding job in the organisation and conduct of theexercise. And I want to thank all Croatians who were involved for that. "Taming the Dragon" was a good example of how instrumental regional cooperation can be inÂunderpinning security and stability in South-East Europe. Regional cooperation can build greater confidenceand mutual trust. And it can promote economies of scale, defence cooperation and rolespecialisation, encouraging like-minded countries to pool resources to enhance their own security more effectively. Let me make one final point on regional cooperation. It is sometimes argued that successful regionalÂcooperation might undermine aspirations to join NATO. This concern is totally unfounded. Because far frombeing a constraint, successful regional cooperation is actually a powerful selling point for aspiring members. NATO is an organisation within which member states work together, pool resources, and develop policythrough consensus. Successful regional cooperation not only prepares aspirants for membership. It alsodemonstrates to existing NATO Allies that aspirants not only understand the sacrifices and commitments thatcooperative security entails, but are indeed willing to make them.Ladies and Gentlemen, It is simply wrong to assume that South-East Europe should be - now or forever - a troubled region.ÂThere has been significant progress over the past year, and there is every reason to be confident that thisÂprogress can be sustained. NATO remains firmly committed to South-East Europe, and to the international community's objective ofhelping this region rejoin the European mainstream. The NATO-led forces in this region will continue to focus onkey security challenges. NATO will continue to engage the countries in this region through EAPC and PfP, and tokeep open the prospect of eventual NATO membership. And even as our overall Partnerships deepen - with agreater focus on new threats such as terrorism, and a greeter role for Partners in NATO-led PfP operations -- theAlliance will continue to promote regional cooperation as well. NATO itself stands as a vivid testimony to the merits of regional cooperation. It is an approach that led tothe creation of NATO back in 1949. And it lies at the heart of everything the Alliance has been able to achieveover the past half century. That, I submit, is not a bad example to follow. Thank you. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 25 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7453/1/H-Dr-Marko-Tarle-Izborna-pravila.html ÂLokalni izbori upozoravaju da izborna pravila mogu biti presudna za sutrašnjicu HrvatskeMARKO TARLEPocinje predizborna groznica, uveliko se raspravlja o izbornim pravilima. Politicke stranke, vlada i saborski zastupnici pripremaju parlamentarne izbore koji odlucuju o društvenom položaju i povlasticama saborskih zastupnika, clanova vlade i vlasti, sudionika u upravnim i nadzornim odborima, i mnogim drugim lukrativnim položajima.Hoce li izbori pridonijeti i uspješnosti hrvatskog društva i rastu životnog standarda gradana?ÂPrema dosadašnjem iskustvu teško je dati potvrdan odgovor, jer od završetka rata živimo stalno sve lošije, unatoc mnogim izborima održanim u tom razdoblju. Pad osobnoga i društvenog standarda posebno je uocljiv posljednje dvije godine, vjerojatno zbog olako danih obecanja prije treceg sijecnja.Pogledajmo prodavaonice bez kupaca, redove za iseljenicke vize pred stranim predstavništvima, zapanjujuce brojke o nezaposlenosti i aferama u zdravstvu, bankarstvu i sudstvu, te svakodnevne vijesti o korupciji i kriminalu, što sasvim jasno upozorava na naše kotrljanje nizbrdo.U normalnim uvjetima i u sredenoj zemlji to bi upozoravalo na potrebu smjene vlasti. A kako je to u nas?Mnogo glasaca smatra da danas nema realan politicki izbor. Najjaca oporbena stranka ne pokazuje pomak prema demokraticnosti, ne uvjerava nas da se promijenila na bolje od vremena kad je, prema mišljenju vecine, loševladala.ÂZato je malo vjerojatno da ce privuci nove glasace.Vladajuca petorka je veliko razocaranje biraca i gotovo sigurno nece ponoviti rezultat posljednjih parlamentarnih izbora. Zbog svega se toga apstinencija može približiti i polovici birackog tijela.No dobro znana disciplina desno orijentiranih biraca došla je nedavno do izražaja na lokalnim izborima u Splitu i Velikoj Gorici i drugdje gdje su održani. Uz slab odziv glasaca, pobjeda desnog bloka i na izborima za Sabor nece bitiupitna.To nije novi fenomen: slicni su rezultati vec zabilježeni na prijašnjim lokalnim izborima s visokomapstinencijom. Upravo zato današnje razmišljanje vladajuce petorke izaziva nedoumice. Za njeno razumijevanje treba raspraviti slijed promjena izbornih zakona od 1990. do danas.Komunisti su za parlamentarne izbore 1990. izabrali sustav s polovicnom primjenom razmjernih lista i vecinskog biranja u dvamakrugovima.ÂZnajuci da se na izborima sukobljavaju s nekoliko suparnika, te da nemaju vecinsku podršku birackog tijela, izbor pune proporcionalnosti bio bi u tom dobu, cini se, za reformirane komuniste mnogoprimjereniji.ÂMožda su oni 1990. precijenili vlastite mogucnosti. Prema mnogim mišljenjima, Partija je tada, prije sigurnih oružanih sukoba, a omrznuta od vecine vlastitog naroda i od protivnika s istoka, željela predati vlast i odgovornost Tudmanovu pokretu. To bi moglo objasniti odabir njima tada nepogodna izbornog zakona.Nakon tih prvih parlamentarnih izbora slijedi niz izbora za zastupnicki i županijski dom Sabora od 1992. do 1997., na kojima se, usporedno s padom podrške birackog tijela Hrvatskoj demokratskoj zajednici, postupno smanjuje udio vecinskog odlucivanja u izboruzastupnika. Na posljednjim parlamentarnim izborima sustav je bio potpuno razmjeran uz groteskno oblikovana izborna podrucja.To je tadašnjoj stranci na vlasti bio zadnji adut u ocajnicku pokušaju zadržavanja politicke moci.Izbori održani 3. sijecnja 2000. rezultirali su konstituiranjem današnjeg parlamenta i vlade, s cijim djelovanjem vecina gradana nije zadovoljna.ÂPetorka ima sada ovlasti odabira izbornog sustava. U uvjetima vjerojatno smanjena povjerenja izbornog tijela, petorka se, uz druge stranke politickog centra, opredjeljuje za potpuno proporcionalni sustav, kao i HDZ 2000., obavljajuci manje-više kozmeticke korekture u oblikovanju izbornih podrucja i, cini se, uz otvorenost stranackih lista.ÂTaj zadnji adut, uz najavu njegove savjetodavne, a ne mandatorske važnosti, ima jednaku vrijednost i težinu kao, recimo, prigovor braci Wright da nisu osigurali prekooceanski servis u svojim avionima.ÂUostalom, i danas pozicija na birackoj listi ne obvezuje stranke na poštovanje redoslijeda. U slucaju osobnih perturbacija na planu Sabor - Vlada, najviše stranacko tijelo, gotovo redovito pod presudnim utjecajem predsjednika stranke, bira novog zastupnika neovisno o poziciji na listi.Zar mislite da bi se taj princip mijenjao kod »otvorenih« lista?Što se iz razmišljanja petorke može zakljuciti?Ponajprije, jer predlažu sustav slican onom HDZ-ovu iz 2000., vjerojatno se smatraju slabijom stranom u odnosu prema desnom politickom bloku.ÂDrugo, žele zadržati sustav unutarstranackih izbora u kojem najviše stranacko tijelo, a posebno njegov vrhovnik, ima gotovo neogranicene ovlasti pri izboru kandidata. Kriteriji za biranje kandidata, koji postoje u svakoj stranci, vecinom su ukras demokraticnosti, kao što su i radnicki savjeti u zatvorenom društvu bili formalni dokaz uspješnosti samoupravljanja.ÂNapokon, a za državu i njene gradane ipak najvažnije, celnici stranaka ne žele mijenjanje temeljnih karakteristika saborskih zastupnika, što je lojalnost stranackim vrhovnicima, uz zanemarivanje osobnih kvaliteta nekih istaknutih, kao i mnogih drugih clanova stranaka.Nikako ne mislim da je lojalnost nevažna znacajka politicara, no, nažalost, najlojalniji politicki suradnici cesto su i najmanje sposobni, najmanje talentirani i najmanje kreativni. Lojalnošcu obicno pokrivaju manjak ostalih kvaliteta.(Svršetak u sutrašnjem broju)Autor je doktor znanosti, znanstveni je savjetnik i konzultant iz podrucja biomedicine, publicist letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7455/1/E-Chinese-Croatian-Presidents-Hail-Bilateral-Ties.html  Chinese, Croatian Presidents Hail Bilateral Ties Jiang Zemin and Stjepan Mesic Xinhuanet 2002-05-16 23:12:05 BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin held talks in Beijing on Thursday with visiting Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, hailing the steady progress in Sino-Croat friendship. During the talks, Jiang said in the past decade since the two counties established diplomatic relations, the ties between China and Croatia had steadily grown, mutual political trust had improved and cooperation in economic and scientific fields, culture, education and tourism had become closer. China and Croatia supported each other in international organizations and "we have become good partners in equality, mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation," Jiang said. While extending his appreciation for Croatia's adhering to the one-China principle, Jiang said China attached importance to Sino- Croat friendship, and was willing to elevate ties to a higher level based on the principles of a joint statement the two leaders signed. Jiang put forward four proposals for promoting bilateral ties in the new century: Firstly, to strengthen political dialogue at various levels to improve mutual political trust, and to seek mutual understanding and support on major issues of benefit to each country. Secondly, to actively expand economic cooperation and trade between the two sides. Thirdly, to widen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields including culture, education, science and medicine, to study the possibility of cooperation in finance and accelerate the process of making Croatia a tourism destination for Chinese citizens. Fourthly, to expand local government exchanges between both countries plus private exchanges. Mesic briefly explained Croatia's foreign and domestic policies and views on the situation in Southeast Europe. Jiang said Croatia had important influence in middle and eastern Europe, and China was glad to see Croatia enjoying a stable society and booming economy, as well as improved living conditions for its people, developing sound ties with its neighbors, and playing an active role in regional and international affairs. China respected the development route and policies Croatia chose based on its domestic state, understood the efforts Croatia made in the integration of Europe, and appreciated the plural foreign policy of Croatia, said Jiang. Of the current international situation, Jiang said China agreed with democratic international ties and held that all countries no matter whether big or small, rich or poor, strong or weak, were equal members of the international community, and had equal rights to participate in international affairs. Jiang said the diversity of the world should be expected. Each country had the right to choose its own development route to suit its domestic conditions, and existing differences in social systems and values should not be regarded as barriers to developing ties between countries. No country could be allowed to establish hegemonism and interfere in other countries' internal affairs, Jiang added. Jiang stated China's stance on anti-terrorism, noting that no other international or regional organizations could take the place of the United Nation whose authority and importance made it the most popular international organization in the world. Jiang hoped the leading role of the U.N. in international affairs, including the fight against terrorism would be further strengthened. Mesic hailed China's achievements in reform and opening up to the outside world, adding that Croatia attached great importance to the positive role China played in international affairs as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Mesic said the distance between Croatia and China would not influence bilateral cooperation in various fields, and hoped the two countries, both as members of the World Trade Organization ( WTO), would improve cooperation in the new century. Mesic added that Croatia adhered to the "One China" policy, and agreed to fight terrorism through the U.N.. After the talks, the two sides signed the Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Croatia on Deepening Their Relationship through Mutually Beneficial Cooperation. They also signed an Agreement on Scientific Co-operation Between the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts and the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Agreement on Establishment of Friendly Economic and Trade Partnership Between Liaoning Province of P.R.China and Primorsko-Goranska County of Republic of Croatia. Before the talks, Jiang presided a welcome ceremony for Mesic. EnditemÂChina, Croatia Issue Joint Statement of CooperationÂ------------------------------------------------------------------------Xinhuanet 2002-05-17 00:28:03 BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin andvisiting Croatian President Stjepan Mesic signed a Joint Statementon Thursday aimed at improving Sino-Croat cooperation after talksÂin Beijing. The statement, titled the Joint Statement of the People'sÂRepublic of China and the Republic of Croatia on StrengtheningÂTheir Relationship with Mutually Beneficial Cooperation, said thatJiang and Mesic shared similar views on issues covered duringÂtheir talks. It said China and Croatia were both dedicated to world peaceÂand believed it was necessary to narrow the gap between developedÂand developing countries. Terrorism posed a danger to allÂcountries in the world and solutions should be sought to deal withthe issue, it said. The statement listed eight points as follows: 1. The two sides are satisfied with the friendly cooperationÂbetween them since they established diplomatic relations ten yearsago. They are willing to abide by comprehensively-acceptedÂinternational rules and develop bilateral ties plus ties withÂother countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence. 2. The two sides are willing to strengthen dialogue at variousÂlevels and exchange views on bilateral ties, reform, developmentÂand the international situation on various levels. 3. The two sides are satisfied with sustained growth inÂeconomic cooperation and trade between them, and are willing toÂimprove mutually beneficial cooperation in accordance with marketeconomy principles. 4. The two sides welcome and totally support exchanges andÂcooperation in science, culture, education, medicine, tourism,Âsports and other fields. 5. Croatia will continue to adhere to the one-China principleÂand China appreciates the efforts made by Croatia in joiningÂEurope's integration process. China believes Croatia plays aÂpositive role in safeguarding regional stability. 6. The two sides agree that all countries, whether big or small,rich or poor, are equal in the international community, and shouldenjoy equal rights in participating in international affairs. TheÂtwo are willing to join with the international community toÂpromote the establishment of a just and rational new internationalorder. 7. The two sides stress the importance of the United Nations asit is the most important inter-governmental organization, and areÂwilling to strengthen its leading role in handling internationalÂrelations. The two will honor the tenet and principles of the UNÂCharter, and are willing to continue cooperation in the UN andÂother international organizations. 8. the two sides believe terrorism poses a serious danger toÂcivilization, and support the fight against terrorism of any form.They hold that dual standards should not be adopted in fightingÂterrorism, international cooperation should be pursued and theÂrole of the United Nations should be recognized. Enditem letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 16 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7454/1/E-NATO-welcomes-Croatia-as-10th-candidate-for-membership.html NATO welcomes Croatia as 10th candidate for membershipÂTue May 14,10:15 AM ETÂREYKJAVIK, Iceland - NATO (news - web sites) foreign ministers Tuesday accepted Croatia's request tobecome the 10th candidate on the waiting list for membership of the alliance. The 19 ministers said they welcomed Croatia's participation in NATO's "Membership Action Plan"designed to prepare applicants for entry into the defense pact.Croatia submitted its application last week in a sign of improving relations with the West.But it is too late for the former Yugoslav republic to be considered for membership at a NATO summit inPrague in November when frontrunners among the candidates are expected to be invited in.Croatia is scheduled to present a program in the Autumn on how it plans to adapt its military andpolitical establishments to NATO standards. Allied Command Europe (ACE) is one of the two major military commands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The other is Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT) headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. Within ACE there are three Major Subordinate Commands responsible to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR):Allied Forces Northwestern Europe (AFNORTHWEST, High Wycombe, England)); Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT, Brunssum, The Netherlands); and Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH, Naples, Italy). The task of ACE is to safeguard an area extending from the Northern tip of Norway to Southern Europe, including the whole of the Mediterranean, and from the Atlantic coastline to the Eastern border of Turkey. The headquarters of ACE is the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) which is located near Mons, Belgium. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 16 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7456/1/E-Martic-and-Mrksic-surrendered-to-the-ICTY.html MORNING NEWS 15.5.2002.ÂFormer Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic and former JNA officerÂMile Mrksic have surrendered to the ICTY and have been takenÂto custody at the Scheveningen prison. It is still not clear when they are to enter their pleas.ÂMartic has been indicted for the rocketing of Zagreb in 1995,Âwhile Mrksic has been indicted for war crimes committed in VukovarÂin 1991.Prior to leaving Belgrade, Mrksic did not speak to theÂpress, while Martic said he was innocent and would be back soonÂif the ICTY is a just court.ÂThe ICTY spokesperson Florence Hartmann has stated that theÂICTY prosecution was very pleased with the arrival of the twoÂindictees, but is also expecting of Belgrade to send all ofÂthe ICTY indictees to The Hague, including Veselin SljivancaninÂand Miroslav Radic.Belgrade authorities have unsuccessfully attempted to captureÂsome 17 people over the past week that were all indicted byÂthe ICTY. All of the indictees could not be found at the addressesÂthe police were supplied with.ÂCommenting on the surrender of Mile Mrksic and Milan MarticÂto the ICTY, the Deputy Prime Minister Goran Granic said thatÂhe was pleased with the decisiveness of the ICTY to bring toÂjustice all criminals and added that he hoped Martic and MrksicÂwould not be the only ones tried for war crimes committed inÂCroatia. Martic's indictment is expected to be extended to crimes perpetratedÂby the so-called Knin police against Croatian civilians. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 15 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7457/1/E-Washington-Times-Gotovina--ICC-by-Jeffrey-Kuhner.html A win for American democracyJeffrey T. KuhnerÂThe Bush administration'sÂdecision this week to renounce the treaty creating the International Criminal Court (ICC)is a victory for U.S.sovereignty, sending a message to the rest of the world that WashingtonÂwill protect its citizens and defend its national interests despiteÂinternational pressure to do otherwise. The ICC treaty has been ratified by 66Ânations and will come into effect on July 1. The ICC is designed to serve as a court of last resort toinvestigate war crimes and human rights violations in areas of the globewhere national authorities either cannot or refuse to do so. ICC proponentsclaim that the court follows the precedent set by the Nuremberg trial heldafter World War II and is a major step toward constructing a system ofinternational humanitarian law. President Bush's decision has revivedÂcriticisms that the United States has once again embraced a unilateralist foreign policy and rejected itsinternational commitments. Human rights groups and European governmentsinsist that the administration's repudiation of the ICC treaty signals alack of support for prosecuting crimes against humanity. This is false. As Mr. Bush stated in a recent letter to Yugoslav President VojislavKostunica, the United States continues to demand that Belgrade cooperatewith the United Nations war crimes tribunal that is investigating atrocitiescommitted during the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. TheÂproblem with the ICC, however, is that its mandate is open-ended. The court is notaccountable to anyone but an elite class of international bureaucrats. The ICC represents a serious threat to U.S. national interests becauselike all international bodies it could be used by critics of Americanforeign policy as a tool to prosecute U.S. servicemen, military officials,statesmen and even presidents for alleged crimes against humanity. Byratifying the ICC treaty, the Bush administration would be granting aninternational court in The Hague jurisdiction over American citizens. Such amove would not only violate the Constitution, but more ominously, couldimperil the ability of future administrations to conduct militaryÂoperations and troop deployments overseas. Ironically, then-President BillÂClinton signed the treaty in December 2000, and remains a strong supporter of the ICC. Yet, had the court beenestablished while he was in office, Mr. Clinton most likely would have been one of its first defendants: He could have been prosecuted by ananti-American leftist on trumped-up charges of having ordered war crimes.ÂIf this sounds far-fetched, it isn't. That the ICC is likely to beÂpoliticized and hostile to the UnitedStates is illustrated by the current U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.Considerable media attention has focused on the trial of former Serbstrongman Slobodan Milosevic, who is accused of having masterminded ethniccleansing campaigns in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Yet anoverlooked but far more consequential case is that of Croatian Gen. AnteGotovina. The case reveals the danger to U.S. interests by internationalÂwar crimes bodies. Gen. Gotovina was indicted in June 2001 by theÂprosecutor's office at The Hague on charges that he exercised "command responsibility" over a 1995military operation that resulted in the expulsion of 150,000 ethnic Serbsfrom Croatia. Supported by the Clinton administration, Croatian forceslaunched a three-day massive military offensive - known as "OperationÂStorm"- on Aug. 5, 1995, in which Croatia recovered territories occupied by rebelSerbs following the country's drive for independence from Yugoslavia in1991. Gen. Gotovina is not accused of committing or ordering war crimes, butsimply of being in charge when atrocities were committed. By thisÂstandard, America is also guilty. The United States providedmilitary and technical assistance to Operation Storm in order to deliver adecisive defeat to Milosevic's genocidal goal of forging an ethnically pure"Greater Serbia." The Clinton administration viewed Croatia's militarycampaign as pivotal to tilting the strategic balance of power in the regionagainst Serb forces, paving the way for the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords thatended the war in neighboring Bosnia. Washington's involvement in theoperation was not only legitimate, but significantly advanced U.S. interestsin the region by putting an end to Serbia's expansionist ambitions. Yet American support and approval for the military offensive means theindictment against Gen. Gotovina could lead to the prosecution by The Haguetribunal of Mr. Clinton and other high-ranking U.S. officials on charges ofhaving command responsibility for alleged war crimes that were committedduring the operation. Some in the prosecutor's office now want to call Mr.Clinton and former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to answer questions abouttheir role in Operation Storm. It is only a matter of time before the twomen are ordered to testify before the tribunal. As the Gotovina caseÂdemonstrates, future U.S. presidents are no longersafe from being called before a war crimes court to answer for actionscommitted by America's allies. Therefore, the Bush administration is rightto reject participation in the ICC. Any other decision will jeopardizeWashington's ability to project its power around the globe, and will allow atransnational elite of U.N. bureaucrats to decide whether the United Statescan act as the world's sole policeman. This decision should be made byAmerican voters, and not left-wing globalists based in The Hague. Score onefor American democracy.Â_______________________Jeffrey T. Kuhner, Assistant National EditorThe Washington Times3600 New York Ave. N.E.,Washington, D.C. 2002202-636-3273 -office202-529-6658 -faxhttp://www.WashingtonTimes.com/Â___________________________ letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 12 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7459/1/E-EuroGB-or-Croatian-dilemma-Profit-dictates-values-.html ÂNOTE: Most of this message is in English; I just give a very briefsummary in Croatian at the very bottom of the message ...This is possibly one of the key dilemmas of our global village ...''The corporate (profit) bottom line dictates values (in the USA)''... and what is the BOTTOM LINE in your own mind-vision ?It is a rather serious article in the latest TIME and it's onlineand I can hardly think of the better text that describes thecore dilemmas of all managers, professionals or our people today ...Davor.----More details online:http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020513-235392,00.htmlÂ--As intemperate, sustained assaults on accepted wisdoms go, Will Hutton's The World We're In (Little Brown; 409 pages) is world class. The British author and economist's basic premise is that the world stands at a critical juncture faced by the "unlovely and dangerous prospect" that American security concerns will become paramount and all other global worries will be subordinated in an exercise of unilateral "brutish American power." Only the European Union, argues Hutton, has the democratic values and social and economic models to offer a counterweight. What sets Hutton's passionate cri de guerre apart from the usual left-of-center orthodoxy is its root-and-branch critique of contemporary American society and the explicit claim it makes that a united Europe now offers a better, fairer, more successful and more democratic model for the future than the U.S.Hutton piles one alleged American failing on top of another:American democracy today is "an offense to democratic ideals." "The object of the U.S. corporation is now naked and unashamed: it is to maximize financial gain for those who own it." "The U.S. system is not only socially unjust but also calamitously economically inefficient."The cause of this sorry state of affairs, in Hutton's eyes, is simple: the ascendancy enjoyed over the past 25 years by the American brand of fundamentalist conservatism with its mulish stress on the rights of the propertied and the freedom of business. "American conservatism," he writes, has "wrought contemptible damage on its own society [and] cannot be allowed to repeat the carnage in Europe." Civility is now under siege in the U.S. because of the triumph of the market economy. The corporate bottom line dictates values. Social mobility has ground to a halt as bitterness and cynicism have risen. Meantime, American unilateralism is threatening the fabric of global interdependence and understanding so painstakingly constructed since 1945. Europe, in contrast, is a land of milk and honey. Europeans generally favor those things Hutton defines as "good": a dominant role for the state; income redistribution; a wider definition of "rights" including free health, education and unemployment benefits; international organizations and supranational authority. "Europe stands alone in offering hope and opportunity to the destitute of the world," argues Hutton. "If this clash is at bottom a moral argument, the Europeans win hands down."A subplot running throughout the book is the argument that Britain must choose once and for all whether it "sides" with the U.S. or Europe as the relationship between the two power blocs becomes more competitive and the euro transforms relationships in Europe forever. Hutton, of course, has no doubt that Europe offers Britain far more than the U.S. does. If Hutton's purpose is to start a debate about America's or Europe's future, he may well succeed. But if his object is to change minds, change policies, change values, change priorities - on either side of the Atlantic - this angry book is far more likely to end up worsening divisions and heightening misunderstandings.---------Intimne strateske dileme glede svake HR vizije s kojima se eksplicitnoi implicitno susrecemo (a rekao bih i svi na ovoj listi) susasvim sigurno povezane i s nasom osobnom vizijom glede opcijakapitalizma, globalizacije u odnosu na 'lokalne' nacionalne vrijednosti ...jedna arhetipna dilema je dosta dobro opisana u zadnjem TIME-u :... naime ''The corporate bottom line dictates values (in the USA)''pa ako cijeli svijet potpuno preuzme 'tvrdi' Wall Street credo ...postavlja se pitanje posljedica za sve 'polu-socijalisticke' Euro-ekonomije,za male zemlje, a u TIME clanku konkretno pro-americku Veliku Britaniju ...PROFIT je glavni cilj svake kompanije (USA, GB)protivVlada i demokratski odabrani predstavnici drustvomoraju biti aktivni partneri u domeni odluka kompanije (D, EU)To je i tema nove knjige britanskog ekonomiste Will Hutton-ai TIME mu posvecuje 2 stranice u zadnjem broju te govori oozbiljnijem konceptualnom sukobu izmedju Wall Street profit opsesijei jedne (ne uvijek idealne) ali blaze Euro-verzije kapitalizma(gdje je glavna dilema pred Britanijom: ici s USA kao dosad ili s EU ...).Srecom dobar dio je na web-u i isplati se procitati:http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020513-235392,00.html letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 11 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7458/1/H-Korejsko-cudo--i-nasa-HR-buducnost-.html ÂKako obecah evo kratkog izvjesca iz Seoul-a gdje sam vec cetvrti put u zadnje 4 godine: naprosto zato sto ovdje su znanost i (nano)tehnologije u procvatu, a neke moje ideje i radovi zanimaju ovdasnje strucnjake (i Japance, no to je jedna druga prica) ...Glavni sok ovdje jest da je sve u pogonu i naprosto se osjeca zelja za znanjem, za kreativnoscu, za napretkom; vjerujem da je tako bilo u USA pedesetih godina; u Europi tako nesto (takvog intenziteta) nisam dozivio. U USA se to ponekad jos osjeti u Silicijskog dolini ...Ono sto je Hrvatima bitno znati jest da je 1945. Koreja bila do temelja porusena (Japanci su im cak do zemlje preorali budisticke hramove!) sa ukupno samo 1000 inzenjera i znanstvenika, a svi ostali su do tada bili (nekreativni, rentijerski) sluzbenici Japanskog okupatora ...No, jednim mudrim planom koji se zove '3 generacije' Koreanci su uspjeli prvo inicirati svoje institucije, pa zatim skolovati mlade i talentirane (uglavnom u USA), pa postaviti svoje institucije i industriju u 2-og generaciji u operativni modus (tzv. jeftinijih) kopija, da bi danas vec pokusavali uci u elitni klub bogatih 'G-8' te cak preuzeti kreativno vodstvo u nekim novim tehnologijama: npr. Samsung je vec de facto leader u nekim elektronickim podrucjima ...i garantiram unaprijed bit ce toga jos: kupovat cemo rado svi korejske automobile ...Koreanaca je oko 50 miliona, ali ovdje je atmosfera bitno radisnija, optimisticnija i pragmaticnija nego recimo u Francuskoj, gdje je tijekom godina nacionalni polet postepeno padao (iako su francuski potencijali i dalje veliki). U Juznoj Koreji danas je postotak inzenjera u pucanstvu oko 1.8% - NAJVISI u svijetu, a to je kljucni kriterij koji na duge pruge garantira da ce korejski proizvodi dominirati mnoga svjetska trzista ! Spomenimo na primjer da su vec sad Koreanci najveci svjetski proizvodjac gitara (elektricnih i akusticnih !!!). Dakle, ovdje je stvarno SVE MOGUCE jer postoji volja i vizija nacije !Koreance je nemoguce ne postivati: svuda se osjeca zajednistvo i nacionalna vizija i ponos, te jedna dugorocna nacionalna strategija u svakom kontekstu ... mladi postuju starije, nacionalna i komunalna harmonija, organizacija i posteni rad su svetinja a po ulicama vidimdragovoljce kako ciste grad, vidim ljude koji mi pomazu cak kad i ne trazim pomoc itd ...Da ljudi su veseli (na neki nacin azijski Mediteranci) i rado su zajedno, ali radei stvaraju i vesele se kreativnom i industrijskom procvatu cijele nacije !Za Hrvatsku sad vec mnogi znaju jer je uskoro svjetsko nogometno prvenstvo, pa su i nasi momci ponekad vidljivi na ovdasnjoj TV gdje je sve vise nogometa svakim danom ...Mogao bih napisati jos barem desetak stranica jer sam bio u drustvu bivseg i sadasnjeg ministra znanosti i tehnologije i s predsjednicima najboljih Sveucilista i Akademije,ponajvecih kompanija itd ... pa imam informacije doslovno o svemu ...Ipak, u zakljucku, nema neke velike tajne: Koreja je zemlja koja ima vjerojatno i tezu situaciju nego Hrvatska jer Sjeverna Koreja je jos uvijek 'tvrda' komunisticka zemlja ...Povijesno, susjedi (beskrajno brojni) Kinezi ili Japanci su najblaze receno bili neugodni, divlji okupatori, a ni danas ne daju 'poklone' Koreancima npr. u tehnoloskom natjecanju (a dominiraju ih i brojcanoscu) ... no ipak, Koreanci su ostvarili i zajednistvo i minimalni nacionalni konsenzuste prenijeli tu stratesku viziju na mlade ljude i eto sad i mi strani strucnjaci dolazimo redovno i pomazemo im. Plate nas pristojno, ali iskreno svi im rado pomazemo jer kad ozbiljan strucnjak osjeti taj ELAN nacije koja se bori za SVOJ BITAK onda je nemoguce ne pomoci i dati i vise nego li se trazi ... i zato sam tu vec po cetvrti put u cetiri godine i doci cu sigurno opet ...I ostali kolege iz USA, New Zealand-a ili Europe mi kazu to isto : svi vole dociu Juznu Koreju i svojom strucnoscu i znanjem pomagati Koreancima !Daj Boze da mi Hrvati ostvarimo takvu slogu ili barem djelomcnu viziju i nesto naucimo od ovih divnih radisnih, discipliniranih Koreanaca ... jer tada bi i nama mnogi rado pomogli Š a to nije pitanjenovaca nego naprosto jedne elementarne politicke strategije i i nacionalne vizije ...Pozdrav svima iz (i dalje) suncanog Seoul-a,Davor Pavuna'globalizirani fizicar' i 'nacionalist' :-) letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 10 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7460/1/E-Winning-the-Peace-in-Bosnia---by-Paddy-Ashdown.html ÂCOMMENT & ANALYSIS: Winning the peace in Bosnia: TheÂUS must maintain its military presence in the region to keep criminals andÂterrorists at bay, says Paddy Ashdown:ÂÂFinancial Times; May 3, 2002ÂBy PADDY ASHDOWNÂÂSeptember 11 streng-thens the case for US engagementÂin the Balkans. This will be my message when I meetÂadministration officials in Washington today inÂpreparation for taking on the job of high representative in Bosnia next month.Â"To tell you the truth, Bosnia didn't mean anything to me. Here it'sÂdifferent. It's about New York and my country beingÂattacked." Those were the words of a young infantryman, on active service inÂAfghanistan, quoted recently in a US newspaper. And I have met soldiers,Âyoung Americans serving in Bosnia, who wish they too were in Afghanistan,Âdoing a soldier's ultimate duty: defending his country.ÂAs a former Royal Marine, I know how they feel. My reply to them is this:Âdealing with terrorism in Afghanistan is vital for all of us. But, in aÂdifferent way, so is dealing with instability in Bosnia. We cannot afford toÂlet today's weak states become tomorrow's havens for organised crime andÂterrorism; to let today's Bosnias become tomorrow's Afghanistans.ÂI am confident that this will not happen in Bosnia - but only because I remain confident that the inter-national community is determined not to let it happen. Otherwise I would not have accepted the job. When the Soviet forces at last pulled out ofÂAfghanistan in 1989, all of us around the world heaved a sigh of relief. We thought that country now had achance to prosper as a free and democratic state onÂits own. We were wrong. The west disengaged too early, leaving Afghanistan onÂits knees, run by warlords, funded by organised crime and drugs. FarÂfrom the rule of law, it was the perfect base for terrorist organisations suchÂas al-Qaeda. Bosnia, too, has not had time to stabilise fully afterÂa savage conflict, the like of which had not been seen in Europe sinceÂthe second world war. But the country has come a long way. Bosnia today isÂat peace. People are returning to the homes they were driven from in theÂearly 1990s and are rebuilding their lives. The governing parties are ledÂby moderates. The war criminals are being rounded up and the mujahideen haveÂgone. Nevertheless, Bosnia is by no means a normal state. It is far fromÂbeing a functioning democracy or a free market economy. After 50 years of communism and five years of brutal conflict, how could it be? Bosnia is passing through a double transition: from communism to the free market and from conflict to peace. People are having not only to learn to live together again but also to learn about democracyÂand the market: to take on board a whole new political and economicÂculture. Today Bosnia has made huge, even miraculous, progress.ÂBut it remains a weak, fractured state, prey to organised crime. ItÂstill needs our help. Many ask: but why should we give it? There are otherÂpriorities, other mdangers. We have limited resources. We cannot stay inÂBosnia for ever. I accept that. But as Bosnia has changed, so, too, hasÂthe nature of our engagement. In 1995, the US had more than 20,000 soldiers inÂBosnia. Today, it has fewer than 3,000 - less than 1 per cent of the US Army. TheÂNato force is still capable of dealing with any of the potential threatsÂit faces. But it is now mainly a European force. The US contribution is lessÂthan 15 per cent. US and Nato troops will continue to be withdrawn as theÂthreat declines. And as Nato's role has scaled back, so the European Union'sÂrole has grown. But US troops and US engagement will be necessary for someÂtime yet to smooth this transition. Without the credibility that AmericanÂleadership brings, there is still a real risk that Bosnia's fragile stabilityÂwill disintegrate once more into conflict and criminality.ÂIt is true that Bosnia matters more to Europe. It is on our continent and isÂour responsibility. It remains one of the key routes for organised crimeÂinto western Europe. But Bosnia also matters to America - and for theseÂreasons. First, if we leave Bosnia with the job half done, theÂcrime gangs, warlords and terrorists will come in by the back door just asÂour last troops are leaving at the front. Then we would have to come backÂin force, sooner rather than later. Second, the Balkans are forcing the Europeans toÂdevelop the tools to promote peace and prosperity beyond their borders.ÂThere is little doubt that German forces would not today be serving inÂAfghanistan without the Balkan precedent. By staying engaged, the US can helpÂshape this process. Third, by staying to help get the Balkans right,ÂAmerica will hasten the day when those countries can join the EU and the US canÂhand over once and for all to Europeans the responsibility for keeping theÂpeace there. Europe needs America, not least for the leadership ofÂwhich only it is capable. But in an uncertain world and an uncertainÂcentury, America also needs Europe. A new post-cold-war partnership has beenÂand is being forged in the Balkans. Its utility will endure far beyondÂAfghanistan. The writer takes over as high representative to BosniaÂand Hercegovina on May 27ÂÂCopyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 07 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7461/1/E-Croatia-and-the-European-Union.html The following article was published in the Liberal Democrat European Group (UK) newsletter, and reflects my own views and not those of the group. It was subsequently published in Hrvatski Vjesnik in their April 26 edition.ÂCroatia and the European UnionBrian Gallagherbrigall@yahoo.co.ukÂCroatia and the EU have never had an easyrelationship. The EU never wanted to recognise Croatiain the first place, and the current situation is thata political row has broken out in Croatia overCroatia's signing an agreement with the EU; it seemsto have more to do with re-creating the formerYugoslavia than offering Croatia the chance to jointhe European Union. Such a policy has implications forboth Croatia and the European Union. Should the EU beembarking on such an enterprise?The EU had never liked former Croatian PresidentFranjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union(HDZ). The EU accused him of "authoritarianism", mediacontrol etc. Tudjman's democracy was hardly perfect -how could it be given the circumstances of war,occupation. But his "authoritarianism" wasexaggerated. Some observers noted that in fact most ofthe press were against him and not for him.ÂThe EU and others subsidised and supportedanti-Tudjman press and politicians in order to ousthim and his HDZ party. In 2000, due to to genuineunpopularity and Tudjman's death a new Social Democrat(ex-communist)/Liberal government was formed. Formertop HDZ politician Stipe Mesic, who had fallen outwith Tudjman and formed his own party became thepresident.A new opportunity for Croatia both internationally anddomestically was squandered however. The criticisms ofTudjman's regime such as authoritarianism, mediacontrol etc. soon became far more applicable to thecurrent government. When the new government wereelected, the opposition press overnight became the progovernment press. Or rather supporting variousfactions ie President Mesic against Prime MinisterRacan as in the case of Feral Tribune.ÂThe Split based Slobodna Dalmacija was an exception.It was the only opposition daily - bizarrely it wasowned by the state, due to a scandal under theprevious government. It kept its line despite thechanges. It ferociously attacked the government, theUN war crimes tribunal and the President. This is thesort of thing that is of course normal in a democracy.However, it was too much for the President and hissupporters in the Press such as Feral Tribune andNacional.The President ran a campaign against the newspaper,calling it "fasisctoid" - it was nothing of the sort,certainly no more extreme than the Daily Mail.ÂEventually, in an act of blatant cronyism andcensorship the government replaced the editors inApril, resulting in a mass demonstration in Split. Nowthere is not much in the way of an opposition press inCroatia - a very unhealthy situation. Issues such asPresident Mesic's election funding - a mystery - arethus not adequately explored.There have been other dubious incidents. Former HDZminister Andrija Hebrang was barred from enteringAustralia - the reason given was that it might upsetrelations with another government. In other words theCroatian government requested he not be allowed entry- just in case, no doubt, he discussed the politicalsituation in Croatia with Australia's sizeable Croatcommunity.A Croatian academic was called in by the police for a"talk"; he had published 1948 documents on a Yugoslavsecret police investigation of prisoners that thestill alive investigating officer claimed was false.The documents were entirely genuine; but it isÂdisturbing how such people have influence and can havethe police "talk" with people.The Catholic church has criticised the government.ÂThe response has been an attempt to intimidate thechurch into silence by talk of right wing plotsinvolving the church - as if communism had neverdisappeared. This is even taking the form ofattempting to apply pressure by the government,apparently with EU help, complaining to the Vatican -Âwho will no doubt so see straight through this.All of this has gone unnoticed by western governments,NGO's human rights groups etc. for the simple reasonthat the government is regarded as "compliant" by thewestern powers - who also happen to fund many NGO's.Another serious problem is the funding by the EU of"independent" media. Such media tend to support theEU's favoured politicians in the region. Therecipients of this aid are often extreme left-wingindividuals. The rabidly anti - HDZ (and some wouldargue, anti Croatia) pro-Mesic newspaper Feral Tribune- which unpleasantly singles out its enemies as "Shitof the Week" is perhaps the most obvious example ofthis, having previously received EU funds. Itsjournalists are bizarrely quoted as "independent" inthe western media - no mention is made of theirpolitical views or their ultimate funders.ÂIt is not only internal; the Institute of War andPeace Reporting (IWPR) in London is in part funded bythe EU, and Feral journalists crop again in writingarticles - a recent example being a skewed piece onthe aforementioned anti-church activities, focusing onGovernment attempts to threaten the church intosilence by changing its favourable tax status. Insteadof condemning this attack on "turbulent priests", thisparticular article appeared to approve of it! Onthe serious issue of the Slobodna scandal, the IWPRhad nothing to say.IWPR, when covering Croatian affairs often attacks theHDZ or the Catholic church in this case as beingfascistic, or sympathetic to fascism.ÂSuch rhetoric of course was used by Slobodan Milosevicand his cronies to justify the destruction of Vukovar,the bombardment of Dubrovnik and various other warcrimes. Its use by IWPR is thus disturbing.Such reports are read by the BBC and other westernnews organisations and become "received wisdoms".ÂFeral Tribune and the IWPR are just two examples of EUsubsidy to favoured journalistic outlets; there aremany others.ÂRecently, the Croatian government has signed anagreement with Europe - the Stabilisation andAssociation Agreement (SAA) The SAA applies only tothe ex-Yugoslav republics - minus Slovenia, plusAlbania. Macedonia has already signed such anagreement.It is touted as Croatia's first step towards theEuropean Union. In fact it seems designed to keepCroatia and the other countries of the region out.ÂWorse, it appears to be an attempt to re-create theformer Yugoslavia.It should be explained that many in the region areconcerned over attempts to re-create some kind ofYugoslav federation. Yugoslavia was little more thana Serb racket; completely different countries wereforced together under Serbian hegemony, and forCroatia it meant near colonisation by the Serbsincluding the creaming off of tourist profits to theSerbs, suppression of the Croatian language in favourof "Serbo-Croat" - Serbian - and most of the topposts going to Serbs.So it has come as a bit of shock for many thatArticles 11-14 - "Regional Cooperation" - of theagreement appears to bind the SAA countries into somekind of federation. These provisions demand thatCroatia creates 'bilateral' links with the other SAAstates. These include areas such as politicaldialogue, a free trade area, mutual concessionsconcerning the movement of workers and capital as wellas other areas not covered in the agreement 'notably'the field of justice and home affairs. How ever youlook at it, put together that makes a federation. Whatis also disturbing is the coercive element. Croatiamust make those agreements with the other SAA stateswithin two years of those states concluding theirÂSAA agreements with the EU - or all relations with theEU cease. EU External Relations commissioner ChrisPatten has claimed there is no plan to recreateYugoslavia, and Croatia is not part of a regionalplan. Quite apart from Articles 11-14 contradictinghim, his own comments at a recent speech spoke of"re-connecting the ties that bind peoples of theregion together" and of the countries establishing''a network of close contractual relations amongthemselves". "This is more than a bilateral process"he said.ÂCroatia is broke; but it is an economic oasis comparedwith Albania and Serbia. When movement of workers andother provisions kick in, Croatia will no doubt oneway illegal immigration problems, problems which mayno doubt concern the EU sufficiently enough to keepCroatia out of the EU. We all know how much of thepress treats such issues - and how politicians reactto them. Certainly one cannot imagine the EU signing'movement of workers' agreements with Albania; whythen force it on Croatia?Should the EU be embarking on an enterprise ofeffectively creating - by sleight of hand and coercion- some kind of "West Balkans" federation?ÂImperialism, colonialism... whatever one calls it theEU SAA project is neither liberal nor democratic. Andis propping up unpopular governments in Croatia - andÂelsewhere - a good idea? Especially when it involvesattacks on the church and a blind eye to presscensorship? What are the long term effects, theimplications for the future? The path ahead could bedisturbing indeed.But there is a different approach. Firstly, allfunding, assistance etc. for "independent" media andfavoured political parties in Croatia should cease.Politics and media must develop naturally, even ifthat means the return of the HDZ to power.ÂElectorates must not fear the wrath of the EU if theywant to vote for a particular party.ÂFurther, the whole SAA approach should be jettisoned.It should be replaced by an individual approach, nottying Croatia's - or any other country's fate - to anyregional plan.ÂOne constructive idea put forward by Vitomir MilesRaguz, the former Bosnia-Hercegovnia ambassador to theEU and NATO is to extend the European Economic Area tothe countries of South East Europe, prior to eventualaccession to the European Union. Suitably augmented,to cover concerns such as movement of labour, such anapproach could work.An EU approach to Croatia such as that employed forPoland, Slovenia etc. could pay dividends in future;a regional approach could produce something elseagain. We all know how the last regional plan fared -it was called Yugoslavia.(c) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 05 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7463/1/E-CROATIAN-AMBASSADOR-TO-THE-US-TESTIFIED.html Veleposlanstvo Republike Hrvatske u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama Embassy of the Republic of Croatia to the United States of America 2343 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20008 Press office, ÂPhone: (202) 986 9476 Fax.: (202) 588 8938 E-mail: press@croatiaemb.org  Âwww.croatiaemb.org  PRESS RELEASECROATIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S. TESTIFIED BEFORE THEHOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSThe Vilnius group Ambassadors testified on Subcommitteeon Europe hearing, NATO Enlargement: A View from the Candidate CountriesWashingtonDC, May 1, 2002 - Dr.Ivan Grdesic, Ambassador of Croatia to the United States, expressed today theCroatian views on the NATO enlargement during the U. S. House of RepresentativesCommittee on International Relations Subcommittee on Europe hearing. Asa newly independent state, Croatia did not have the burden of the Communiststyle army, but rather established its armed forces modeled on the NATOprinciples. Faced with Communist Yugoslav army aggression in the early 1990s,Croatia demonstrated its military and strategic capabilities to defend itselfand win the war, said Grdesic.Inthe aftermath of September 11, Croatia demonstrated its commitment to act as ade facto ally of the United States, defending the values shared by thedemocratic world, said Grdesic and continued: The threat of global insecuritythat emerged after September 11 has taught us clearly that it is necessary toexpand the institutional framework of mutual cooperation. All NATO aspirantcountries expect to contribute and participate in the process of building asafe, free and democratic Europe. There is no place for new division lines inEurope.Croatiawelcomes the approach that would stimulate and award individual performances ofevery NATO aspirant. All countries that follow the path of irreversibledemocracy and commitment to share the common values of freedom have thepotential to contribute to the regional and global stability. Croatia is awarethat NATO membership is conditioned by strict criteria which brings additionalcosts and responsibilities. An admission to the Membership Action Plan, that weexpect to be approved at the Reykjavik NATO Ministerial in May 2002, would allowCroatia to advance preparations for the Alliance and be recognized as a crediblecandidate for the post-Prague round of enlargement, said Grdesic and continued:In the period after the Prague summit, Croatia will be strongly committed to aNATO open-door policy and encourage the strengthening of institutional linkswith all countries that share the common vision of security, cooperation, andsolidarity as the principles of the North Atlantic Alliance, said Grdesic.Thishearing was the first opportunity for the Republic of Croatia and other V-10countries to voice their will and readiness to join NATO in front of both U. S.House of Representatives as well as American public. The other V-10 Ambassadorstestified as well. The V10 comprises Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia,Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.The nextkey-V-10 event to take place in 2002 is V-10 meeting during the Speakers andPresidents of the Euroepan parliamentary assemblies conference in Zagreb,Croatia, May 10-11. Croatia is expected to join NATO's Membership Action Planat NATO Foreign ministers meeting at Reykjavik, Iceland, May 13-16.TheVilnius Group process was launched in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius in May2000, when the foreign ministers of the countries aspiring to join NATO gatheredfor the first time in the context of the alliance's enlargement to expressmutual support and solidarity and signed the Statement from Vilnius. Croatiajoined the Vilnius Group at the first prime ministerial meeting in Bratislava inMay 2001 and is being an active member####Mediacontact: Alan Vojvodić, (202) 986 9476, press@croatiaemb.org letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 01 May 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7462/1/E-Paddy-in-the-Balkans.html ÂThe following article appeared in Liberal Democrat News, the party newspaper of the LiberalÂDemocrat Party in the United Kingdom, which Paddy Ashdown used to lead. The views are ofÂcourse my own, and not those of the paper or the party.ÂPaddy in the BalkansÂLiberal Democrat News 26 April 2002 No.706ÂBrian Gallagher believes that Paddy Ashdown's political beliefs could have a marked influenceÂon bringing a lasting peace to the blighted region... One of Paddy Ashdown's main problems when he becomes High Representative inÂBosnia-Herzegovina will be the Croat question. By dealing equitably withÂCroat problems, Paddy can not only solve the Croat question but also go aÂlong way to ensuring a viable Bosnia-Herzegovina.ÂSince the onset of fighting in BH in 1992, the Croatian population in BH hasÂhalved. Furthermore the Croats have set up their own Croat ConstituentÂAssembly, which has led to conflict with the current High Representative.ÂThere are a number of reasons for this state of affairs. EthnicallyÂcleansed Croats have not been allowed back into the Serb controlled areas.ÂAlso, in an attempt to dilute the influence of the Croatian Democratic UnionÂof BH (HDZBiH) the international community disgracefully changed electoralÂrules prior to the 2000 elections.ÂThe HDZBiH won some 80% of the Croat vote; the rule change not only cut themÂout of government but also effectively disenfranchised the entire CroatÂvote.ÂThe Croats - one of the three constituent peoples of BH - now have no stakeÂin the country and are effectively second class citizens. Things have beenÂtense ever since, not improved by the obvious impunity the Serbs have in the country.ÂPaddy can solve the Croat question. The Croats have been portrayed -Âdeliberately - as wanting to secede from BH to join Croatia. Not so. TheÂCroats have only demanded fair treatment from within the country. And there is the keyÂfor Paddy. If he makes it clear that the wishes of the Croat electorate will beÂrespected in the future he will create enormous good will.ÂFurther, Paddy should implement his known ideas on devolution and pushingÂpower down to the lowest level. Currently much is centralised. LargelyÂCroat areas could be left to run their own schools and services, raise finances, and be able to useÂtheir own language.ÂCroats in mixed areas would have a say, and furthermore the prospect ofÂbeing able to run their own affairs, or having a major hand in them, wouldÂbe a tremendous incentive for Croat refugees to return to currently SerbÂcontrolled areas such as Posavina, previously cleansed of its historic CroatÂpopulation.ÂDevolutionary policies could halt the collapsing Croat demographic. NeedlessÂto say, such policies benefit the Serbs and Muslims as well.ÂWithout an equal stake for each of its three people's, BH can never be stable. ItÂwill remain a centralised international protectorate and its people willÂnever be able to run their own affairs.ÂBy providing a democratic and just answer to the Croat question, the viability of BH could beÂassured in the future. Hopefully Paddy will seize the opportunity by providing that answer.ÂBrian Gallagher is a former Vice-Chair of a local party and writes onÂSouth East European affairs.Â(c) Brian Gallagher letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 27 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7464/1/H-Koliko-god-malesna-i-Hrvatska-ima-poneku-kartu.html ÂKolikogod malešna, i Hrvatska ima poneku kartuDokle će hrvatski političkiestablišment vući za nos hrvatsku javnost? Ona je već mjesecima izloženabubnjarskoj vatri uvjeravanja da ostvarenje ambicije, da se Hrvatska integrira uEuropsku uniju, ovisi samo o njoj samoj. To je netočno već napojmovnom planu jer integriranje nije neki unilateralan čin već ovisio ugovornim stranama. Politički gledano, tvrdnja je još neutemeljenija: EU,čiji činovnici marljivo pune novinarske uši pričom, kako smozapravo nevjerojatno dobri i zlatni ali, eto, treba još malo potegnuti i pričekatiizlazak iz sljedećeg zavoja, ta ista EU, dakle, vrlo nas tvrdo odbijapriznati čak kao kandidata poput recimo uzorno naprednih Bugarske iliRumunjske.Nema sumnje da se hrvatsko društvo morareformirati i to stubokom. Nema sumnje da možemo biti učinkovit članeuropske zajednice tek kada te reforme uzmu maha. Ali isto tako nema sumnje dase kao racionalan povod reformi ne bi smjela koristiti hrvatska želja ulaska uUniju već jedino i isključivo naš interes da konačno zaživimokao slobodno, napredno i suvremeno društvo. Bude li EU u nekoj daljoj budućnostizainteresirana da nas ima u svojoj sredini - tim bolje! Razlikovati te dvije motivacije pristupa reforminije nekakvo verbalno cjepidlačenje. Riječ je o suštinskoj razlici ureformskim sadržajima i prioritetima. Unija zahtijeva od nas da maksimalnootvorimo naše tržište njenim proizvodima, da joj omogućimo da pravno zaštitisvoje investicije i da nadgleda/diktira pravila igre naše suradnje s drugimigračima oko nas i na svjetskom tržištu. To se samo djelomičnopoklapa a nerijetko i izričito kosi s našim interesima pa u primjenitakvih reformi dolazi do značajnog gubitka našeg mogućeg potencijala.Članstvo u Uniji moglo bi svojim pozitivnim učincima barem djelomičnokompenzirati, a možda čak i nadmašiti, taj gubitak ali nam to članstvonitko ne obećava. Umjesto da tako sagleda stvari, hrvatska se vlastzaintačila da će «Hrvatska 2006. godine biti spremna na ulazak u EU»a onda će nam ga Unija i njena Komisija valjda teško moći uskratiti.Takav pristup stvari možda može proći u nekoj balkanskoj kockarnici aline i u racionalnom zapadnom svijetu. Evo zašto.Prvo, Hrvatska do 2006. možda uz ogromne naporemožemo ustoličiti pravne i tehnološke norme koje su čisti preslikonih u EU ali ne može uspjeti u njihovoj stvarnoj primjeni. Problem nije upropisima nego u glavama. Netoučinak preslikavanja je otvaranje našeg tržišta,a posebice poljoprivrede, bespoštednoj i značajno subvencioniranojkonkurenciji iz EU uz tek marginalno poboljšanje vlastite konkurentskesposobnosti.Drugo, što bi Unija gospodarski dobila time daprihvati Hrvatsku u punopravno članstvo u trenutku kada je ona u svomunutarnjem ustroju maksimalno preslikala EU-sustav i otvorila svoje tržište?Dobila bi samo obveze. A treba shvatiti da je EUropa kartel koga ne nadahnjujevizionarski entuzijazam Jean Monneta i drugih.Treće i najvažnije, naš glavniintegracijski problem nije naša zaostalost - iako smo kao i mnogi drugizaostali - nego naš geopolitički položaj. Zato je i zamišljen ZapadniBalkan, zato je Hrvatska smještena na nj i zato joj je i ponuđen SSP,Sporazum o stabilizaciji i pridruživanju (tim redoslijedom). Vrijeme je da sejednom zauvijek utvrdi da se odbojnost Unije prema pristupu Hrvatske sasvim logičkiuklapa u ambiciju nekih velikih sila da "srede" cijeli prostor bivšeJugoslavije. Sve ezoterične priče koje se hrvatskoj javnosti servirajuo individualnim vrednovanjima, regatama, strateškim partnerstvima i sl. samosluže da se skrene pozornost s neuspjeha Hrvatske (i one hadezeovske i ove današnje)da čimbenike svjetske politike uvjere da im možemo biti korisni jedino kaomost prema Balkanu, ali ne i kao njegov sastavni dio. To treba u otvorenoj diskusiji jasno prepoznati izajedničkim se snagama, i po mogućnosti bez stranačkihprepucavanja, dogovoriti o adekvatnoj vanjskoj politici na dulji rok. Umjestotoga u nas se nastavlja primjenom agitpropovskog modela indoktrinacijeponavljanjem neutemeljenih teza a rijetki pokušaji hladnog razmišljanja olakose trpaju u vreću navodnog euroskepticizma. Možda se tako smanjujeunutarnjepolitički pritisak na vlast ali i maksimalno slabi vlastitapregovaračka pozicija: Država nastupa prema vlastitom narodu kaorazglasnik teza s druge strane pregovaračkog stola iÂlišava se svoje uloge autentičnog predstavnika nacionalnih interesa.U Zagrebu je nedavno konstituiran Privremeni odborEU-RH, koji bi trebao nagledati primjenu i provedbu Privremenog sporazuma otrgovinskim i s njima povezanim pitanjima. Tim je ugovorom Hrvatska nadobudnopreuzela obvezu da počne snižavati svoje carine spram EU ne čekajućiotprilike dvije godine potrebne za ratifikaciju «pravog» Sporazuma.No, upravo kao što se i s primjenom samogaPrivremenog sporazuma žurno počelo na međunarodnopravno i ustavnopotpuno neprimjeren način tako je sada inaugurirana i praksa s Privremenimodborom koji se, čini se, bavi svime i svačime a najmanje onim što muje ugovorna zadaća, naime trgovinskim pitanjima. Iz izvješća medijasaznaje se da se na dnevnom redu među ostalim našlo i izvješće EK ozemljama tzv. Zapadnog Balkana, situacija u Hrvatskoj nakon kadrovskih promjenau Vladi, odnos Hrvatske s MMF-om, politika privatizacije, stanje u pravosuđu,povratak izbjeglica itd. Na sastanku se raspravljalo i o najznačajnijem političkompitanju vezanom uz SSP, naime konvencijama koje bi međusobno trebalesklapati one zemlje tzv Zapadnog Balkana, koje su s EU potpisale SSP. Do sada suto samo Hrvatska i Makedonija pa je prije svega pola godine - kada je trebalopripremiti teren za odobrenje potpisa Sporazuma - ministar Mimica na sva ustauvjeravao hrvatsku javnost da se zapravo radi o nedužnom bilateralnomkodificiranju odnosa koji su većim dijelom već ionako uglavljenipostojećim sporazumima.Dapače, ministar je na sjednici saborskogOdbora za europske integracije odlučno izjavio «da bi Hrvatska odmah prekinula s procesompribližavanja EU-u, ako bi to bilo uvjetovano institucionaliziranjemregije» (Hina, 17.10.2001.). Sada se, međutim,ispostavlja (Vjesnik, 23.4.2002.) da revna briselška Komisija pridajeupravo tom dokumentu veliku važnost pa ne samo da želi potvrditi tekst takvekonvencije, na što po (još uvijek nevežećem) Sporazumu ima pravo, negoda ona taj dokument u najboljoj kolonijalnoj maniri želi sama i - sastaviti!Pri tome joj se «potkrala» mala tehnička nezgoda pa je umjesto nacrtabilateralnih konvencija napravila platformu regionalne konvencije a to jeizazvalo, primjećuje izvjestitelj, «nezadovoljstvo hrvatskih diplomatskihkrugova jer nazivom implicira multilateralnu regionalnu suradnju, čemu seZagreb protivi».Tako se nastavlja tragikomični igrokaz u komese čudom čudimo kada Bruxelles nastavlja stazom na koju je Hrvatskapristala brzopletim potpisivanjem SSP-a. Nikome valjda nije palo na pamet da seupita zašto EK inzistira da se ti (po našemu) bilateralni - a sada seispostavlja i dentični! - ugovori nazovu «konvencijama», odnosno da serabi termin, koji u međunarodnoj praksi označava upravo multilateralnepravne akte. Karte su na stolu. Trgovinski su odnosi samo dio«špila», kome je sada dodano i pokretanje tzv Zagrebačkog procesa, uokviru koga će se državna vodstva bivše Jugoslavije (minus Slovenija plusAlbanija) sastajati i dogovarati uz nazočnost europske «trojke». Slučajnoje istoga dana, kada je u Zagrebu zasjedao Privremeni odbor, u Skoplju glavnikoordinator Pakta stabilnosti Erhard Busek označio kao prioritetne ciljeverazvoja regije «stvaranje zajedničkog tržišta, regionalnogelektroenergetskog sustava i infrastrukture» i dodao da će «regijapostati zanimljiva za strane investitore tek kada se stvori tržište od 55milijuna ljudi».Pritisnuta teškim jadom u Bosni i Hercegovini, Makedoniji, Kosovu iCrnoj Gori neki su se «veliki» u Europi izgleda odlučili na poker. AHrvatska je toliko zaokupljena unutarnjepolitičkim biljarom da još nijeshvatila da je i ona u igri i da, koliko god malešna, i sama ima poneku kartu.Branko Salaj ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ24.4.2002. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7465/1/E-Croatian-World-Congress---New-Representatives-to-the-UN---ECOSOC.html  HRVATSKI SVJETSKI KONGRES - CROATIAN WORLD CONGRESS NGO Member of the United Nations http://www.crowc.org  PRESS RELEASE  Appointment of Mr. Zoran Crnkovic letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 22 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7467/1/E-NFCA-Meets-With-State-Department.html NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS1329 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.Washington, DC 20036Phone: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.com Fax: (202)331-0050For Immediate Release: Contact: Joe FoleyApril 15, 2002 Tel: 301-294-0937ÂOFFICIALS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS MEET WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT(Washington, D.C., April 15, 2002). On Wednesday, April 10, 2002, John Kraljic, President of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA), Steve Rukavina, a former President of the NFCA, and Joseph Foley of Foley Government & Public Relations, Inc. met with State Department officials to express their concerns regarding the low level of monies proposed to be allocated to Croatia for Fiscal Year 2003.The budget proposal allocates only $30 million to Croatia and $50 million to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This compares with proposed allocations of $110 million for Serbia, $25 million for Montenegro and $85 million for Kosovo.State Department officials generally explained that foreign aid for European states is being decreased as a result of increased needs in Afghanistan. Within Europe, most aid is directed to Southeastern Europe, which includes aid for Albania and Bulgaria (each of which will receive $28 million under the proposal) and Romania (which will receive $29 million under the proposal). Essentially, a block of money is dedicated to the region, with the money then divided among those countries receiving aid.Effectively, this means that every dollar Serbia and Monetenegro receive is a dollar less in the common pool for other countries, including Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.Those present on behalf of the NFCA made a forceful case for increased funding for Croatia. Note was made of Croatia's continuing need for economic assistance. Mr. Kraljic, for instance, noted that Croatia had housed more Bosnian Muslim refugees than any other country in the world. The housing of these and Croat refugees primarily in hotels and other tourist facilities along Croatia's Adriatic coast caused tremendous damage to Croatia's tourist infrastructure which to this day has not been fully repaired.Moreover, Mr. Kraljic noted Croatia's assistance in NATO's war on Serbia, its continuing cooperation with the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and other points which show that Croatia remains the only nation in the region on which the United States can rely.Those officials of the State Department present noted that the reasons for the disparity in amount of aid were based on a variety of factors including demographic considerations.ÂMr. Kraljic believes that disparity reflects the continued importance which State Department officials to give to Serbia, viewing it as an important factor in the area. Indeed, as Mr. Kraljic noted, though the greatest war damage in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e., Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo) was inflicted on Kosovo, the Republic of Serbia will receive $25 million in aid more than Kosovo!State Department officials did point out that Serbia will not receive the aid unless it cooperates with the ICTY. But, as Mr. Kraljic noted after the meeting, current American policy merely calls for a suspension of aid. "All that means is that Serbia is really not being penalized; a real penalty would be for Serbia to forfeit its allocation and to give the money to those countries, such as Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are cooperating with the ICTY," said Mr. Kraljic.Mr. Kraljic and Mr. Rukavina further complained to State Department officials concerning where the funding Croatia is receiving is being directed. Mr. Kraljic noted that one subcontractor which is receiving American tax-payer dollars includes the Serbian Democratic Forum (SDF). Led by Veljko Dzakula, a former official of the so-called Republika Srpska Krajina, a statelet established by pro-Milosevic Serbs which engaged in massive war crimes against Croat civilians, the SDF receives monies to work on minority returnee assistance.During the meeting, Mr. Kraljic protested the hypocrisy of providing money to such a group and noted the NFCA's belief that little money is provided to Croat-controlled NGO's which provide assistance to returning Croat refugees, especially those seeking to return to Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Mr. Rukavina also noted during the meeting that the State Department has done little to promote ties between Croatian-American business leaders and Croatian businesses. "If you look at many other Eastern European nations, each have business councils which promote ties between the diaspora and the home country business communities," Mr. Rukavina said, pointing to an especially active Ukrainian group as an example which receives USAID funding. "This has not been the case with respect to Croatia and this needs to be addressed as well."The NFCA has determined to ask Croatia's friends in Congress to support an appropriations bill which would at least keep Croatia's budget allocation for Fiscal Year 2003 at its current level of $44 million. The NFCA calls on all of Croatia's supporters in the community to contact their Congressmen to protest the unjust allocations being given to Croatia.The NFCA is a national umbrella organization whose members have approximately 130,000 members. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 15 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7469/1/E-Serb-militia-in-the-Croatian-prison.html ÂÂÂThe State news agency Hina said the county court in Osijek, eastern Croatia, ruled that the six had arrested, tortured and expelled non-Serbs and confiscated their property in the eastern Baranja region during the 1991-95 war.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThey were members of the Serb militia, which rebelled against Zagreb's independence from Yugoslavia, the agency said. They have already spent 18 months in custody and have two weeks to appeal the sentence to the Supreme Court, it added.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂCroatia's reformist rulers, who ousted nationalists from power in 2000, have vowed to investigate all war crimes committed by both Serbs and Croats during the war and bring those involved to trial.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe six Serbs were the first to be sentenced since the reformers came to power.ÂÂÂÂCopyright 2002 Reuters LimitedÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 08 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7468/1/E-Milwaukees-Role-in-the-Hague.html  Balkan Justice:Milwaukee's Role at The HagueÂMarch 28, 2002ÂVolume 23, Issue 13--------------------------------------------------------------------------------As the world knows, the 1990s was a very bloody period in the history of the former Yugoslavia but, hopefully, a major leap forward in the development of civilization will result with the creation of a system of world justice. The international community is shedding the notion that a brutal ruler can engage in ethnic cleansing or genocide with impunity as long as it's done within national boundaries. Why should national boundaries, which in some cases were arbitrarily drawn, allow ethnic minorities to suffer mass murder or rape, while the world looks on helplessly? This is the issue before the world.After the fall of communism in 1989, the former Yugoslavia, which was a federation of six republics-Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro-began to split apart. As Yugoslavia splintered, civil war erupted. There were major wars in Croatia and Bosnia and even in a province of Serbia itself, Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians militants, the KLA, were fighting for an independent state.After years of conflict and tens of thousands of people slaughtered, NATO finally intervened. NATO forces, led by the U.S. and Britain, bombed Serbian-led forces that were holding the Bosnian people under siege. A few years later, NATO again attacked and bombed Belgrade, Novi Sad and elsewhere in Serbia, in response to Serbia's military actions against Kosovar Albanians.In 1993, the Security Council of the United Nations, set up the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian, known as The Hague Tribunal, which was designed to try the perpetrators of various war crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing. Through these actions, the international community began to chart new territory, including crossing national borders to apprehend alleged war criminals and bring them to trial at the Tribunal in The Hague. Currently, we are reading accounts of the trial at the Tribunal of the most prominent figure in the former Yugoslavia, the former president, Slobodan Milosevic.Is this system of world justice working? And is The Hague Tribunal changing the way the world reacts to ruthless leaders? Had this system been in place in the 1930s would Hitler have had the opportunity to commit genocide against Jews in Germany? Should there be a Tribunal for war crimes committed by Pol Pot and company in Cambodia? Will Saddam Hussein be indicted by a future tribunal and eventually stand trial?Pursuant to the 1998 Treaty of Rome, the international community has also proposed a permanent International Criminal Court that is very close to being ratified by the necessary 60 nations to become a reality. The U.S. is opposed to this permanent International Criminal Court because of its role in the world as international policeman and because of some strong anti-American feelings by a significant number of countries, some of our high level officials could be unfairly indicted. Despite U.S. objections, the International Criminal Court will come into existence.The Hague Tribunal, however, seems to be working despite various criticisms. The United Nations (UN) has apprehended a number of alleged war criminals and brought them to trial in The Hague and found them guilty. Will this deter future war crimes? Who knows, but it is at least a start. Is this current tribunal without flaws? Certainly not, as the following interview with two prominent Milwaukee attorneys who are currently defending an alleged war criminals in the Hague will clearly explain.Milwaukee attorney, Nik Kostich, is a defense attorney with Kostich, LeBell, Dobroski & Morgan, who is very active in Serbian-American community. Tom Kuzmanovic is a Milwaukee trial attorney and a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson and a very active member of the Croatian-American community. Conducting the interview for the Shepherd Express were Milwaukee attorney Lawrence G. Albrecht, partner at First, Blondis, Albrecht, Bangert & Novotnak, who has taught and consulted extensively in the Balkan region and serves as the Shepherd Express' chief foreign correspondent, and Louis G. Fortis who in addition to being publisher of the Shepherd Express has a Ph.D. in political economy and is an international consultant who advises parliaments in developing countries. He spent part of this past February working in the Balkans.Shepherd Express: There are less than 10 U.S. attorneys defending accused war criminals in The Hague. How did you become involved?Kuzmanovic: I got involved in May 1998 through a cousin who was a prominent criminal defense lawyer in Croatia. His name is Zeljko Olujic. He was well known throughout the late '70s, early '80s and into the '90s in defending political dissidents in Croatia during the communist era and when he got involved in the Tribunal, he didn't have familiarity with Western common law practices that we have in the United States and which are used extensively at the Tribunal. So even though I don't have a specific criminal law background, I have extensive trial experience and a common law background and he asked if I would get involved. It also helped that I speak and read Croatian, so being bilingual was also very beneficial. So I could also communicate with the client as well as with Zeljko and then deal with the lawyers and the judges.Kostich: I got involved in '95. The war in Bosnia was still on at that time, and I was the president of the Serbian-American Bar Association. I went to Bosnia and Yugoslavia on sort of a fact-finding mission, vis-a-vis their legal system. I met the president of the Serbian Bar Association who was a member of the Dusko Tadic defense team, the first defendant at the Tribunal. He asked me a number of questions about common law principles, certain criminal defense terms and so on. Later, I did some research for him, and sent him some things. I was then invited to join the Tadic team in October of '95. That was my first case.SE: We all saw really gruesome images on TV regarding the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Is it difficult to defend alleged war criminals?Kostich: The question is asked, anytime you speak publicly-particularly to any groups of lay people, or you're at a cocktail party-how can you represent people like that? I think that an experienced lawyer, litigator who has taken the oath to represent people will present defenses no matter how serious, how horrific the alleged perpetrator may be, whether it's a serial killer or a rapist, or in this case we've got war crimes charges.ÂIn this country we do it because the Constitution guarantees various rights and the right to have a lawyer and to have a defense. And if you can't afford to hire a lawyer under our Constitution, the government has to appoint a lawyer for you. This principle, the Gideon principle, continues in the international system. If a war crimes suspect cannot afford a lawyer, the Tribunal will assign a lawyer.ÂOne role of the defense attorney is to keep the prosecutor honest. I think it's also to guarantee a fair trial. And I think history will judge society, our involvement and everybody else's involvement in this project and give high marks if the trials are fair, if the accused is defended properly with good lawyers.ÂI also think that because I hail from the region, I'm a Serb, and I'm bilingual and I'm able to assist in this case, I think it made it even more interesting to me. I'm not involved to represent any particular ideological concept or political concept. But I have to admit that I do in some way feel responsible for the Serbian viewpoint particularly if I feel there's some unfairness based on ethnic issues. Sometimes this is a difficult concept and people will ask, well are you defending me as an individual or are you defending some kind of a political ideology or a concept? And I just want to make sure that all of the facts are brought out. And if some of the facts are ugly, you have to live with that. And there have been a lot of ugly facts that have come in out of the litigation in these cases.Kuzmanovic: From my perspective, you have a duty, an ethical obligation to represent your client zealously, ethically and to the best of your abilities. And I felt that in my position I had a unique opportunity to be able to participate in the defense of my client because of my abilities as a Croatian American, someone with knowledge of the situation, a deep background into the region and knowing that in a lot of instances what's presented in the indictments and characterizations of the conflict in certain terms weren't accurate.ÂSo from a legal perspective it was very important to get involved to represent the client. But the Tribunal is also a search for justice and, in a sense, a search for the truth. And as a defense lawyer you are not only interested obviously in a search for justice in defending your client, but you want the truth to come out as it pertains to your client and the issues that he faces. So I think there has to be due process. There has to be fairness. There has to be the ability of your client to have a fair shake. And I think that's the role of a defense lawyer, especially at the Tribunal.Kostich: One additional thing I want to tell you, which I think does color our representation, is the way the Tribunal has a very political role to play. It was set up with a political purpose; to bring peace and stability to the Balkans according to the resolution. Most of the prosecutors, particularly the last two, have been very political in how they have advanced their office, the budgetary issues and things of that nature. I believe that politics have come in to play a role in the trials.SE: So what you're saying is that the prosecution has an advantage. And part of what you're saying is the Tribunal is trying to make a statement that war criminals get sent to prison. If people walk away from The Hague after being acquitted, that defeats the purpose of what you're arguing the Tribunal was set up for?Kostich: Of course. Of course.SE: Is that what you mean by political?Kostich: That's one aspect. The other aspect is that in all of the trials so far there have been expert witnesses who have come in and they have testified, for example, as to the history of the region, the politics of the region. Why did the conflict begin? And they give you sort of a political science history lesson. And one of the things that occurs is that I don't always agree with these expert witnesses as to their analysis. But that becomes a political factor. So you come in as a defense attorney and you begin to cross-examine and challenge their findings and their analysis. Because a part of the whole thing does go back to the war. Who started it? Could Yugoslavia have been kept together or not? Was it smart to recognize Bosnia? All of those kind of issues. They're all political issues and you're cross-examining them. And that, of course, raises the political ante in this process. Tom, please, am I out in left field or what do you think?Kuzmanovic: Well there is definitely a political angle to the Tribunal. The Tribunal is a political animal. It was set up by the United Nations Security Council by political means. It is used as a tool to try to promote peace and stability in the Balkans, and in the sentencing schemes that have been handed down they try to use these punishments as a deterrent to prevent future conduct of a similar sort in the Balkans. And in my view, that really has failed because the deterrence really hasn't manifested itself from what I've seen. And you have to look at the Tribunal. It's called the International Criminal Tribunal for the Prosecution of War Criminals. Not the International Criminal Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals. So the political bent I believe is inherent in the name of the Tribunal.SE: But every court has a "political aspect" to it in trying to preserve the status quo, and whether it's a capitalist society or a communist society or whatever, to keep people from violating the laws that the political process has created. So how is this court any different? They're all designed to keep people from deviating from the desired behavior promulgated by the political establishment.Kostich: The Clinton administration was really behind the Tribunal because it was either that or go in and bomb Serbs or whoever they thought were the bad guys. And I think that that was a political act to push it through the Security Council using Article 7. And I think there's a criticism that that particular article doesn't really allow for the setting up of additional institutions. It allows peacekeeping activity and so on, but not the actual creation of another entity. And that was argued at the Tribunal but lost. That had to do with jurisdiction.ÂThere were many conflicts between Nuremberg and the Bosnian conflict, but this was really the very first tribunal that was set up. And I think that the people in the region wonder why there wasn't a tribunal set up for Vietnam or for some other activities here and there, and why it was this one. And that's why the question of this political tribunal, the setting up of it is looked upon as a political act. I just don't want you to misunderstand my other point; and that is that in my role, when I'm trying a case, I'm not just trying the facts of the case but I'm also trying the politics of the case because the prosecutor sets it up that way.ÂKuzmanovic: It's supposed to be a trial of individuals for individual responsibility. But when you read the indictments and you listen to some of the opening statements that are made, it is not a trial of an individual, it's a trial of a country and a people. And while they say publicly that they don't do that, in practice they do. And that's really disconcerting. And that's why you have a lot of people from the region that are turned off to the Tribunal and why there's a big uproar because it's not directed at someone's individual culpability. For example, with the Croatians the angle is directed at Croatia's perceived attempts to try to secure through military means half of Bosnia. And that's what the Tribunal is trying to establish. The Tribunal is attempting to rewrite the history of the region by making everyone equally culpable when its not the case. It's not why the Tribunal is there. The Tribunal is there to try individuals who have been accused of committing crimes of war or crimes against humanity, not to try countries through those individuals for acts that went on during the course of the war.SE: You're not arguing the fact that with respect to all these horrific crimes that we have viewed on television or read about in the newspaper, that someone should not be held accountable for those. You take issue with the fact that they are not necessarily going after individuals. They're trying a culture or a country or a people?Kostich: Sure. I'll give you an example. I currently represent a fellow named Momcilo Krajisnik. He was the speaker of the Bosnian Assembly first and then he was a member of the expanded presidency of the Republika Srpska. He was a prominent politician. We have just received an amended indictment which says that my client was a member of a joint criminal enterprise. Sort of like a conspiracy theory in American law. And then what it says is that he was aligned in a joint criminal enterprise with a number of other people. And this is where Tom's statement is interesting because, I know this is painstaking, but what the indictment does, it proceeds to name all of the members of the Republika Srpska Parliament at that time, all of the ministers and their deputies, most of the Ministry for Interior which is your police, all of your leadership of the army as well as members of the army, all of the members of the municipal governments as members of the joint criminal conspiracy,SE: So they're indicting an entire society?Kostich: Exactly. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Because when I counted out how many people are involved in this, essentially I came down with numbers that are something in the neighborhood to 40,000 to 50,000 men and women that they're indicting as a joint criminal enterprise. When I go to Serbia and Bosnia, the Republika Srpska, the Serbian part, 95% of the people feel that they've all been indicted, that they all feel like somebody wants to make them guilty. It is not creating peace and stability. And by watching all of these trials they're not feeling any better about their neighbors of other ethnic backgrounds, unfortunately. It's bringing up bad feelings, the scars that people have from the war, and they're festering again.Kuzmanovic: My thought is that the Tribunal as a whole, it's receptiveness in Croatia is almost, I don't want to say it's nonexistent, but there's only a very small percentage that feels the Tribunal is being fair when it comes to dealing with Croatian indictees. Congress just had a hearing on February 28th dealing with the Tribunal, and in a lot of ways the people who testified echoed some of the comments that have been made by people about the Tribunal and its perceived lack of fairness.SE: Do they think it's being fair when they're prosecuting Serbs?Kuzmanovic: Well it really depends on who they're talking about. That's a good question. Because I think what you have here is from the Croatian viewpoint, and the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian people, they feel like they have been overwhelmingly the victims. There was a CIA report '94 or '95 that said something to the effect that of all the war crimes about 10% were committed by either Croats or Bosnian Muslims. Yeah, they're "responsible" perhaps for 10% in retaliation. But they feel like they're getting victimized again for simply defending themselves.SE: By the Serbs?Kuzmanovic: Right. So their position is "look, we were victims of this war and yet we're the ones who are getting shafted here." The Croatians feel that way more so than the Muslims do. There are some Muslim defendants now. There haven't been for a while. And they overwhelmingly feel like they're the victims as well. And I sense some dissatisfaction. I mean, Serbian General Krstic was convicted of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre where it's alleged that 7,500 Muslims, men and boys, were killed. He got convicted of genocide and he got 46 years. And people were outraged in Bosnia because they felt slighted that he only got 46 years. That should have been a life sentence to them.ÂKostich: Although the guy is 55.Kuzmanovic: Right. He's 55. Forty-six years is life for him. But the principle of it for the Bosnian Muslims who were the victims in Srebrenica is that he should have gotten life in prison.ÂSE: Let us get to some procedural issues. What kind of procedural differences do you see defending a client in The Hague versus defending a criminal client in Milwaukee?Kostich: The first difference, of course, is that most serious matters in state and federal court in this country or in this state will go to a jury trial. So you don't have a jury trial. Everything is done by a three judge chamber or panel. They're both the trier of fact and of the law. I would imagine that conceptually it's very difficult to establish juries for international tribunals. But anyway, that's one difference. The judges come from both common law and civil law, or continental background. The judges from the continental background can be much more involved in the trial than our judges. Because in the continental system, their judges do the bulk of the questioning. In the trials at the Tribunal, the prosecutor goes first, the defense attorney does his cross-examination, often the judges will then continue questioning of the witness and really at some length. And that's much different. In this country, a judge will occasionally ask a question, a clarification question. The rules of evidence are not as rigorous as they are here. Hearsay is allowed. Oftentimes written statements are allowed, and if you don't want to cross-examine a witness, a written statement comes in as a testimony of a witnessKuzmanovic: One of the key issues is the ability of an accused to confront his accusers and those testifying against him. It's a basic constitutional right in this country but at the Tribunal, it isn't necessarily so. A witness can come in and testify in a closed session. Curtains can be drawn. A partition can be set up so that the person cannot even be seen by the accused or by the defense counsel, although the practical effects of that are tough to fathom. And you don't know what that person is going to say. They come in as witness A or witness B or witness C and oftentimes will give damaging testimony and you'll really have no way to attack their credibility based upon their status as a protected witness.ÂSE: Basically, you don't even know who this person is.ÂKuzmanovic: Oftentimes that's the case. You won't know. You'll get a name a week or two before and you've got a week or two to find out who this person is and where they come from and what their ax is to grind. And you're in trial at that time so you're under pressure to try to find something out about this person who may live in Australia. The other difficulty I see is in a criminal case in the U.S., if the prosecution loses and there's an acquittal, the prosecutor cannot appeal. At the Tribunal, if the prosecution loses, it can appeal. That's one of the reasons I think some of these trials have gone on longer than necessary. Finally, there is no death penalty. The maximum sentence is a life sentence. But the Tribunal, in the sentencing determinations, is supposed to take into account what the sentences would have been in former Yugoslavia.Kostich: I think that the sentences at The Hague actually are not as lengthy as they are here in the United States. The sentences at The Hague will run anywhere from as low as three to five years up to the upper twenties, 25, 28, up to 30. That's the usual bracket, although there are some exceptions. I did the first two plea bargains at the Tribunal and in those cases I think the clients got extremely low sentences. One received five years and the other got 10 years. Then you get credit for the time you spent awaiting trial. There's apparently a tendency to plug into the parole system that is in effect in those countries where the defendants serve their time usually somewhere in Europe that has about a third off for good behavior. When I look at sentences across Europe that I'm familiar with, I think the United States is basically doubling the numbers on European sentences.ÂKuzmanovic: I think you're right, Nik. The other factor in the Erdemovic case that benefited him on sentencing was the defense that was raised of duress.Kostich: Right.Kuzmanovic: His defense was "look, I was forced to be part of this team. It was either, if I didn't pull the trigger they would have shot me in the head," so that obviously helped mitigate his sentence.Kostich: And that's interesting because duress used to be a complete defense at one time. It is now just to be used in mitigation of a sentence.SE: Many people who champion human rights are pleased to see The Hague Tribunal actually cross over a country's border and bring alleged mass murderers to trial. Do you think that it's working and fulfilling its mandate? I realize that earlier we talked about the political nature of it, but is it working in any aspect?Kostich: Tom and I talked about the congressional hearings vis-a-vis the Tribunal a few weeks ago. A professor testified that international tribunals may not be the best instrument to handle these kinds of problems. He was concerned about the state sovereignty issue. He was concerned about the fact that diplomacy would not play a role. He was concerned that it becomes very selective because only certain people have vetoes in the Security Council. And he had concerns that there's no enforcement for the Tribunal. In this case, NATO has been used to arrest people. The Bush administration is back pedaling on this concept of international tribunals because the U.S. is very active globally. We have become a de facto cop and the administration doesn't want our armed forces to be the subject of a prosecution in front of an international tribunal. We never did have an international tribunal for many prior conflicts. I don't think we're going to have an international tribunal for Cambodia, for example.ÂSE: That seems to be falling apart.Kostich: It's falling apart. As a lawyer, obviously, when you look at human rights issues you do have to support democracies, rights, civil liberties, things of that nature. So on one level you say, "well, we really need somebody to step in and take care of these issues." I'm not prepared yet to accept Tribunals because they have become political. Who is the prosecutor really responsible to? That's a problem.ÂSE: Who would the prosecutors say they answer to?Kostich: It's my understanding that the prosecutors want prosecutors to be very independent.Kuzmanovic: I agree. But that's another political issue. The prosecutors are appointed and approved by the Security Council. So in a sense the prosecutor is accountable to the United Nations Security Council. The prosecutor takes the position that she represents the victims, whoever they may be, of the wars of the former Yugoslavia. And I think she has definitely staked herself out to be independent and to do what she wants when she wants. That's not necessarily good or bad. But there is no real accountability. If the prosecutor abuses her function as a prosecutor what remedy does a defendant or a defense lawyer have? I don't know of any.ÂSE: Can't you appeal that?Kuzmanovic: Well, you can't. A judge is supposed to confirm an indictment. Well, I don't know of any indictment that hasn't been confirmed, first of all. There might be, but I know of none. And the prosecutor is basically doing what she wants in terms of investigative work, travel, speeches, press releases. There's a whole apparatus set up to support the prosecutor. There's none of that for the defense.Kostich: Let me add one thing. In '99, NATO bombed Yugoslavia in regard to the Kosovo issue, and there are people who believe that NATO committed war crimes, that they killed civilians.SE: Milosevic certainly feels that way.Kostich: But I'm not talking about Milosevic, I'm talking about other people like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Civilians were killed. And also that a part of the air campaign was actually directed at civilians by bombing electric power lines and things of that nature.SE: Didn't we also inadvertently bomb the Chinese embassy?Kostich: Right. And so they're saying those are war crimes. Certain people from Yugoslavia and some international scholars, professors and others, asked the prosecutor to investigate the NATO activities in regard to these war crimes. The question becomes, now is this prosecutor going to be very zealous in investigating NATO activities when she uses NATO personnel to enforce, to arrest suspects? And I would imagine of the Tribunal's $100 million budget, the NATO countries are probably by far the major contributors to that budget. The United States provides $25 million a year to the budget. How zealous is this prosecutor going to be when the money comes from this group? Now whether you buy this argument or not, there's always that appearance of impropriety.ÂSE: It could be argued that the prosecutor is just being real careful, conservative and strategic in terms of who she is prosecuting. Isn't that a reasonable argument?Kuzmanovic: This prosecutor has made it clear that she is going after people who were supposedly higher up. The previous prosecutor, Louise Arbour, actually dismissed maybe 20 or 25 indictments. I think every one was a Bosnian Serb of the so-called small-fry type. The people who committed individual acts, who had personal responsibility for beatings, tortures, killings, or that sort of thing. She said the Tribunal was set up to concentrate on the larger group of commanders, the military people who were responsible for planning and executing the activities that were in contravention to international law. While the big people may have been there pulling the strings, it was people on the ground who actually committed the acts. And the local courts there are not set up or equipped in any way, shape or form to try local people for committing acts against individuals of another ethnic group. There are two levels of defendants here. The high people who really need a trial on their individual responsibility for what they did, and the little people who committed the acts. And it's really difficult to see how dismissing the "little people" actually has contributed to the furtherance of justice in former Yugoslavia.SE: Didn't Nuremberg supposedly take away the defense of "I was just following orders"? Isn't that what Nuremberg established?Kuzmanovic: I think in a sense "I was just following orders" doesn't fly when you're defending someone accused of war crimes. There were local trials set up by single judges post-Nuremberg that dealt with the individual actors and tried them and if warranted, convicted and punished them. There were judges who were placed in various localities within Germany that tried these people. Presently, there is no international judicial system set up throughout the Balkan region trying these small people. These small people are still running around.Kostich: The obvious fact is that Germany was occupied and Yugoslavia, particularly Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia are not occupied. Bosnia is, I think, occupied to some degree. Furthermore, they just don't have the resources. They don't have the money to pay for a judicial system. In Banja Luka, the chief judge has one computer. He is having a difficult time finding prosecutors and judges. In fact, I talked to him directly. He's hoping that new graduates will want to be judges. So you're going to have judges who are what, 25, 26 years old?ÂSE: With no experience.Kostich: With no experience. And, of course, the cops don't have it. The investigators don't have it. I honestly don't think there's a desire and willpower to go out and prosecute people in the community who may have committed a lower level crime. I don't know what the situation is in the Bosnian Federation.Kuzmanovic: You know, I think if there's going to be accountability and "justice" done, and if you want people to return in Bosnia to the places from which they were either ethnically cleansed or had to flee, you're not going to go back if your neighbor is the guy who chased you out with a gun and said "leave because you're Muslim" or whatever. If those people aren't prosecuted, you're not going to have refugees return. Serbs aren't going to come back to Sarajevo and Croats and Muslims aren't going to go back to the Republika Srpska. No one's going to go back to the Bosnian Federation because no one's going to want to go back to a place where they were chased out of. And until the individual people who did the chasing are held accountable, you're not going to have reconciliation. And I think the Tribunal misses the boat on that issue by letting the small fry go.ÂSE: Did NATO commit war crimes by bombing Yugoslavia in response to what was going on in Kosovo? What you're saying is that the U.S. and Western European countries, NATO and the like, basically still are beyond human rights law.Kostich: You know, both Tom and I are human beings in addition to being defense lawyers. Sometimes people say, you guys have looked at all these autopsy photos and know all this awful stuff and you still trundle on as defense attorneys. What kind of people are you? My hometown was the first town that was bombed. Novi Sad. I'm sitting on my duff in Milwaukee, and all of a sudden NATO starts bombing Yugoslavia and the first thing I see is my hometown and I see buildings burning and bombs dropping.ÂWhat I'm trying to say in that regard is, should NATO be looked at by the prosecutor, actually investigated? And if they finally decided that the military action was justified, at least they would have made an attempt to investigate. But they didn't do that. That's the problem. My personal observation was that there was an attempt to influence the civilians, the lay people. NATO bombed the power grids, the water grids. There was no hot water. There was no electricity. People with kids had problems. Never mind the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy or some hospital or some train or bus and all of that. NATO at that time literally said, it wanted the Serbs to hurt so that they would then get to Milosevic.One other thing was the use of cluster bombs in various cities. And as you know, cluster bombs explode before they hit the ground. NATO used cluster bombs in towns, in urban areas, where the justification might be that there were military targets. Yugoslavs used to put military barracks within urban areas. But cluster bombs don't know the difference between soldiers and people going to the market, as occurred in Nis, in southern Serbia. My criticism is really more with the prosecutor's office because I think that's a very politicized office and I think that is where some of the policies have been wrong. Of course the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia is one of those.ÂKuzmanovic: I have a differing view about the NATO bombing than Nik does, and that comes from the experience of Croatia having been in a war from 1990 to 1995 and having dealt with ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate bombing, use of cluster bombs by either the Yugoslav National Army, which was essentially a Serbian army, or the Serbian paramilitaries in Croatia.ÂKostich: We don't agree on everything by the way.Kuzmanovic: My level of sympathy with respect to the NATO bombing is not there. I don't know how long the NATO bombing lasted.ÂKostich: It lasted almost three months.Kuzmanovic: Three months. Compared to five years worth of indiscriminate shelling and cluster bombs, to me there isn't necessarily a comparison. I do believe that the prosecutor should have investigated, to maintain some level of balance. I don't think that the investigation would have come to the conclusion that the bombing and the campaign constituted war crimes, but my thought is that the Tribunal is attempting to maintain some sort of a balance among and between the ethnic groups in former Yugoslavia, although we haven't seen any indictments of individuals in the Kosovo Liberation Army.ÂSE: Do you think the proposed international criminal court, the ICC, will become a reality?Kostich: I think it's going to be a reality. The Europeans are very much in favor of it and have lobbied for it. I've been told that they've actually bought land in The Hague to build this court. So apparently they know things we don't know. However, if the United States does not join, I'm not really sure how effective it'll be. Who's going to finance it because we won't be involved? If the U.S. doesn't become a part of it does the practice of that Tribunal become international customary law? Do the precedents become a part of customary international law if the biggest and most important country in the world is not involved?ÂKuzmanovic: It's going to be a reality, it's just a question of whether it's going to have U.S. involvement or not and as long as there's a Republican administration and Republican control of the Congress, even though the Democrats control the Senate, they'll never get enough votes to ratify, needing two-thirds of the Senate to do so. I don't see it happening and I don't think it's going to be effective.SE: Do you foresee a time when this court will indict an American and it will become a major international incident?Kostich: Good question. It's my understanding that it is going to have an independent prosecutor and that there is jurisdiction in regard to individuals who are citizens of countries who have not ratified the treaty and become members. So I foresee that it could happen with all the adventures that the American administration gets involved in overseas. Obviously we're not going to extradite anybody. But somebody could be grabbed. And then you've got an international incident.Kuzmanovic: I think the probability, if the war on terrorism continues the way it is in the future, the probability is high that there will be an attempt. In my view, it'll be a political attempt to indict an American in the ICC to prove some kind of a political point.Kostich: And as I understand it, if the person is arrested in a country that has ratified the treaty, I don't believe that you even have a right to an extradition hearing. I understand it's just automatic handing over to the jurisdiction of the ICC.Kuzmanovic: The proposed ICC has a jurisdiction of generally four areas. One is the crime of genocide. Another is the concept of crimes against humanity, which would include things like ethnic cleansing. Another would be war crimes. And then the fourth category would be crimes of aggression. And those are all defined in the specific areas of the ICC statute.ÂFor example, crimes against humanity would include things like murder, enslavement, ethnic cleansing, torture and rape. War crimes would be something committed as a part of a plan or policy as part of a large-scale commission of crimes like willful killing, compelling a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power, the taking of hostages, things like that. So those are similar to the crimes set forth in The Hague Tribunal statute.SE: Bringing it closer to home, how has the conflict in the former Yugoslavia affected the local Serb and Croat communities in Milwaukee?ÂKuzmanovic: It affected the Croatian-American community very deeply, obviously because of relatives and family members over in Croatia. The strong ties between the people here and the people there. Most of the people that came to this country came because they didn't want to live under communism. They wanted a chance to live their lives in freedom and they kept the ties to their friends and relatives in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. There was nothing they could do really in the beginning. And what we ended up doing was binding together as a community, both politically and economically.SE: In Milwaukee?Kuzmanovic: In Milwaukee. And then on a national level. And then finally even on an international level. We agitated Congress for international recognition of Croatia as an independent country. We agitated for things like lifting of the arms embargo and economic assistance to Croatia. As a Croatian-American community, we were in a large part successful. We also raised tremendous amounts of humanitarian assistance. Food, clothing, medical supplies that went to Croatia during the course of the war.ÂSE: What's the estimate of the number of Croatians in the United States?Kuzmanovic: There are close to two-million people of Croatian descent throughout the United States, most concentrated in the Midwest-Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland-and there are also large communities in Los Angeles, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and New York.SE: And the Croats are Roman Catholic predominantly?Kuzmanovic: Yes, predominantly Catholic.SE: Nik, do you want to comment about what the war did to the Serbian community in Milwaukee?Kostich: I think the community was really troubled by the war. I think that because of the nature of the war and the position taken by the United States and some of the Western powers who placed sanctions on Serbia. First, Slovenia was granted independence. Croatia second. And then Bosnia third. Then, of course, Macedonia. So what was left-Serbia and Montenegro-became Yugoslavia. So sanctions were placed on those particular entities, as well as the part of Bosnia that was controlled by the Serbs, the Republika Srpska. Similar to the Croat diaspora, Serbian people were very upset because they had relatives and family and friends who were living in this situation who were potentially refugees. The economy was devastated there. So they banded together and tried to do what they could. They also raised a lot of help in terms of relief, both monetarily and items.SE: What's the estimate of the number of Serbs in the United States?Kostich: My guess is it's anywhere from a million to two million Serbs. I know that's not very accurate, but you don't know because a lot of people are not always involved in the ethnic community. It's funny, but Serbs and Croats tended to emigrate to the same areas, the Midwest, this whole southern Lake Michigan area, along the border from Gary, Indiana, to Chicago, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, New York. And there was real early immigration out west; Los Angeles and San Francisco. And at one time mining areas in the West. You'll have pockets of Serbs in Arizona, Montana, Nevada and so on. Balkan immigrants tended to go to the same areas because that's where the jobs were. And they actually tended to live in same areas. And even have relationships and intermarriage. After World War II, you had another wave of immigration and both the Serbs and Croats who emigrated were anti-communist. They fled because they didn't want to live under the Tito regime. But change came because of what happened during World War II. The Serbs and the Croats fought each other. And there was literally separation and very little contact between Serbs and Croats as ethnic groups from '45 on. Even my own personal experience is such. Because all the immigrants played soccer and had some cultural activities, you would then come in some contact with other groups, including Croats.ÂSE: Wasn't there a period of time when Serbs and Croats played soccer against each other and then when the war took place in the '90s that ended? And now after the war ended they are playing soccer again?Kuzmanovic: That's true. After a few incidents the games were discontinued because the Wisconsin Soccer Association did not want to have any potential problems that would develop either by the Croatian teams going to the Serbian fields or the Serb teams coming to the Croatian fields. After the war was over they started playing each other again. And from what I understand, there have been no incidents since then.SE: There are Serbian restaurants in Milwaukee. Do you go to any?Kuzmanovic: I have never been to one.ÂKostich: You should. It's good food.Kuzmanovic: But there's no Croatian restaurants, which I find sad actually.SE: A market opportunity.Kuzmanovic: Yeah.SE: What can the Serb and Croatian diaspora do in Milwaukee and the United States to promote reconciliation in the Balkan Peninsula?ÂKostich: As you know, Milosevic was thrown out October 5th, almost 18 months ago. There was an election, he wouldn't leave, and then there was a struggle, a relatively peaceful revolution. Not many people got hurt. There's a new government in Serbia. And we, the diaspora, are still exploring our relationship to that new government. Under Milosevic, many of us in diaspora, and I'm including myself, did not have a relationship with Milosevic's government because we didn't approve of it. Just simply didn't like him. And I think I'm correctly quoted someplace that I thought he was an unreconstructed communist.ÂNow, we're feeling our way along with the new government. Remember, we're Serb Americans, we're American citizens. They are wondering why we left, what our loyalties are, whether we want to come back, what are our intentions. So we are not plugged in with the new government. They're being very careful in terms of dealing with the diaspora. For that reason, we don't have much of a role to play yet in Serbia and Montenegro. So that's problematic. Over here I think that we have become more Americanized. I personally have advocated for years that there ought to be some kind of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Yugoslavia at some level. Because if we are going to rely purely on a tribunal, that is not going to be the solution. I think that's where the diaspora can come in and play a role in both the Serb and the Croat diaspora.SE: In promoting this Truth and Reconciliation Commission?Kostich: Yes, I think so. And I think we all have to deal with each other. And I'm going to be criticized, but I think that Serbs have got to look to the future. In other words, to become part of the European Union, Council of Europe, any of the other international, particularly European organizations. The Croats are looking to do the same thing. So what it means is they're all going to be in the same group at some point. They've got to start talking to each other, dealing with each other. And since the languages are very similar, there are certain traditions which are similar, they are occupying a pretty small space over there. They ought to share it. They ought to see each other. And I think there has to be an attempt to begin developing relationships, both at the state level, NGOs, sports teams, cultural, then finally professional organizationsSE: With a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, you're talking about people coming forth and admitting their crimes, but not in a formal court situation?Kostich: The South African Commission had a general amnesty for people who came in and admitted their crimes and were questioned. I don't know how realistic it is for Yugoslavia. I don't know how you compare South Afrikaners to Serbs, Croats, Muslims and others. But I think at some level this has to be done. There has to be an explanation. And I think it's an instrument that can answer these questions. The Tribunal cannot answer those and is never going to answer those questions.Kuzmanovic: My thought is that there's going to be quite a long period of time where at least the Croats are going to be dealing with Yugoslavia at arm's length simply because of what happened during the course of the war. There's a feeling that the victims haven't been compensated, either monetarily or otherwise as a result of the war. And I don't see in the near future Croatia dealing with Yugoslavia on anything other than an arm's-length basis.ÂWe deal and talk with the Croatian government and their representatives here in the embassy and their consulates very frequently and we've been pushing this for a long time. Croatia is a member of the World Trade Organization. Croatia is a candidate eventually for membership in the European Union. Croatia is a current member of the Partnership for Peace, which is a precursor for NATO. If and when, and I believe it will be sooner rather than later, Croatia becomes a NATO member, its security will never again be challenged. And that for us as Croatian Americans is extremely important.ÂOnce that security is established, I think you will see a difference in how Croatia deals with other countries in the region. But Slovenia is probably going to be the next country that's going to be granted NATO membership, and Croatia is not very far behind Slovenia, as a former Yugoslav republic. The other thing that we have to focus on with respect to Croatia and eventual reconciliation is the transference of the economy from a communist one to a free market economy. It's not just Croatia's issue. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not a bad idea but I don't know in practice how that would work. Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, vis-a-vis each other. I think it's still too close in proximity to the war for it to have any chance at success. I don't say that it wouldn't but it's too early.SE: Nik, you have been at this for seven years, how much of your life is your work at The Hague taking?Kostich: Depending on the case that you're involved in, that's one thing. Right now it's taking, for example, an incredible amount of my time. Probably as much as 80% of my time during certain months. In the past, if you're in trial of course you are not at home, you're not in your office and you're gone for two, three weeks. There was a practice earlier to try cases sort of on a staggered basis where you would try a case for let's say two or three weeks, then you'd have a break and then you'd go back and so on. Now they seem to be interested in doing it straight for a very long time. So it takes an awful lot of your time. Fortunately, my wife is very supportive, but it is difficult.SE: You've been back and forth what, 72 times?Kostich: Something like that.SE: Tom, you have a family with three young children?Kuzmanovic: Twelve is the oldest. For me, I have a very supportive family, my wife has been fantastic. I've been gone about half of the time that Nik's been gone. But it's not an easy thing to pick up and leave. It's an extremely difficult thing. And one of the huge difficulties that we face, especially being defense lawyers, is that we don't have an office to go back to. We don't have a secretary we can hand something to get typed. We don't have a research assistant. We have to do everything ourselves and that's usually out of your hotel room with your laptop.SE: Can't you hire like a lawyer or a paralegal there to assist you?Kuzmanovic: Well you can have that as part of your team. And many people do. But you still don't have anywhere to work other than your hotel room. You don't have an office to go back to. There is a defense room which is very tiny, but the facilities there really aren't conducive for you to be able to use it. You have to share it with 20 other lawyers who might be there at the same time.SE: It sounds like you both have very difficult but important roles at the Tribunal. Thank you.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Send comments to editor@shepherd-express.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 08 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7471/1/E-West-Balkans-plan---latest-development.html ÂLook at these reports from RFE/HIC. As is clear, the EU are pressing ahead with the West Balkans federation project, using rhetoric such as "privileged relationship". We have a mention of Croat "suspicion". This is cobblers. Zagreb are 100% aware of what is going on. This "suspicion" is to pretend they are resisting regional ideas, when in fact they have enthusiastically accepted them. Will Zagreb refuse to take part in this latest development? Of course not. We move ever deeper into the Balkan quagmire.ÂÂBrianÂÂÂEU CALLS FOR 'PRIVILEGED RELATIONSHIP' WITH THE BALKANSÂThe EU Commission said in a report on its Balkan stabilization and association agreements issued in Brussels on 4 April that it wants to launch a new "Zagreb process" of cooperation with Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Yugoslavia, dpa reported. The study called for "enhanced arrangements for a political dialogue" in the wake of the November 2000 summit in Zagreb. It added that "such meetings would give a clear signal of the special and inclusive nature of the privileged relationship" between the EU and the Southeast European states and also help to promote "regional cooperation" between the five countries in the region. But Croats in particular are deeply suspicious of what they regard as attempts by Brussels to force them into a "new Yugoslavia" or to place them on the same political level as Serbia. PMÂÂEC: REGIONAL CO-OPERATION ABOVE ALLÂÂBruxelles, April 5 (FPB) - The EC reported yesterday that the European Union intends to strengthen political dialogue and regional co-operation with five countries included in the Stabilisation and Association Process (Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Albania) by holding regular meetings at the ministerial level with political leaders in the region.ÂIn its first report for the year on the SAP, the EC proposes the establishment of a new political forum. Within the framework of the forum, conceived as a continuation of the successful (!) summit held in Zagreb in November 2000, political leaders from countries participating in the Process and their European colleagues would discuss key issues of common interest.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 05 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7470/1/H-Povlacenje-konzula-Sole---odgovor-Veleposlanstva.html ÂÂPostovani g. Bach,Âprimijetili smo u veleposlanstvu uznemirenost dijela Americkih Hrvata u e-mrezi koju Vi administrirate oko povlacenja s duznosti generalnog konzula Republike Hrvatske u Chicagu, g. Domagoja sole. Molimo Vas da posaljete u mrezu informaciju iz privitka.ÂÂÂS postovanjem,ÂAlan VojvodicÂDrugi tajnikÂVeleposlanstvo Republike Hrvatske u SADÂpress@croatiaemb.orgÂÂÂÂÂPostovani,Âdjelatnici veleposlanstva primijetili su uznemirenost dijela Americkih Hrvata oko povlacenja s duznosti generalnog konzula Republike Hrvatske u Chicagu, g. Domagoja Sole.ÂÂÂS tim u vezi zelimo obavijestiti zainteresirane da je rijec o redovnom povlacenju s diplomatske duznosti, koje se u hrvatskoj diplomaciji, kao i svugdje u svijetu, obicno dogadja nakon isteka mandata od cetiri godine i odnosi se na sve diplomate i osoblje svih diplomatsko-konzularnih predstavnistava.ÂÂÂTako se, primjerice, u ovom trenutku s duznosti povlaci i generalni konzul Republike Hrvatske u Los Angelesu, dr. Miso Munivrana.ÂÂÂPo isteku cetverogodisnjeg mandata, diplomati se rasporedjuju na duznost u Ministarstvo vanjskih poslova u Zagrebu ili se, ukoliko su bili ugovorni diplomati, vracaju u maticne drzavne institucije ili kompanije. Nakon odredjenog razdoblja, obicno dvije godine, ponovo imaju prilike kao diplomati predstavljati Republiku Hrvatsku i izvan zemlje.ÂÂÂI g. Sola i g. Munivrana svojim su znanjem, vjestinama i radom ucinili mnogo dobra za Republiku Hrvatsku i adekvatno je predstavljali u svojim sredinama. Stoga je razumljiva paznja koju Americki Hrvati iskazuju ovim hrvatskim diplomatima koji su svojim djelovanjem zasigurno ostavili trag i u zajednici Americkih Hrvata.ÂÂÂzelimo, medjutim, istaknuti da je g. Soli i dr. Munivrani mandat trajao dulje od uobicajenog trajanja diplomatskih mandata. G. Sola duznost generalnog konzula u SAD (u Chicagu i, prije toga, u Clevelandu) obnasao je punih sedam godina, a dr. Munivrana duznost konzula u Los Angeleseu obnasao je cetiri godine i sedam mjeseci,ÂÂÂPrema tome, ne moze biti govora ni o kakvom politickom obracunu s hrvatskim diplomatima ili mrznji za sve istinsko hrvatsko ili pak primjeni kriterija podobnosti, sto se moglo cuti vezano uz ova redovna povlacenja.ÂÂÂUvjereni smo, stoga, da su hrvatski diplomati koji su preuzeli duznosti g. Sole i dr. Munivrane to ucinili na najbolji moguci nacin te da ce pritom naici na podrsku i razumijevanje i Americkih Hrvata.ÂÂÂStojimo na raspolaganju za sve daljnje upite.ÂÂÂS postovanjem,ÂAlan VojvodicÂDrugi tajnikÂVeleposlanstvo Republike Hrvatske u SADÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 05 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7472/1/EH-Remilitarization-of-the-island-of-Vis--SENSES.html ÂRemilitarization of the island of Vis / Remilitarizacija otoka VisaÂÂA public rally against remilitarization of the Island of Vis, called Our Heart and Mind for Hum! (Srce i um za hum!), will take place on April 7th, 2002 on Hum, the island's tallest peak. The rally is organized to protest against the installation of radar on Hum, remilitarization of the Vis Island and the potential NATO presence on the island.ÂÂAn appeal to the Croatian public, currently being signed in the town of Komiza, Vis Island, states:ÂÂWe, the remaining inhabitants of the island of Vis, and all the signatories of this appeal, ARE ANNOUNCING TO THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO SEAL OUR FATE THAT WE SHALL NOT ACCEPT ANY SOLUTION THAT WOULD IN ANY WAY RUIN OUR LAST CHANCE FOR SURVIVAL ON THIS ISLAND. THIS CHANCE WAS INCIDENTALLY BORN OUT OF OUR HALF-A-CENTURY LONG ISOLATION THAT RESULTED IN THE ISLAND'S UNPOLUTED ENVIRONMENT, OUR ONLY KEY FOR A BETTER FUTURE.ÂÂSigning of the appeal to the Croatian and global public about preservation of the cleanest archipelago in the world will begin exactly at noon on April 7, 2002 at the center of the Adriatic archipelago, the top of Hum on the island of Vis. All friends of the environment are asked to join us in this event.ÂÂSincerely,ÂThe last inhabitants and friends of the Vis IslandÂÂP.S. Public rallies will also be held on April 6th, 2002 in the auditoriums of the city of Vis and the town of Komiza.ÂÂTo find out more about this topic, please see:Âhttp://www.arhitekt.hr/easa/vismapping/forum/index.html (scroll to the bottom for English translation)ÂÂor check out the island's home page at:Âhttp://www.arhitekt.hr/easa/ÂÂRemilitarizacija otoka VisaÂÂJavni prosvjed protiv remilitarizacije otoka Visa, Sarce i um za hum! naziv je dogadjaja koji ce se desiti 7. 04. na najvecem brdu otoka Visa Humu. Organizira se javni prosvjed protiv postavljanja radara na Humu i prosvjed protiv remilitarizacije otoka Visa, a u svezi dovodjenja nato vojske naÂnas otok.ÂÂOvih dana u Komizi se potpisuje apel Hrvatskoj javnosti u kojem se porucuje:ÂÂMi preostali stanovnici otoka Visa, i svi potpisnici ovoga Apela PORUCUJEMO SVIMA KOJI BI HTJELI KROJITI NASU SUDBINU, DA NECEMO PRIHVATITI NIKAKVO RJESENJE KOJE BI NAM NA BILO KOJI NACIN UGROZILO POSLJEDNJU SANSU KOJU IMAMO A TO JE UPRAVO POSLJEDICA NASE POLUSTOLJETNE IZOLACIJE - CISTA I NEZAGADJENA PRIRODA KOJA JE JEDINI ZALOG NASE NADE U BUDUCNOST.ÂÂTocno u 12.00 sati 07. 04.2002.sa vrha Jadrana i centra jadranskog arhipelaga, sa brda Hum na otoku Visu pocet ce se s potpisivanjem poruke Hrvatskoj i Svjetskoj javnosti o ocuvanju najcisceg ARHIPELAGA Svijeta. Stoga molimo sve letace i prijatelje prirode da svojom nazocnoscu uvelicaju ovaj cin.ÂÂPosljednji stanovnici i prijatelji otoka Visa.ÂÂP.S. Javni skupovi na istu temu odrzat ce se 06.04. u dvoranama Grada Visa i Komize.ÂÂDetaljnije informacije mozete naci na:Âhttp://www.arhitekt.hr/easa/vismapping/forum/index.htmlÂÂili na web-stranici otoka Visa:Âhttp://www.arhitekt.hr/easaÂÂÂS E N S E SÂÂÂÂIf this text was to explain the idea of SENSES - Easa 2002 we should return two years in the past. Funny, in the summer of 2000 we were pretty much lost about the ideas on what was our Easa meeting supposed to be. Still under the impressions of Greece and Malta, we were nothing more than a crazy bunch of enthusiasts with little experience and working habits. Instinctively, we looked for the place, without a theme or a goal to our quest. It was almost like stage managing of the film without a screenplay, director or actors... no budget. So all we could do was to look, smell and touch all the way down the Adriatic coast... we thought it to be the most natural way.ÂÂThat's how we found Vis... just like a dog finding a comfortable place on the porch, always returning to sit there.ÂÂIn September 2000. we started cooking - it seems like a good word for it - when you cook, as in design, you never know what is going to come out ... not until the very end. We gathered all the ingredients and placed them in the great pot of Vis - it was interesting because at first nothing seemed to fit. We tasted it along the way... adding things, stirring it... we deliberately hesitated with the main ingredient... scared and curious of mistakes that might occur. The temperature grew - cooks started loosing temper... we realized we depended on time. In need of rest, our regular activities on the island were a fresh energy supply... while cooling down for the next round, the idea revealed itself.ÂÂSenses came to us like a ship in a fog - you can see the light and feel it's big, but you see nothing... again we waited.ÂÂThe most important thing is we often contacted local people. During long conversations we made true friendships. That's how it came to us : we have to do something that is of good use for the island... above all it has to be practical. You could say it's something within the EASA spirit - reacting on context to solve real problems. Liverpool 81' was a bit like that. We felt that lately we all became a bunch of happy tourists with Easa as an agency - it could be fun but it's not just. Which is why we decided to deal with real problems one by one and 1:1 scale. The locals liked the idea - over the time they became weary of stories that came from the outside. Our approach was to build, and talk about architecture as little as possible. The idea that Easa people should come to Vis and start building the island in exchange for sun and wine and bread and sea... was totally liberating.ÂÂVis is an empty house. The main idea is to make small changes enabling life and work on places that will demand it in the near future. On certain places we are invited to make predictions of the future needs through new programs:ÂÂIt is mostly abandoned army infrastructure, a net of leftover voids with bad memory throughout the island in need of repair and change into public and working facilities. In some cases the new needs are expressed by the locals: mostly in need of repairs and product design. On certain locations projects should consider wider context of the Adriatic and suggest programs to enhance agricultural and propose specific tourist potential of the island. However, it should be on a scale small enough to be executed in our time and cost possibilities.ÂÂEvery workshop has it's own theme according to context and preferences of the tutor. The task of participants is to be engaged with the conditions on the site and innovative in their approach. Common to all workshops is Vis and its sea environment, its energy that influences your body and senses.ÂÂThe method is 1:1 scale.ÂÂThe idea of 1:1 is based on radical relationship of scale to a process of design and architectural education. All ideas are tested in nature and real time. In present day education a possibility for this approach has almost disappeared. 1:1 is out of date and even more abstract physical models are often avoided. By solving design problems in real space / time we are getting hot architectural and artistic debate conflicting real and virtual, tactile and visual, natural and abstract scale. It puts us close with the performative side of architecture building with accessible material, using our own skills in a given space and time frame.ÂÂSenses is dealing with our ability to use our body and its sensory potential. The bases for all knowledge comes through our senses. In time of absorbing virtuality we are all ready to embrace, our physical body follows as an invisible baggage of humanity. In terms of real body, space and time experience Easa 2002 is an attempt to (re)discover possibilities in an approach so simple and obvious that we usually neglect it in our work.ÂÂTheoretical supplement for workshops should be the Mediterranean context of Vis as a far sea island a self contained system that never really depended on governments that claimed their authorities upon it.ÂÂThe idea of Mediterranean identities and their resistance to global changes is based on universality developed early in history.ÂÂIt enabled Mediterranean people of different ethnic and religious origin to develop a sense of community and a kind of cultural likeness. Primordial conditions of life by the sea was probably responsible for similar strategies all Mediterraneans have in intervening in their environment.ÂÂWhen we were still developing the Senses thing we came up with an idea of a woman / man that will look after the people in workshop - not as a tutor but more as a host - a man of the land and senses. He would cook, prepare refreshments and appetizers, tell stories about island and its people. We called him Gruje after the local word for a man of fisherman skill and physical strength ... man of great passion for life and of libidinous energy. Gruje is concerned with the bodily - she keeps you in good biorhythm.ÂWe wanted Gruje to be personification of the senses idea. Gruje will also look after organisation of workshop through materials and tools, local contacts and schedule. He is as much important as tutor and that's why we'll choose Gruje's ourselves between the people that already spent some time on the island.ÂTutor is of equal vigour and energy but her/his aim is to activate your mental powers. She / he will help you to deliver your ideas and shape them in the final product. Tutor is not necessarily to be an educated architect although her / his life practice should respond closely to problems of real scale and time action with installations and performance.ÂTutor and Gruje should work as one - it is very important to match the couples.ÂSome of the burning questions about the resistance of local communities and their economy to global changes, on the development of new lifestyles and the new urbanity of megalopolitan de-concentration which will effect low density areas, about taking an active role in the ecology of environment and that of the human body even the ecology of senses itself due to a devastating effect of visual culture; all of these are possible theoretical contexts of the Senses Easa 2002.ÂBut first of all we should try to live it.ÂSenses is a long term project with Easa 2002 as an invitation for all of you to join us in the long-run. We strongly believe that the way of living and working that we are going to experience on Vis this summer could be an example of future life on the island and a choice for its new population.ÂÂWelcome all of you.Âeasacroatia@yahoogroups.comÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 02 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7473/1/E-Dr-Miroslav-Tudjman--HIP-interview-Aque--Terre.html ÂAque & Terre 1/2002Miroslav Tudjman's new Croatiaby Simone Marzaroli and Ezio BenedettiWith elections drawing near, Croatia is get­ting ready to face a new and difficult politi­cal season, especially given that there is an ongoing domestic crisis due to problems connected with the national identity This is­sue created many difficulties in the past, and the late President Tudjman managed to solve them in his own personal style during his years as president. Now the domestic scene has changed and the political players who won the previous elections must com­pete with the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which, however, seems to have found a new lease of life following the recent devel­opments concerning the International Criminal Tribunal.The new political Party, presented in this in­terview, is the brainchild of the late presi­dent's son, Professor Miroslav Tudjman. As a former head of the secret services in Croatia he enjoyed excellent relations with Western countries, and set up a profitable exchange of intelligence with the United States.- Professor Tudjman could you illustrate the reasons that led you to create a new political Party on the already very varied Croatian po­litical scene?`The movement to develop the Croatian identity and prosperity (HIP) first came to public attention in December 2000, and then began its activities in the early 2001. The main reason we created a movement of this kind was to halt the progressive de­struction of national values underlying the modern Croatian State and guaran­teed by the Constitution. In our opinion the defence of the Croat national identity goes hand in hand with the creation of a modern Croat State. We stood as a move­ment for the first time in the administra­tive elections in May 2001. A few months after creating the movement, we won ten per cent of the votes in the municipal elec­tions for Zagreb, when we stood as an in­dependent civic list (given that Croatian electoral law only allows political move­ments in the form of Parties to stand at elections). We must point out, however, that only three other Parties (the SDP, HDZ and HSLS) together with ourselves man­aged to win seats in the city council.In July 2001 there was a very heated po­litical debate in the Croat Parliament (Sa­bor) about handing over the Generals Go­tovina and Ademij to the International Criminal Court at the Hague for war crimes committed in former Yugoslavia. On that occasion our movement forceful­ly pointed out for the first time that there is no kind of consensus concerning the pro­tection of national Croat interests among the political Parties. And this is despite the fact that the coalition government, the Prime Minister Racan and the opposition held very similar views on the subject. This suggests that neither the government, nor the Prime Minister, had the courage and political strength to explain these views to the Tribunal or the Procurator Carla Del Ponte.This is why we felt the need to set up a process to transform the movement into a Party in order to create a new political force able to speak about the future of Croatia in a new and different way. This brings us up to October 2001, when we registered the Party, with the same em­blem, but changing the wording into `True Croat Rebirth' (Hrvatski Istinski Pre­porod). The official registration of the Par­ty, however, only took effect recently, on January 10 this year'.- What are the main guidelines of your Party and especially as regards the HDZ, of which your father was a founder?`When this government came to power eighteen months ago, it had to face a serious economic crisis to which it actually managed to add a crisis of national val­ues by calling into question the ideals un­derlying the modern Croat State. These ideals were deeply felt by the people and expressed politically by President Dr Franjo Tudjman and the Party he creat­ed, i. e. the HDZ. The basic problem for my Party was the new hegemony of the for­mer Communist Party, which rose to pow­er as a member of a much larger coali­tion with the intention of taking on the lead role. This involved a de facto structural dependence on the old Communist Party, and especially its ways of working and political debating within the coalition. In fact we witnessed a return not so much to ideological values, as to decision­making processes and operational modes typical of the old communist Yugoslavia. But here are the policy guidelines of our Party: protection of the national interests; development of a modern Croatia charac­terised by a healthy fair society, a strong economy and much higher living standards than at present. Our priorities in­clude: developing the motorway network and other main communications (trains and airports); developing telecommuni­cations and introducing information technology into the public administration; research and development; the creation of a new industrial structure with much closer integration between research, in­dustry, banks and SMES; university re­form, bearing in mind that technology is synonymous with development and knowledge coincides with development; and lastly, social policies designed for the weaker sections of the society and aid for economically underdeveloped areas.We must point out, however, that the tra­ditional political elites are ageing. Over the last ten years very few new politicians have emerged. And if we look at the SDP (the majority Party), on average its mem­bers are even older. We, on the other hand, are a young Party which appeals not only to the young but all people who have not been involved in politics in the last ten years, but have contributed to creating an independent Croatia either as jurists, professionals, or leading players in Croat culture and sport in the world. That aver­age age of our card-holding members is very young (24). And it is especially the young who must see the factor of novelty and change. They are our main target. If I may be allowed a metaphor, I would say that the HDZ doesn't have problems so much with the body as with the head. It failed to successfully translate into prac­tice the objectives of development that we have proposed and also suffers from in­ternal strife. What I should stress is that people see us as individuals who have not only contributed to the creation of the new Croatia. They also view us as those who have not lived or live for politics and pow­er: In short, we are mainly people with ex­perience and professional backgrounds enabling us to discuss medium- and long-term programmes on the basis of our expertise. Moreover we don't aim to appeal principally to the traditional HDZ electorate, at present around thirty per cent and never more than forty per cent of votes, but to a much wider and repre­sentative electorate of the Croat people which on two occasions voted for the late President Franjo Tudjman with percent­ages ranging from seventy to eighty per cent. These votes were won on the basis of a national programme, and this is exactly what we are trying to create. In this sense we can safely claim there is a politi­cal continuity between my Party and the policy of President Tudjman rather than that of the HDZ. Ultimately, we aim to rec­oncile the forty per cent of the Croatian population which abstains with politics. We are thus an atypical Party. We shun rhetoric. We don't like making promises to the masses, but prefer to speak to the peo­ple in a simple direct way insisting on the importance of programmes, thus com­pletely eschewing demagogy.Despite our unique nature, however, the political situation in Croatia forces us to seek coalitions with other Parties; and not only with the extreme right, given that we are not a Party of the extreme right Coali­tions are made on the basis of pro­grammes and not with the sole goal of overturning the current government ­nothing is built by simply destroying.We must not forget, however, that the pres­ent government has undermined funda­mental democratic rights by pursuing two proposals to change the Constitution, totally ignoring the opposition in the process'.- In your opinion, what is the worst thing and the best thing done by the present govern­ment?'As you know, Croatia is undergoing a deep economic crisis. This government has managed to increase foreign debt, unem­ployment and the public deficit, thus in­curring the wrath of the International Monetary Fund. Foreign and other in­vestments are at a standstill. My opinion on the government's economic policy can only be completely negative, since it has no integrated strategy for the country.The government simply indulges in demagogic talk. We might say it's good at marketing, but is going nowhere! Moreover, one of the worst things is that the national crisis has been aggravated in the country and the government has success­fully spread the idea that the Croatian State grew out of crime. They have under­mined the State and accused its founders (including the army). They have man­aged to sow discord between the various social players (church; army; workers and trade unions) and solidarity has dis­appeared at a time when development based on solidarity is the only way for­ward. The nation must be mobilised to share a number of common objectives. But the links with Croats living abroad (more than 5.2 million) have been bro­ken, thus losing the assistance and aid the Latter could have given, and consequent­ly destroying the premises for a brighter future.In political terms the best thing they have done is to achieve full status in the Inter­national community, changing the im­age of the country abroad and taking us into the WTO and CEFTA, as well as signing association agreements with the European Union, the Partnership For Peace and the Stability Pact'.- What is your position on the separatist claims of some regional Parties?'I believe it's right and normal that there should be regional Parties created to solve problems at local and regional level. The difficulty arises when these Parties begin to move and take sides at international level. For all countries in transition ­and Croatia is certainly one of them - this is dangerous. There is a risk of being per­ceived by the International community at two different levels. Regional co-operation is definitely important but the objectives and players must change. In short co-op­eration must be developed by the individ­ual municipalities and not by the re­gions'.- What is your position on Croatia and the In­ternational Criminal Court and the Euro­pean Union?'First of all, it must be said that no one in Croatia is against punishing the real cul­prits of war crimes. But as a Party, we are against the strategic political manipula­tion of events. Croatia had a toll of I5, 000 deaths of which two-thirds were civilians, and it has never been recognised as a State that was attacked Moreover, Gener­al Gotovina is not accused of having or­dered or cowering up war crimes. He is simply accused of not being able to fore­see events, and for me this is a juridical disgrace! We are not against the Court at the Hague as an institution, but rather against the political use made of it.As far as the Milosevic trial is concerned, Croatia is interested in stressing that his crimes were committed while under at­tack from a third State. The Hague does not see this political position. It fails to seek the political responsibilities and only con­siders personal responsibilities. The Court is in a position of having to confirm the existing prejudices about Croatia. Before judgement is passed on events and their leading players, they must be analysed from a historical and political point of view.As regards the European Union, I do not have a clear idea of its future, that is there is no clear concept-of the eastern enlarge­ment of the Union, and various solutions are being explored (for example, that of giving two votes to founder States). More­over, the European Union sets over-rigid political conditions that even its own members are not able to meet today. And I obviously don't mean economic criteria. As regards the association treaty with the European Union, I believe it should be signed but not according to the schedule and modalities pursued by the current government. In this sense, confusion reigns sovereign!'.- What is your view of the new ongoing dia­logue between Yugoslavia and Croatia?In January 1998, following the Erdut Agreements, Croatia was given back con­trol over its territory and so for us the sit­uation was politically and historically set­tled. There are still social, economic and psychological problems (and there is said to be still 1,400 people missing. Dialogue should serve the purpose of solving these problems, but you don't end a war by minimising or forgetting the problems. Our motto is forgive but don't forget!'.- What contacts does your Party have at inter­national level?As 1 said earlier, our movement was only officially registered as a political Party a few weeks ago, therefore we have no official contacts with other Parties and move­ments. We only have personal contacts and testimonies from various countries, However, I am the chief editor of a three­monthly review dealing with national se­curity and intelligence which collabo­rates with foreign experts and profession­als and regularly publishes articles by leading political figures, also from Italy'.* Simone Marzaroli and Ezio Benedetti are consultants of South-East European Countries of the company lntman s.r.l., Gorizia letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 01 Apr 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7474/1/E-Easter-Surprise-from-Margaret-Thatcher.html ÂHappy Easter everyone!A major event in Croatia's favour has just occured; of course no-one picks up on it.It is Margaret Thatcher's new book "Statecraft" which hit the headlines here on her EU comments.She devotes a chapter on the "Balkans". She even apologises for using that term, simply using it for convenience.She says:Croatia is more part of Europe than even Britain.Croatia should have been recognised and armed up immediately - thus preventing Vukovar, on which she devotes many paragraphs. Operation Storm was just; that the majority of Serbs who left did so because their leaders falsely claimed that there would be massacres against them. To compare Operation Storm to what happened previously is a "travesty". Croatia did what the international community refused to do.She does criticise occassionally; Ahmici for example. But she is clear on who was the aggressor and who was the victim.And she points out that events have been wrongfully revised.There is much else.ÂWe should support this book. Many thousands are already being sold. It will end up in libraries, it will be read by political scientists, it will be a historical document for the future. This is a major event which we must publicise and use. All Croatian activists who are serious should obtain this book and quote her.BrianAmazon details:USA: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060199733/qid=1017598068/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_67_1/102-2510883-2045744UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0007107528/026-6943149-9678024 letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 31 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7475/1/E-Hague-Prosecutor-Milosevic-Planned-Abandonment-of-Krajina-in-1995.html ÂÂÂAnteGotovina.com's London Columnist, Brian GallagherÂHague Prosecutor: Milosevic Planned Abandonment of 'Krajina' in 1995Âby Brian GallagherÂÂ16 March 2002ÂÂThe Gotovina indictment, alleging that General Gotovina 'deported' Serbs from Croatia, has been made a mockery of by Hague Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice at the Milosevic trial. In the Prosecution's opening statement, on 13 February, Nice informed the court that one witness that will appear is a Serbian military intelligence officer who was aware of Milosevic's plan to abandon 'Krajina' in 1995. Not only that, but this witness claims that Milosevic forcibly "funneled" Serbs leaving Croatia to Kosovo. All this to improve Serb demographics in Kosovo.ÂÂThe relevant extracts from the Trial are as follows:ÂÂ"As a post script and a further link back to Croatia, this small detail: A witness before you will testify that as a member of the military intelligence, he was aware in 1995 of the accused's intention to stop supporting the Krajina and to allow it to fall back into the control of Croatia. Well, whether his measure of control is exactly as substantial as that, something the Prosecution assert, is, of course, for the Tribunal to establish on all the evidence. But the witness can help us further. He and thousands of other Serb refugees crossed into Serbia."ÂÂ"They were prevented from leaving the highway by police officers who funneled the fleeing Serbs down to Kosovo* where they could affect the Serb populations in areas in a minority; all part of an overall plan."ÂÂThis is amazing stuff; Nice is confirming that Milosevic had indeed planned the Serb evacuation from Croatia. This completely contradicts the Gotovina indictment which alleges that General Gotovina, Franjo Tudjman and others did it. Not only that, but it seems that Mr Nice has an important witness for the Gotovina defence team. What an obliging fellow.ÂÂOf course, Nice is not the only Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) employee who has made such statements. Current OTP spokesperson Florence Hartmann - and possible Gotovina defence witness - in her 1999 book on Milosevic devotes an entire chapter to examining in quite some detail the Milosevic plan.ÂÂIndeed, Nice's comments fit in well with Hartmann's book. Earlier in the opening statement, he mentions how Mile Mrksic - indicted for crimes at Vukovar - was sent by Milosevic to take over the Krajina Serb military. Although he does not say why Milosevic sent him there - to organise the 'Krajina' Serb retreat - it does show the OTP appears to be following much of what Hartmann related in her book.ÂÂHartmann stated how 'Krajina' Serbs ended up in Serb held areas of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is well known that Serbs also ended up in Kosovo as well. The Milosevic strategy was clear; remove Serbs from Croatia to shore up the Serb position in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.ÂÂIt appears that the OTP has realised the value of relating how Milosevic cleansed Croatia of many of its Serbs; it demonstrates his control there and thus his responsibility for the horrifying crimes carried out against Croats in Croatia.ÂÂWhat is disturbing however, is that the evidence of the Milosevic/'Krajina' leadership plan has been around for years. Of course there was Hartmann's book, but there was more. In 1995, the Belgrade daily 'Politika' published Martic's evacuation orders. The Croatian government notified the United Nations of this. A General in the 'Krajina' Serb military, Milisav Sekulic, wrote a book entitled "Knin fell in Belgrade" relating how it all happened. Even the notoriously pro-Serb British Foreign Office tells us on their website that the Serbs were "encouraged" to leave by their leadership.ÂÂAnd let us not forget another reason why so many 'Krajina' Serbs were keen to leave: The mass slaughter of thousands of Croats during the Serbian invasion and occupation. Over 3,000 corpses of murdered Croats have been exhumed in the formerly occupied areas.ÂÂHow was all of this ignored by the OTP when it came to formulating the Gotovina indictment? Serbian propagandists, their sympathisers and anti-Americans have done a good job in in the media of falsely portraying Croatia's 1995 Operation Storm as an ethnic cleansing operation of Serbs to the point where many honest people are taken in. The truth, that Operation Storm recovered occupied territory and that the Serbs left under orders of their leaders, has been obscured. Perhaps the OTP hid behind this propaganda in forming the Gotovina indictment, hoping no one would ask too many questions. If so, it was mistaken assumption - as they have found out.ÂÂAs it stands, we now have a situation where a senior OTP Prosecuter has stated in open court that the evacuation of Serbs from Croatia was part of a Milosevic plan, and that he has a witness who will testify to this. This turns the Gotovina indictment on its head. Are there two factions in the OTP?ÂÂAnd let us not forget the reference the OTP gave to the Serb group 'Veritas' whose head was an official of the 'Krajina' government, and who wishes to restore that product of a joint criminal enterprise as defined in the Milosevic indictment. The Veritas head boasts of his involvement with the OTP in providing evidence of alleged crimes against Serbs by Croats. Fair trial for General Gotovina? Or General Ademi, for that matter? Doubtful.ÂÂAn independent inquiry into the Veritas/OTP link is urgently needed. It may provide us with many answers.ÂÂThe phrase "you couldn't make it up" could have been invented for all this.ÂÂÂ*In the original transcript Nice erroneously said Croatia rather than Kosovo. He corrected this a few lines on.ÂÂThe transcripts of Geoffrey Nice's opening statement to the court on 13 February can be found at the following link. The relevant passages are on pages 133/4.ÂÂhttp://www.un.org/icty/transe54/020213IT.htmÂÂ(c) Brian GallagherÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7476/1/E-10-former-communist-countries-seeking-to-join-NATO.html ÂÂÂÂNATO would-be members reaffirm commitment in fight against global terrorÂTue Mar 26,10:10 AM ETÂBy ALISON MUTLER, Associated Press WriterÂÂBUCHAREST, Romania - Leaders of 10 former communist countries seeking to join NATO (news - web sites) pledged Tuesday to continue to fight global terrorism, saying stability in their East European region enhanced their chances of becoming members of the alliance.ÂÂÂÂÂIn remarks closing a two-day conference gathering NATO hopefuls, Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the region and NATO could cooperate to make Eastern Europe "a stronghold against the threats of the new century, terrorism, trans-border and organized crime, intolerance and extremism."ÂÂThe meeting brought together government leaders from 10 countries that are candidates for NATO membership: Romania, Slovakia, Macedonia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovenia.ÂÂThe Bucharest gathering was one of a series ahead of a November NATO summit in Prague, the Czech capital. The alliance is then expected to announce new members, though it hasn't yet said which countries it will admit.ÂÂCzech Prime Minister Milos Zeman, whose country became a NATO member in 1999, told the leaders the alliance was more than just a military group.ÂÂ"There are two necessary conditions (for membership): Sharing common values - not just common weapons - and participating in the common fight against terrorism - not just by words, but by deeds," he said.ÂÂThe Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary were the first former communist countries to join the alliance.ÂÂFocusing on their geographical advantages, on the eastern rim of Europe, the 10 aspiring members meeting here said they could preserve stability in the region.ÂÂ"The global war on terrorism has not only spurred us to complete the job of building a Europe whole and free, but it has also underscored the urgent need to consolidate stability in Southeastern Europe," the 10 said in a joint statement summing up the conference.ÂÂÂPoland Tells Europe to Ease Up on USÂMon Mar 25, 3:41 PM ETÂBy GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press WriterÂÂBUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Poland's president urged Europe to mute its criticism of Washington's war on terror, telling a summit of prospective NATO (news - web sites) members Monday that American lives were the first ones lost in the fight against "the evil" threatening the world.ÂÂÂÂÂAleksander Kwasniewski's comments reflected a main topic of concern at the opening of the two-day summit - the changing threat facing NATO and its allies more than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet bloc removed the menace of large-scale conventional ground war in Europe.ÂÂThe meeting brought together leaders from the 10 candidate countries - Romania, Slovakia, Macedonia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Slovenia - as well as guests from NATO member states, like Kwasniewski, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.ÂÂThe meeting is one of a series being held before a NATO summit in November in Prague, where the U.S.-led alliance will decide which countries to admit.ÂÂArmitage, delivering a message from President Bush (news - web sites), said that while the threats facing NATO have changed, its role should not be diminished in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and solidarity among its members should be strong.ÂÂ"As all civilized nations seek to address the threats of global terror, the bonds uniting NATO members are more important than ever," he said.ÂÂKwasniewski, alluding to growing European opposition to any major expansion of Washington's war on terror beyond Afghanistan (news - web sites), urged U.S. allies to support the campaign against terrorism while also appealing to the United States to listen to European concerns.ÂÂ"Let us not forget that it is the American soldiers that were the first to stand up to the evil" exhibited in the Sept. 11 attacks, he said. "They often paid the price of life - they continue to pay."ÂÂRomanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the region's countries were ready to join the alliance and were already contributing as full NATO members in the war against terror.ÂÂ"We have opened our air spaces, airfields and port facilities to Allied forces," Nastase said. "And we're now taking part in the (peacekeeping) mission in Afghanistan."ÂÂBulent Ecevit, the prime minister of NATO-member Turkey, said the alliance was in the process of adapting to post-Cold War realities by focusing on new security threats and collaborating with former foes such as Russia.ÂÂ"Military threats of a conventional and nuclear nature have diminished," Ecevit said. "But threats such as terrorism, nationalism, organized crime, drug trafficking and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction" are moving across borders.ÂÂHe added that these new threats will be better tackled by an enlarged alliance and urged NATO to expedite the admission of southeastern European countries. "This dimension of enlargement will contribute to the extension of security and stability to this most sensitive area," Ecevit said.ÂÂRomania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria, are regarded as candidates that stand a good chance of receiving invitations to join NATO at the November summit.ÂÂAlbania, Macedonia and Croatia are considered less likely to be admitted because of lagging economic or political reforms or the legacy of Balkan warfare.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 26 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7478/1/E-Who-Observes-the-Observers.html ÂWho observes the observers?ÂArticle by Laughland, relevant to Croatia.ÂÂThe west's condemnation of Zimbabwe's election process is a breathtaking case of double standardsÂÂJohn LaughlandÂMonday March 18, 2002ÂThe GuardianÂÂThe chasm that opened up between the various teams of observers at the Zimbabwean elections shows the urgency of reformulating one of the oldest questions of political philosophy: who observes the observers? For over the last decade, election observing has become little more than a tool for powerful states to interfere in the internal affairs of weak ones. Monitors delegitimise elections which elect a candidate the west does not like, while turning a blind eye to the deficiencies of polls that produce the desired outcome.ÂThe hypocrisy is breathtaking - and not least because we in Britain do not allow observers at our own elections. For instance, British TV viewers may have been surprised to see Nigeria's Abdulsalam Abubakar reading out the Commonwealth's condemnation of the democratic process in Zimbabwe. But Nigerians will have been even more surprised. General Abubakar was military dictator of Nigeria from 1998-99. Now facing accusations of stealing more than $2bn from Nigeria's foreign reserves, Abubakar shares responsibility, as a member of Nigeria's top brass, for the cancellation by the military of the elections there in 1993. The man who won those elections died in prison while Abubakar was president.ÂLess well known is the record of Kare Vollan, the head of the Norwegian observers, who denounced the Zimbabwean poll as unfair because of pre-election violence. This same Kare Vollan found that the Ukrainian parliamentary elections in 1998 "were managed with professionalism" while his team "did not call into question the results" - despite what he described as the "violence, intimidation and harassment during the run-up to the election". Maybe it was because Ukraine was then the west's favourite former Soviet state that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, for which Vollan works, was happy, unlike in Zimbabwe, to trust the Ukrainian authorities to investigate these allegations.ÂAnother charge levelled at Zimbabwe is government control of the media. But this did not bother the OSCE at the Montenegrin parliamentary elections in 1998. There, the local Mr Big, Milo Djukanovic, has received tens of millions of dollars in western aid - not bad for a country with half the population of Birmingham. Apart from using the money for his gigantic police force of 30,000, and for ensuring to tal state control of the media, Djukanovic habitually ensures that he is the only candidate with any election posters. For the west, though, he was a useful thorn in the side of Slobodan Milosevic.ÂBut even this cannot compare with the stifling of democracy in Russia with which the west wholeheartedly cooperated throughout the 1990s and in 2000. Having welcomed the shelling of the Russian parliament to put down recalcitrant backbenchers in 1993 the west and the OSCE turned a blind eye to the massive fraud in the subsequent constitutional referendum, which reduced the power of the Russian parliament to that of a library reading room. One observer, the Tory minister Kenneth Baker, declared that poll a resounding success - even before it had closed. It later turned out that millions of votes had been added to the turnout to render the vote valid.ÂAll through the 1990s, western observers turned a blind eye to the government's grip on the broadcast media. At the 1995 elections, the OSCE and Council of Europe even managed to ignore the fact that 17 people were killed in campaigning. And at Putin's election in 2000, the west ignored reports that millions of votes had been added to achieve the desired result.ÂIn Slovakia in 1998, the west - via the OSCE - was determined to unseat the incumbent prime minister, Vladimir Meciar, even though (or maybe because) he is the most popular politician in the country. The main charge against him was bias in the state TV. When I asked the OSCE chief (Vollan again) why no one mentioned the greater bias in favour of the opposition of a far more popular foreign-funded private TV station, he promised "scientific proof". When it came, in the form of a statistical survey by an Italian media-monitoring organisation, the figures actually showed the state channel to be a model of neutrality and the private channel to be grossly partisan. But facts would not move Vollan. He just said icily: "You have the figures. Maybe your interpretation is different."ÂThe Zimbabweans were vil ified for the queues at polling stations in Harare. But at the Italian parliamentary elections last May, the socialist government reduced the number of polling stations by 30%. The chaos was so severe that the last Italian to cast his vote did so at 5am. So why were Francesco Rutelli's friends not accused of trying to stop Italians voting for Silvio Berlusconi?ÂWestern election monitoring has become the political equivalent of an Arthur Andersen audit. This supposedly technical process is now so corrupted by political bias that it would be better to abandon it. Only then will other countries be able to elect their leaders freely.· John Laughland is a trustee of the British Helsinki Human Rights Group: www.bhhrg.orgÂjlaughland@aol.comÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7477/1/E-Vision-in-America-Award-Presentation.html ÂÂVISION IN AMERICA AWARD PRESENTATIONÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Croatian World Congress' representatives to the United Nations Mario Viscovich and Sanja Crnkovic joined about 200 members of the diplomatic corps, elected officials, media, corporate executives and distinguished community leaders in the International Channel Networks' Vision in America Award presentation to Edward Juarez-Pagliocco, president of the International Immigrants Foundation, held at the UN Delegates Dining Room on Thursday, March 7, 2002.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂUnder Mr. Pagliocco's leadership, the Foundation has provided assistance in over two million instances to individuals, families, organizations, and cultural groups of every nationality, race and religion. Because of his merits and contribution to the mission of promoting positive intercultural relations, Mr. Viscovich was also invited to participate in the ceremony as one of the co-recipients of this prestigious award.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAmongst 60 diplomats from around the world, on hand were also H.E. Phillip Sanchez, former US Ambassador, as well as Ms. Peggy Kerry, representing the US Mission to the UN.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂVision in America (VIA) awards honor immigrants across the United States who are local community and/or business leaders, and who actively support others in the process of becoming U.S. citizens. In addition, International Channel Networks makes donations to local community organizations on behalf of the VIA Award recipients.ÂÂÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7479/1/E-Contact-Your-Congressman.html ÂNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANSÂ1329 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.ÂWashington, DC 20036ÂÂPhone: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.com Fax: (202)331-0050ÂÂNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS CALLS FORÂINCREASED FUNDING FOR CROATIAÂÂ(Washington, D.C., March 18, 2002). The National Federation of CroatianÂAmericans calls on all Croatian Americans to urgently contact their CongressmenÂconcerning proposed United States assistance to Croatia for Fiscal Year 2003.ÂÂThe budget proposal allocates only $30 million to Croatia and $50 million toÂBosnia and Herzegovina. This compares with proposed allocations of $110Âmillion for Serbia, $25 million for Montenegro and $85 million for Kosovo.ÂÂOf interest is the comparison with aid proposed to be given to other states thatÂwere not formerly part of Yugoslavia. Albania and Bulgaria will each getÂ$28 million and Romania $29 million under the proposal, a minor difference inÂcomparison to the amount proposed for Croatia.ÂÂJohn Kraljic, President of the NFCA, notes that Croatia has consistently fulfilled itsÂinternational obligations, including those concerning the International War CrimesÂTribunal in the Hague. "Despite the fact that the indictments brought against a number ofÂCroatian military officers contain numerous questionable charges, the CroatianÂgovernment has nevertheless been committed to complying with demands to turn overÂindictees and evidence. This has certainly not been the case with Serbia."ÂÂThe Republic of Croatia remains in dire need of additional assistance from theÂUnited States. "The Republic of Croatia appears to have stabilized is financial andÂmonetary system, but the economy still has a long way to go. The Croatian governmentÂwill likely have to cut additional costs to balance its budget at a timeÂwhen more than 400,000 remain unemployed. Croatia continues to suffer from the effects ofÂhaving its territory occupied for four years. Mines remain a problem, houses have notÂbeen rebuilt, fields remain fallow."ÂÂMr. Kraljic further noted that the present poor economic problems wereÂexacerbated during NATO's 1999 war against Serbia. "Croatia supported theÂUnited States in its determination to stop Serbian aggression on Kosovo and freelyÂallowed its air space to be used by NATO planes to accomplish their mission. This was allÂdone at tremendous costs to Croatia's tourist industry, one of Croatia's mostÂimportant. The 1999 tourist season turned into a disaster because of this."ÂÂThe need for assistance is clear. Croatia's road to democracy and full integrationÂwith the West depends completely on its ability to stand on its own twoÂfeet. Croatia may be headed that way but it's not there yet. "Croatia still needs itsÂtraining wheels," Mr. Kraljic noted. "This proposal suggests to Croatia that the United States noÂlonger cares about Croatia. Croatia, however, remains in need of this assistance."ÂÂThe NFCA is a national umbrella organization whose members have approximatelyÂ130,000 members.ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 19 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7480/1/H-P-O-Z-I-V-ZA-SABOR-HRVATSKE-DIJASPORE-u-Porecu.html ÂÂÂÂINTERNACIONALNI KLUB HRVATSKIH ISELJENIKA,POVRATNIKAÂI INVESTITORA IZ DIJASPOREÂINTERNATIONAL CLUB OF CROATIAN EMIGRANTS,RETURNEESÂAND INVESTORS FROM DIASPORAÂVl.Gortana 2, HR-52440 POREC, CROATIAÂE-mail:dijaspora@hi.hinet.hr www.ic-hrvatskadijaspora.hrÂÂÂP O Z I VÂZA SABOR HRVATSKE DIJASPOREÂPozivamo Vas na Sabor Hrvatske Dijaspore koji ce se odrzati danaÂ21. 22. i 23. svibnja 2002. godine sa pocetkom u 11 sati u hoteluÂParencium, Porec-Hrvatska.ÂÂÂÂDNEVNI REDÂÂÂÂ1. Fundamentalna pitanja dijasporeÂ2. Medunarodni odnosi Hrvatske, uloga dijaspore u tim odnosimaÂ3. Promidzba Hrvatskog identiteta u svijetuÂ4. Hrvatska u procesu globalizacijeÂ5. Informiranje u funkciji razvojaÂ6. Hrvatska dijaspora jucer, danas i sutraÂ7. Strategija razvoja Hrvatske sa naglaskom na turizam i poljoprivreduÂ8. Prijedlozi i zahtjevi dijasporeÂ9. Klub, organizacija i infrastruktura KlubaÂÂÂÂInternacionalni Klub Hrvatskih Iseljenika, Povratnika i Investitora iz DijasporeÂnema nikakva sredstva osim donacije pojedinaca i clanarine svojih clanova.ÂUkupna sredstva Kluba ostvarena u 2001. godini su neznatna i ne pokrivaju nitiÂtroskove papira, a kamoli neke druge troskove. Svi koji rade u Klubu i za KlubÂtrose vlastita sredstva i svoje dragocjeno vrijeme. Ne rade zato sto ih netko placa,Ârade jer su uvjereni da se sadasnje stanje visne nemoze trpjeti. Krajnje je vrijemeÂda se nesto ucini i pokusa pomoci Hrvatskoj i hrvatskom Narodu da izade iz oveÂteske MORALNE i gospodarske krize u kojoj se danas nalazi.ÂSvatko tko na bilo koji nacin moze pomoci, sprijeciti ili promijeniti sadasnje stanjeÂtreba pokusati dati dio sebe za sadasnje i buduce generacije. Svatko je odgovoranÂprema sebi, svojoj djeci, prema buducim pokoljenjima. Tko vise zna i moze ima iÂvecu odgovornost. Moramo zajednicki utvrditi gdje smo i sto zelimo i kako dociÂdo toga sto zelimo ? Svi pozvani na Sabor dijaspore snose svoje troskove dolaska plus iznos od $300Âkotizacije.ÂÂÂÂU kotizaciju od $300 je ukljuceno:ÂÂÂÂ1. 3 ( tri ) puna pansiona u Hotelu sa 3 zvjezdiceÂ2. Sala za odrzavanje SaboraÂ3. ZbornikÂ4. Izlet brodom od Poreca do Brijuna i obilazak Brijunskog otocja.ÂÂÂÂÂRucak na brodu. Povratak u Porec.Â5. Tehnicka obrada i materijali za SaborÂÂÂÂIznos od $300 se placa na racun broj: 7001-154506 SWIFT: ZABA HR 2X saÂnaznakom za Sabor Dijaspore â Hrvatski Klub za Dijasporu.ÂKunski racun: 33730-678-30393 Zagrebacka banka Porec, CroatiaÂÂÂÂVeoma nam je zao sto nismo u mogucnosti snositi troskove Vaseg dolaska i sveÂtroskove Sabora. Vasim dolaskom i radom ugradujete dio sebe u buducnostÂHrvatske i hrvatskog Naroda. Buduce generacije biti ce Vam zahvalne. Ovo stoÂradite je rad za njih, za buducnost, rad za bolje sutra. Vi to znate, mozete, svojimÂdosadasnjim radom dokazali ste da i hocete.ÂSvim sudionicima Sabora Hrvatske Dijaspore zelimo sretan dolazak na Sabor iÂsretan povratak kuci, medu svoje najmilije.ÂHvala na razumijevanju.ÂÂÂÂPorec, 8.03.2002. god.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂPredsjednik:ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂNiko Soljak prof.ing.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂZa sve informacije u vezi prijevoza iz Amerike i Kanade nazovite:ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ1-800-CROATIA ( 1-800-276-2842)ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂe-mail: AdriaticSP@aol.comÂÂÂBUDITE SUDIONICI RAZVOJA SVOJE DOMOVINE HRVATSKE. NASAÂDOMOVINA HRVATSKA MORA BITI PRAVNA, HUMANA, DEMOKRATSKA IÂSUVREMENA EVROPSKA DRZAVA.CLANOVI IKHIPID MOGU,ZNAJU I HOCEÂDATI SVOJ DOPRINOS ZA OSTVARENJE TIH CILJEVA.ÂÂPRIJAVAÂZA SABOR HRVATSKE DIJASPOREÂKOJI CE SE ODRZATI 21.22. i 23.SVIBNJA U PORECUÂÂÂIME I PREZIME:____________________________________________ÂÂÂMJESTO RODJENJA:________________________________________ÂÂÂGODINA I DATUM RODJENJA:_______________________________ÂÂÂMJESTO BORAVKA:_________________________________________ÂÂÂADRESA (SADASNJA):_______________________________________ÂÂÂTEL:_________________________ FAX:_________________________ÂÂÂE-MAIL:___________________________ WEB:____________________ÂÂÂSLIKA U BOJI - FORMAT PO ŽELJI:____________________________ÂÂÂKRATKA BIOGRAFIJA: (Priloziti uz prijavu)______________________ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDatum:_________________ Potpis:_____________________________ÂÂÂNAPOMENA:ÂZbornik koji ce se izdati nakon Sabora sadrzava:Â1.Slike svih ucesnikaÂ2.Mjesto i datum rodjenjaÂ3.Kratka biografija ucesnikaÂ4.Sabor i saborske temeÂ5.Odluke,rezolucije,zahtijevi i preporuke SaboraÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 16 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7486/1/E-Evil-Syntactical-Minimalism.html Â"Nacionalizam je grobar imperijalizma"ÂÂOnward and UpwardÂBy George F. WillÂTuesday, March 12, 2002; Page A21ÂÂhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11063-2002Mar11.htmlÂÂThroughout the six months since Sept. 11, Americans, who have a sociologicalÂitch and a psychoanalytic bent, have examined themselves for signs that, asÂwas said immediately after the attacks, "everything has changed." Actually,Âalmost everything is almost always very much as it was six months earlier.ÂBut since the attacks, there have been some welcome changes, manifested inÂmany things, from rhetoric to music to manners to reading.ÂÂPresident Bush's rhetorical style -- syntactical minimalism: Midland, Tex.,Âmeets MBA-speak -- is what it was before Sept. 11, but it suits the newÂsobriety. Were Bush to attempt the Ciceronian flourishes of John KennedyÂ("Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, thoughÂarms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are . . .") itÂwould be like Handel played on a harmonica. Bush's terseness is ErnestÂHemingway seasoned by John Wesley.ÂÂHis promiscuous use of the word "evil" is partly an unself-consciousÂexpression of his religiosity. But he also uses "evil" for a policy purposeÂsimilar to Ronald Reagan's in calling the Soviet Union the "evil empire" andÂ"the focus of evil in the modern world."ÂÂReagan intended to re-moralize foreign policy, which had been de-moralizedÂby detente, which Reagan believed had demoralized Americans. BushÂunderstands that the heat from burning jet fuel made the national mind akinÂto hot wax -- malleable. Gone is the judgment that "judgmentalism" isÂintolerant, hence intolerable. Gone, too, is the intelligentsia's consensusÂthat the only absolute is relativism -- the doctrine that all values areÂmere "social constructs," hence equally arbitrary and evanescent. SinceÂSept. 11, America's mind is no longer so open that everything of value fallsÂout.ÂÂSoon after Sept. 11, Wal-Mart's shelves held Little Patriots Diapers,Âspangled with little blue stars. Americans are not only virtuosos ofÂmarketing, they are famously patriotic. Nationalistic, too. Patriotism isÂlove of one's country; nationalism is the assertion of national superiority.ÂNationalism is the rejection of cultural relativism, the basis ofÂ"multiculturalism." Hence nationalism is anathema to the avant garde.ÂÂIt is axiomatic that everything changes except the avant garde, which inÂAmerica is frozen in an adversarial pose toward the nation beyond the campusÂgates. But who cares? It has been 40 years since the Kennedy administrationÂwas stocked with academics chattering about a confluence of the Charles andÂPotomac rivers. Sept. 11 sealed the self-marginalization of the adversarialÂacademy.ÂÂThe world has moved onward and, for now, upward, as Terry Teachout, theÂdistinguished music critic, discovered in an epiphany at a ManhattanÂMcDonald's. There a radio was playing music, and the music was neither rockÂnor rap. It was Diana Krall, the jazz singer, elegantly rendering "The LookÂof Love."ÂÂ"Beauty," Teachout wrote in early January, "is becoming fashionable again."ÂWhich means it has become mentionable again. The idea of beauty was anotherÂcasualty of the silly socialization -- "Everything is relative" -- of theÂidea of relativity in physics. Beauty, like truth, was declared "relative,"Âmeaning "socially conditioned" and a matter of opinion. Then, says Teachout,Âcame Sept. 11's brutal reminder "that some things aren't a matter ofÂopinion."ÂÂWhen Teachout wrote that, Krall's "The Look of Love" was eighth onÂAmazon.com's list of best-selling CDs. Two months later it is still high onÂthe list, at 15th. It includes such standards as "S'Wonderful," "Cry Me aÂRiver" and "I Get Along Without You Very Well."ÂÂAre standards out of date? Certainly. They always are out of date. That,Âsays playwright Alan Bennett, is why we call them standards.ÂÂChippendale-style furniture, crystal chandeliers and the wearing of suits onÂno-longer-quite-so-casual-Fridays are back in fashion. To the lingeringÂ1960s sensibility, formality, decorousness and etiquette seemedÂauthoritarian. Since Sept. 11 they seem respectful and reassuring.ÂÂThe New York Times bestseller list includes two hefty biographies of deadÂwhite males, David McCullough's "John Adams," already a bestseller beforeÂSept. 11, and Edmund Morris's study of Teddy Roosevelt, "Theodore Rex."ÂPerhaps Sept. 11 strengthened the public's immunity to the theory of manyÂacademic historians ("history from the bottom up" or "history with politicsÂleft out") that any biography -- other than of, say, a midwife inÂ14th-century Barcelona -- is reactionary because it suggests that someÂpeople matter more than others in the human story.ÂÂThese have been six difficult months for diversity-mongers who preach thatÂAmerica is a mere "mosaic" -- coagulated groups rather than unitedÂindividuals. And difficult months for the "everything is just a matter ofÂopinion" chorus. These have been good months.© 2002 The Washington Post CompanyÂÂGorge Will je i prije razumno pisao o nacionalizmu, na primjer u WP od 11.Âkolovoza 1991. :ÂÂ"Nu u moderno doba, demokracija pretpostavlja nacionalizam. Nacionalizam jeÂosjecaj zajednicke sudbine baziranoj na zajednickoj povijesti i civilnojÂkulturi unutar odredjena podrucja. Ukljucuje pozitivan ponos--preferencijuÂza bastinjenu tradiciju i mjesne posebnosti. Kao sto pise Noel Malcolm,Âdemokracija je vladavina naroda, a nacionalizam je preduvjet za oblikovanjeÂnaroda. Ruzno je, kaze, od diplomata iz nezavisnih drzava dijeliti lekcijeÂporobljenim narodima u Sovjetskomu Savezu i Jugoslaviji o nepozeljnostiÂnacionalne nezavisnosti.ÂÂDemokracija je postala moguca kada su razliciti narodi postigli nacionalneÂradije nego vjerske ili dinasticke lojalnosti. Demokracija moze napredovatiÂu staroj sovjetskoj sferi samo kad cvjetaju nacionalizmi, koji su bili dugoÂpotiskivani od anti-nacionalnih ideologija."ÂÂNacionalizam je grobar imperijalizma i imperijalnih tvorevina. ToÂimperijalisti ne mogu nacionalizmu nikad oprostiti.ÂÂ(ra)ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7485/1/E-Europes-Battle-of-Wills-in-the-Balkans.html ÂThis curious item just flopped into my inbox. It correctly recognises the French mentality. As far as I am aware, the UK does not give a toss either way. Indeed, given Croatian-USA military links, the UK is a possible ally in all this (as the article says in its 'proxy' remarks). But! it seems Zagreb takes the French view, so such possibilities with the USA/UK cannot be explored. The possibilities for Croatian success are there, painfully within reach... and being ignored.ÂBrianÂÂÂEurope's Battle of Wills in the BalkansÂStratfor 6 March 2002ÂSummaryÂÂAs Europe looks to unify its foreign and defense policy, the first test will be in the Balkans, where historical allegiances run deep. A geopolitical tug-of-war between Europe's two major powers -- Germany and France -- will make unity hard to come by in the region. Germany will likely win the battle for influence, but at the cost of regional stability.ÂÂAnalysisÂÂSeveral European papers reported March 4 that a French Army captain in Bosnia helped tip off former Bosnian Serb leader and alleged war criminal Radovan Karadzic about a NATO capture operation Feb. 28. NATO officials dismissed the report as "pure speculation" March 5, though the alliance has begun an inquiry, the New York Times reports.ÂÂThe allegation -- even if erroneous -- casts a pall over attempts by the European Union to formulate a coherent foreign policy in the Balkans. It also highlights a complicated dynamic in which various players -- including the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain and Turkey -- pursue various and often contradictory goals in the region. With the United States committed to disengaging from the Balkans, Germany will emerge as the dominant power in there and, by extension, in European defense policy.ÂÂEven with Germany at the helm, a lack of European unity could tempt some ethnic groups to exploit policy divisions, hoping to destabilize the region again to their advantage. This could put Europe's two main powers, France and Germany, directly at odds -- hardly a recipe for unity.ÂÂHistorically, the Balkans have been a bellwether for European security issues. That has not changed: Today, the region is both an example of the need for greater security cooperation in Europe and evidence of the national priorities that make such cooperation so difficult.ÂÂThe current struggle for influence over the region is rooted in history. Germany has always been closer to Croatia and Slovenia, and former Chancellor Helmut Kohl's early recognition of their break from Yugoslavia helped to precipitate the Balkan wars of the 1990s. France has historically been aligned with the Serbs and the region's orthodox Slavs.ÂÂThis history makes the allegation of a French officer leaking capture plans to the Bosnian Serbs more believable than would otherwise be the case. This does not mean the accusation is true -- or even if it is, that the officer acted with either the knowledge or complicity of French intelligence or government officials.ÂÂIt does, however, fuel the view that French policy is biased in favor of the Serbs, as do other recent incidents. In December, a French officer was convicted of treason for leaking NATO's bombing plans targeting Belgrade during the Kosovo crisis. The officer said he was acting on orders from French intelligence, but Paris claimed he acted alone. Also, a spokesman for a French peacekeeping contingent in the region was removed from duties in 1998 after leaking details of two earlier operations to capture Karadzic, the BBC reported March 4.ÂÂThe facts in the most recent case are sketchy. Several European papers cited an unnamed U.S. diplomat as saying that British intelligence intercepted a cell phone call from a French Army captain to a Bosnian policeman early Feb. 28. The captain reportedly warned him to "pay attention to Foca," the town were the operation was launched. This message was passed on to Karadzic's bodyguards, allowing him to sneak across the border into Montenegro just as a NATO peacekeeping force prepared to launch the capture mission.ÂÂThe NATO alliance's swift move to defuse the situation and quash the allegations is not surprising. The United States is eager to finally hand the Balkan quagmire over to Europe so it can pursue the broader war against international terrorism. Though this war will certainly intersect with the Balkans -- requiring distinct U.S. intelligence operations -- Washington does not want its forces or resources tied down in Europe's backyard.ÂÂTheoretically, Washington's desire creates an opportunity for the EU to spread its foreign policy wings. Both Spain, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana are pushing to have the EU take over NATO's current mission in Macedonia. This would allow the EU to put teeth into its Union-wide security policy by actually deploying joint military forces.ÂÂIn reality, Europe is probably not prepared to take over peacekeeping operations in the Balkans. Europe's credibility as an objective overseer is low in the region, and incidents like the botched Karadzic operation undermine that credibility further. These problems will be exacerbated by the structure of a European defense force that is still based as much on balancing national representation as on functionality. Will a Macedonian trust a German-led force? Will a Kosovar Albanian trust a French-led force? Historical allegiances will make it difficult for Europe to act as one.ÂÂMore important, Balkan states are themselves tools of a bigger geopolitical game between the major European players.ÂÂGermany is seeking to reassert itself at the center of Europe, and the Balkans play a big part in that strategy. It is an area where Germany can expand its military reach without frightening either itself or its neighbors. Berlin also would like to build on its ties with Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Bulgaria to pull both southern and eastern Europe under its wing as the EU expands. Berlin has several tools to entice Balkan governments: access to Europe's largest market, huge amounts of aid and investment, military training, weapons and technology. It is also much more closely connected to Balkan trade routes than France or the United Kingdom.ÂÂFrance, by comparison, is relatively powerless, but it is not ready to cede the Balkans to German domination. Therefore it must rely on its historical linkages and clever diplomacy to maintain power. Paris will look to Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Romania to help counterbalance German ambitions.ÂÂAs a result, Germany and France are likely to be on the opposite sides of any number of regional policy issues.ÂÂOther powers are at work here as well. Though it is far enough removed in geographic terms to get too involved in the Balkans, Britain likely will continue to serve as the U.S. proxy in the region. Washington's goals align more closely with those of Germany than of France, and so will London's.ÂÂThough Russia has tight historical connections to Serbia, it has lost sway in the Balkans over the last half-decade. Not only is it no longer in a position to team up with France, it is much more concerned about developing closer economic ties to Europe through Germany. Yugoslavia is simply not a high geopolitical priority for Russia anymore.ÂÂTurkey, meanwhile, perpetually seeks to make itself indispensable to Europe. It has cultural and religious connections with Albania and Bosnia that it may use as leverage to become more involved in European policy. Turkey will become an increasingly important player in the Balkans.ÂÂA Balkan tug-of-war between France and Germany could lead to even greater regional instability, with ethnic groups seeking to take advantage of the divide. History has too clearly demonstrated the damage that a small spark in the Balkan tinderbox can do. However, it may take another real crisis before European leaders truly begin to act in concert in this region.Â* * * * *ÂCopyright © 2002 Strategic Forecasting LLC. All rights reserved.ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7484/1/E-Power-of-words-images-and-music.html ÂDear all,ÂÂHere is an interesting article on how the US is upgrading its PR capability. Perhaps something Croatia could learn from.ÂÂregardsÂSanjaÂ****ÂFinancial Times LondonÂUS focuses on winning propaganda warÂBy Miranda GreenÂPublished: March 12 2002 19:04 | Last Updated: March 12 2002 20:40ÂÂWhile US forces are fighting with 21st century armaments, the government's propaganda warriors have sometimes been using techniques more suited to the cold war. Now the White House wants to see America's public relations operation become as modern and sophisticated as its military technology.ÂÂThe Pentagon's most high profile contribution so far to the war on terrorism has been the Office for Strategic Influence (OSI) - a unit set up after September 11 and killed off by bad publicity over proposals to spread disinformation via the foreign media.ÂÂRival government press officers have been delighted by its demise, suspicious of defence department personnel. "These people are stuck in the fifties - they know nothing about the world beyond the US," said one.ÂÂThat criticism seems to be borne out by the Pentagon's account of the OSI's ideas for influencing public opinion overseas - pro-America broadcasts and leaflet drops.ÂÂBut an energetic updating of America's overall public relations strategy, led by the White House, is now being carried out in parallel to the military and diplomatic moves.ÂÂThe White House and State Department are considering how to improve the US image in Muslim nations. It is partly about finding the right message and partly working out how to apply the techniques of modern information warfare to the global fight against terrorism. For the message, the buzzwords are "shared values".ÂÂSenior public affairs officials believe that at base the hostility is based on ignorance. "Those who don't like America don't know America," says one.ÂÂThe problem, according to both government strategists and Arab journalists - and confirmed by the pollsters - is that the outside world believes that exported films and television shows give a true picture of life in America: violent, immoral and materialistic, with no respect for tradition or religion.ÂÂAll three groups have started to talk about how the government could start playing up the "real" America - which means the socially conservative America. Just look, says Gallup, at how many Americans are anti-homosexual and anti-abortion and how many have deeply held Christian beliefs.ÂÂAccording to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, "a lot of the values that we hold as Americans are, in fact, reflected by others overseas, and there is a connection to be made there that we have not effectively made".ÂÂOne way to break down mistrust may be to bring representatives of the Muslim world's media to the US and let them see for themselves. The State Department has begun an exchange programme for journalists which has allowed, for example, an Egyptian network to follow an Arab US citizen's campaign to be elected mayor of his small town in New Jersey. More such experiments to put ordinary American life on display are planned, some using expatriates and immigrants from the Islamic world.ÂÂMeanwhile, more traditional media methods are being pursued but with mixed results. Voice of America is developing a new Arabic radio service, to be called the Middle East Radio Network.ÂÂCharlotte Beers, the high-profile Madison Avenue executive appointed by Secretary of State Colin Powell to design advertisements promoting America, has yet to unveil her product.ÂÂAds already rolled out on US television, showing happy Muslim pupils in American schools, were "too sugary" for export: insiders say it is hard to get the professionals to appeal to a non-domestic audience.ÂÂThe White House has decided to continue the central co-ordination imposed by their communications staff during the Afghanistan campaign in October: the Coalition Information Centre (CIC) is becoming a permanent fixture - probably with an increased role and more responsibility and perhaps more press centres across the globe. Currently, operations are passed from time zone to time zone between London, Washington, and Islamabad.ÂÂ"We have had short-term success but there is potentially decades of work to do," says Jim Wilkinson, who runs the Washington end. He hopes for a more "comprehensive strategy" to emerge. That, he says, means being constantly aware that each speech, each diplomatic visit, has a variety of audiences who need to be pleased.ÂÂThe CIC maintains it has provided Arab media outlets with about 100 key "principals" or "talking heads" since October for the allies to explain what the war on terrorism is about.ÂÂIt believes that one of the ways to re-engage the sympathies of the Muslim world will be to promote the eventual rebuilding of Afghanistan as an improvement in the lives of ordinary Afghans. Some even say that changing opinion abroad should be tackled before the military prosecution of the war on terrorism widens.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7483/1/H-Strategija-razvoja-u-strategiju-Vlade.html ÂStrategija razvoja Hrvatske se pretvara u strategiju VladeÂÂRezime dvogodisnje vladavine Vlade Ivice RacanaÂÂIzbori su dobiveni na osnovu obecanja, i hrvatski narod je izabrao Vas. Obecali ste ako dodete na vlast da ce te: Izvrsit i reviziju pretvorbe. Donijeti novi zakoni o privatizaciji. Odvojiti zakonodavnu, sudsku i izvrsnu vlast. Uvesti vladavinu prava i socijalne pravde. Procesuirati kriminalce. Vratiti iznesenih iz Hrvatske cca 30 milijardi dolara, po americkim podacima 19 milijardi dolara. Smanjiti birokraciju. Ocistiti policiju, sudstvo i upravu od stranacke pripadnosti. Zaposliti profesionalce. Na svim mjestima podobne zamijeniti sposobnima. Smanjiti nezaposlenost i otvoriti novih 200.000 radnih mjesta. Vratiti dug umirovljenicima. Znanosti i skolstvo dati mjesto koje oni zasluzuju u suvremenu drustvu. Porodiljama dati veca prava kako bi se popravio natalitet. Mladima dati posao i ukljuciti ih u sve tokove drzavne vlasti. Sve to pod parolom bolje svima a ne samo njima ( Misleci na HDZ i njihovu vlast ). Narod povjerovao dao glas za svoj spas. Pola mandata je proslo od obecanog ostala su obecanja. Doduse bolje svima a ne samo njima vise nitko ne spominje jer su svi zamijenjeni njima. Hrvatski Narod uvijek vjeruje svojoj vlasti. Vjerujemo da je trebalo dvije godine da se stvore uvjeti za ostvarenje obecanog. Sada kada su postavljeni stranacki ljudi na sva radna mjesta, kada je osiguran radni prostor, dobili opremu i privilegije. Pocet ce se sa radom i izvrsenjem danog obecanja hrvatskom Narodu, koja se iz opravdanog razloga do sada nisu mogla ispunjavati. Sada ce se poceti redom od preustroja Hrvatske drzave tako da u Hrvatskoj vise nece biti 21 zupanija nego 4. Nece birokrati moci raditi sto ih volja. Doci ce do trodiobe vlasti na zakonodavnu, sudsku i izvrsnu. Sada se nece cekati po nekoliko desetina godina na rjesenje sudskih sporova i na njihovu zastaru. Smanjit ce se sudska taksa kako bi ljudi svoja prava mogli besplatno zastititi. Vratit ce se u Hrvatsku novac koji je iz Hrvatske iznesen. Mi cemo to sami vratiti, 12 milijardi cemo vratiti sve dugove koje Hrvatska ima i ostat ce nam 7 milijardi dolara za svaki slucaj neka se nade. Nas Predsjednik gospodin Stjepan Mesic imao je pravo kada je rekao necemo mi dati Americi da vrate nase dolare mi cemo to sami vratiti. Cista racunica 30 % to je puno zasto to dati nekome kada smo mi sposobni sve sami napraviti. Vjerujemo da ce svako predsjednicko putovanje van hrvatske kao i drugih visokih duznosnika Republike Hrvatske uroditi plodom i mi cemo vratiti nase novce. Vise nam nece trebati MMF ni drugi strani krediti. Sada ce porodilje dobiti posebne povlastice kako bi se stimulirao njihov rad i odgoj djece, da ne bi nas natalitet dosao u pitanje. Studenti ce dobiti veci djecji doplatak i roditelji ce imati stimulaciju da skoluju svoju djecu. Procesuirat ce se sve kriminalne radnje od pretvorbe do svih drugih kriminala i kriminalaca koji do sada nisu procesuirani. Donijet ce zakon kojim kriminal ako je izvrsen u pretvorbi ne zastarijeva. ( Jer se radi o kriminalu protiv hrvatskog naroda ). Zamijenit ce podobne sa sposobnima. Uspostavit ce se istinska suradnja sa hrvatskim gradanima koji zive diljem svijeta. Donijet ce zakon o pretvorbi koji se nece stimulirat kriminal, mito i korupciju. Uskoci ce rijesiti mito i korupciju u Hrvatskoj tako da Hrvatska nece biti medu najkorumpiranijim zemljama svijeta.ÂÂNece zupanije dobiti milione i milione kuna pod nazivom unapredenje gospodarske djelatnosti, koje stranka na vlasti podjeli svojim simpatizerima i tako kupuju glasove za svoju stranku i osigurava sebi ponovnu pobjedu sa iducim izborima. A od unapredenja gospodarstva ne bude nista. Svi ce biti na trzistu pa tko umije njemu dvije. Zakoni ce se uskladiti sa evropskim zakonima i stimulirati rad i proizvodnju bez koje nema ozivljavanja gospodarstva. Nece biti kao sto je sada da se nista ne isplati proizvoditi, jer se u startu pocinje sa gubitkom. Necemo kao do sada svake godine prodavati nacionalno bogatstvo pojesti ga kako bi dobro zivjeli.ÂÂVratit cemo nase milijarde dolara iz svijeta i Hrvatska ce opet biti zemlja reda, rada i bogatstva. Ministar Cacic ima pravo kada kaze da mladi idu vani, dok se oni vrate Vlada ce stvoriti uvjete za normalan zivot i posao za mlade. Za sposobne ce biti osiguran posao jer ce Vlada Republike Hrvatske podobne zamijeniti sposobnima.ÂÂZa sve to Vladi gospodina Ivice Racana treba dati jos dvije godine da zavrse mandat. Kako stvari sada stoje u prvoj polovini mandata su ispunili sve obaveze prema sebi, a u drugoj polovici mandata ce poceti ispunjavati obecanje dato Narodu.ÂÂNaravno ako im ovaj mandat bude dovoljan, ako ne onda im narod treba dati onoliko mandata koliko im treba da ispune svoje obecanje. Ako im Narod ne da vise mandata onda oni nisu krivi sto svoja dana obecanja nisu ispunili. Pokojni predsjednik Tudman je rekao: ÂNarod dobro zivi ali mu nema tko to dokazatiÂ. Racan kaze: ÂVlada koje sam ja na celu dobro radi, ali to narodu nema tko dokazati.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIzgleda da Racan zna sto Narodu treba dokazati, ali nema tko to dokazati. Narod nikako da shvati da je za sve sam kriv, Hvala bogu da narod sve brzo zaboravlja i sretan je sto sa njime vladaju ljudi koji vladaju i kako vladaju. Zasto bi ova vlada bila drugacija kada im je i ovako mnogo bolje nego su mogli i zamisliti. Barem je tako do sada, dok konkretna obecanja nisu dosla na red. Doduse jos se rasprodaje obiteljsko srebro po starom receptu prodaje posto zasto bitno da se proda i tako nista ne vrijedi. Ako se ne moze prodat onda se ide po receptu dubrovacke banke. Porezni obveznici plate 2,6 milijarde kuna i ranija vrijednost objekta i druge imovine cca 1 milion kuna. Ukupno cca 3.6 milijarde kuna. Ministar financija gospodin Mate Crkvenac sve to proda za 260 miliona kuna. Sav sretan kako je kao dobar trgovac dobro prodao. Tako cemo se rijesiti nacionalne imovine i zaboravit cemo tu mrsku rijec nacionalnu i nacionalizam sa kojim imamo lose iskustvo.ÂÂNasa Vlada nece dozvoliti da hrvatski Narod bude sluga u vlastitoj kuci. Naci ce oni rjesenja zato im trebamo dati vremena i onoliko mandata koliko im treba da ispune dana obecanja. Tko ce prezivjeti to nije bitno, ali oni koji prezive ceka med i mlijeko, pravo blagostanje. Hrvatska ce biti raj na zemlji. ÂU nadi je spasÂ. Nada zadnja umire. Sve ide po planu i dogovoru sve se uklapa u strategiju Vlade koja je pocela od sebe i ÂBog je najprije sebi bradu stvorio, pa tek onda svijetu podijelioÂ. Strategiju razvoja Hrvatske drzave vise nitko i ne spominje. Strategija razvoja Hrvatske se pretvara u strategiju Vlade. Strategiju ce raditi netko drugi, jednog lijepog dana a mozda i prije.ÂÂZivila Vlada na celu sa Ivicom Racanom.ÂÂPorec, 19.02.2002. god.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂNiko Soljak - PorecÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7482/1/H-U-SVEDSKU-U-60-DANA-OTISLO-250-OBITELJI.html ÂLjuba Djikic, Vecernji list (www.vecernji-list.hr), 9. ozujka 2002.ÂISELJAVANJE HRVATA: U SVEDSKU U 60 DANA OTISLO 250 OBITELJIÂÂCim stignu putovnice za djecu, putujemo u Svedsku. Nista nas u tome, osimÂvise sile, ne moze sprijeciti. Nasa je odluka konacna. Nemamo sto izgubiti,Âa mozda dobijemo! - tim rijecima docekao nas je Mladen Mioc, 40-godisnjak izÂSuice. U velikoj novoizgradjenoj kuci s poslovnim prostorima, uz magistralnuÂcestu Suica - Kupres, Mladen zivi sa suprugom Smiljom i troje djece -ÂDarijem (12 godina), Igorom (10) i Majom (3). Iako se pretpostavljalo da seÂu Svedsku iz BiH iseljavaju samo nezaposleni, prica Miocevih to opovrgava.ÂÂ- Radim na benzinskoj crpki i, kao vecina ovdasnjih radnika, nisamÂprijavljen. Ne krivim za to vlasnika jer sam mu zahvalan sto me uopceÂzaposlio. Sa 500 KM, kolika mi je mjesecna zarada, ne mogu uzdrzavatiÂobitelj. Kucu mi je izgradio otac, a i sad, kad god je potrebno, priskoci miÂu pomoc. Medjutim, kakva je moja buducnost ovdje? Cetrdeset mi je godina,Âvolim raditi, bio sam cetiri godine u ratu, pa sam poslije nesto radio, aÂnemam ni radni staz, ni zdravstveno osiguranje. Placu potrosim samo na to daÂsina dvaput odvedem u Split na lijecnicki pregled zbog problema s vidom.ÂGdje su sve ostale potrebe peteroclane obitelji? Djeca mi dobro uce, noÂkakva je njihova buducnost, kako cu ih skolovati? I kako cu docekati starostÂbez mirovine, osiguranja, bez ustedjevine? O svemu sam dobro promislio iÂshvatio da mi je jedini izlaz odlazak u inozemstvo. Hvala Bogu sto mi seÂpruzila prilika otici u Svedsku - prica Mladen uz odobravanje supruge.ÂÂVJERUJEMO U ONO STO KAZU PRIJATELJI KOJI SU VEC TAMOÂObitelj Mioc nije osamljena u svojoj odluci o preseljenju u Svedsku. Samo uÂdva posljednja mjeseca u tu se zemlju uselilo vise od 250 hrvatskih obiteljiÂiz BiH, a samo iz HB zupanije oko 40 obitelji. Oni koji su vec stigli uÂSvedsku javljaju rodjacima, susjedima i prijateljima da su dobro smjesteni,Âda im je u toj zemlji sve osigurano, da su im obecani azil, zaposlenje,Âskolovanje djece...ÂÂ- Uzaludni su pozivi politicara neka ne idemo, izjave iz svedskogaÂveleposlanstva u BiH da necemo dobiti azil. Mi vise vjerujemo onome stoÂcujemo od prijatelja koji su vec tamo - kazu Mioci i poimence nam navodeÂobitelji iz Kupresa, Bugojna i Suice koje su vec u Svedskoj, te oko 20Âobitelji samo iz Suice koje se spremaju preseliti u Svedsku kad "sredeÂpapire".ÂÂMioci kazu da su pokusali u Suici u vlastitoj kuci otvoriti gostionicu iÂtrgovinu, ali nije islo. Zeljeli su poceti i s farmom krava, predali zahtjevÂza kredit, ali vise nemaju strpljenja jer sumnjaju da ce dobiti taj kredit.Â- Kredite ce, kao i dosad, dobiti oni koji nadju dobru vezu i potplate je, aÂmi novca nemamo - kazu Smilja i Mladen, dok njihova trogodisnja kci stalnoÂponavlja kako ide u Svedsku, te ce ondje biti pjevacica i kupit ce punoÂcokolada i banana. Mioca ljuti kad politicari govore da mnogi u SvedskuÂodlaze iz avanturizma.ÂÂ- Ne znam bi li normalan, obiteljski covjek bez potrebe otisao i iz svogaÂsela, a kamoli nekamo daleko. Ne, mi nismo gladni, ali zar je sva hrana uÂkruhu!? - kazu Mioci dok nas ispracaju, zamisljeni zbog neizvjesnosti kojaÂih ceka.ÂÂOstale obitelji u Suici koje smo posjetili, a takodjer se spremaju naÂodlazak u Svedsku, nisu pristale slikati se i govoriti za novine zbogÂmogucih posljedica.ÂÂU vrijeme cetverogodisnjeg rata na ovim prostorima u Svedsku se uselilo,Âodnosno politicki ili humanitarni azil dobilo oko 60.000 gradjana BiH. MnogiÂsu ocekivali da ce nakon svrsetka rata prestati i iseljavanje u vecem broju,Âte da ce se iseljeni, izbjegli i prognani vratiti u svoj zavicaj. Na zalost,Âu sedam poratnih godina vise se gradjana BiH iselilo nego sto se vratilo.ÂPrema podacima koje je iznio kardinal Vinko Puljic, u sest posljednjihÂgodina iz BiH se iselilo oko 130.000 Hrvata. Otisli su uglavnom uÂprekooceanske zemlje. U posljednja dva mjeseca iseljavanje Hrvata iz HBÂzupanije u Svedsku poprima razmjere epidemije, a lijek za nju jos se neÂtrazi. Ovih se dana oglasila i gospodja Kajsa Netz, prva tajnica svedskogaÂveleposlanstva u BiH zaduzena za migracije. Kaze kako joj je poznato da seÂhrvatske obitelji iz BiH iseljavaju u Svedsku. Ne traze vize uÂveleposlanstvu, nego putuju s hrvatskom putovnicom, pa kad udju u Svedsku,Â"izgube" tu putovnicu i pokazuju BiH putovnicu, trazeci azil.ÂÂBIT CE VRACENIÂU Svedskoj se upravo vodi rasprava o prijedlogu zakona o doseljavanju, aliÂsvedska vlada zasad nema plan organiziranog useljavanja i 99 posto onih kojiÂsada stizu u Svedsku bit ce vraceno, kaze gospodja Netz, navodeci da je uÂposljednje dvije godine 7000 gradjana BiH zatrazilo azil u Svedskoj, aÂdobilo ga je samo 500 gradjana. U svedskom veleposlanstvu demantiraju navodeÂda su doseljenici u Svedsku smjesteni na sjevernom podrucju, koje je biloÂugrozeno cernobilskom katastrofom prije 17 godina. Po rijecima gospodjeÂNetz, samo dvije godine nakon cernobilske katastrofe to je podrucje biloÂiseljeno, a potom su se tamosnji stanovnici vratili.ÂÂIako su bile upoznate s izjavom svedskog veleposlanstva da ce biti vraceneÂiz Svedske, vise od 50 osoba iz HB zupanije i proslog je vikenda, uglavnom sÂcijelim obiteljima, krenulo put Svedske. Na autobusnom kolodvoru nitko odÂnjih nije se zelio slikati, niti javno govoriti o svom putu zbog mogucihÂproblema. No, nekoliko njih ispunilo je obecanje da ce nam se javiti kadaÂstignu u Svedsku. U telefonskom razgovoru kazali su da su nakon 27 satiÂvoznje bez problema sretno stigli u Svedsku. Lijepo su prihvaceni i, nakonÂrazgovora s osobama za koje pretpostavljaju da su socijalni radnici, svakaÂobitelj smjestena je u namjesteni stan ili kucu i dobila je hranu, a djeca iÂmlijeko i slatkise. Svi su dobili i nesto novca. Rekli su da ih ocekuje josÂnekoliko razgovora. Svi se nadaju, sudeci po dobrodoslici, da ce ostati uÂSvedskoj. Neke obitelji vec su posjetili i svecenici Hrvatske katolickeÂmisije u Svedskoj i uputili im rijeci ohrabrenja. To im je, kazu, punoÂznacilo.ÂÂ- Starija kci, zet i njihovo dvoje djece, koji su ovih dana otputovali uÂSvedsku, javili su mi da su zadovoljni prijamom, da ih nije docekalaÂpolicija, niti su smjesteni u sabirne centre, kako sam ih ja plasila. UÂTomislavgradu su zivjeli kao prognanici iz Bugojna, nezaposleni, bez ikakveÂnade u buducnost. Oni nisu imali izbor. Isto je i s mojom drugom kceri, paÂce i ona vjerojatno krenuti za sestrom. Ako se oni tamo zadrze i snadju,Âkrenut cu i ja za njima. Devet smo godina prognanici, u Bugojno se jos neÂmozemo vratiti, povremeno ovdje nesto radimo, ali bez staza, osiguranja,Âpodstanari smo... - kaze Jela, prognanica iz Bugojna.ÂÂHrvati iz BiH uvijek su se iseljavali. Nakon I. svjetskog rata odlazili su uÂAmeriku, 60-ih godina proslog stoljeca masovno su odlazili na "privremeni"Ârad u zemlje zapadne Europe, a tijekom Domovinskoga rata mnogi su seÂpreselili u Republiku Hrvatsku. Je li na pocetku treceg tisucljeca SvedskaÂnjihova obecana zemlja?ÂÂBROJ HRVATA PREPOLOVLJEN?ÂPrema popisu stanovnistva u BiH iz 1991. godine, Hrvata u BiH bilo jeÂ760.852 ili 17,4 posto od ukupna broja stanovnika BiH. Ocekivana popisaÂstanovnistva u BiH 10 godina poslije nije bilo, niti se taj popis josÂplanira. Zato je tesko znati koliko Hrvata danas zivi na prostorima BiH, aliÂprocjene, uglavnom iz crkvenih krugova, govore da ih je prema predratnomÂbroju, dvostruko manje. Podaci su to nad kojima bi se trebali zamisliti sviÂodgovorni za ostanak i opstanak Hrvata u BiH.ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7481/1/E-officially-No-MORE-Yugoslavia.html ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSerbia, Montenegro Sign AccordÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThu Mar 14, 9:39 AM ETÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBy ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press WriterÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia and Montenegro signed a historic accordÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThursday to radically restructure Yugoslavia, giving the federation a newÂÂÂÂÂÂÂname and its republics greater autonomy to prevent the country's finalÂÂÂÂÂÂÂbreakup.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe agreement, reached under mediation by the European Union (news - webÂÂÂÂÂÂÂsites), was signed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica (news - webÂÂÂÂÂÂÂsites), Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, EU foreign policy chiefÂÂÂÂÂÂÂJavier Solana and other Serbian and Montenegrin officials.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe new country, consisting of two semi-independent states, will beÂÂÂÂÂÂÂrenamed Serbia and Montenegro, Kostunica said after the signing ceremony.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBoth republics will share a defense and foreign policy, but will maintainÂÂÂÂÂÂÂseparate economies, currencies and customs services for the time being.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"This document sets the shape of completely new relations between theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂstates of Serbia and Montenegro," Kostunica said. "This step means a breakÂÂÂÂÂÂÂwith the previous regime" of former Yugoslav President Slobodan MilosevicÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ(news - web sites).ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Amid the threat of disintegration in the Balkans, we are moving towardÂÂÂÂÂÂÂintegration and peace and stability in the region," he said.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂYugoslavia first was formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, andÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSlovenes, and Montenegro gave up its statehood to join. The country wasÂÂÂÂÂÂÂoccupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, then tightly controlledÂÂÂÂÂÂÂunder the communist regime of Marshal Tito for four decades after the war.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂYugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines during Milosevic's reign.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSlovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina all declared theirÂÂÂÂÂÂÂindependence by 1992.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSerbia and Montenegro stayed together when the other republics startedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂleaving Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. But their alliance began to crumbleÂÂÂÂÂÂÂin 1997 when Djukanovic distanced himself from Milosevic and beganÂÂÂÂÂÂÂadvocating independence for Montenegro.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂKostunica said the political accord calls for new federal elections in theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂautumn, and that the parliaments of both republics as well as the federalÂÂÂÂÂÂÂYugoslav parliament would set to work on constitutional changes. TheÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcountry's new name will not take effect until lawmakers in all threeÂÂÂÂÂÂÂchambers ratify the accord.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSolana praised the agreement, saying Montenegro and Serbia "should have noÂÂÂÂÂÂÂdoubt" about the EU's support.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"This is an important day and a step toward the stability in the regionÂÂÂÂÂÂÂand in Europe," Solana said. "This is not the end of anything, but aÂÂÂÂÂÂÂbeginning of a new chapter that will bring you closer to the EuropeanÂÂÂÂÂÂÂUnion."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDjukanovic, who is likely to face an avalanche of criticism in MontenegroÂÂÂÂÂÂÂfor giving up a planned independence referendum for the small republicÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthis spring, said he expected Serbs and Montenegrins to "have a positiveÂÂÂÂÂÂÂapproach toward this agreement" and predicted it would win parliamentaryÂÂÂÂÂÂÂapproval.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe tiny Adriatic republic continued its independence drive even afterÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMilosevic's ouster in 2000. Milosevic is now on trial before the U.N. warÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcrimes tribunal in The Hague (news - web sites), Netherlands, forÂÂÂÂÂÂÂatrocities his forces committed in the Balkans in the 1990s.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBranko Ruzic, the spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party, called theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂevent "the most shameful date in the history of the Serbs."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"We went to bed in one state, and we woke up in another," Ruzic said,ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂadding that the Socialists are for "preserving the current Yugoslavia."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMontenegro's 650,000 people remain bitterly divided on whether to remainÂÂÂÂÂÂÂin a federation with Serbia, whose approximately 10 million peopleÂÂÂÂÂÂÂeffectively determine Yugoslav affairs.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂA draft of the agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, said thatÂÂÂÂÂÂÂafter three years, "the member states will be entitled to instituteÂÂÂÂÂÂÂproceedings for a change of the state status, that is, withdrawal from theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂstate union."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe pro-Serbian faction in Montenegro praised the agreement.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"The dangerous divisions in Montenegro were averted. Djukanovic stopped onÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthe brink, and we approve of this," said Dragan Soc, the leader of theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMontenegrin Peoples' Party.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂKostunica said his office as federal president would remain and that theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂnew country would have one seat in the United Nations (news - web sites),ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂjust as Yugoslavia does now, although Montenegrin and Serbian officialsÂÂÂÂÂÂÂwould rotate as envoys to U.N. headquarters in New York.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe accord was a major policy victory for the West, which has opposedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMontenegrin secession, fearing the breakup could encourage otherÂÂÂÂÂÂÂindependence-minded groups in the region - in particular, ethnic AlbaniansÂÂÂÂÂÂÂin Kosovo and Macedonia.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂArguing that secession also would hurt Montenegro's economy and slow downÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthe process of integrating it into mainstream Europe, the EU has beenÂÂÂÂÂÂÂpushing for a new Yugoslav constitution that would preserve a joint stateÂÂÂÂÂÂÂwhile granting the two republics greater self-governance.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 14 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7487/1/E-EUBritish-politics-and-how-it-impacts-on-Croatia.html  Ok, important links re EU/UK for Croatia First: EU tells candidate countries (not Croatia) that they will get less subsidy than W Europe. Reality is asserting itself. Believe me, when croatia - as part of "Western Balkans" - ever gets anywhere near joining the EU they will get zip.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1789000/1789765.stm  Secondly: Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith (IDS) gives a speech about "realism" in foreign policy as opposed to Blairs nonsense. This could be good or bad news. IDS was anti-Serb in the past. HDZ (as tories sister party) would do well to approach him over the SAA. EU empire building etc. Tories are VERY suspicious of EU especially any foreign policy. But do the HDZ have the wit to see the opportunity to make the SAA an issue? Doubtful.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1792000/1792605.stm  Full speech: http://www.conservatives.com/show_news_item.cfm?obj_id=23874&speeches=1  A popular myth is Britain is anti-croat cause because Brits don't like catholics (IRA, CofE etc etc). Fundamental misunderstanding which has cost Croatia a lot. Britain is secular. Sure, there are one or two nutters out there but they are the exception. Croat bashing tends to have secular reasons; socialist ones, fear of German influence etc. Hence you see those who support the IRA also supporting Serbia. France is Catholic but that's not been much help, again secularism, not religion. The following article on the CofE should convince doubters about religion in the UK; just read the first couple of paragraphs.  http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old&section=current&issue=2002-02-02&id=1539  Brian  Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know!  brigall@yahoo.co.uk (Brian Gallagher) Wed, 13 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7489/1/E-CROATIAS-BUSTED-ENRON-DEALS.html Âhttp://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2002/2-1.html#2.%20Enron's%20Croat%Â20ConnectionÂÂ-------------ÂEnron's Busted Croatian Deal Feb. 5, 2002ÂÂBy Dr. Tomislav SunicÂÂZAGREB, Feb. 5 - Further to our report about Enron's busted deal withÂCroatia's late president, Franjo Tudjman (see Item 2 of this TiM Bulletin),Âhere is a piece by Dr. Tomislav (Thomas) Sunic, who contributed thisÂcomment to TiM from Zagreb, Croatia. Dr. Sunic holds a PhD in politicalÂscience. He is a former US professor and author of several books.ÂÂ"The former Croatian government under the late president Franjo Tudjman wasÂeager to cut the deal with the US energy giant Enron. The reason behind itÂwas its eagerness to obtain favor of the Clinton's administration.ÂAccordingly, Enron was supposed to build a huge power plant in tiny CroatiaÂand supply the country with cheap energy. A Croat-American lady andÂself-proclaimed "lobbyist," Ms. Zdenka Gast, quite vocal in the Croat mediaÂduring Tudjman's reign, played a role as a mediator between Enron and theÂCroatian government.ÂÂLater on, with the arrival to power in January 2000 of the newÂneo-communist liberal government in Croatia, the deal was unilaterallyÂscrapped. The new Croatian government allegedly viewed it as detrimental toÂCroatian economy. But this was, apparently just a minor move in a largerÂeffort to distance itself from Tudjman's legacy - both the good and the badÂone. Zdenka Gast, disappeared from the public view and one has not heard fromÂher ever since. Today, there is a great deal of media silence in CroatiaÂabout the role of Croat politicians in the Enron scandal. One can speculateÂwith good reason that other local movers and shakers in the former andÂcurrent Croat government were involved, or better, yet may have receivedÂhefty kick-backs from the giant? At the time of the signing of the Enron deal,Âa prominent go-between-man was Mr. Goran Granic, who survived theÂÂgovernment purges upon the arrival of the new leftist-liberal governmentÂin 2000. Granic even made it to the top as the Vice Prime Minister in the newÂgovernment. As an old Balkan proverb goes, "one hand washes the other."ÂIt is worth noting that Goran Granic is a brother of the former TudjmanÂminister of foreign affairs, Mate Granic, a largely incompetent stuttering,Âgreasy-palmed politician, displaying an extraordinary penchant forÂenriching himself, his extended family and his cronies.ÂAt the time of the signing of the Enron deal, William Montgomery was the USÂAmbassador to Croatia. After the unilateral scrapping by the deal in 2000Âby the new Croat government, Montgomery did not hide his fumed anger. ButÂsince the subsequent surfacing of the Enron wheeling and dealing in theÂUSA, Montgomery, now a US Ambassador to Yugoslavia, remains pretty tacit.ÂFor its unilateral breach of contract, the Croat government has had to payÂfines to Enron, although nobody in Croatia knows how big was the penaltyÂtab. One thing remains certain, though. Since January of this year, CroatÂcitizens' electricity bills have doubled."ÂÂDr. Tomislav Sunic, Zagreb, CroatiaÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 11 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7488/1/HE-VAS-GLAS-U-HRVATSKOM-SABORU.html ÂSa stovanjemÂDr Djuro NjavroÂÂhttp://www.njavro.org/ÂÂU zelji da ostanem sto vise u kontaktu s Vama, mojim sugradanima, nadam se da cete mi se javiti putem e-maila. Slobodno me kontaktirajte svojim upitima, prijedlozima, komentarima i kritikama. Rado cu s Vama razmjenjivati misljenja i ideje.ÂÂZASTUPNIK - VAS GLAS U HRVATSKOM SABORUÂe-mail: duro.njavro@njavro.comÂÂMozete mi pisati i na moju postansku adresu:ÂÂdr. Ðuro NjavroÂZastupnik u Hrvatskom saboruÂMarkov trg 2Â10000 ZAGREBÂÂili me nazvati na broj telefona:Â00385-1-45-69-222ÂÂOp-edÂDr. Djuro Njavro is Sabor representative and is on CROWN email list. Always availabel for discussion or suggestion. Although I do not know much of his work, I think this is something important to be able to communicate on this level. So, If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Check his website and let me know. And you Dr. Njavro, you are also welcome to ask us questions.ÂÂbest,ÂNenad BachÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 11 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7492/1/E-If-they-are-loyal-to-war-criminals-NOW.html ÂOp-edÂIf they are loyal to war criminals NOW, what was happening during the war. That is the subject here. The whole arms embargo should be put on a table and examine. Do we have any team of lawyers who can start the ball rolling?ÂNenadÂÂTwo interesting articles on the war criminal Karadzic: Ole Radovan was apparently tipped off by the French NATO contingent (again!): nothing like a reliable NATO partner!ÂÂTonyÂÂÂSerbs Thwart U.N. War Crimes HuntÂÂBy George JahnÂAssociated Press WriterÂFriday, March 8, 2002; 9:41 AMÂCELEBICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- NATO says he was here.ÂBut even though Radovan Karadzic is wanted for war crimes, villagers in his reputed hide-out say they will never betray the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, and their loyalty is helping him to thwart international efforts to bring him to trial.ÂForty miles east of Sarajevo, Celebici, a cluster of buildings perched on a wind-swept plateau, languished in obscurity until a few days ago. That's when black-masked NATO troops swept into the village, blowing down doors and lifting carpets in their search for Karadzic.ÂThe operation appeared to reflect fears that time is running out in the hunt for him and other top war crime suspects, including Ratko Mladic, his general.ÂSince Europe's bloodiest post-World War II conflict ended in 1995, the number of NATO-led peacekeepers in Bosnia has dropped from 60,000 to 18,000, and further planned cuts may soon leave NATO too weak to fulfill its mandate by catching top fugitives.ÂBut closure on the Bosnian war is impossible as long as Karadzic and Mladic remain free.ÂJacques Klein, the U.S. official who heads Bosnia's international police, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that the pair's arrest is crucial to the country's stability and the reconciliation of its Muslim, Croat and Serb communities. Failure to bring them to trial before the U.N. war crimes tribunal "shows the impotence of the West in the face of evil," he said.ÂNATO says it was acting on a tip in raiding Celebici. But Karadzic, indicted in 1995 for genocide and crimes against humanity, can count on a wellspring of backing that runs throughout the half of Bosnia inhabited by most of the country's 700,000 Serbs.Â"I love him, and I wouldn't betray him," declared elementary teacher Rada Puhalac, assigned to the decaying Celebici schoolhouse searched by the NATO raiders Feb. 28.ÂTo the west in Pale, the highland town that served as Karadzic's capital during his siege of nearby Sarajevo, flower vendor Zorana Vuksanovic proclaims: "God and the people are on his side."ÂEven in Banja Luka, the down-at-the-heels power base of Bosnian Serbs most critical of Karadzic, many people say NATO should leave him alone.Â"They'll never get him," says Aleksandra Stupar, a shop assistant in Banja Luka, reflecting a widespread belief that "Raso" is too foxy to be caught. Bosnian Serb President Mirko Sarovic described Karadzic as "a symbol of freedom" for his people in comments televised Friday.ÂThe battle of wits feeds off a centuries-old conviction that whenever Serbs defend themselves, the outside world tars them as aggressors.ÂFormer Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic used the myth of "Serbs against the world" to stoke the Balkan wars and now is exploiting it at his trial before the U.N. tribunal.ÂKaradzic hammered at the same theme in launching the Bosnian conflict when the republic declared its independence from Yugoslavia, arguing that Serbs there were only defending themselves against the threat of Muslim and Croat massacres.ÂThe shaggy-haired 56-year-old Serb is a physician, psychiatrist, poet and author of children's books. But to the war crimes tribunal he is a key culprit in the atrocities of the Bosnian war, including the 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.ÂIn Celebici and beyond, however, his image is of a leader who saved the Serbs from destruction and who now makes fools of his pursuers.ÂFact and fiction are also hard to separate when it comes to where - and how - he hides.ÂNormally reliable Serb sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say he travels only by night, mostly in remote edges of eastern Bosnia close to borders, allowing him to slip over to the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro, his birthplace.ÂThe sources say wavy-haired lookalikes travel about to confound the searchers, while the real Karadzic is disguised and surrounded by an inner circle of well-armed bodyguards, as well as two outer layers of residents of whatever area he's in, who act as informants.Â"We really think we were very close," said a senior NATO official, who demanded anonymity, describing the attempt to snatch Karadzic at Celebici. "But he enjoys a very high level of support among the population over there and has a well-developed information network."ÂThat popularity is evident in the eastern part of the Bosnian Serb republic.Â"We will defend our brother Radovan until death, until doomsday," proclaim freshly photocopied posters hastily pasted over U.S. State Department offers of a $5 million reward for his capture.ÂBosnian Serb television now refers to the indicted war criminal as "our first president," and a newly launched Web site to promote "the truth about Radovan Karadzic" proclaims his innocence. A song often heard on Bosnian Serb radio urges Karadzic to "come down from the mountains in your Mercedes" and save his people.ÂÂÂMarch 04, 2002ÂFROM THE MARCH 4TH, 2002 LONDON TIMES:ÂPhone trap for French 'traitor' who saved KaradzicÂBy Daniel McGroryÂÂÂNATO chiefs are investigating claims that a French Army captain tipped off sympathisers of Radovan Karadzic that special forces were launching a raid on his mountain hideout last week.ÂIt is said that the betrayal by the French officer in a telephone call to a senior Bosnian policeman gave the war crimes suspect and his entourage just enough time to escape as US Special Forces were closing in.ÂBritish Intelligence reportedly monitored the conversation between the French captain, who has not been named, and the senior police officer based in Foca, who passed on the warning immediately to one of Dr Karadzic's bodyguards.ÂAs a Nato enquiry began yesterday, the role of some in the French contingent was under scrutiny amid longrunning allegations that officers with pro-Serb sympathies have compromised previous attempts to arrest the 57-year-old former Bosnian Serb President, who is wanted on charges of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.ÂLast year a French Army officer was jailed for treason for passing Nato secrets to the Serbs during the Kosovo War.ÂThis latest accusation will cast further doubt on Nato's ability to capture Dr Karadzic and his wartime military commander, General Ratko Mladic.ÂThe French captain is alleged to have telephoned his Bosnian Serb ally at 6.26am on Thursday morning, just as helicopters carrying the American troops were taking off from their base at Tuzla and armoured vehicles belonging to the Nato-led peacekeeping force were sealing off all routes leading to Celebeci, where Dr Karadzic was said to have been hiding in a lumber factory.ÂSecurity sources who have heard the brief conversation say that the Bosnian policeman sounds suprised and somewhat indignant at being telephoned so early at home in Foca and asks the Frenchman, who he clearly knows: "What do you want? Why are you calling me?" The captain, who is in Bosnia as part of the Sfor stabilisation force, quickly replies: "You should pay attention to Foca."ÂClearly puzzled by the remark, the policeman asks why and is told: "You know Foca is always of interest to us."ÂThe hilltop town, 40 miles southwest of the capital, Sarajevo, remains a bastion of support for Dr Karadzic and others on the run from the war crimes tribunal. The former child pscyhiatrist is believed to regularly use hideouts in Foca.ÂThe Bosnian policeman is then heard muttering his thanks to the French traitor and immediately telephones one of the leaders of Dr Karadzic's private army of bodyguards.ÂHis entourage were staying just six miles away in Celebeci, a remote hilltop village, where Intelligence sources say that Dr Karadzic and around 80 of his staff and his armed minders had arrived late on Tuesday night.ÂThey had appeared in a fast-moving column of 4 x 4 vehicles, with Dr Karadzic in a Range Rover with blacked-out windows. It is thought that they had slipped across the border from his native Montenegro, where his mother still lives and where he now spends most of his time.ÂA Nato spy in Celebeci reported "eye contact" with Dr Karadzic and two hours before the helicopters took off on their mission there was "hard Intelligence" that he had not moved.ÂThe revelation that the police chief in Foca could so easily contact Dr Karadzic's camp is evidence of why Nato forces have repeatedly failed to bring the wartime leader to justice, with leaks within its own ranks and collaboration with local security authorities.ÂSecurity sources say that after the tip-off, bodyguards pushed Dr Karadzic into one of three indentical vehicles, which set off in different directions across mountain tracks as they were not sure how close Nato troops had reached. Others stayed behind and there are reports of them fighting a long battle with US Special Forces as they escaped through the forests.ÂOne of Dr Karadzic's senior bodyguards boasted at the weekend that they were also able to monitor Nato's radio transmissions, which helped them to pick which route to use for their leader. Western security sources doubt that claim and say that it was solely the treachery of the French officer that was to blame.ÂFor the past 48 hours Nato chiefs have been investigating the intercepted telephone call to decide if this was "an accident or betrayal". One Nato source said: "It could have been a courtesy call from the French officer to warn a local police chief not to be surprised by the sight of lots of Nato armour and the fact that a couple of minutes after this call, all the phones would be cut off as well as power and water.Â"But after careful analysis it does seem this was betrayal. The question we have to ask is why the officer did it and we stop it happening again."ÂA Nato inquest was already under way after some in the alliance criticised US military chiefs for taking so long to react to the tip-off that Dr Karadzic was in Celebeci and then insisting that only American troops should have the glory of making the capture.ÂLast night Nato would not say where the French suspect was being held or what would be done with him.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7491/1/H-Sanader-u-Washingtonu.html ÂÂSANADER U WASHINGTONU RAZGOVARAO S HYDEOMÂÂWASHINGTON, 8. ozujka (Hina) - Predsjednik HDZ-a Ivo Sanader iÂpredsjednik kongresnog Odbora za medunarodne odnose Henry HydeÂrazgovarali su u cetvrtak u Washingtonu o prilikama u Hrvatskoj iÂregiji, bilateralnim odnosima Hrvatske i SAD, pristupu NATO-u, teÂradu i suradnji s Haaskim sudom.ÂÂÂSanader je u posjet Washingtonu dosao na Hydeov poziv a na CapitolÂHillu se sastao i s kongresnikom hrvatskog podrijetla GeorgeomÂRadanovichem.ÂÂÂPoziv i razgovore s americkim duznosnicima Sanader tumaci kaoÂpotvrdu da americki politicki krugovi HDZ prihvacaju kao ozbiljnogÂpolitickog partnera i mogucu alternativu sadasnjoj vlasti, te kaoÂizraz potpore politici novog HDZ-a.ÂÂÂSanader je u ime svoje stranke izrazio zelju za prosirenjemÂsuradnje s Republikanskom strankom, te ukazao na potrebuÂuspjesnije i sadrzajnije suradnje SAD i Hrvatske. Zelju da seÂbilateralni odnosi unaprijede na svim poljima izrazio je i Hyde.ÂÂÂPredsjednik HDZ-a je utjecajnom americkom kongresniku potvrdio daÂu Hrvatskoj postoji opca suglasnost oko pristupa NATO-u i EuropskojÂUniji, te naglasio da u HDZ-u smatraju strateski vaznimÂprijateljstvo dviju zemalja.ÂÂÂHyde je Sanadera upoznao s nedavnom raspravom o radu ICTY-ja, aÂdodatno se zanimao za prilike u BiH. S tim u vezi Sanader jeÂpodsjetio da BiH predstoje ustavne promjene i upozorio da to mozeÂbiti prekretnica za položaj tamosnjih Hrvata.ÂÂÂSanader ce u petak odrzati predavanje na washingtonskom InstitutuÂza svjetsku politiku. Govorit ce o politickim stajalištima HDZ-a,Âprilikama u Hrvatskoj i vanjskopolitickim ciljevima, te potvrditiÂprivrženost svoje stranke demokraciji, vladavini prava i slobodnomÂtrzistu.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7490/1/H-HRVATSKE-SLIKE-U-BIJELOM-SVIJETU.html Â"Hrvatsku nema tko govornicki i pismeno predstavljati u svijetu"ÂVjesnik, 6.3. 2001ÂÂhttp://www.vjesnik.hr/pdf/2002/03/06/10A10.PDFÂÂÂVjesnik (Stajalista) Mr. Lezaja/K. FijackoÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHRVATSKE SLIKE U BIJELOM SVIJETUÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTomislav SunieÂÂO slici Hrvatske u stranim medijima najvazniju ulogu igraju predodzbe - bezÂobzira odgovaraju li one stvarnosti ili utvaranju. Politicka stvarnost mozeÂbiti drugacija, ali kut gledanja igra vaznu ulogu. Prava je rijetkost nakonÂ1995.g. naci opzirniji opis Hrvatske u stranim medijima. I ono malo zto jeÂHrvatska uspjela uciniti do 1995.g. u smislu svog "imagea" vize je spletÂgeopolitickih okolnosti. Proaktivna promocija Hrvatske u inozemstvu neÂpostoji.ÂÂKod povrsnih stranih promatraca, rijec "Hrvatska" pretezno se povezuje saÂnekolicinom sportasa i jadranskim ljepotama. U lijevim intelektualnimÂkrugovima "Hrvatska" pak slovi povremeno kao nositelj fasizma. UÂnesluzbenim konzervativnim sredinama to je znalo biti prednost tijekomÂnedavnog rata, ali iz objektivnih razloga, nije se javno isticalo. UÂstranim medijima cak i hrvatski grb i drzavna ikonografija slove ponekadÂkao fasisticka obiljezja. Ali nije tocno domace rasireno nesluzbenoÂuvjerenje o nekim "konspirativnim" silama ili nekoj a priori mrznji ZapadaÂprotiv Hrvatske. O Hrvatskoj se i onako malo u inozemstvu razmislja, a josÂmanje govori. Sve teorije o zavjerama oblik su intelektualnogÂprovincijalizma ili alibi za neznanje i neucinkovitost. Stalna fiksacijaÂna navodne zapadnjacke zle namjere, odgovara povijesnoj fiksaciji naÂanti-srpstvo kao oblik hrvatskog negativnog legitimiteta. Po takvom stavuÂHrvatska ne smije postojati, ako nema svog negativca.ÂÂU kvalitetnoj promidzbi Hrvatske, vazno je detalje stavljati u svjetskuÂperspektivu, a ne drzati se granica Hrvatske. Osim u sportu, Hrvatska jeÂnepoznata. Po nekim davnim njemackim popularnim predajama, Hrvati suÂvjekovima bili dobri za "drekarbajt", bilo za vrijeme TridesetogodisnjegÂrata u Luksemburgu ili pak djelomieno u Staljingradu i Kursku, 1944.ÂNesluzbeno, broj njemaekih medijskih ljudi i politieara stavlja Hrvate iÂSrbe u istu kategoriju "Balkanesera". U ozbiljnim akademskim knjigama iÂmonografijama u Austriji, gotovo da nema jedne pune stranice o Hrvatima.ÂKosmati i brkati barun Trenk vize slovi kao zaljivdzija nego kao ozbiljanÂeovjek. Hrvatska inteligencija, prvenstveno iz kompleksa manje vrijednosti,Âuvijek se bojala parirati zapadnjaekim primitivcima. Amerieki diplomat,ÂLeroy King, u svojim mnogobrojnim analizama poslatih u Ameriku 1919.g., saÂterena novonastale Jugoslavije, pize da su "..Jugoslaveni inferiorni iÂretardirani, i veoma daleko od prosjeenog zapadnog civiliziranog eovjeka,"Â(cf. Miro Kovac, La France, la creation du royaume "yougoslave", 2001).ÂÂNa francuskom govornom podrucju, tijekom bivse komunistieke Jugoslavije,Âosim donekle emigrantske promidzbene kultur-poltieke uloge knjizevnikaÂAntuna Pinteroviea i Christophea Dolbeaua, Hrvati su nepoznanica. IronijomÂpovijesti, svojevremeno je jugoslavenski Hrvat Predrag Matvejevie, znatnoÂbolje promicao kulturno blago Zadra, odnosno Hrvatske, nego cijelaÂdiplomacija slobodne Hrvatske. Nerad i neznanje stvaraju mit da "HrvateÂuvijek netko mrzi". Odatle i krivo uvjerenje, da "Francuzi rade za Srbe iÂda ne vole Hrvate", premda se zaboravlja da su pomagatelji i prijateljiÂAnte Paveliea bili nekolicina francuskih pravnika. A i sam FrancuskiÂkulturni institut radio je tijekom NDH.ÂÂRazvikano krlezijanstvo i Miroslav Krleza, potpuno su nepoznati uÂknjizevnim krugovima Zapada. Strancima, koji nezto znaju o Balkanu,ÂJugoslaven, Ivo Andrie puno je originalniji, jer Andrie opisuje sukobÂrazlieitih civilizacija na Balkanu. Tematski i stilski Krleza je imao naÂdesetine boljih suvremenika u Francuskoj i Njemaekoj. Sa svojim kvaziÂnihilistiekim monolozima i opisa gradske dekadencije, nikako Krleza nijeÂmogao oslikati pravu Hrvatsku, koja u njegovo doba ima 60 posto seljaekogÂstanovniztva. Ali ni do dan danas sluzbena Hrvatska nije si dali truda daÂpromovira Krlezu i da napravi nova izdanja njegovih knjiga u inozemstvu. IÂisto vrijeme brojni srpski pisci ukljueujuei i njihovi politieki lobijiÂveoma profesionalno i grazanski nastupaju u Francuskoj, u Americi i Hagu.ÂPonovno i vrlo uspjezno medijski i elektronski prodaju na ZapaduÂhagiografske jasenovaeke priee iz davnine. U sluzbenoj praksi HrvatskeÂnitko na to ne zna reagirati.ÂÂPuno su Hrvati mogli medijski iskoristiti svog bivzeg nacional-boljzevika iÂkasnijeg nacionalistu, pisca Antonu Ciligu, koj je nekoe bio obveznoÂzapadnjaeko ztivo u studiju komunistieke svijesti. I tu je hrvatskaÂpromidzba zakazala. Zabrinjavajuea je einjenica da Hrvati nemaju publicisteÂna Zapadu zirokih svjetskih okvira, kao zto je to slueaj sa Srbima. OsimÂpar strogo specijaliziranih struenjaka, Hrvatsku nema tko govornieki iÂpismeno predstavljati u bijelom svijetu. U Hrvatskoj se vuee staroÂkadrovsko partizansko pravilo da se krivi ljudi nalaze na pravim mjestima.ÂNakon 1945., veliki dio obrazovanih Zagrepeana po komunistiekim dekretimaÂodlazi na radno mjesto u gudure Dinarskih alpi ili nizine Vardara, doeimÂguturalno-glasnogovorni torbari i dozkolovani skojevci hrle u velegradove.ÂTa hajdueka praksa i dalje se nastavlja. Ako se hrvatskom kulturpolitiekomÂpromidzbom u inozemstvu i razvojnim programom bave osrednji struenjaci zaÂslijepo crijevo i propali samoupravni ekonomisti, onda ne treba euditi daÂcijela hrvatska politika u oeima stranaca djeluje hemeroidalno iÂanarhoidno.ÂÂTezko je strancima grafieki prevesti na njihove jezike sijaset prostota iÂpoztapalica koje i mladi i stari Hrvati rabe u javnom zivotu na sav glas.ÂNiti Srbi niti Hrvati ne trebaju korijenski i Vukov pravopis za dobroÂprostaeko mezusobno razumijevanje. Od morbidnih prostota iz podruejaÂnekrofilije, zoofilije ili obiteljske genealogije, obiean strani prolaznikÂmoze zakljueiti da u Hrvatskoj ima posla sa seksualnim manijacima. Ako seÂpak uzmu stalne administrativne promjene i stalna izvanredna stanja uÂHrvatskoj, onda se postavlja svrha opstojnosti samostalne drzave.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTOMISLAV SUNICÂÂAutor je publicist iz Zagreba.ÂÂÂDr Tom. SunicÂhttp://www.watermark.hu/doctorsunic/ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7496/1/E-CAAs-Congressional-hearings.html ÂÂMore info on those congressional hearings last week; CAA press release + Larry Hammond's testimony, which is required reading for anyone with the slightest interest in such issues. The CAA tack was well considered; picking at the rights/evidence problems and political biases. And I'm very pleased that the Hartmann thing was mentioned!ÂI sense things are moving forward. Look out for more from me on AnteGotovina.Com.ÂIf anyone has copies of the other testimonies given, I'd be grateful for copies.Â(esp P Wald)ÂÂBrianÂÂÂÂÂÂPress Release of The Croatian American AssociationÂÂBox 287, 2000 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W.ÂWashington, D.C. 20006Âtel: 202.429.5543ÂÂWashington, D.C.- a six-month effort by CAA to promote Congressional scrutiny of the political bias and disregard for the rights of the accused at The Hague proved successful on February 28. For the first time in eight year the history of the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia, the U.S. Congress held an oversight hearing that proved to be highly critical of the conduct of the Hague court. The case of Croat General Ante Gotovina was noted as one of the best examples of bad prosecution at The Hague. On Februrary 28, 2002 the House International Relations Committee held a hearing under the Chairmanship of Rep. Henry H. Hyde that heralded a change in U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia. The witnesses, including former ICTY judge Pat Wald and U.S. Ambassador for War Crimes Issues Pierre Prosper, were all critical of the political biases and mismanagement of the tribunal.ÂDuring his testimony, Larry Hammond, one of America's top criminal attorneys, was highly critical of the prosecution of Croats by the tribunal. He cited instances of prosecutorial misconduct in the Blaskic, Kordic, Furudzija and Gotovina cases. Hammond noted that one of the charges against Gotovina held him responsible for a "massive artillery assault" on the city of Knin. He noted that a few hours after the alleged incident, three busloads of international reporters including Roy Gutman, visited Knin and saw no evidence of that occurrence. Despite the news coverage to the contrary, the ICTY still filed the charge against Gotovina without investigating. He also noted that even though ICTY spokesperson Florence Hartman said that Milosevic had ordered the Serbs to leave the Krajina, her boss Carla del Ponte's principal charge against Gotovina is that he forced out the Serbian population.ÂÂTESTIMONY OF LARRY A. HAMMONDÂBEFORE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEEÂ(February 28, 2002)ÂI am grateful to the Committee for affording me this opportunity to appear and to provide my observations about the operation of the International Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR). I wish that I could open my remarks with a glowing endorsement of the workings of these Tribunals. Sadly, I cannot. Anyone who cares about assuring basic due process and fairness must be concerned about recent events involving the trial and appellate chambers of these Tribunals. For the reasons I will summarize briefly in this testimony, there is cause for concern that the rights of those charged with crimes have been subordinated to the larger political objective of gaining convictions and maintaining cooperative relations with Governments affected by the Tribunals. At a time when there is growing international concern about the establishment of criminal tribunals to address acts of terrorism and wrongdoing, there is heightened need to assure that these tribunals command respect of nations like the United States that are committed to fair trials and due process of law. There is reason for concern that to date these existing Tribunals have fallen short of fulfilling this goal.Before summarizing these concerns, I will briefly provide to the Committee my background as it might be relevant to the issues discussed here. In 1993, I was invited to serve on an American Bar Association Task Force engaged in an effort to recommend rules to govern the prosecutions that might be brought at the Hague. Several members of the Task Force expressed concerns about basic due process issues arising from the anticipated structure and the proposed rules that would govern the ICTY. While some changes were embraced by the ABA and the State Department in commenting on the proposed rules, most of these concerns were not. I believe that I was asked to join the Task Force because of my experience during the Carter Administration at the Justice department. From 1977 to 1980, I served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel under Attorneys General Griffin Bell and Benjamin Civiletti. During the last year of the Carter Administration I worked on matters in connection with the Iranian Hostage Task Force. The absence of any international criminal tribunal to prosecute the hostage-takers in Tehran was an always-present reality in dealing with that crisis-a reality that caused me (and many others at that time) to hope for the creation of an international criminal court.*ÂSince leaving Justice, I have remained a believer in the creation of an international criminal court. I am a criminal defense lawyer, but nothing in my professional experience has caused me to doubt the importance of such courts. It has always been evident to me, however, that central to any system of ordered criminal justice is the institution of aggressive, honorable and independent prosecutors and judges who truly regard themselves as independent and free to apply the law without political concern.. Much of what disturbs me about the operation of the ICTY and ICTR concerns the roles and responsibilities of judges and prosecutors. As a young lawyer I was honored to work for Archibald Cox and the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. That experience informs many of my opinions about the seminal importance of independent judges and prosecutors in assuring that doing justice is more important than gaining convictions.ÂIt is also of overarching importance that prosecutors and judges retain an independence from each other. This structural separation inheres in our Constitutional system and is often taken for granted. The same is not the case in many countries that employ the Civil Law tradition. I have had occasion to work with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights on a project that gave me exposure to the Turkish judicial system-a system very much within the Civil Law tradition. The close alliance of judge and prosecutor we observed in Turkey is reflective of the structures of both the ICTY and ICTR. That alliance accounts for much of what disturbs me about these Tribunals.ÂLet me begin with the role of the Tribunals themselves. While all of us like to think that courts are created to see that justice is done in specific cases, it was evident from the creation of the Hague Tribunal that it would be seen as having a different purpose. Recall that the ICTY was established under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter as an "enforcement measure" to restore peace in the former Yugoslavia. The Security Council had made a specific finding that violations of international humanitarian law had constituted a "threat to peace" in the region. From the beginning, then, the ICTY was established to carry out a specific political purpose: to restore peace. This purpose is evident. Note the official name of the Tribunal: "The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991." There may be nothing wrong with the purpose, but it is not one that should guide a court that exists to assure just trials. There is no hint of any presumption of innocence, or of the possibility that persons brought before the Tribunal might not be "responsible for serious violations" of law.ÂThis is not to say that the judges and prosecutors serving these Tribunals are indifferent to questions of due process, but in reality there exists an always present pressure to gain convictions. To a great extent these Tribunals are subjected to pressure to convict-a pressure that is fueled by the presumption evident in virtually every pronouncement of the present Chief Prosecutor. This prosecutorial and judicial attitude is predictable given the history and funding for these Tribunals.. Both the ICTY and the ICTR must annually seek funding from the United Nations General Assembly. As anyone familiar with the process of fundraising will know, increased funding is very much related to whether the project for which funding is sought will be successful. Again, it is difficult to imagine that the ICTY could successfully obtain a budget increase by convincing the General Assembly that it was successfully acquitting people brought before the Tribunal. Indeed, the opposite is true: the arguments made in recent years to the General Assembly often focus on the "success" of the Tribunal in apprehending and convicting those accused by the Prosecutor of war crimes. In addition, the two ad hoc tribunals bear the burden of being the precursors to the ICC. The success or failure of the ICTY and ICTR could have a great impact on the establishment of the ICC. Acquittals would not have the effect of creating momentum for the establishment of a permanent court.ÂApart from questions of funding, these Tribunals are subject to pressures from the countries and political factions they must count on for the development of evidence. Because the tribunals do not have a police force, an intelligence service, or an ability to gain immediate and unfettered access to the territory they are investigating, the ICTY and ICTR are very much dependent upon the cooperation of governments and international institutions. For example, the tribunals have no ability to make arrests, gather intelligence data, or secure a crime site for investigation. Without the cooperation of NATO and countries from the region, the ICTY and ICTR would be unable to fulfill their mandates.ÂThese pressures understandably cause the Tribunals to want to protect witnesses secured through the cooperation of affected governments-often at the expense of the right of the accused to confront his accuser. This was a problem foreseen by members of the ABA Task Force. Rules that allow witnesses to testify anonymously, and procedures that permit the prosecution to withhold information that might allow the accused's attorneys to investigate the credibility of key witnesses, were implanted in the structure of the courts from the outset, and the results have been as one might expect-disturbing. For example, in the Tadic case, the first case before either tribunal, the ICTY Trial Chamber allowed the prosecution to call witnesses whose true identities were withheld not only from the public, but from the defendant and his attorneys. Only later was it discovered that two anonymous witnesses against Mr. Tadic had lied about their identities to the Trial Chamber and in fact had been coached by the secret services of the Bosnian government.ÂIn the Kordic trial, public criticism of the slow pace of most trials at the ICTY led the Trial Chamber to allow the prosecution to script its questions with its witnesses on direct examination. Furthermore, the prosecution was allowed to lead its witnesses by asking a series of "yes or no" questions. In the case of Prosecutor v. Furundzija, most of the testimony in the case (including that of accusing witness) was held in closed session and outside of public scrutiny. To this day, none of the testimony that is relevant to Mr. Furundzija's guilt or innocence is available to the public.ÂPerhaps the clearest example of political pressure influencing the ad hoc tribunals is the Barayagwiza case before the ICTR. In that case, the defendant had been held for three years without charge. Finally, defense counsel filed a motion seeking the release of the accused on the basis that his right to a speedy trial without delay had been violated. The Appeals Chamber of the ICTR (which is the same Appeals Chamber for both ad hoc tribunals), after hearing the arguments, granted the defense motion and ordered that the accused be released. In so doing, the Appeals Chamber held that "nothing short of the credibility of the tribunal is at stake, and to allow these proceedings to continue would amount to a travesty of justice." Because the Appeals Chamber is the highest authority at either Tribunal, this decision was final and no further appeal could be taken.ÂImmediately, however, politics intruded into the work of the Appeals Chamber. The government of Rwanda, which sought Barayagwiza's conviction, immediately protested and declared that it would no longer cooperate with the ICTR. Indeed, Rwanda denied visas to all members of the Office of the Prosecutor, which made it impossible for the Prosecutor to conduct investigations in Rwanda or to prepare for trial. In short, without Rwanda's cooperation, the work of the ICTR would come to a halt.ÂThe Prosecutor, despite the fact that the decisions of the Appeals Chamber are final, brought a motion on the basis that she had "new evidence" which would cause the Appeals Chamber to reconsider. In reality, this was nothing more than an excuse so that the Appeals Chamber, in light of the political firestorm that had resulted, could reverse itself. Ms. Del Ponte made no secret that this was her real motive, and she made this clear in her argument to the Appeals Chamber. The Washington Post reported her comments as follows:Â"Whether we like it or not, we must come to terms with the reality that our ability to continue our investigations depends on Rwanda," she told the five-judge panel. Without the help of the country where the genocide occurred and so many witnesses reside, "we might as well open the doors to the prison."Â"It is my hope," she said in closing, "that Barayagwiza will not be the one to decide the fate of this tribunal …."ÂNo secret was made of the fact that political considerations, and not necessarily the law and due process, required that the Appeals Chamber reverse itself.ÂSurprisingly, this view was not only espoused by the Prosecutor, but by the Chief Judge of the ICTR herself. In an article that appeared in The Washington Post on March 10, 2000, Judge Navanathem Pillay made perfectly clear the point that I too wish to make: due process rights of the accused are often viewed as secondary to the political considerations surrounding the Tribunals. Judge Pillay admits that "public opinion" influences the work of the ICTR, and that due process rights do not necessarily fit into the political purpose of the ICTR (and presumably the ICTY). After hearing the arguments, the Appeals Chamber reversed itself and ordered that Mr. Barayagwiza continue to be held in custody for trial before the ICTR. It seems that the political considerations discussed by Carla Del Ponte and Judge Pillay did take priority over the due process rights of the accused.ÂLet me pause here to make clear the essence of my concern. I would not advocate that persons accused of serious crimes be released on what the world community might see as technicalities. My concern goes to the fundamental roles and responsibilities of judges and prosecutors. Unless principles of evenhanded justice are seen to animate the decisions of these Tribunals, they will be stripped of the moral authority necessary to successfully prosecute and convict the guilty.ÂSome might wish to claim that the Barayagwiza case is not reflective of the true nature of these Tribunals. A signal test of whether these international Tribunals will place due process above the goal of getting and upholding convictions is unfolding this year before the ICTY in the appeal of a Bosnian Croat General named Tihomir Blaskic. This appeal deserves close attention. General Blaskic was tried in an extraordinarily lengthy trial of a series of war crimes. The case against him rested on the belief that he enjoyed command responsibility over forces in the field that committed atrocities against civilians and non-combatants. The most celebrated of the charges involved the deaths of approximately 100 Bosnian Muslim civilians in the village of Ahmici during a raid in April, 1993. He was convicted based on assertions that he controlled these events. He received a 45-year sentence. The defense sought to prove that in fact the military General had no command authority over those who committed these unlawful acts. At trial he was unsuccessful. His case is now on appeal.ÂStunningly, however, the Prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence in the Blaskic case and is using the same evidence to proceed with the prosecution of another man named Dario Kordic. Mr. Kordic was prosecuted for his role in the same massacre under a theory that Bosnian operatives under his control-and reporting directly to the highest levels of the Government of then President Franjo Tudjman-carried out the crimes. Evidence developed by the prosecution in the Kordic case was not provided to the defense in the Blaskic case. That evidence revealed decisionmaking chains of command that bypassed Blaskic and may well have been unknown to him. It is difficult not to conclude that Prosecutors deliberately concealed evidence in order to win a conviction over Mr. Blaskic.ÂWhatever mystery may have surrounded this seemingly inconsistent set of prosecutions was exposed to public scrutiny in the Spring of 2000 when Franjo Tudjman died and previously secret and now famous archives were found in the basement of the Croatian intelligence services. This is not the time to go into the emerging details of these files, except to say that they cast serious doubt on the theory of the ICTY's prosecution of General Blaskic. What is most disturbing from a due process standpoint is the question why every shred of information and evidence in the hands of the prosecutors that might relate to this issue was not freely disclosed before, during or after the trial of General Blaskic. While the archives may have been unknown before early 2000, it now appears that much was known by the prosecutors and was regarded as reliable-indeed, reliable enough to be used as evidence in the Kordic case. The Blaskic appeal deserves close attention by those who wish to assess whether our international Tribunals are capable of dispensing justice.ÂAnother case recently indicted by the ICTY-this one involving alleged war crimes said to have occurred at the end of the war in Croatia-also deserves close attention. The ICTY Prosecutor has indicted General Ante Gotovina in connection with crimes alleged to have been committed by Croatian military forces against Serbian civilian populations in the Krajina region. In the last days before the ceasefire that led to the Dayton Conference, the Croatian Military engaged in an offensive known as Operation Storm. As with the case of General Blaskic, serious questions remain with respect to whether the acts alleged were in fact undertaken with General Gotovina's knowledge and authorization, but of even greater interest are questions with respect to whether the events in question were part of a military operation undertaken with the cooperation and knowledge of the United States.ÂOne need only read two documents to see the uncomfortable questions: (1) the indictment of General Gotovina, and (2) the memoir of Richard Holbrooke, entitled To End A War. If it is true that the General is a war criminal, it may well also be true that our Government is complicitous. Even if not complicitous, it is absolutely clear that our Government and our military and intelligence personnel in the Krajina region in August of 1995 have information relevant to the case-and possibly critically important to the General's defense. Journalist Roy Gutman's Newsweek article from August 27 of last year lays bare much of this apparently delicate problem. The disturbing article, entitled What Did the CIA Know, catalogues the close engagement of U.S. military and political resources in the Croatian offensive (copy attached.) The question this information raises is much like the question that should have surfaced in the Blaskic trial. How far is the prosecution and the ICTY willing to go to see to it that the accused has access to information so that he may defend himself? I cannot begin to predict whether the United States Government would turn over intelligence information if it were demanded-as it should be-but if information and witnesses from the United States military and diplomatic establishment are not made available there should be no prosecution. The pressures discussed above make one wonder whether the ICTY will have the courage to say that the rights of the accused should dominate over the political goal of obtaining convictions.ÂThe name of the Chairman of this International Relations Committee is associated with one of the most important recent enactments designed to govern the conduct of prosecutors in the American federal prosecutorial system. The Hyde Amendment, enacted in 1997, is designed to assure that federal prosecutions are "substantially justified"-that is, that individuals are not indicted and pushed through our judicial system unless a careful evaluation has first been undertaken by an independent prosecutor. This Amendment, which authorizes an award of attorneys fees to the accused in cases of meritless prosecution, is supported by strongly worded remarks from Congressman Hyde. He asked questions that might with equal justification be asked of those who would prosecute war crimes before the ICTY and the ICTR. Is there a potential that prosecutors will "keep information from you that the law says you must disclose?" Will prosecutors be tempted to "hide . . . exculpatory information to which you are entitled?" Is it possible that a prosecutor may "wrench somebody out of their job and their home and put them on trial as a criminal" in a case that lacks substantial justification?ÂAgain, the Gotovina indictment affords what may be suitable and distressing examples of the need to ask similar questions about ICTY prosecutorial decisions. Paragraph 20 of the Gotovina indictment charges that the General is responsible for a "large-scale deportation" - a "forced displacement" - of an "estimated 150,000-200,000 Krajina Serbs." Amazingly, that very charge is contradicted by the Prosecutors' own spokeswoman, Florence Hartman. Ms. Hartman published a book in 1999 in which she wrote that Milosevic, not Croatia, ethnically cleansed the area in question:Â"It was Belgrade that evacuated the Serbs from Krajina and led them to Banja Luka and northern Bosnia. This was done so that Belgrade could later justify holding on to these Bosnian territories during future peace negotiations over Bosnia and Herzegovina."ÂOne might argue that a prosecutor is not bound by the public statements of her official spokesperson, but my concern is that such blatant inconsistencies evidence a lack of prosecutorial care and attention to accuracy.ÂThe Gotovina indictment affords a second example. The last paragraph of the indictment (Paragraph 44) alleges that "Croatian forces [said to be under the command of General Gotovina] directed a massive artillery assault on Knin" (the city described by the Serbs as their "capital"). Where did this accusation come from? At least three American journalists who were in the region on the day of the supposed "massive artillery assault" saw no evidence of one. It is a reasonably safe assumption that had there been such an assault the destructive effects would have been evident. It may be even safer to conclude that no investigator or prosecutor from the Hague visited Knin to assess artillery damage. A federal prosecutor in the United States, mindful of the Hyde Amendment, would surely not bring charges of this portent without careful evaluation. A prosecutor acting on behalf of an international tribunal can operate on no lower standard of justification.ÂThe recent history of the cases like the Gotovina, Blaskic and Barayagwiza cases suggests that, indeed, proceedings that disserve due process can happen at the Hague and in Rwanda. Unless a fair trial-one in which the accused is given full access to all information in the hands of the prosecution or within his grasp-is assured, there will be little cause to support this Tribunal and even less cause to place confidence in the International Criminal Court yet to come into existence. The world and the United States need these courts. They perform critical roles, but they cannot be embraced and respected unless they exist as a first priority to secure justice, rather than to secure convictions.ÂI have read and considered the recent appellate decisions authored by former Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Pat Wald in her capacity as a member of the ICTY. These opinions, especially the case handed down in October of 2001 known as Prosecutor v. Kupreskic, et al, deserve careful attention. Judge Wald is plainly a judge who appreciates the seminal importance of due process and full disclosure. Readers of her opinions will be struck by her respect for fairness when, for example, her opinion urges "extreme caution when assessing witness' identification of the accused made under difficult circumstances." At a time in the United States when the cause of wrongful conviction seems often to surround faulty eye-witness identification, it is comforting to see that at least one appellate Tribunal at the Hague appreciates the dangers of witness testimony that has not been subjected to full examination.ÂThese rulings are cause both for optimism and concern. Optimism, because they reflect a maturing Court coming to recognize that there may be something more important than convictions. Concern, because Judge Wald has concluded her two-year term and will no longer be there to check the prosecutors and the judges less inclined to withstand public criticism.ÂJudge Wald's remarkable appellate handiwork also calls to mind one of the fundamental deficiencies in the structure of these Tribunals. The absence of a separate and independent appellate court remains a serious shortcoming. It is unrealistic to believe that many judges who must interact and cooperate with their trial and appellate judicial colleagues on a daily basis would have the courage displayed by Judge Wald to reject and reverse their colleagues in the Trial Chamber. Several members of the ABA Task Force urged that this obvious flaw be remedied. I am sorry that the argument did not prevail. We would have had a better court, one in which the accused could have greater confidence that errors at trial would genuinely receive evenhanded appellate review.ÂPlainly, the two Tribunals now in existence are at a crossroads. Their performances to date can be most fairly characterized as mixed. How they perform in the near term will inform our judgments about whether the International Criminal Court concept is one achievable in conformance with American principles of fairness. A first step would be the establishment of a principle of full disclosure and full cooperation in gathering relevant evidence. Whether that evidence is already in the hands of the Tribunal-as some of it apparently was in the Blastic case-or in the hands of cooperating Governments-as it apparently is in the Gotovina case-the watchword of these Tribunals should be that every effort will be expended to make sure that all facts are known to the accused. Due process and a fair trial requires nothing less.ÂConcluding ObservationÂMuch of what the world hears about these tribunals is wrapped up in the highly visible, and sure to be long-running, trial of Slobodan Milosevic. The daily reports of the savagely disrespectful and inappropriate behavior of Mr. Milosevic deserve sharp rebuke from the world community. But if the ICTY is to merit the respect denied it by this defendant, it must establish by example that it is above politics and exists truly to see only that justice is done. Experience over the early years of these Tribunals, in my judgment, leaves open the question whether international courts, and those who serve them as judges and prosecutors, have the will to take the steps and make the sometimes unpopular choices required when justice and due process, rather than convictions, are the overarching goals.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 05 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7495/1/E-neglected-victim-of-WW-II-by-Gunter-Grass.html ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBy Peter FinnÂÂÂWashington Post Foreign ServiceÂÂÂMonday, February 11, 2002; Page A18ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂVIENNA -- From Vienna to Berlin, the embers of history have unexpectedlyÂÂÂflared in politics, literature and journalism to reveal an allegedlyÂÂÂneglected victim of World War II and its aftermath.ÂÂÂÂÂThe German.ÂÂÂÂÂAfter decades of fitful introspection about the crimes of Hitler's ReichÂÂÂand the burdens of atonement, the German-speaking world has recently becomeÂÂÂseized with the fate of 13 million Germans who were expelled from EasternÂÂÂEurope in 1945 and 1946. Tens of thousands died as they fled to Germany andÂÂÂAustria, rousted from their ancestral homes by the redrawing of Poland'sÂÂÂborders and their status as defeated pariahs in what was thenÂÂÂCzechoslovakia.ÂÂÂÂÂAn unusual constellation in the culture that combines the leftist, NobelÂÂÂPrize-winning German novelist Gunter Grass with the Austrian hard-rightÂÂÂpolitician Jorg Haider has resurrected German suffering as a worthy ifÂÂÂstill controversial topic.ÂÂÂÂÂGrass, in his latest novel, "Crab Walk," has fictionalized the horrificÂÂÂdeath of 8,000 Germans fleeing Poland by ship in 1945. Haider hasÂÂÂcapitalized on recent Czech comments that ethnic Germans expelled from theÂÂÂSudeten borderlands with Germany and Austria after the war were traitorsÂÂÂdeserving of their rough fate.ÂÂÂÂÂSuddenly, the long-ago dislocated Germans are a popular sorrow. TheÂÂÂinfluential Austrian tabloid, Neue Kronen-Zeitung, ran an emotional seriesÂÂÂlast week under the headline "Death to the Germans," recounting inÂÂÂexcruciating detail the deprivations suffered at the hands of Czechs. AndÂÂÂthe premier German magazine, Der Spiegel, in a cover story on Grass'sÂÂÂnovel, said the last taboo was being broken as Germans moved beyond theirÂÂÂown atrocities to confront the cruelty of their neighbors.ÂÂÂÂÂ"Since the crimes committed by us Germans were and are so overwhelming,ÂÂÂthere was obviously no strength left to also talk about the history of ourÂÂÂown suffering," Grass said in the weekly German newspaper Die Woche.ÂÂÂÂÂThe debate over whether this compulsory flight was righteous revenge forÂÂÂHitler's willing minions or a crime upon a crime has long been consigned inÂÂÂGermany and Austria to the margins of political and academic consideration.ÂÂÂÂÂThe cause of the expellees, as they are known in Germany and Austria, foundÂÂÂlittle or no outlet in societies busy ignoring or apologizing for the sinsÂÂÂof their fathers. To raise it too loudly smacked of apologizing forÂÂÂfascism.ÂÂÂÂÂFrank Bajohr, a historian at the Institute for Contemporary History inÂÂÂHamburg, noted that the last broad political discussion of the expelleesÂÂÂoccurred in the 1950s and was marked by a self-pity that allowed Germans toÂÂÂavoid confronting their own crimes.ÂÂÂÂÂThe discussion died as the horrors of the Holocaust came into focus forÂÂÂGermans in the late 1960s. The German politician Antje Vollmer saidÂÂÂAuschwitz left no room for the subject of German tribulations.ÂÂÂÂÂBut Austria and Germany are no longer so silent.ÂÂÂÂÂ"With this book, Gunter Grass keeps the tragedy of millions of people whoÂÂÂsuffered greatly in the expulsion from the east or who lost their livesÂÂÂfrom being forgotten," former German foreign minister Hans-DietrichÂÂÂGenscher wrote in a recent newspaper column. "Gunter Grass is writing notÂÂÂto settle scores, but to counter forgetting about the horrors and theÂÂÂdistress always associated with the war."ÂÂÂÂÂOn a continent where accelerating integration through the European Union isÂÂÂsupposed to bury the bloody past, not everyone is comfortable with thisÂÂÂsubject -- not least those countries that kicked the Germans out, often atÂÂÂgunpoint.ÂÂÂÂÂPoles remain leery that Germans will reclaim what they lost by using theirÂÂÂwealth to buy up areas that were formerly part of Germany. For that reason,ÂÂÂin negotiations to enter the European Union, the Poles have fought for aÂÂÂlong transition period in which foreigners -- meaning Germans -- would beÂÂÂbarred from buying agricultural land.ÂÂÂÂÂAlso, the issue of restitution remains a real fear for eastern countries,ÂÂÂwhich firmly oppose it. An Austrian group of expellees is threatening toÂÂÂlaunch a class-action suit in U.S. courts to reclaim property, followingÂÂÂthe path of Jewish groups that sought recompense for the Holocaust.ÂÂÂÂÂBut it was Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman who galvanized politicalÂÂÂinterest in the expellees. He said in an interview with an AustrianÂÂÂmagazine this month that ethnic Germans were Hitler's fifth columnists,ÂÂÂbent on the destruction of Czechoslovakia. Their forced removal, he said,ÂÂÂwas a founding moment in the denazification of the country and theÂÂÂestablishment of Czechoslovak sovereignty.ÂÂÂÂÂ"Many Sudeten Germans committed treason, a crime which was punishable byÂÂÂdeath according to the laws of the time," Zeman said. "If they wereÂÂÂexpelled or transferred, it was more moderate than the death penalty."ÂÂÂÂÂThat set off a firestorm in Austria and Germany, where it was interpretedÂÂÂas assigning collective guilt to the 3 million people expelled fromÂÂÂCzechoslovakia, many of whom were children.ÂÂÂÂÂHaider, the power behind Austria's far-right Freedom Movement, jumped onÂÂÂthe comments, saying the Czech Republic should not be allowed to join theÂÂÂEuropean Union until it repeals the Benes decrees, approved by the AlliesÂÂÂat the Potsdam conference in 1945, that allowed the expulsion of GermansÂÂÂand the seizure of their property. Expellee groups have long linked EUÂÂÂmembership for eastern countries to redress for the past, but they haveÂÂÂfailed to move either the German or Austrian government.ÂÂÂÂÂBut this time the controversy quickly spilled beyond the far right. TheÂÂÂleader of the German opposition, Edmund Stoiber, said the Benes decreesÂÂÂwere an "injury to Europe [that] must be finally healed when the EuropeanÂÂÂUnion is enlarged eastwards." German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whoÂÂÂpronounced the Sudeten question closed after the signing of a German-CzechÂÂÂreconciliation treaty in 1998, threatened to cancel a March visit toÂÂÂPrague. The German Parliament moved to debate the subject. AustrianÂÂÂPresident Thomas Klestil called the Czech president, Vaclav Havel, toÂÂÂcomplain.ÂÂÂÂÂAnd the expellees and their descendants suddenly found themselves with anÂÂÂavalanche of welcome publicity.ÂÂÂÂÂ"It is almost as if people are rediscovering that something was veryÂÂÂwrong," said Hildegund Pobel, a Berlin resident who was 14 when she and herÂÂÂfamily were stripped of their valuables and expelled from Czechoslovakia inÂÂÂJune 1945. "It was a taboo. And in the West, hardly anyone dealt with theÂÂÂexpulsion for the last 30 years. It was something people distanced themsÂÂÂelves from -- it was uncomfortable."ÂÂÂÂÂGermans with no connection to the Sudeten Germans are also now speakingÂÂÂwith none of the old self-censorship.ÂÂÂÂÂ"I think the issue of suffering is too one-sided," said Jenny Buehnig, 33,ÂÂÂwho works in a Berlin video store. "For years we have only been hearingÂÂÂabout the pain and suffering of one group. But there were other groups,ÂÂÂtoo, and what happened to them was not right, either. There were GermanÂÂÂexpellees, and they shouldn't be forgotten. But as soon as you say that,ÂÂÂyou are considered a neo-Nazi."ÂÂÂÂÂSuch sentiments worry some observers. "The expulsion was unjust, but it isÂÂÂminor compared to what the Nazis did and cannot be understood in isolationÂÂÂbut in the larger context of the time," said Gerhard Botz, a professor ofÂÂÂhistory at the University of Vienna.ÂÂÂÂÂAnd Josef Harna, a historian at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague,ÂÂÂsaid the Sudeten Germans were the authors of their own misery because ofÂÂÂtheir overwhelming support for the Nazis. The Benes decrees, he said, wereÂÂÂan expression of Czechoslovak liberty. And he rejects the idea that theyÂÂÂwere a criminal ethnic cleansing, noting that anti-fascist Germans wereÂÂÂallowed to stay in their homes.ÂÂÂÂÂIt is the historians' hope that Germany's long self-examination, whichÂÂÂbegan in earnest after the student revolts of 1968, may now be matureÂÂÂenough to allow a studied consideration of the whole period, including theÂÂÂtrauma of German refugees.ÂÂÂÂÂMore than anyone else, it is Grass, the brilliant curmudgeon of GermanÂÂÂletters, who might allow this to happen. A native of Danzig, which is nowÂÂÂGdansk in Poland, Grass has used his fiction since the publication of "TheÂÂÂTin Drum" in 1959 to lecture his countrymen on their burdens and failings.ÂÂÂHe was unsparing in lacerating Germans and just as often resented for it,ÂÂÂwhich makes his newest sympathy all the more surprising.ÂÂÂÂÂHis new novel, published last week, centers on the sinking of a GermanÂÂÂliner, the Wilhelm Gustloff, which was torpedoed by a Soviet submarineÂÂÂwhile fleeing Danzig in January 1945. More than 8,000 people perished inÂÂÂwhat is being called the German Titanic. Beyond neo-Nazi memorializations,ÂÂÂthe story was little known in Germany until Grass picked it up.ÂÂÂÂÂGrass said he wants to reclaim that history from the fascists. The book hasÂÂÂreceived sterling reviews for its prose as much as for its politicalÂÂÂramifications. The distinguished literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, aÂÂÂJewish survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, said on German television that heÂÂÂnearly wept as he read "Crab Walk" and pronounced it among the "best, mostÂÂÂdistressing works that Grass has written."ÂÂÂÂÂThe response was just as emotional in the popular press. Writing in theÂÂÂGerman tabloid, Bild, the columnist Franz Josef Wagner, an expellee,ÂÂÂaddressed Grass and said, "My mother fled from village to village with me.ÂÂÂFor that reason I did not drown in the cold water. I survived camps, hungerÂÂÂand lice. You write about the German victims of Hitler. So many relativesÂÂÂof mine died trying to flee. Uncles, aunts, cousins, we expellees are nowÂÂÂallowed to cry together. I thank you for this feeling."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ2002 The Washington Post CompanyÂÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 05 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7493/1/E-STATUS-OF-CROATIAN-WOMEN-in-2002.html ÂTwo Croatian women conducted this interview. From Zagreb, Nevenka Sudar is a Professor of English and literature, editor-in-chief of the only women's e-zine in Croatia, called CROW and a woman's human rights activist.ÂKatarina Tepesh left Croatia in 1968 at age of 17 and lives in New York City.ÂÂWomen in the United States organized the first national Women's Day in response to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that killed 146 women who were trapped in a locked workroom. Their actions helped inspire International Women's Day on March 8th. American women initiated a recognition week for Women's History, which was expanded in 1987 by Congressional action to the entire month of March.ÂÂKatarina: Janica Kostelic superb skiing at the Olympics by winning 4 medals fulfilled hers and our dream. Janica was holding fast to her dreams for more then 12 years.ÂNevenka: Janica's achievements are her own. We can brag about her being from Croatia, but the fact remains that her achievement was the result of hers, and nobody else's efforts, time, self-sacrifice, pain, perseverance, etc.ÂK - How will you celebrate March 8th in Croatia?ÂN - This year Croatian women's groups are organizing a big event which will take place in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. In one of Zagreb's most popular theaters "ZKM" (short for Zagreb's Youth Theater) in town's center, the first V-day celebration in Croatia will be organized by B.a.B.e., Be active. Be emancipated, www.crowmagazine.com/arhiva.htm a woman's human rights group and Autonomous Women's House Zagreb, the oldest shelter for women and children victims of violence. The event will include a performance of "Vagina monologues" by Eve Ensler as well as readings of facts about women by various famous Croatian women from all walks of life. They will speak out about violence against women, economic & political discrimination of women, sexism in the media, trafficking, women from minorities, education etc. All the tickets have already been sold out. Many have been invited to this event, leading Croatian politicians, ministers, ambassadors. The ticket's lowest price was around 4 USD, while the highest amount was unlimited. The amount which will be gathered at this event will be given to the Women's Shelter.ÂOther events taking place on March 8th will include various round tables across the country, appearances in all the media on the subject of March 8th as International Women's Day, a lot of promotional and informational material distributed (a lot of people in Croatia still think of March 8th as "communist holiday" rather than an international women's day). Very few people know about the history of this day and women's groups will try to inform them. For a long time March 8th was considered a day when children were obliged to make a card for their mothers, and men were obliged to buy women flowers and get drunk with their buddies. We feel that March 8th, International Women's Day, must be demystified and used for raising awareness about status of women in Croatia and generally.ÂÂK - In US, American women have a joke that in our wallet we hold two most important cards: One is our voter registration and the other is a membership card to a progressive organization that will improve our lives.ÂÂN - Nobody ever disclosed how many women voted at any elections in Croatia. Unfortunately, there are no gender sensitive statistics in Croatia.ÂK - Women in US are breaking barriers in the military, athletics, the arts and every type of workspace.ÂN - Yes, there are women in military in Croatia. But, there is a twist to their inclusion into the military. During the war their presence was welcomed and they fought together with men. Today, you can read about this or that woman who joined this or that army division, but the articles are mainly written to show that what those women need the most is to remain feminine even in their uniforms or in the training grounds. For example, the articles about women in military would emphasize more on their looks and make-up than on their skills or achievements.ÂAt the moment Croatia is in the middle of one of the biggest scandals concerning women in military. In short, several women from one of the army divisions sent an anonymous letter to the Minister of Defense and to B.a.B.e. asking for help because they wrote, they had been constantly sexually harassed by their superiors. Their lives became unbearable because the superior officer to whom they made complaints about two other superior officers, laughed at them. They couldn't stand assaults by drunken men anymore. However, the military officials sent a commission not to find out what happened but to intimidate women further. The media wrote a lot on this issue and the women's groups demanded a fair investigation which would include psychologists, women and proper procedure. Army officials who claimed after half an hour of investigation that nobody was harassed and that it was all a lie, had to form another commission and include women and psychologists into the procedure. It is still going on. However it seems that women are too frightened and that their lives are unbearable (on top of that they are afraid they will lose their jobs since there is more than 10.000 surplus people in the military) and that they want to withdraw thinking that it would be better to suffer in silence. Today I read in the paper that one man from the city where the army barracks are situated said: «What would a decent woman do in the army anyway?»ÂThis case shows one of the biggest problems of Croatian women (not just in military but at work anywhere) and that is sexual harassment. Croatia does not have a law which would recognize sexual harassment as unacceptable and punishable behavior. It is still a laughing matter for most people and remarks are: what do they complain about if they haven't been raped?ÂK - In US we have very fragile margin for women's rights on the Supreme Court. Only two women! Our reproductive choice is on the line. When vacancy occurs on the high court and our President George Bush nominates one of the arch-conservative judges from his "short list", American women will be busy trying to persuade our Senators to turn down any high court nominee who does not support women's constitutional right to reproductive choiceÂÂN - At the moment there are around 22% of women in Croatian Parliament. In the previous parliament (1991-1999) there was only 7% of women in Parliament. One woman is a vice-president of the government, two women are ministers (minister of Justice and minister of tourism), only one woman is a party president (HNS - Vesna Pusic - Croatian People's Party). Women's groups who formed a Women's Ad Hoc Coalition for monitoring and influencing elections in 1995, 1997 and 1999, demanded introduction of women's quotas in Election law and party statutes, but unsuccessfully. There are a lot of women within parties but they are not high ranked in party hierarchy and seldom promoted on candidate lists on places most likely to win elections.ÂAs long as women politicians are in opposition to the ruling party, they are more inclined to represent women's point of view and fight for equality or advancement of the status of women in Croatia. But it has been proven over and over again that once they do get elected, they "forget" that they are women and play "boys'" game just to hold on to the ruling position. Since women's groups are doing their best to help women politicians to come to the places of power and become a part of decision making bodies, they are the best witnesses of how women politicians turn their backs to everything they spoke in favor of before they came to power. Their priority list changes, the issues of their concern as well as their vocabulary. Suddenly, everything else becomes more important than women's rights. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but it seems that general attitude of women politicians, once they gain power in Croatia, is that women's rights are really "less important" to everything else.ÂOn the other hand, even when they become politicians and/or fight hard to enter the Parliament or the government, women are still not safe from insults based on their sex. General attitude of politicians, media and the majority of public opinion is that these gender based insults are only cute, harmless and charming jokes.ÂÂIn general, the parliamentarians have no sense of political or personal responsibility when it comes to gender equality, respect and civilized behavior towards women despite all official proclamations and ratified international declarations.ÂÂHere are few examples from Croatian political scene. Vice Vukojevic, a parliamentary representative of previously ruling party (Croatian Democratic Union) and the current judge of Croatian Constitutional Court, made remarks during the parliamentary speech of one of woman politicians of the opposition: «Talk less, bear more children!» and «My pussycat!» None of any party members reacted to these remarks or denounced them as socially unacceptable. A parliamentarian from the opposition, Ivan Jakovcic made a remark that the Minister for European Integrations was certainly listened to (only) because she was a «charming woman», while the Minister of Justice talked about women as «weaker sex». Sexist escapades in Croatian Parliament are not rare. One of the most recent incidents happened at the end of last year, when one of the parliamentarians, Anto Kovacevic, directly attacked a woman colleague Vesna Pusic during Parliamentary session. Wanting to interrupt her speech he disagreed with, he said: «You were made for bed, not for the head!» The woman in question left the session in protest while the politician who insulted her (and who is a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights!) was not asked to leave by the presiding chairperson!ÂÂThe media approach supports sexism portraying women politicians in a manner which discredits their political importance and influence. Thus, we can often read interviews in which women politicians reveal their kitchen secrets and cooking skills, their wardrobe secrets and preferences in underwear, or appear on pictures where they are caught in embarrassing positions.ÂÂThe public opinion will not easily change as long as women themselves participate in patriarchal marginalization of women's politicians. A few weeks ago in one of the most popular talk shows hosted by a woman, the same parliamentarian Anto Kovacevic was invited as a guest and repeated his insults calling the same woman politician a «rattle snake» and bringing with him a mattress to illustrate his «charming» remark that she (and women in general) are (primarily) «made for bed and not for the head». This talk show has entertaining character and his insults were minimized by the show's atmosphere, the host (a woman!) giggled to his insults and the public in the studio cheered.ÂÂAgain, only women's groups reacted fiercely and issued a press statement sent to the Committee of Croatian Television to do something about such sexist, antidemocratic, and intolerant treatment of women in the media. They accepted the statement and confirmed them officially in regard to this show, but the fact is that the show still goes on and in essence nothing changed beyond verbal reproach.ÂÂK - Forbes magazine just published their annual lists of billionaires. On the list of 15 riches billionaires, 4 are actually women. Number 8 and the riches woman in the world is Alice Walton, 56 years old with $20.5 billions from Walmart stores; Number 10 is Helen Walton, 82 years old with an $20.4 billions from Walmart; Number 12 is Johanna Quandt, 74 years old from Germany with $18.4 billion from BMW; Number 13 is Lilliane Bettencourt, 79 years old from France with $14.9 billion from L'Oreal cosmetics;ÂÂN - Good thing or a step forward for brighter future of Croatian nonprofit groups is a new Law on NGOs which came into force beginning of this year. For the first time, profitable organizations will have tax reductions if they sponsor or donate money to non-profitable organizations. We hope many profitable organizations will now be motivated to give some money to the nonprofit organizations of their choice or liking. It is hard to say to which and we foresee that charitable or humanitarian organizations will get more money, as well as sports and cultural/artistic ones.Âwww.crowmagazine.com/arhiva.htmÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 05 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7497/1/E-Karadzic-saved-by-French-leak.html ÂÂBBC NewsÂhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1853000/1853334.stmÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂKaradzic slipped away with French help, reports claimÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAn investigation has been launched into claims that a French army officerÂÂÂÂÂÂÂdeliberately wrecked last week's Nato attempt to capture Bosnian SerbÂÂÂÂÂÂÂwartime leader Radovan Karadzic. This is a pretty large allegation - right now we are investigating the reportsÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂS-For spokeswoman Angela Johnson.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe unnamed army captain is said to have telephoned a Bosnian SerbÂÂÂÂÂÂÂpoliceman to tip him off that a Nato operation was about to begin in theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtown of Foca, say reports in UK and German newspapers.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"A French officer revealed the (imminent) operation," a US diplomat, ShaunÂÂÂÂÂÂÂByrnes, is quoted as saying by a German newspaper.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHowever, a US embassy spokesman in Belgrade said Mr Byrnes had not talkedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂabout the affair to anyone.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFrance heads Nato's multi-national force in south-eastern Bosnia, whereÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFoca is located.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂA spokeswoman for Nato's force in Bosnia, S-For, confirmed that a "veryÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthorough" investigation was being conducted into the claims.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTranscriptsÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"This is a pretty large allegation," spokeswoman Captain Angela JohnsonÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtold BBC News Online.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Right now we are investigating the reports. We have no information at theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂmoment that suggests it is true. However, appropriate action would beÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtaken if it was found to be true."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe French have been seen as allies of the Serbs since World War I. LastÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDecember a French army major was jailed for spying for Belgrade ahead ofÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthe Kosovo conflict.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Hamburg newspaper Abendblatt, which reported Mr Byrnes's allegedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂstatement, also published what it said were transcripts of the FrenchÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcaptain's conversation with the Bosnian Serb policeman.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSimilar reports also appear in the UK's Times and Daily Mail newspapers.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAccording to the Times, the conversation was monitored by BritishÂÂÂÂÂÂÂintelligence.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBorder 'sealed'ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe UK Ministry of Defence refused to comment on the reports.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Nato operation around Foca continued throughout Thursday and Friday,ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂand the border with Montenegro was reportedly sealed over the weekend.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂYou should pay attention to FocaÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFrench officer's alleged tip-offÂÂÂÂÂÂÂMr Karadzic is one of the international war crimes tribunal's most wantedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂsuspects.But S-For said the big manhunt was not continuing on Monday, and "normal"ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂoperations had been resumed.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAccording to the Times newspaper's account of the alleged conversation,ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthe French officer rings a Bosnian policeman who is clearly known to him.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Bosnian policeman is said to sound surprised and indignant at beingÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcalled early in the morning, and asks: "What do you want? Why are youÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcalling me?"ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe captain, described as a member of S-For, says: "You should payÂÂÂÂÂÂÂattention to Foca."ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFrench allianceÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe conversation reportedly took place early on Thursday, as USÂÂÂÂÂÂÂhelicopters were leaving their base in northern Bosnia, giving Mr KaradzicÂÂÂÂÂÂÂjust enough time to get away.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAllegations that French diplomats and military sources have helped theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSerbs have been made on several occasions.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe most serious claim resulted last December in the conviction forÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtreason of a French major, Pierre-Henri Bunel, who was found guilty ofÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtipping off the Serbs about Nato military plans before the KosovoÂÂÂÂÂÂÂconflict.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHe had denied treason, insisting that he had been acting under the ordersÂÂÂÂÂÂÂof French intelligence services.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIn 1998, a French S-For spokesman was removed from his duties after it wasÂÂÂÂÂÂÂfound that he had leaked details of two earlier operations to arrest MrÂÂÂÂÂÂÂKaradzic.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAnd in 1997, a senior war crimes tribunal prosecutor said suspects in theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFrench sector felt they were living "in absolute security".ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 04 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7498/1/E-WORLD-INCREASINGLY-RECOGNISES---by-Z-SEPAROVIC.html ÂWORLD INCREASINGLY RECOGNISES MISERABLE SITUATION OF TRIBUNAL SEPAROVICÂÂZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - President of the Croatian VictimologyÂSociety, Zvonimir Separovic, said on Saturday that the worldÂincreasingly recognised the "miserable situation" of the HagueÂtribunal, and called on the Croatian government to review itsÂrelations with the war crimes tribunal.ÂÂÂÂÂSeparovic said even Patricia Wald, a former judge of the tribunal,Âhad warned about the slowness and lack of professionalism of theÂcourt, adding that those who surrendered should be freed until theÂstart of the trial.ÂÂÂÂÂHe called on the Croatian parliament to open a discussion onÂcooperation with the Hague tribunal, to protect the human rightsÂand dignity of, as he put it, Croatia's Homeland Defence War hero,ÂGeneral Ante Gotovina.ÂÂÂÂÂ"In the light of new world analyses, the government should reviewÂGotovina's indictment before Croatian courts, so he could return toÂhis family and life in freedom," Separovic stressed.ÂÂÂÂÂHe asked of the government to also cease any further irrationalÂcooperation with The Hague, and to worry about its own nationalÂinterests.ÂÂÂÂHe also called on the Constitutional Court to cease the silenceÂabout requests filed before it to review the constitutionality ofÂthe law on cooperation with the international war crimes tribunalÂand to reach a verdict on the issue.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 03 Mar 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7499/1/H-Gdje-je-nestalo-sukcesijskih-589-milijuna-dolara.html ÂKako su nestali novci depozita Narodne banke Jugoslavije deponirani uÂstranim bankama? Pa jednostavno. Medjunarodna zajednica nakon odluka Badinterove komisije i priznanja novonastalih drzava bivse SFRJ nije stavila zabranu na koristenjeÂtog novca iz saveznog deviznog depozita do okoncanja sukcesije. Ona je pravoÂpotpisa, upravljanja tim novcem prepustila Slobodanu Milosevicu,Âpredsjedniku Jugoslavije, u nadi da ceovaj brzo obnoviti Jugslaviju. A on jeÂs tim novcem sve do 1995 vodio rat protiv novonastalih drzava, bivsihÂrepublika SFRJ, a kasnije ga je koristio u ratnim operacijama na Kosovu. ZarÂse nitko ne sjeca da je 1992 doveden za predsjednika drzave Milan Panic,Âamericki drzavljanin, za cijeg se je upravljanja Srbijom vodio najkrvavijiÂrat u BiH i pocinjena su najveca zlodjela na okupiranim podrucjima BiH iÂHrvatske. Time je ratu dat svojevrstan legitimitet. Kada je 1991. biloÂgovora o tome da bi Rudy Perpich, bivsi guverner savezne drzave Minessote,Âdosao u Hrvatsku kao ministar vanjskih poslova, vlada George Busha starijegÂmu je zaprijetila da ce istog casa izgubiti americko drzavljanstvo. OtkudÂtolika razlika u tretmanu Rudya Prpica i Milana Panica? Pa valjda u tome stoÂje Rudy Prpic uspjesan Hrvat i nije smio doprinijeti zalaganju za hrvatskuÂstvar u vrijeme kad Hrvatsku nitko nije htio. I nitko ni da bi se sjetioÂMilana Panica, americkog drzavljanina, ratnog srpskog predsjednika iÂetnickog cistaca, akamo li da bi ga tu¾io Tribunalu u Haagu za ratneÂzlocine. Pa za njegovog vrsenja predsjednicke duznosti opsjedani su Foca,ÂGorazde, Zepa, Visegrad, Jajce, Sarajevo, Mostar, a iz Trebinja i Crne GoreÂje pucano po Dubrovniku. Medjunarodna zajednica, koja je bila tako striktnaÂu primjeni svake restriktivne mjere protiv Hrvatske, blagoslovila jeÂsrpsko-jugoslavensko trosenje zajednickog novca bivsih republika u svrhuÂvodjenja rata protiv njih. Na ovaj su nacin narodi bivse SFRJ doistaÂfinancirali rat protiv samih sebe, a farsa je i citavo natezanje okoÂsukcesije s praznom kasom. Po medjunarodnom pravu ta se sukcesija moralaÂobaviti nakon objavljivanja odluka Badinterove komisije, ujesen 1991. TadaÂje trabalo sazvati mirovnu konferenciju, utvrditi granice i medjusobneÂobveze novih drzava.Trebalo je raspustiti vojsku, JNA, koja je ostala bezÂdrzave, i ravnomjerno prema uplati u saveznu kasu federacije raspodjelitiÂratnu opremu i sav novac iz deviznog depozita Narodne banke Jugoslavije. IÂsva ratna oprema i novac spadaju u sukcesiju. Medjutim to se nije dogodilo,Âjer bi u tom slucaju bili ukinuti efekti embarga na uvoz oruzja zrtvi, a toÂbi, uz pravovremeno diplomatsko priznanje,znacilo i brzi kraj rata. UstvariÂto je bilo stavljanje nenaoruzanih naroda u arenu, kako se to èinilo uÂanticko rimsko vrijeme, da se poput golorukih gladijatora bore protiv diljihÂzvijeri, na sveopce veselje krvozedne publike. Time se unaprijed planiraloÂishod sukoba. Medjunarodna zajednica je svjesno gurnula narode bivse drzaveÂu ovaj rat ostavivisi Slobodanu Milosevicu i vojsku i savezni devizniÂdepozit za ratovanje. A danas smo prisiljeni od nje traziti kredite sÂlihvarskim kamatama za obnovu kuca, gospodarstva, ciscenje od mina iÂspaljivanje ogromne kolicine starih lijekova kojima je istekao rok uporabe,Âa koje su nam oni "humanitarno" slali kao pomoc i pri tome bili oslobadjaniÂod poreza. Zar to nije sjajan posao bez rizika, s visokim kamatama i velikomÂdobiti za oligarhiju koja najprije natjera zrtvu da financira sama rusenje iÂzlocin nad sobom, a onda ju silom prilika koje je stvorila, sili da uzimaÂlihvarske kredite za saniranje posljedica rata. Trgovacki putnici oveÂkrvave, od pamtivijeka, uspjesne multinacionalne kompanije, su bili GianniÂde Michelis, Hans van den Broek, lord Owen, Stoltenberg, Carrington, Vance,ÂCalr Bildt i ostali predstavnici ove menazerije. To je za njih samo dobarÂposao, a zrtve koje tretiraju s prijezirom su svi, i njihovi izvodjaci iÂstvarne zrtve. Najvise ce se dobra svome narodu uciniti ako se pri svakomÂdiplomatskom koraku koji se cini ovo ima na umu. Moze se to sve znati, a uÂrazgovorima ne spominjati, ali onda se drugacije gleda na ponude iz katalogaÂsvjetskih "programa visokih idealistiènih humanistickih proizvoda".ÂAbolicijom svojih 85000 cetnickih izvedbenih subjekata Medjunarodna jeÂzajednica zastitila svoje. A nasi nisu njihovi, pa im se zato sudi uÂHrvatskoj i u Haagu. Sve korake koje cini financijska oligarhija iza sceneÂpod imenom Medjunarodne zajednice odvijaju se uvijek pod egidomÂ"visokomoralnih ciljeva, civilizacijskih tecevina, demokracije, pravde,Âistine, postenja, i ljudskih prava". A to je Prokrustova postelja na kojojÂse moze bespomocnu zrtvu muciti bez sankcija, vremenski neograniceno,Âizduzivati, skracivati, istezati, rezati, sve dok dise, pri tome josÂucjenama izvuci velike financijske i ine koristi na koje zrtva silomÂpristaje sve da bi prekratila muke. I to se cini sve dok zrtva ne bude poÂmjeri te postelje kojoj su uvijek nove dimenzije. Zrtva moze i podleciÂtretmanu, ali to, s obzirom na izvucenu korist, vise nije ni vazno. TakveÂProkrustove postelje i njihovi obsluzitelji su razne misije poput OESS-a,ÂEU, nadzori i packe veleposlanstava, vecina nevladinih i humanitarnihÂudruga- obavjstajnih ekspozitura velikih sila u kriznim podrucjima. I Sud uÂHaagu je nacinjen za zrtve agresije. Medjunarodni protektori "urodjenickih"Ânaroda majstorskom izvedbom visestoljetne kolonijalne prakse velikih silaÂzavadi, pa vladaj, ugrozavaju sve stanovnike podrucja kojim su "zastitnicki"Âzavladali. Tako se Hrvati i Muslimani kao zrtve agresije stjerane uÂFederaciju BiH mrze i svadjaju oko udjela u vlasti, oko broja optuznica iÂtretmana u Haagu, dok strani grabezljivci unistavaju njihovu bastinu,Âzemlju, zakapaju opasne otrove, pljackaju i trze njihova dobra. S drugeÂstrane ta Gospoda nemaju zamjerki i stite beskrupuloznim zlocinimaÂosvojenu, od domicilnog hrvatskog i muslimanskog stanovnistva ociscenu,Âpoput Izraela etnicki i vjerski cistu, srpku pravoslavnu zajednicu uÂrepublici srpskoj, a zahtijevaju toleranciju i multietnicnost u FederacijiÂBiH, Hrvatskoj i Makedoniji. Pri tomu i oni, a i zrtve neprekidno optuzujuÂpokojnog hrvatskog predsjednika, dr Franju Tudjmana, da je dijelio Bosnu,Âsto vecina zrtava prihvaca i hrani se tom otrovnom biljkom da utoli glad.ÂMoze li netko odgovoriti: Zasto je Sloveniji nekaznjeno dopusteno da budeÂcista etnicka drzava???!!! A u Hrvatskoj se zahtijeva veca prava zaÂnacionalne manjine nego za vecinsko stanovnistvo? Pa nisu Hrvati u agresijiÂ1991-1995 ugrozavali, ubijali, izgonili i protjerivali Srbe, Muslimane,ÂRusine, Madjare, Ukrajince i sami sebe, nego srpska manjina uz pomoc Srba izÂJugoslavije i JNA. Zrtvama se sudi, a sada im je dato da se josÂizzivljavaju i iscrpljuju na vanjskim efektima sudskih, pravnih smicalicaÂsa Slobodanom Milosevicem, koji je jedna manipulacija vise da se zrtveÂpocasti laznom katarzom "pobjede pravicnosti" kakvu mogu jedino smislitiÂdirektni sotonini poslenici. Eto "Postenja, Pravde i Humanizma imperijalnihÂsila G-7+Rusija, sve u ime bolje buducnosti" Tko ima oci, nek gleda! Tko imaÂusi, nek cuje! Tko ima mozga, nek misli! I na kraju, pitam se: Hoce li seÂikada naci nekolicina Hrvata dovoljno inteligentna, strucna, hrabra, a uz toÂnesebicna i bogata, pa sve ove cinjenice, i ostale koje sam ja iznijela uÂsvojoj optuznici protiv medjunarodne zajednice, J accuse, uobliciti u pravuÂtuzbu i predati Sudu pravde u Haagu, ili Sudu za ljudska prava uÂStrasbourgu, ili Sudu u Bruxellesu koji sada prima svakojake tuzbe. Ovo suÂneoborive cinjenice koje ne zastarijevaju, a skinule bi povijesnu hipoteku sÂcitavog hrvatskog naroda i hrvatske drzave i oslobodile bi nase zatocene uÂHaagu. Neka se ne zaboravi, da javnost drzava koje ovo sve cine, ne zna stoÂoni cine. Oni se te javnosti boje. Sve to oni to mogu ciniti sve dok istinaÂne postane bjelodana. U trenutku kada se vjesto zaobidju njihovaÂOrwelijanska "ministarstva istine" padaju njihove vlade. Srpska propagandaÂradi dan i noc. Dovoljno je pogledati niz web stranica na kojima su aktivni.ÂPomislite, cak americki Queckeri rade za Srbe! Mozda im treba nagraditiÂtoliki trud i zauzetost?! Sto rade Hrvati. Nista! Ono sto rade politickeÂstranke je sramota, a i istupi na hrvatskoj i medjunarodnoj sceni suÂnedolicni i svode se na moljakanje i dodvoravanje. Argumente imamo. i oni suÂneoborivi i mogu izdrzati svaku sudsku provjeru. Zasto se nema hrabrostiÂpravom protiv silnika. Bitka nije uvijek unaprijed izgubljena. Ovakav pravniÂput i istina su nam jedini pravi nacin. Nistarije i mlitavci se svima gade.ÂDobro obrazlozeni argumenti cvrsto, uljudno i decebtbi izneseni izazivajuÂpostovanje i kod neprijatelja i nesklonih, i lijek su protiv kompleksa nizeÂvrijednosti. I to je jedna olimpijska vjestina u kojoj moramo trenirati iÂizboriti medalje. I ne zaboravimo: Ono sto mi kao narod za sebe i one kojiÂce doci poslije nas moramo uciniti sami, nece uciniti ni dragi Bog za nas.ÂOn ce nam pripomoci, ali se zalagati, uz njegovu pomoæ, moramo sami.ÂÂKornelija PejcinovicÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7494/1/E-Constitutional-Reform-and-the-Spirit-of-BH.html ÂDownload is available in PDF format, need Adobe AcrobatÂÂSubject: New ECMI Brief: Constitutional Reform and the 'Spirit' of Bosnia and HerzegovinaÂÂECMI Issue Brief #7ÂConstitutional Reform and the 'Spirit' of Bosnia and HerzegovinaÂValery PerryÂFebruary 2002ÂÂAvailable for download at www.ecmi.deÂÂCritics of the General Framework Agreement for PeaceÂ(GFAP, or Dayton Peace Agreement) have been pointingÂout its inherent flaws and inconsistencies from theÂmoment the terms became public, and the realÂchallenges of implementation quickly became clear. ForÂthe past six years there have been calls to revisit,Âreform, or rewrite Dayton through a variety ofÂsuggested procedures. The most aggressive voices forÂchange have suggested convening a meeting to develop aÂ'Dayton II', which would have as its main goalÂsolidification of the peace, rather than justÂtermination of the war. Instead, a more subtleÂapproach has been in practice since 1997, when theÂHigh Representative's powers were strengthened and hisÂmandate effectively widened. Under a more aggressiveÂimplementation policy, the GFAP would be implementedÂnot purely according to the letter of the accords, butÂaccording to 'the spirit of Dayton'.ÂÂDefining this 'spirit' has been controversial andÂchallenging, and the current debate concerning theÂreform of the Entity Constitutions to comply with theÂBosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Constitutional Court'sÂdecision on the status and equality of the constituentÂpeoples in BiH will be a significant step in definingÂboth the spirit of Dayton, as well as the spirit andÂcharacter of BiH as a state. This brief explores thisÂcomplex issue and its potential implications for localÂand international politicians in BiH. First, a shortÂbackground on the Constitutional Court decision isÂpresented. Second, the options currently underÂdiscussion are reviewed, within the framework ofÂsymmetrical and asymmetrical reform alternatives.ÂThird, the broad relevance of this single issue to theÂlarger issues concerning the legitimacy of the currentÂorganization of the state of BiH is considered.ÂÂhttp://www.ecmi.de/doc/public_issue.html#b7ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 28 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7501/1/E-Political-Bias-in-Hague.html ÂÂMy latest item on www.AnteGotovina.com, timed for this congressional thing on Thursday. More should be made of the Veritas link; that's the sort of thing that would excites media/politicos (at least in the UK):ÂÂAnteGotovina.com's London Columnist, Brian GallagherÂThe Hague Office of the Prosecutor and the Serbian Organization 'Veritas': Political Bias?ÂÂBy Brian Gallagher 25/2/02ÂÂAmerican politicians and policy-makers are correct toÂbe concerned that the future prosecutors of theÂInternational Criminal Court (ICC) may operate onÂpolitical lines against the United States. There isÂevidence that the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) ofÂthe International Criminal Tribunal for the formerÂYugoslavia (ICTY) has taken a political view inÂsupport of Serbian expansionist ideas in the case ofÂCroatian General Ante Gotovina. Furthermore, theseÂpolitical views appear to have been incorporated inÂthe Ante Gotovina indictment itself. The nature ofÂthese views contradict international law, UNÂresolutions and indeed the OTP's own Milosevic CroatiaÂindictment.ÂÂOn 2 March 2000, OTP Deputy Prosecutor Graham BlewittÂwrote a "Letter of Endorsement" to the Belgrade basedÂSerbian organisation Veritas. This letter is onÂdisplay at the Veritas website at www.veritas.org.yu.ÂClick under 'References' and then under 'ICTY' to seeÂit.ÂÂVeritas claims to be an NGO interested in presentingÂevidence on crimes against Serbs. However, by itsÂwebsite and the statements of its head, Savo Strbac,Âit is clear that Veritas has a political agenda toÂrestore the illegal structure of the Republic of SerbÂKrajina ('RSK'). By giving this group a reference,Âthe OTP is effectively endorsing such political viewsÂ- views that contradict the international law s thatÂthe OTP is supposedly there to enforce and observe.ÂÂThe 'RSK' was established in 1991 by the invasion andÂethnic cleansing of one third o f Croatia by Serbia,Âwhich involved monstrous crimes against humanityÂincluding the destruction of Vukovar, the ethnicÂcleansing of over 170,000 non Serbs and mass slaughterÂof civilians - over 15,000. The Milosevic indictmentÂcorrectly describes all this as a 'CriminalÂEnterprise'. Furthermore, UN resolutions and theÂMilosevic indictment refer to the territories of 'RSK'Âas "Occupied Territory".ÂÂThe Veritas website homepage show s the 'borders' ofÂthis criminal enterprise, clearly demonstrating theirÂpolitical acceptance of the horrifying ''RSK' state.ÂIndeed, within the website we see references to theÂ"territory of RSK'" . It describes itself as havingÂbeen established by "RSK citizens". Demonstrably,Âthis group has a political agenda and viewpoint inÂaddition to any claim to be a documentation centre forÂcrimes against Serbs.ÂÂIn the glowing reference by the OTP's Mr Blewitt heÂsays of Mr Strbac that he has "assisted and stillÂassists" the OTP in "a professional, serious andÂresponsible manner by collecting information aboutÂcertain events which occurred during the periodÂ1990-1995" in Croatia.ÂÂWho is this Savo Strbac that Mr Blewitt speaks of soÂhighly? It appears that Mr Strbac was an official ofÂthe criminal enterprise known as the ''RSK'' - asÂdefined in the Milosevic Croatia indictment - and veryÂprone to 'Greater Serbia' rhetoric. A New York TimesÂreport of 4 December 1994, identifying him as anÂofficial of the 'RSK'' quotes him as saying, "Our wishÂis to live with the other Serbs of the formerÂYugoslavia".ÂÂAn Agence France Presse report dated March 6 1995Âdescribing him as 'Government Secretary' of the 'RSK'Âquotes him as saying "Our final goal is union withÂother Serbs (in Bosnia and the Republic of Serbia)."ÂQuite the 'Greater Serbia' enthusiast. This is theÂsort of chap the OTP considers appropriate to gatherÂevidence from, to give references to and to work with,Âin order to prosecute Croats; a former official of aÂcriminal enterprise occupying Croatia and GreaterÂSerbia enthusiast. It is difficult to believe this isÂfor real.ÂÂBut it is. And it gets worse.ÂÂThe reference the OTP gave states that they have beenÂworking in "successful co-operation" with VeritasÂsince 1994. The Veritas website refers to Mr StrbacÂauthoring a Veritas book published in 1994/5. MrÂStrbac was working with Veritas whilst being anÂofficial of the 'RSK'. So even during the SerbianÂoccupation, when crimes were still being committedÂagainst the few remaining Croats in the occupiedÂareas, and while 'RSK' forces were napalming andÂcluster bombing the UN safe area of Bihac inÂBosnia-Hercegovina, the OTP was happily dealing withÂan organisation with links to the 'RSK'.ÂÂQuite apart from the questions thus raised of theÂreliability of 'evidence' that has been gathered fromÂVeritas by the OTP, by giving g a reference to raiseÂfunds for this organisation, the OTP is clearlyÂendorsing both Mr Strbac's and Veritas's politicalÂviews. 'Conflict of Interest' barely begins toÂdescribe all this.ÂÂAnd it gets worse still. It appears that the OTP hasÂincorporated Mr Strbac's political views into theÂGotovina indictment.ÂÂICTY indictments carry background histories to events.ÂThe Milosevic Croatia indictment goes into muchÂdetail of how the 'RSK' was created; invasion,Âmassacres, Vukovar etc. It refers to Serb held areasÂas "occupied territory" as per UN resolutions.ÂÂThe Gotovina indictment fails to mention how theÂ''RSK'' was created. It also does not refer toÂ'occupied territory' . Instead it outrageouslyÂconfers legitimacy on the ''RSK'' byÂclaiming that it had "officially declaredÂindependence". The OTP clearly has no respect forÂthe internationally recognised borders of Croatia. OrÂanywhere else, presumably. It would appear that youÂcan conquer, ethnically cleanse and occupy parts ofÂother countries. Then declare independence in theÂareas you have cleansed of your victims - and the veryÂpeople who are supposed to investigate and punish yourÂbehaviour will consider it official! So much forÂdeterring war crimes. The implications of the OTP'sÂbehaviour for future ICC investigations are obvious.ÂÂNeedless, to say, Mr Strbac is delighted by all this.ÂIndeed, he gave an interview to a Serbian newspaper,Âwhere he stated quite clearly that the ICTY hasÂrecognised the 'RSK' as a state, and considers theÂindictment a basis for the re-establishment of theÂ''RSK''. His associates in the OTP have not disagreedÂwith him.ÂÂIt's worth mentioning just how close the relationshipÂbetween Mr Strbac and the OTP is. Before theÂindictments of Croatian Generals were officiallyÂrevealed, one Croatian newspaper claimed that threeÂgenerals were indicted. Mr Strbac informed SerbianÂradio station B92 that two of the names were correctÂand were in relation to 'Operation Storm' and 'MedakÂPocket' operations. Strbac, who often boasts of hisÂwork with the OTP, was proved correct - demonstratingÂjust how involved this Serb expansionist is with theÂwork of the OTP.ÂÂGiven Mr Strbac's close involvement with the OTP,Âgiven his opinions and background and the fact thatÂthe OTP has effectively endorsed his outspoken SerbianÂexpansionist politics, it is difficult to see howÂGeneral Gotovina can get a fair trial at the Hague.ÂThe same may well apply to General Ademi, the otherÂCroatian Army General indicted by the Hague tribunalÂfor other alleged crimes against Serbs.ÂÂCan one imagine the future ICC investigating the USÂwar on terror, whilst working closely with, let us sayÂ, a former 'official' of The Taliban who wishes toÂrestore the Taliban to power, in prosecuting AmericanÂservicemen?ÂÂThe Gotovina indictment demonstrates that it is notÂtoo far fetched for a future ICC prosecutor toÂconsider such a course.ÂÂThe OTP, in the case of Ante Gotovina, is clearlyÂpolitically biased in favour of the Serbs. TrulyÂOrwellian in that it says something different inÂrelation to Milosevic. Perhaps there is some strangeÂpro-Serb faction at work at the ICTY? Or moreÂlikely, in a political effort to show that the old lieÂof "All sides are equally guilty" is true, desperateÂeconomies with the truth and misjudged alliances haveÂbeen made. Many in the UN and EU have never forgivenÂthe United States for its role in stopping theÂ'Greater Serbia' project. It is well known that theÂUnited States assisted Croatia in 'Operation Storm'.ÂWho knows what pressures have been exerted on the OTP?ÂÂThe Veritas/OTP links must be fully examined. SomeÂform of enquiry is needed. Perhaps by the US Congress?ÂSuch an enquiry can ask why so few investigationsÂhave been conducted into Serb crimes in Croatia, asÂwell as if Mr Strbac has provided any infromationÂabout 'RSK' crimes against Croats to the OTP. It canÂalso ask why the indictment makes no mention of theÂfact that it was Milosevic and the 'RSK' leadershipÂthat evacuated the 'RSK' of its Serbs as detailed byÂOTP spokesperson - and possible Gotovina defenceÂwitness - Florence Hartmann in her 1999 book onÂMilosevic.ÂÂThe whole business is very disquieting. And anyoneÂwith an interest in such issues should be concerned,Ânot just the United States.ÂÂ(c) Brian GallagherÂÂÂand...ÂÂÂMike Baresic is an unsung hero. He has clobbering various types on the Justwatch board for a while now, esp on the Gotovina indictment. They seem to be giving up now, the Hartmann revelations being the killer blow I guess. One Serbian suppoter is still trying, see how Mike deals with him below.ÂWhat is apparent from the discussions on this board is that Serb supporters in particular are quite afraid of the facts of Milosevic & co ordering out the 'Krajina Serbs'. Mike's critic here has never (so far) admitted it, and tries to divert attention.ÂIt destroys their only myth of victimhood in the war.ÂSo in my view it should be hammered on mercilessly. And we have the perfect evidence of it: Hague Prosecutor spokeswoman Florence Hartmann's book. Should always mention that!ÂThe Hartmann thing can only rattle the Hague as well, and their particlular supporters.ÂBrianÂÂÂÂÂTue, 26 Feb 2002 09:41:23 ESTÂReply-To: International Justice Watch Discussion ListÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSender: International Justice Watch Discussion ListÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂFrom: Mike Baresic Ivankovic's book tells the story of how, unlike Cervenka,Â> Gotovina had propsed a modal 'Storm', which in the end wasÂ> implemented: a simultaneous attack on all sectors of theÂ> occupied territory in which the Serbian population would beÂ> left with free corridors to escape, alledgedly, exclusivelyÂ> out of humane reasons: to avoid having unnecessary victims."Â>Â>Â> Gotovina and others incorporated ethnic cleansing as partÂ> of Operation Storm. The Serbs couldn't flee anyway they wanted to,Â> but only on pre-planned, designated routes. The ethnic cleansingÂ> during Operation Storm wasn't ad-hoc, it was pre-meditated byÂ> Gotovina and others.Â>ÂÂÂDaniel,ÂÂÂThis is the best you can do? If this is the best argument that Gotovina'sÂaccusers have, then his indictment is truly a travesty. Moreover, you failÂto even mention the fact that the RSK leadership ordered a total evacutation,Âor that Hartmann contends it was part of Milosevic's plan to "ethnicallyÂcleanse" the Serb population.ÂÂÂLeaving corridors open is nothing new in military planning. Indeed, it isÂincorporated into most NATO military campaigns as a means of encouraging theÂopposing enemy military to give up. Surrounding the enemy military and notÂgiving it the opportunity to escape only encourages that military to continueÂto fight, and thus the risk of loss of life is increased to both sides.ÂÂÂIn "Putting the Hague Court on Trial," [posted to the list 31 August 2001]ÂDavid Rivkin and Lee Casey explain this best:ÂÂÂ>>ÂÂÂThus, Daniel, your last-gasp effort to declare Operation Storm an "ethnicÂcleansing" campaign simply because its planners allowed for escape routesÂflies in the face of established NATO military doctrine. Moreover, youÂtotally ignore the fact that the Serb civilians fled en masse not because ofÂthe fact that an escape route was open, but because of the fact that the SerbÂleadership had ordered a total evacuation of the so-called "Krajina" [whichÂis well established by the book, "Knin Fell in Belgrade," by Sonja Biserko,Âand by Florence Hartmann]. You ignore addressing this issue because you knowÂthe truth: the Serb leadership cleansed its own population.ÂÂÂAgain, if you are concerned about justice for the Serbs of so-calledÂ"Krajina," don't you want to see the Milosevic indictment amended to includeÂthe deportation of Serbs from Croatia?ÂÂÂMikeÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 27 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7500/1/E-Croatias-coalition-to-replace-three-ministers.html ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSecond-largest governing party wants to replace three ministersÂÂÂÂÂÂÂWed Feb 27,11:10 AM ETÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂZAGREB, Croatia - The demand by the Social Liberals, Croatia's juniorÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcoalition partner, to replace three of its ministers is a serious problemÂÂÂÂÂÂÂfor future government work, Prime Minister Ivica Racan said Wednesday.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe demand, announced late Tuesday, is primarily aimed at removing GoranÂÂÂÂÂÂÂGranic, a deputy to Racan and a key aide.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"This is a grave situation for the coalition," Racan told the state-runÂÂÂÂÂÂÂnews agency HINA, hinting that the disagreement over ministers mayÂÂÂÂÂÂÂprecipitate early elections.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe five-party coalition, which took power two years ago from theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂnationalists of the late President Franjo Tudjman, has been in trouble forÂÂÂÂÂÂÂweeks, ever since Drazen Budisa returned as the leader of the SocialÂÂÂÂÂÂÂLiberals.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBudisa, a moderate nationalist who stepped down as party leader lastÂÂÂÂÂÂÂsummer to protest the government's decision to extradite two CroatianÂÂÂÂÂÂÂgenerals to the U.N. war crimes court, has demanded that his party beÂÂÂÂÂÂÂgiven a greater say in the government.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBudisa contends that members of his party in the coalition have neglectedÂÂÂÂÂÂÂtheir party duties and become "lackeys" of Racan's dominant SocialÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDemocrats.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHowever, Racan has previously expressed his satisfaction with the work ofÂÂÂÂÂÂÂthe Liberals in his government. He also insisted Granic was an integralÂÂÂÂÂÂÂpart of the coalition.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"I can't deny that we have established a great rapport," Racan said of hisÂÂÂÂÂÂÂcoalition partners.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂParties in the government have a right to withdraw their ministers. But ifÂÂÂÂÂÂÂRacan disagrees, the coalition could collapse, triggering new elections.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Liberal Party holds six posts in the 21-member Cabinet. On TuesdayÂÂÂÂÂÂÂevening, the Liberals also demanded that Budisa become Racan's deputy.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂCroatian media speculated Wednesday that Racan and Budisa may eventuallyÂÂÂÂÂÂÂreach a compromise, with Budisa joining and Granic remaining in theÂÂÂÂÂÂÂgovernment.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂNone of the ruling parties really want new elections and instead seek toÂÂÂÂÂÂÂenhance their positions with the positive results of economic reforms theyÂÂÂÂÂÂÂhave undertaken, which will only be seen in a year.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ(pvs/eb/rp)ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 27 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7504/1/E-CAA-News-Release.html ÂCroatian American Association News Release, February 20, 2002ÂÂÂWith the objective of securing justice for Croats indicted by the ICTY, The Croatian American Association has been urging Congress to have a close look at the activities of the International Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia at The Hague. The prosecution of Ante Gotovina in a political attempt to assuage the feelings of Serbs after Milosevic was handed over is of particular concern to us. It is the contention of the CAA that the proceedings of the ICTY do not meet minimum American judicial standards, particularly in the areas of investigation, prosecution and the rules of evidence. Congress is presently concerned about the future possibility that American armed forces personnel might have to face future politicized proceedings unless preventive legal prohibitions are adapted by the United States. A hearing of the full House International Relations Committee will be held on February 28th in Washington, DC. It is the CAA's belief that one of the results of the hearings will be a more fair treatment of Croats by the ICTY.ÂÂÂSubject: FULL COMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE Committee on International Relations UÂÂFULL COMMITTEE HEARING NOTICEÂCommittee on International RelationsÂU.S. House of RepresentativesÂWashington, D.C. 20515-0128ÂFebruary 14, 2002ÂÂÂTO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSÂYou are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on International Relations, to be held in Room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building:ÂDATE: Thursday, February 28, 2002ÂTIME: 11:00 A.M.ÂSUBJECT: The U.N. Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda: International Justice or Show of Justice?ÂWITNESSES:ÂThe Honorable Pierre-Richard ProsperÂAmbassador-at-Large for War Crimes IssuesÂU.S. Department of StateÂProfessor Jeremy RabkinÂDepartment of GovernmentÂCornell UniversityÂLarry A. HammondÂAttorney at LawÂOsborn Maledon, P.A.ÂÂÂNote: Additional witnesses may be added.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂBy Direction of the ChairmanÂÂÂThe Committee on International Relations seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please call 202/225-5021 at least four business days in advance of the event, whenever practicable. Questions with regard to special accommodations in general (including availability of Committee materials in alternative formats and assistive listening devices) may be directed to the Committee.ÂÂÂSubject: Croatian American Association AlertÂ--------------------------------------------------------------------ÂÂSenator Joseph Biden Jr.ÂChairmanÂSenate Foreign Relations CommitteeÂ446 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingÂWashington, D.C. 20515ÂÂPlease return petitions to:ÂCAA USAÂBox 287ÂWashington, D.C. 20006ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂRepresentative Henry HydeÂChairmanÂThe Committee on International RelationsÂ2000 Pennsylvania Ave.Â2170 Rayburn House Office BuildingÂWashington, D.C. 20515ÂÂÂÂHonorable Richard ArmitageÂDeputy Secretary of StateÂUnited States Department of StateÂ2201 "C" Street N.W.ÂWashington, D.C. 20520Â(202) 647-4000ÂÂWe the undersigned are opposed to the U.N. confirming Paddy Ashdown to succeed Wolfgang Petritsch as United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The U.N. High Representative is endowed with dictatorial powers to restrict the freedom and rights of the citizens of BiH. In the past year the office of the U.N. High Representative acting with impunity has removed fairly elected Croat officials, ordered the raid on a main Croatian Bank, and defamed the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina, its Cardinal and Bishops. On Good Friday, 2001, armed British soldiers in two armored personnel carriers were allowed to openly threaten Catholics, at Medjugorje.ÂÂÂThe U.N. is so insensitive about such things that it is now trying to impose Paddy Ashdown on the Catholic Croats of BiH. Many Croats still remember the treachery of some British government officials at Bleiburg, Austria 1945. Croats have not forgotten that many in the British government supported Slobodan Milosevic in 1990-95 as he murdered his way through Croatia and BiH. Ashdown, a former British Marine major, demonstrated his anti-Catholic bias when he was in Northern Ireland. He has made a career in the former Yugoslavia by being anti-Croat and pro-Serbian. Ashdown is famous for creating the fiction of Tudjman drawing a map of divided BiH on a napkin.ÂÂÂCroats in BiH, and two and a half million American Croats, fear that the State Department's quiet elimination of funding for U.S. peacekeeping in BiH, combined with the State Department's support for Paddy Ashdown, indicates an American Abandonment of BiH. That would expose the region to dangerous instability and leave the Catholic Croats in BiH at the mercy of those who already reduced their number to a half.ÂÂÂWe ask you to use your good offices to oppose Paddy Ashdown's confirmation and seek the appointment of an American citizen as U.N. High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.ÂÂÂSIGNED:ÂÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7503/1/E-Croatia-calls-for-Milosevic-henchmen-to-face-trial.html ÂÂCroatia calls for Milosevic henchmen to face trialÂÂÂÂHELSINKI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Croatia called on Wednesday for other associates of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic to follow their former leader and face trial at the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.ÂÂ"It is not enough to get Milosevic in the Hague. He must be accompanied by his close associates. Unfortunately many of them are walking free," Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula told a news conference in Helsinki.ÂÂ"This is not a vendetta. We are not in the vendetta business. It is very important to extend international justice and the international tribunal in the Hague is a very important instrument that can bring more justice," he added.ÂÂMilosevic is accused of crimes against humanity in Croatia in 1991-92 and Kosovo in 1999, as well as genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian War.ÂÂLawyers must show the U.N.-mandated court Milosevic himself either ordered such atrocities, knew of them yet failed to halt them or, at least, knew about them after they were committed but failed to punish the perpetrators.ÂÂMilosevic has argued there is no evidence linking him to the crimes.ÂÂOther war crimes suspects -- including fugitive indictee Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic -- remain at large in the former Yugoslavia and local authorities have come under international pressure to hunt them down.ÂÂPicula said Croatia had cooperated with the Hague in trying to track down war criminals.ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7502/1/E-Global-Croatia---commentary.html ÂGLOBALNA ILI IZUMIRANJE HRVATSKE!Â'Opinion' commentary by, Jean W. Lunt-Marinovic, Melbourne Australia, 23/02/2002.Â"Croatia is a small nation." "Emigration is a Croatian tradition." "Global Croatia." "Without our blessed diaspora there would never have been an independent Croatia on the map." These pro-diaspora statements quoted above compete with issues of greater importance for Croatia. The unpopular issue I refer to is "Izumiranje Hrvatske".ÂCroatia is now in a transition period. This generation which fought and died and struggled, making us all proud, is being replaced by an aging population in Croatia. In other words, things won't always be the way they are in Croatia today. For example, in any Croatian zupanija, such as Zadar, even under the harshest of occupying regimes, there have been more graduating doctors or priests, etc. per capita, than from amongst those assimilated Croats in the so-called democratic and prosperous world. In sports also, Kostelic, or Ivanisevic, or Suker have shown us how the world applauds their personal triumph when they win under their national flag. The richness of the spirit can overcome any financial struggle. The struggle for Croatia's survival can only be successfully generated from within Croatia itself, but Croatia is dying-out due to an undefined glorification of the overseas diaspora.ÂDiaspora input must be measured against the consequences of mass emigration and its negative effects on the nature of Croatian politics. In Croatia panslavists gained more power in the last election by default! Abroad there is a limit to what can be done on a political dimension. Whilst foreign governments are now obliged to tolerate Croatia's new status, the legacy of the past will distort the truth for a couple of generations to come. Amongst the overseas Anglo/Celtic elite, when you mentioned the "C" word (Croatia) you were in for it-I speak here as a person perceived to be 'one of them', and not as a person perceived to be of Croatian background.ÂOverseas I have witnessed many red faces over past decades, when I have challenged various professors, politicians, government administrators and committee members, or multicultural advocates, that access and equity legislation should be applied to Croats also. I have witnessed an entire roomful of multicultural writers walk out in protest whilst I was reciting my poem about Croatia. (see poem below) I have watched the faces of lecturers and administrators go red when I challenged their 'facts' or decisions in front of students or colleagues. I have been left standing alone by street revolutionaries who walked away from my question of why Croats are always deemed reactionary and Yugoslavs are always progressive. I have questioned the campaigning 'right' during elections who ignored my questions, and moved onto another topic-the silent treatment! Which is worse? Better know your rights!ÂNot all opposition rests with non-Croats however. The same attitudes surfaced when I tried to push my point of view through the Croatian disapora agendas. My agenda has always been that Croats should not, without question, 'sponsor-on-demand' their relatives to settle 'overseas'. It is easy to say that the problem lies only with the government of Croatia, or with the international community, but this should not take away from the responsibility of us all. As 'relatives' who live overseas, we hold the key to Croatia's population decline, or growth. The role of the diaspora needs to be placed under more scrutiny and held accountable. What Croats in the overseas diaspora fail to accept is that this 'sponsor-on-demand' relationship is not a bridge between Croatia and its "diaspora"-rather it is a direct contribution to the dying-out of Croatia.Â'Global Croatia' is an umbrella concept that can excuse too many competing agendas, and underpinning these agendas is the inherent acceptance of continued mass emigration. Assimilation, once overseas, is unavoidable, and in the meantime, Croatia continues to suffer from 'brain drain' and 'brawn drain'. Croatia is not so small-but its population is! Emigration should never be called a 'tradition'-continuing mass emigration is a 'scandal'. The term 'global Croatia' is an oxymoron.Â(Written by Jean W. Lunt-Marinovic, Melbourne Australia.23/2/2002)ÂBelow is my poem and article published in Hrvatski Tjednik, 23/7/1985.Â(I recited this poem at a meeting in 1986 of Victorian Multicultural Writers' Association)ÂÂTHE SPIRIT OF SOSICEÂ(Dedicated to Croatian Students)ÂIn the shadows of night at SosiceÂThere's an eerie whisper in the airÂThe branches of the old oak treesÂHave witnessed a tragedy there.ÂNo one passes that bottomless pitÂThe place which nature forsookÂScarcely wide enough across to fitÂOne man … yet so many men it took.ÂIt's forbidden to go near that holeÂBecause if you listen near its topÂYou'll hear the echo from every soulÂAs one after another they dropped.ÂLike a sea shell's constant callÂFrom the sea bed underneathÂThe young cadets tell of their fall …ÂHow they were pushed to their death.ÂFive hundred cadets fell so youngÂTo their death that fateful dayÂMurdered before they could belongÂBut their spirit still lives to say:Â"Croatia had been in the darkÂFor many centuries it's trueÂBut in 1941 she set her markÂAnd raised her 'red white blue'.Â"We were young and proud to enlistÂThough little of Croatia we'd seenÂYet the one thing we'd always missedÂWas the freedom 'that might have been'.Â" 'If only' our fathers and theirs beforeÂHadn't won wars for a foreign raceÂ'If only' they'd known what lay in storeÂOf the veil on their Motherland's face.Â"The uniforms we wore were CroatianÂAnd we pledged our lives for herÂNever again to be in the situationÂThat our enslaved forefathers were.Â"It was our privilege to defendÂWe were proud unto the last fellowÂWho'd have known we'd meet our endÂOn the path towards Gornje Selo.Â"Captured before we'd seen battleÂBy a yugoslav partisan bandÂWe were then herded like cattleÂAnd swallowed up in the land.Â"The flesh was ripped from our sideÂAs our bodies plunged into the deepÂBut we screamed out before we died:Â'Our Croatian spirit will never sleep.' "ÂÂThis poem is a tribute to the 500 military cadets who died as loyal Croats, who placed love of their country above a communist ideology. More than 20,000 military trainees were disposed of by the yugoslav regime in a barbaric fashion after the war. I have chosen to write about the fate of these 500 because a relative who still mourns the brutal act has related her loss to me.ÂAs you sit in class take a good look at the student next to you. Are you envious of his pride and confidence as he sings on his National Day, whether it be Australian, American, Canadian, Italian, Greek, etc.? Are you always left out when it is time to show the class where their country is on the big map of the world, or read the history of their country's heroes in an encyclopaedia, or show a picture of their flag in the pages of history? The cadets in the poem were eager to participate in Croatian history. After centuries they had the chance to re-join their Motherland's dismembered body, to straighten her spine, bent over centuries of being pulled from one empire to another: Venice, Ottoman Turkey, Austria/Hungary, France, yugoslavia.ÂTheir dream was short-lived. Their spirit however is alive in the Croatian youth of today. One day when Croatia is free it is your duty to build monuments at all such places where those who died knew the meaning of being Croatian. Under yugoslavia today those places are closed to the world with barb wire. Their patriotism deserves much more, it deserves an esteemed place in history.ÂÂJean W. Lunt-Marinovic, July, 1985.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 23 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7505/1/E-Men-of-ability-and-enthusiasm.html ÂÂ... koji su stvarali najveci imperij u povijesti covjecanstva (kojega jeÂalkoholik Churchill srusio sa svojom malom grupom pristasa).ÂÂMen of ability and enthusiasm who find no suitable way to serve theirÂcountry under the current political system; able youth recruited from theÂschools and universities; men of wealth with no aim in life; younger sonsÂwith high thoughts and great aspirations but without opportunity; rich menÂwhose careers are blighted by some great disappointment. All must be men ofÂability and character. ... Rhodes envisages a group of the ablest and theÂbest, bound together by common unselfish ideals of service to what seems toÂhim the greatest cause of the world. There is no mention of materialÂrewards. This is to be a kind of religious brotherhood like the Jesuits, "aÂchurch for the extension of the British Empire."ÂÂ... take Constitution of the Jesuits if obtainable and insert 'EnglishÂEmpire' for 'Roman Catholic Religion'. (1875.)Â----ÂÂPersonally I have no political interest worth mentioning, except theÂmaintenance of the Imperial connection, and I look upon the future withÂalarm. ... I can see no remedy or protection, under the presentÂcircumstances, except a powerful body of men---and it would have to be veryÂpowerful---determined at all times and under all circumstances to vote andÂwork, regardless of every other circumstance, against the man or party whoÂplayed fast and loose with the cause of National Unity. You can be sure thatÂfor my own part I shall always do that. ... (1904.)Â--------ÂÂKoliko mnogo vise od toga trebaju oni koji se zalazu za golu egzistencijuÂsvoje nacionalne drzave!ÂÂRudolf A.ÂÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient,Âplease delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 22 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7506/1/E-Convention-of-the-Forum-of-Croatian-Unity.html ÂÂÂÂÂÂForum Hrvatske Sloge, the Forum of Croatian Unity, a citizens' association for tolerance, dialogue and national unity, held its first National Convention in the Small Theater of the Lisinski Hall in Zagreb on February 14, 2002. In front of a full house, several hundred people, the Forum was introduced to the guests and the media by its President, Dr. Davorin Rudolf. The Forum has attracted a number of well-known political figures, many of them once members of the famous Croatian war cabinet, the Government of National Unity (1991-1992), including its head, the former Premier, Dr. Franjo Greguric, and Vice Premier, Dr. Zdravko Tomac. The Forum has also brought together many outstanding figures from all walks (and parties) of Croatian public life, including former prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors, current and former Sabor deputies, university professors, museum directors, art figures, intellectuals, and professionals. To name just a few: Davorin Rudolf, Zdravko Tomac, Franjo Greguric, Josip Juras, Ante Klaric, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Ante Lauc, Osman Muftic, Vladimir Malekovic, Slobodan Lang, Lilijana Domic, Drazen Jurkovic, Zdravko Mrsic, Ivan Majdak... The Forum has also two outstanding foreign members, well-known Croatian activists Dr. Zdenka Ddelalic (U.S.) and Brian Gallagher (U.K.).ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Presiding Board of the Association consists of: Davorin Rudolf (President), Osman Muftic (Vice President), Josip Juras (Secretary), Marina Vokic-Zuzul, Zdravko Tomac, Ante Klaric, Franjo Greguric, Mirko Barišic (Members), and Ivana Pezo (Secretary to the Board). As stated by Dr Davorin Rudolf, the President of the Association, "the Forum is not a political party. It is not based on any leftist or rightist ideology, but on a program of peaceful, stable, progressive, democratic, and European Croatia. Our goal is to contribute, among other things, to a consensus concerning the key issues of Croatia and her future." President Rudolf outlined his hopes for the betterment of Croatia in such fields as economy, politics, values, treatment of the young, education, culture, etc. His speech was, according to one of the guests "the best, most consistent, if not the only true program any Croatian politician has proposed since independence." The gathering was greeted by Milan Bandic, Zagreb Mayor under resignation and Dr. Mate Granic, President of the Democratic Center Party. Present was also the President of the HSLS, Drazen Budisa.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂDr. Rudolf was followed by a dozen speeches by members of the Forum and guests. The topics discussed ranged from economic revival to the relations between the homeland and the Croats abroad. At the end, the Forum passed by acclamation two resolutions: one calling on the Sabor to define the spoils system when there is a change of government, in order to avoid revanchist moves which go so far as to replacement of school teachers and kindergarten directors, and a resolution asking for direct elections of mayors.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Forum was mostly ignored by the media. No wonder. The Croatian media has become as biased and polarized as the Croatian body politic. And a body which advocates tolerance and cooperation is nothing short of menace for big party bosses on both the left and the right, and these are the factors that control the media. The Forum will obviously fight an uphill battle. But it has quality people who can carry the fight on. And getting the message through will be the first major task of the Forum's leadership.ÂÂDistributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 19 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7508/1/H-U-manjim-sustavima---uspjesna-rijesenja.html ÂVec se i prije su se mogli osjetiti nedostaci Ministarstva vanjskih poslova,Âali nikada toliko kao sada. Postojanje Dubrovacke Republike bilo jeÂtemeljeno na jakom izaslanstvu Dubrovnika u svim drzavama koje te pracenjuÂopcih dogadjaja, posebno u Europi. Makar mala Republika je izdrzala sve doÂNapoleona koji je donio militantnu diktaturu cijeloj Europi i time zaustavioÂrazvitak slobodarskih drzava.ÂÂHrvatski interes prema vanjskom svijetu trebao bi biti prema svim malimÂdrzava, a posebno onim najranjivijim drzavama-otocima, kao sto je spomenutaÂIrska,te Island i Malte U tim sustavima mogla bi se naci uspjesna rijesenjaÂpostojanja i jacanja drzavnih gospodarstva ne samo za Hrvatsku u svomÂkontinentalnom sustavu, nego jos veca korist za hrvatske otoke. Kazu da suÂte drzave-otoci posebno osjetljivi na promjene u svjetskim okvirima, daÂnalaze brza rijesenja i da imaju neprestanu krivulju gospodarskog rasta. UÂsklop tih drzava mogu se ubrojiti Korzika, Azori, i jos neki otoci naÂAtlantiku, koji postoje i zive kao otoci-drzave. Dakako, da bi saznanja oÂtim otocima morao najprije doci od Ministarstva vanjskih poslova, strucnihÂsveucilisnih institucija, a i hrvatski mediji mogli imati zadatak pracenja iÂobavijestavanja o tim drustvima. Nista od toga. U Hrvatskoj se jos uvijekÂizmislja topla voda, a poticaji na takva razmisljanja bivaju grubo odbijena.ÂJos uvijek se traze uzori u velikim drzavama, u zemljama koje ne moguÂsluziti kao primjer jednoj 4,5-miljuntnoj Republici Hrvatskoj.ÂÂIstina, ostaje nada da ce pedantni M. Papic, ako i nepovezan s ikakvomÂsadasnjom hrvatskom institucijom, doprinjeti proucavanju malih drzava iÂtraziti rijesenja za sto dulji i bolji opstanak hrvatske drzave. U tomÂsmislu predlazem i poticem i same clanove Amaca neka citaju, objavljujuÂkarakteristike o tim drzavama i otocima, sto bi pomoglo dobivanja potpunijeÂslike s temom "Kako pomoci Hrvatskoj".ÂÂDrago GeoheliÂÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7507/1/E-wwwantegotovinacom.html Greetings my friends! Some news for you: www.antegotovia.com has been set up to discuss General Gotovina, the war etc. Give the address to anyone who is curious for Croatian views of such matters. It has already made the news in tommorrow's papers Observe:Gotovina U VecernjemYes, that is me! Briandistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Feb 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7509/1/E-FORUM-OF-CROATIAN-UNITY.html ÂFor Dialogue, Tolerance and TogethernessÂÂThe Forum of Croatian Unity (Forum Hrvatske Sloge), an Association ofÂCitizens for Dialogue, Tolerance, and Togetherness, was founded in Zagreb onÂOctober 26, 2001, and was registered on November 13, 2001. It held itsÂBusiness Convention in the European Hall in Zagreb, on December 19. 2001. TheÂfirst National Convention will be held at 6 P.M. on February 14, 2002 in theÂLisinski Hall in ZagrebÂThe Association brings together an impressive number of political heavywÂeights and outstanding figures from all walks (and parties) of CroatianÂpublic life, including former prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors,Âcurrent and former Sabor deputies, university professors, museum directors,Âand professionals. To name just a few: Davorin Rudolf, Zdravko Tomac, FranjoÂGreguric, Josip Juras, Ante Klaric, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Ante Lauc, OsmanÂMuftic, Vladimir Malekovic...ÂAs stated by Dr Davorin Rudolf, the President of the Association, "the ForumÂis not a political party. It is not based on any leftist or rightistÂideology, but on a program of peaceful, stable, progressive, democratic, andÂEuropean Croatia. Our goal is to contribute, among other things, to aÂconsensus concerning the key issues of Croatia and her future."ÂAt the Founding Assembly in October, there were about 50 people, includingÂthe Canadian Member of Parliament of Croatian origin, Janko Peric, whoÂstrongly endorsed the idea, and a number of well-known Croatian Americans.ÂPartnership between Croatian home and abroad is among the planks of theÂAssociation's program.ÂThe Borking Convention presented the Presiding Board of the Association:ÂDavorin Rudolf (President), Osman Mufti_ (Vice President), Josip JurasÂ(Secretary), Marina Voki_-_u_ul, Zdravko Tomac, Ante Klari_, Franjo Greguri_,ÂMirko Bari_i_ (Members), and Ivana Pezo (Secretary to the Board).ÂThe Convention elected the Governing Board of 77 members (with a proviso ofÂextending it up to 120 as the Association spreads throughout Croatia and theÂworld), the Committee of Control, and the Council of the Impartial; itÂadopted eight committees (economy, human rights, legal system, Liberation WarÂissues, national security and internal affair, foreign affairs, health andÂsocial security, and science, education, and culture). The ninth committee,Âfor relations between homeland and the Croats abroad was proposed, and alsoÂadopted. This may be of a particular interest for the Croatian diaspora as,Âin our opinion, partnership between Croats at home and abroad, a creation ofÂa Global Croatia, is a key to stable and prosperous future of Croatia andÂCroatian people, an issue so far either mishandled or neglected by CroatianÂauthorities.ÂÂThe Forum has published a 39 page program booklet which reads as a dream comeÂtrue for anyone who supports a sovereign, modern, democratic, tolerant andÂprosperous Croatia. It is written in Croatian and I will quote just a fewÂspots to give you a foretaste of what the Forum proposes to do.ÂÂThe purpose of the Forum is "to promote and strengthen unity, political andÂsocial dialogue, tolerance and togetherness; democracy, political pluralism,Âstate of law, economic and social progress. It will support an optimal stateÂof human rights for everyone, strengthening of international peace andÂstability, in particular in Southeastern Europe."ÂÂThe creation of the modern Croatian state "is an act of historic proportions,Âand we are proud of our Liberation War (1991-1996). Croatian defenders areÂthe glory of the Motherland… We demand a better future. Let us leave historyÂto historians. We want to live with more satisfaction, and with less worry."ÂÂThe goals of the Forum will be achieved "by working together in unity andÂtolerance… Nobody will help us pull our cart out of quicksand…Our goal isÂnot power, but efficient functioning of the institutions of the state, andÂdecision-making which results in the best, most useful, and timely decisions."ÂÂOn Economy:ÂÂ"… We will support activities that respect hard work, and fight sloth, 'grayÂeconomy', and economic irresponsibility…"ÂÂOn Courts and Law:ÂÂ"The slowness of Croatian courts is unacceptable… Courts must impose laws,Ânot serve as political arms of this or that party… We should all be equal inÂfront of the law…"ÂÂOn Foreign Affairs:ÂÂ"Croatian foreign policy must be decided in Zagreb, and not in foreignÂcenters of power…"ÂÂOn the Hague Tribunal:ÂÂ"We insist on the principle of individual guilt. Nobody should be tried twiceÂfor the same cause… The Liberation War was a defensive war, and for CroatiaÂit was a just war."ÂÂOn Science and Education:ÂÂ"We support bringing Croatian science and education system up to the EuropeanÂstandards as quickly as possible…"ÂÂOn Culture:ÂÂ"The Forum will systematically promote national cultural achievements…"ÂÂOn the Media:ÂÂ"We support free, professional and responsible public media in which there isÂno room for dilettantes, hate-mongers, and informers…"ÂÂOn the Youth:ÂÂ"The young are the best educated section of the Croatian society. But theyÂstand no chance… We support jobs for the young, their quick entering into theÂpolitical system and the administrative structures; we support developmentÂprojects, fresh ideas, and creativity…"ÂÂON CROATS ABROAD:ÂÂ"The Motherland is the firmest link among the Croats all around the world. ByÂmaintaining the dignity of the Croatian state, through patriotism andÂpromotion of trust into financial, economic, and political institutions ofÂthe Republic of Croatia, by promoting efficiency of the legal system, andÂthrough an ongoing dialogue, the links between homeland and the Croats abroadÂcontinue to be strengthened.ÂThe Forum will propose eliminating bureaucratic barriers to investing of theÂfunds of the Croats abroad into the economy of the Republic of Croatia.ÂWe will promote genuine care and political protection for the Croats livingÂin other states, in particular the constitutional rights and equality of theÂCroatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while fully recognizingÂsovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of that state."ÂÂ.ÂOn December 29, acting as the Chair of the Committee for Relations betweenÂthe Homeland and the Croats Abroad I have, additionally, published a positionÂpaper on that topic. Here is a brief summary:ÂÂIn my opinion, without cooperation between the Croats at home and abroad,Âwithout a Global Croatia, a Croatian world interest group in which we allÂwork for the benefit of all, there will be no safe and prosperous future forÂCroatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croatian people. Therefore, weÂpropose to inform and instruct the leadership of the Forum on importantÂissues in the area of the relations between the Croatian home and abroad, ourÂmain goals being:ÂÂ1. Strengthening political links between the Homeland and the Croats abroad.Â2. Stopping the sale of Croatia to foreigners by promoting investment by theÂCroats abroad.Â3. Creating mechanisms for understanding Global Croatian culture, and forÂpresenting a true picture of Croatian culture to the world.Â4. Promoting timely transfer of knowledge and professional experience fromÂDiaspora to the homeland.Â5. Creating a world-wide Croatian lobby to spread truth about Croatia and theÂCroatian people.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂImmediate issue: Representation of the Croats abroad in Croatia in theÂlight of the new electoral law which is being prepared.ÂÂÂÂÂÂI will have a chance to present, in five minutes, our views at theÂConvention on February 15. Your input is most valuable. Please communicateÂyour ideas and views to vgoss@aol.com or at 919-732-7576.ÂÂÂVladimir P. GossÂÂÂÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 29 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7511/1/E-Croatia-and-USA-on-terror.html From the NY Times (January 23) - notes how Croatia is working with USintelligence in war on terrorismA U.S. Prisoner From Bosnia Is Labeled a Top Qaeda AideBy PHILIP SHENONASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - A terrorism suspect handed over to Americans lastweek by Bosnia and Herzegovina has been identified as a Europeanlieutenant in Al Qaeda who was ordered to carry out attacks on Americantargets in the Balkans after Sept. 11, law enforcement and militaryofficials said today.American investigators said intercepted telephone calls and otherevidence showed that the suspect, Bensayah Belkacem, who was believed tobe a native of Algeria or Yemen with Bosnian citizenship, had numerousconversations on cellular telephones last fall with leaders of Al Qaedain Afghanistan.Among them, the officials said, was Abu Zubaydah, the operations chieffor Al Qaeda, who was believed to be one of a handful of men entrustedwith running the terrorism network in the event of Osama bin Laden'sdeath or capture.American officials said Mr. Belkacem, 41, and five other suspects - allof them from Algeria, and all but one naturalized citizens of Bosnia -were handed over Friday to American soldiers in Bosnia and flown to theAmerican naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.The Bosnian government, which arrested the six men in October, agreed toturn them over after Bosnia's supreme court ruled Thursday that notenough evidence existed to hold them there.Suspects: 6 Tied to Terror Are Given to U.S. by Bosnia, Despite CourtRuling (January 19, 2002)The handover has been denounced as illegal by human rights groups and byUnited Nations officials. Bosnian officials have defended theirdecision, noting that the five suspects with Bosnian passports werestripped of their citizenship before they were turned over to the UnitedStates and were not entitled to the due-process rights of citizens.Asked at a Pentagon news conference today about the legality of thehandover, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he had no immediatecomment, though he defended the treatment of the 158 Qaeda and Talibancaptives at Guantánamo.The United States has long been alarmed by the presence in Bosnia ofhundreds of Arab-born Muslim fundamentalists who first traveled there inthe 1990's to help defend the nation's predominantly Muslim populationduring the civil war. Many went there at the direction of Mr. bin Laden,who apparently saw the opportunity for a holy war defending Muslimsagainst from Serbian and Croatian nationalists.About 3,100 American soldiers are now assigned to Bosnia as part of aNATO-led peacekeeping force, and American officials fear that thosetroops are a prime target for the Qaeda cells that are believed to existthere and elsewhere in the Balkans.The officials said F.B.I. and military investigators were particularlyeager to question Mr. Belkacem about the personal background andpossible hiding places of Mr. Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian in hisearly 30's who is believed to have coordinated the terrorist attacksordered by Mr. bin Laden.Mr. Zubaydah has been linked to the bombing of the destroyer Cole inOctober 2000 in Yemen, in which 17 Americans were killed. Nicknamed "theMailman" by terrorist colleagues because of his role in relaying ordersfrom Mr. bin Laden and making sure they were carried out, Mr. Zubaydahwas singled out by President Bush last month when the president listedleaders of Al Qaeda being hunted by the United States.American officials said the six men were arrested in Bosnia on the basisof telephone calls intercepted by American agencies showing that theywere plotting terattacks in Bosnia and elsewhere.Among the targets, the officials said, were the United States Embassy inSarajevo, the Bosnian capital, and the large American militaryencampment outside Tuzla known as Eagle Base. At the time of theirarrest, both the American and British embassies in Sarajevo were closedfor fear that they were targets of imminent attacks.An American military official said Mr. Belkacem had gone to Bosnia inthe 1990's to fight in the civil war. He obtained Bosnian citizenshipafter the war and married a Bosnian woman, settling in Zenica, home tolarge numbers of former foreign Muslim fighters. He worked for anIslamic relief organization.The officials said that shortly after Sept. 11, American intelligenceagencies, working closely with the government of neighboring Croatia,listened in as Mr. Belkacem and others discussed plans for attacks. TheBosnian police were alerted and quickly arrested Mr. Belkacem and theothers.An American official said a search of Mr. Belkacem's home turned up acopy of Mr. Zubaydah's cellphone number in Afghanistan, where he wasthen believed to be hiding with Mr. bin Laden, and several blankpassports."He was apparently on the phone constantly to Afghanistan, with Zubaydahand others," this official said. "There were dozens of calls toAfghanistan."The transfer of Mr. Belkacem and the other prisoners to American custodyprompted street protests in Sarajavo last week by hundreds of supportersof the six captives, including several family members who tried to blockAmerican military vehicles transporting the men from jail.A senior United Nations official in Sarajevo said today that the UnitedStates and Bosnia had both acted illegally."The rule of law was clearly circumvented in this process," theofficial, Madeleine Rees, the representative in Bosnia of the UnitedNations high commissioner for human rights, said at a news conference.There was "no legal basis" for the Bosnian government's decision to handover the men, she said, calling it an "extrajudicial removal fromsovereign territory."Asked whether the United States had pressured the Bosnian government tohand over the six, she said, "The simple answer is, Yes."distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7510/1/E-a-great-expose-destroying-the-premature-German-recongnition-caused-the-war-issue.html These guys have done some good work including a great expose destroying the "premature German recongnition caused the war" issue.Tom KuzmanovicThe Donald W. Treadgold Papers in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies invites submissions of scholarly research in the regions indicated by the title.Publications include articles that may be too long for most journals but too short to appear in book form, as well as papers from sympo ...Contact: treadgld@u.washington.eduURL: depts.washington.edu/reecas/dwt/dwt.htmAnnouncement ID: 129386http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=129386distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 23 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7512/1/E-Sex-drugs-and-illegal-migrants-Sarajevos-export-trade-to-Britain.html http://news.independent.co.uk/world/europe/story.jsp?story=115557© 2002 Independent Digital (UK) LtdA three-part investigation into the traffic in people and drugs from Eastern Europe to the UKBy Ian Burrell in Sarajevo21 January 2002Internal linksImmigration hit squads to target 500,000 illegal workers From the Balkans to brothels in Soho There are wolves, bears and unexploded mines in the snow-covered elm and pine forests that divide Bosnia-Herzegovina from the outside world. Yet the borders of the young state that has become a springboard for illegal immigration to Britain are so porous that thousands of people are smuggled through its 432 mostly unmanned crossing points every month.The situation is so serious that Tony Blair has persuaded the Bosnian government to allow a team of British immigration officials to try to plug the gaps being exploited by international organised crime.Last week, in a mountain gorge that separates Bosnia from Montenegro, Steve Parke, a British immigration officer, and Ian Johnston, a Merseyside police officer, were checking lorries, cars and buses for signs of people headed illegally for the European Union and Britain. Mr Johnston, who works for the United Nations as deputy chief of the Bosnian border service, said: "The border is crossable anywhere. All 1,600 kms [1,000 miles] is passable, depending on how desperate you are to cross into the next country."Mafia gangs in Istanbul and Kosovo are exploiting the post-war destabilisation in the former Yugoslavia, with its weak laws, liberal visa regimes and widespread corruption, to ferry Turkish, Iranian, Iraqi, Albanian and Afghan migrants into Europe for £5,000 a head.A report from the International Organisation for Migration says 120,000 women and child sex workers are trafficked into the European Union each year. In Bosnia, 34,000 foreign visitors have disappeared after flying into Sarajevo airport during the past two years. Most have remained for just a few hours before being taken to the border by people smugglers.In his third-floor office in the blue and white United Nations building overlooking Sarajevo airport, Graham Leese, the project head of the British-led immigration team, is under no illusions about the scale of the problem. "For the EU as a whole - and the UK in particular - the Balkan route has long been identified as the most productive route in terms of illegal migration flows. It's quite easy to bribe border guards to turn a blind eye when you are smuggling across a lorry load of illegal immigrants."Bosnian organised crime is turning over an estimated £170m a year and, according to one member of the British team, government corruption is a major problem. "There are big fish here. They have massive influence and a lot of them are holding senior positions," he said. The view is shared by Ian Cliff, the British ambassador in Sarajevo, who said there was "massive" corruption among government officials administering the districts and cantons established in Bosnia after the Dayton Accord in 1995."It is basically a country that has not built a proper economy since the end of the war," he said. "People look to office as a way of supporting themselves, their families and their extended families."He said officials were subjected to bribery and threats. "Money is used very directly to influence the political system. All sorts of pressures are brought to bear on people through their families and through threats on their jobs."The immigration team, made up of seven Britons and a Dane, is trying to establish the newly-formed Bosnian State Border Service (SBS) along 1,616km of land border. The SBS now controls 36 of 52 international crossings - the rest are staffed by poorly paid police - but hundreds of minor crossings are unmanned.The difficulties for the SBS are apparent at Hum where, 100ft above the river Drina, a steel bridge spans the snow-covered gorge dividing Montenegro, in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, from Srpska, the Serbian sector of Bosnia.In a hut on the Bosnian side, Jagos Matovic, a border guard, said people arriving with Turkish passports had only to show they had the equivalent of £33 for each day of their stay. Most were waved through by guards who lacked the technology or training to check the documents.Mr Johnston said: "A lot of officers think that if people are transiting into Western Europe that's not a problem for Bosnia. We have to educate them that it's creating lots of problems and that Bosnia wants to be part of Europe." Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia want to be part of the EU.Bosnia is also a transit point for thousands of Chinese migrants heading west from the Federal Republic. Mr Leese said there were 50 new Chinese arrivals on each flight into Belgrade from Moscow."I asked [the Yugoslav authorities] how many leave, but they have no record," he said. "They are probably being shipped across the northern border and through the Serbian part of Bosnia."Many of the 58 Chinese migrants found dead at Dover in June 2000 had travelled via Sarajevo, as had eight mainly Turkish migrants found dead in a shipping container in Ireland last month.The British immigration team is likely to be called in by the Belgrade government to tighten border security. A similar request has been made by Romania. The group is proving effective at Sarajevo airport, where British-bought forgery detection equipment and new questioning techniques have disrupted the smugglers.The new vigilance, together with the introduction of a visa requirement for Iranian visitors, reduced "disappearing" airline passengers to 8,400 last year, compared with 25,000 in the previous six months.But Mile Juric, the SBS chief, said the trafficking gangs had switched tactics. He said: "Because of the measures we have undertaken at the airport we can sense bigger pressure from Turkish citizens on the land border crossings."Once in Bosnia, most migrants head for Sarajevo, from where couriers will ferry them onwards. They gather in the Bascarsija district, where the architecture recalls Sarajevo's Ottoman past. In Humska Ulica street a group of Turks congregated at an international telephone booth to arrange the next stage of their journey.Others head straight to the taxi ranks at the city's bus station. Vaha Srce, a taxi driver, said that "all last year" he had been driving the six-hour journey to the northern town of Bihac. His passengers were always Kurdish, always had the US$200 fare (£140) and often asked for the same hotel. Bihac is on the Croatian border, and from there it is just a short hop to Italy and the EU.The clampdown on people smuggling is also made difficult by more than one million unexploded mines in the border areas. Mr Leese said: "There is no way you are going to get immigration officers walking around here. But the people who planted the mines are the same ones who are now taking money to show illegal immigrants across the border."Click Here: Crown Home Pagedistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 22 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7516/1/Postoji-li-zajednicki-interes-Vlade-Republike-Hrvatske-i-dijaspore.html Postoji li prepoznatljiv zajednicki interes Vlade Republike Hrvatske i dijaspore Sudeci prema dostupnim informacijama, domovinski i izvandomovinski hrvatski narod jos nije pronasao put zajednistva, niti je trasirao stazu kojom ce ici u bolju buducnost. Zivi se i radi stihijski, od danas do sutra. Takvim ponasanjem mozemo dovesti u pitanje suverenitet drzave Hrvatske i nacionalni indentitet, koji ce u procesu globalizacije biti jos ugrozeniji. Malom narodu, kao sto je hrvatski, ne smije se dogoditi da pripadnik njihove zajednice bude priznat u drugoj drzavi gdje zivi i radi, a da tome u njegovoj maticnoj drzavi mediji ne pridaju nikakvu vaznost.Na zalost, nama se to dogada. Dr. Nenad Ban profesor je na ETH (Eidgenosische technische Hochschule ) u Svicarskoji i ravnatelj Instituta za molekularnu biologiju i biofiziku istog sveucilista u Svicarskoj. Svjetski je priznat strucnjak. Sveuciliste mijenja nekoliko odredaba Statuta , koje su do tada bile nepromjenjive, kako bi omogucilo dr. Nenadu Banu profesorski i znanstveno-istrazivacki rad u Svicarskoj. Slikar Vlado Franjevic Liechtensteiner Svicarska. Bozicno izdanje lista "Lichttensteinskog dnevnika" na prvoj stranici objavljuje njegovu umjetnicku sliku popracenu tekstom. Nas covjek umire u stranoj drzavi koja, u njegovu cast, mjesec dana nakon njegove smrti u svom glavnom gradu imenuje trg njegovim imenom. Dr. Goran Susic mladi znanstvenik iz Rijeke 10. i 11. sijecnja ove godine predstavio je projekt u UN s kojim hrvatska javnost u Hrvatskoj kao i ona u svijetu nije bila upoznata. Projekt Dr. Gorana Susica koji zasluzuje paznju i koji treba podrzati ako ni zbog nicega, onda zbog ulozenog truda mladog hrvatskog entuzijasta i znanstvenika, nije podrzan. Program "Revitalization of traditional forming throught sustainable tourism and marketing" prijavljen je na natjecaju Svjetske banke, a cilj mu je suzbijanje siromastva farmera u ruralnim podrucjima putem raznolike pomoci: edukacijom seminarima, opremom itd. Na plasmanu u finale (u cemu su uspjela samo dva projekta iz Europe) cestitku mu je uputio Ured Svjetske bankeu Zagrebu te USAID-a/Agencija za medjunarodni razvoj iz SAD-a, koji su prethodno financirali jedan projekt dr. Susica na otoku Cresu sa 12o.ooo US dolara USA. Ujedno su pomogli dr. Susicu da od veleposlanika SAD-a u Hrvatskoj dobije placenu kartu do Washingtona. Dr Goran Susic je projekt predstavljao na vlastitom standu u glavnom sjedistu Svjetske banke u Washingtonu DC pred dva nezavisna ekspertna tima. Ta je manifestacija trajala dva puna dana. Jedini Hrvat koji je za to vrijeme posjetio stand dr. Susica i zazelio mu puno uspjeha, bio je Vedran Podolski, student iz Zagreba koji u Washingtonu boravi s Fulbrightovom stipendijom. Nitko od Hrvata koji zive i rade u Washington ni od hrvatskih diplomatskih predstavnika nije posjetio stand na kojem je dr. izlagao program. Po rijecima dr. Susica zanimljivo je da je bosanski projekt posjetio veleposlanik BiH u SAD-u Igor Davidovic, raniji glasnogovornik premijera Republike Srpske, kojega je zatim do naseg standa dr. Susica dovela gdja Marija Perisic iz Beograda, zaposlena u International Finance Corporation u Washingtonu. Oboje su izrazili zelju da nam pomognu, kao svojim susjedima u Europi. Bosanski veleposlanik je ujedno bio i clan zirija koji je ocjenjivao projekte, a gospodja Perisic je vodila komisiju od projekta do projekta. "Osjecali smo je vrlo jadno, ko sirocad, s obzirom da od nase drzave Hrvatske i njenih sluzbenih predstavnika U Washingtonu ni od dijaspore nitko, bas nitko nije ni blizu dosao, a kamoli pokusao pomoci.Treba naglasiti da je medju finalistima moj program ocijenjen medju 1o% najboljih projekata na svijetu..Gotovo indentican projekt ponudili smo Ministarstvu poljoprivrede RH, koje ga je odbilo, tj ponudilo za njega 75o USA dolara, dok je za realizaciju potrebno 15o.ooo,oo USA dolara." S pravom se postavlja pitanje gdje su predstavnici hrvatke drzave, koji zive i rade u Washingtonu, koje hrvatski narod placa da stite interes drzave Hrvatske i njene gradjane. Gdje je dijaspora? Gdje je organiziran docek i pomoc kod predstavljanja programa iz Hrvatske ? Jesmo li tu prezentaciju iskoristili da se na jos neki nacin predstavimo .Da smo se organizirali i pomogli dr. Goranu Susicu, mozda bi njegov projekt bio prihvacen i Hrvatska bi nepovartno dobila koji dolar vise. Za taj dolar Hrvatska bi bila bogatija i u svijetu prepoznatljivija. Kada ce doci dan kada cemo prestati biti sebi najveci neprijatelji? Hrvatski Klub za Dijasporu www.ic-hrvatskadijaspora.hr Za Klub: Niko Soljak, prof. ing. distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 20 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7515/1/E-Croatia--Energy-Conference-in-DC.html Croatia is doing a "dog and pony" show for the upcoming privatization ofINA, HEP and JANAF. Below is the announcement re the conference in DC.The same delegation will be making trips to NYC and LA.John KraljicCROATIA'S ENERGY INDUSTRY:STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR U.S. COMPANIESCo-sponsored by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the U.S.Department of Commerce in cooperation with the U.S. Export-Import Bank,the Overseas Private Investment CorporationFebruary 13, 20028:30am-5:00pmFour Seasons Hotel2800 Pennsylvania Ave., NWWashington, D.C. 2007ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE:The Government of Croatia is substantially reforming Croatia's energysector to increase competition and create regulatory oversight in linewith European Union rules. It is also accelerating the privatization ofCroatia's three large-state owned companies. High ranking officials fromthe Croatian Ministry of Economy, which is the lead government agencyfor developing and implementing Croatia's energy policy, will visitWashington, DC, to brief U.S. firms on modernization projects andupcoming privatization plans of Industrija Nafte d.d. (INA), thestate-owned oil company; Hrvatska Elektroprivreda d.d. (HEP), thestate-owned electric company; and Jadranski Naftorod d.d (JANAF), thestate-owned oil pipeline company.Energy sector reforms create attractive opportunities for U.S. energycompanies, suppliers of energy equipment services and industry experts.Plans for refinery upgrades, transmission and distribution networkimprovement and the pipeline reversal projects offer significant areasfor U.S. industry involvement. In fact, TDA has recently undertaken afeasibility study to assess the modernization of INA's two refineries.CONFIRMED CROATIAN OFFICALS INCLUDE:Mr. Goranko Fizulic, Minister of Economy, Republic of CroatiaMr. Tomislav Dragicevic, CEO, Industrija Nafte d.d. (INA)Mr. Ivo Covic, CEO, Hrvatska Elektroprivreda d.d. (HEP)Ms. Vesna Trnokop Tanta, CEO, Jadranski Naftorod d.d. (JANAF)U.S. GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES INCLUDE:U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA)U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC)Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im)EVENT HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:First-hand briefings from potential Croatian partners aboutopportunities in its dynamic energy sector;One-on-One meetings with potential Croatian partners, governmentofficials and representatives from U.S. government programs;A keynote luncheon speech by Mr. John Easton, Vice President forInternational Programs, Edison Electric Institute.ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS:This event allows U.S. companies the opportunity to meet one-on-one withthe Croatian officials and companies, and U.S. Governmentrepresentatives. These scheduled meetings allow the company to askspecific questions on upcoming projects, and to introduce the company,its products and its services to those key individuals who willinfluence the final decisions for those projects.Early registrants will receive a delegate and project summary and achance to sign up for these valuable meeting opportunities.TENTATIVE AGENDA:7:30-8:30 am Registration and Continental Breakfast8:30 am Opening Remarks (Senior Officials TBD)U.S. Trade and Development AgencyU.S. Department of Commerce9:15 am Croatia: Energy Sector - Challenges and Prospects for the FutureMr. Goranko Fizulic, Minster of Economy, Republic of Croatia9:45 am Croatia's Energy Industry - Opportunities for U.S. Companies:Representatives of Croatian Energy CompaniesMr. Tomislav Dragicevic, CEO, Industija Nafte d.d. (INA)Mr. Ivo Covic, CEO, HrvatskaElektroprivreda d.d. (HEP)Mr. Vesna Trnokop Tanta, CEO, Jadranski Naftorod d.d (JNAF)11:00 am Coffee Break11:20 am U.S. Government Programs -- Speakers TBDOverview & ModeratorU.S. Trade and Development Agency SpeakerExport-Import Bank of the United States SpeakerOverseas Private Investment Corporation SpeakerU.S. Department of Commerce Speaker12:30 pm LuncheonKeynote Speaker: Mr. John Easton, Vice President for InternationalPrograms, Edison Electric Institute2:00 pm Individual Company Meetings - with the Croatian governmentofficials and three Croatian firms and U.S. government representatives5:00 pm Conclusion of Conference6:30 pm Reception at Embassy of the Republic of CroatiaCONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEE:Credit Card or Check in Advance: $50.00 per attendeeRegistration fee includes all conference sessions, one-on-one meetingswith Croatian delegates, daily refreshments, continental breakfast andlunch. In addition, all attendees will receive profiles of new businessopportunities as presented at the conference.The following types of payment are accepted:Personal credit cardGovernment credit cardCorporate credit cardGovernment purchase orderPlease arrange to have payment made at least 72 hours prior to theconference date.SPECIAL NOTES:(1) This conference is only open to representatives of U.S. companies.(2) The Four Seasons Hotel ONLY offers valet parking.(3) The Four Seasons Hotel is close to the Foggy Bottom and Rosslyn Metro CentersREGISTRATION OPTIONS:[1] Phone: 703-807-2745 and speak with Ms. Kristen Brooks.[2] Email: kbrooks@marketaccess.org[3] Register online: Use our online booking form to register and pay by credit card electronically.[4] Fax: registration form to 703-807-2728.[5] Mail: registration form to: Market*Access International Attn: Kristen Brooks 4301 Wilson Blvd. #1003 Arlington, VA 22203Registration form requires Acrobat Reader.To register by phone or to request more information: Call Kristen Brooks703-807-2745.POINTS OF CONTACT:For general information about this event, please contact Ms. CaraLombardi, 703/807-2743To register for this event, please contact Ms. Kristen Brooks,703/807-2745For specific information pertaining to Croatia's commercial climate,please contact Ms. Silvia Savich at ceebic@ita.doc.gov or Ms. SuzannePhilion at sphilion@tda.govFor One-on-One meeting information, please contact Mr. Fred Eberhart ateberhart@aol.com or 703/631-2250For technical support with this web site, please contact Mr. ParrishKnight, 703/807-2748HOTEL INFORMATION:Four Seasons Hotel2800 Washington Ave., NWWashington DC 20007Tel: 202/342-0444Fax: 202/342-1673RELATED WEBSITES INCLUDE:U.S. Trade and Development Agency at www.tda.govU.S. Department of Commerce, Central and Eastern Europe BusinessInformation Center (CEEBIC), at www.mac.doc.gov/eebic/ceebic.htmlABOUT TDA:The U.S. Trade and Development Agency assists in the creation of jobsfor American by helping U.S. companies pursue overseas businessopportunities. Through the funding of feasibility studies, orientationvisits, training grants, conferences, and various forms of technicalassistance, TDA enables American businesses to become involved in theplanning stages of infrastructure and industrial projects inmiddle-income and developing countries. By doing this, the agencyprovides American firms with market entry, exposure, and information,helping them establish a position in markets that are otherwisedifficult to penetrate.ABOUT CEEBIC:CEEBIC is a business facilitation program for U.S. firms interested inexpanding into the central and Eastern European markets. Established in1990, CEEBIC is a one-stop shop and the US Government's clearing housefor the most recent economic, commercial and financial information onthe 15 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. CEEBIC offers an arrayof services, business counseling and information products for companies.CEEBIC's Washington-based trade specialists and dedicated overseas staffin 15 countries of the region work together to implement this uniqueprogram for U.S. firms.distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 20 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7514/1/American-rangers-sent-to-arrest-Karadzic.html BC-BOSNIA-WAR CRIMES, 03292002-01-14 10:36 (New York)American rangers sent to arrest Karadzic, Bosnian newspaper reportsSarajevo (dpa) - American specialized ranger troops have recently arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina to arrest Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs and most wanted war crimes suspect, the Bosnian Serb daily Nezavisne novine reported Monday. Karadzic's general, war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, who is believed to be hiding at his home in Belgrade, could soon be detained and handed over to The Hague-based war crime tribunal, the paper said quoting a source close to the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia. While Mladic's apprehension depends on tense diplomatic relations between The Hague and the Belgrade regime, the case of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is more complex,'' said the source. It added that U.S. specialized ranger troops arrived in Bosnia to arrest Karadzic after two months of close monitoring over him. Some two weeks ago some 300 rangers were deployed at three different locations in Bosnia - in the east of the country, near the three-border area between Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, and in Romania and Zelengora mountains regions,'' said the source. It also said a fourth group of rangers was formed as a reserve unit. The rangers' only task, according to the source, is the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. U.S. authorities have made an important deal with Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic, under which Montenegro is expected to completely close its borders during a possible operation of Karadzic's arrest, the source said. According to the same source, the American rangers were given logistic support by British peacekeeping troops in Bosnia. The source also said that the rangers are equipped with the best satellite-based guiding equipment to help them in precisely locating Karadzic. No official reactions were given so far to the report. dpa zl baDanny SchechterExecutive Producer, GlobalvisionExecutive Editor, THE MEDIA CHANNELwww.mediachannel.org1600 Broadway #700New York, N.Y. 10019212 246-0202x3006Fax: 212:246-2677distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 20 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7513/1/E-American-rangers-sent-to-arrest-Karadzic.html BC-BOSNIA-WAR CRIMES, 03292002-01-14 10:36 (New York)American rangers sent to arrest Karadzic, Bosnian newspaper reportsSarajevo (dpa) - American specialized ranger troops have recently arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina to arrest Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs and most wanted war crimes suspect, the Bosnian Serb daily Nezavisne novine reported Monday. Karadzic's general, war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, who is believed to be hiding at his home in Belgrade, could soon be detained and handed over to The Hague-based war crime tribunal, the paper said quoting a source close to the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia. While Mladic's apprehension depends on tense diplomatic relations between The Hague and the Belgrade regime, the case of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is more complex,'' said the source. It added that U.S. specialized ranger troops arrived in Bosnia to arrest Karadzic after two months of close monitoring over him. Some two weeks ago some 300 rangers were deployed at three different locations in Bosnia - in the east of the country, near the three-border area between Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro, and in Romania and Zelengora mountains regions,'' said the source. It also said a fourth group of rangers was formed as a reserve unit. The rangers' only task, according to the source, is the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. U.S. authorities have made an important deal with Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic, under which Montenegro is expected to completely close its borders during a possible operation of Karadzic's arrest, the source said. According to the same source, the American rangers were given logistic support by British peacekeeping troops in Bosnia. The source also said that the rangers are equipped with the best satellite-based guiding equipment to help them in precisely locating Karadzic. No official reactions were given so far to the report. dpa zl baDanny SchechterExecutive Producer, GlobalvisionExecutive Editor, THE MEDIA CHANNELwww.mediachannel.org1600 Broadway #700New York, N.Y. 10019212 246-0202x3006Fax: 212:246-2677distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 20 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7517/1/E-Appointment-of-Sanja-Crnkovic-to-the-UN-ECOSOC-in-New-York.html Click Here: Crown Home Page PRESS RELEASE January 17, 2002 Appointment of Sanja Crnkovic, dipl. oec.We are pleased to announce that Sanja Crnkovic, dipl.oec. has joined the United Nations team of the Croatian World Congress as Representative to the U.N.-ECOSOC in New York. Economist Crnkovic was appointed to this position by the Main International Representative to the United Nations, Mr. Mario Viscovich.Ms. Crnkovic will also serve on several CONGO Substantive Committees, which are within the United Nations. Economist Crnkovic earned her bachelor degree in Economics at the University of Rijeka,and completed all course work for a B.A. in Cultural Management at the same University.In Croatia she was a Specialist for Defense and Security.She is an Art Assistant at East Side Middle School in New York City, an Artist's Agent, and a Freelance Journalist and Editor.Presently she is a Teacher in Croatian School in Astoria,New York.For more information on this and other United Nations events, you can contact Mario Viscovich at MViscovich@aol.com.distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 17 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7519/1/E-The-Forum-of-Croatian-Unity-Forum-Hrvatske-Sloge.html Click Here: Crown Home PageFor Dialogue, Tolerance and TogethernessZagreb, December 19, 2001. The Forum of Croatian Unity (Forum Hrvatske Sloge), An Association of Citizens for Dialogue, Tolerance, and Togetherness, held its working convention in the European Hall in Zagreb, on December 19. 2001. The Association was founded in Zagreb on October 26, 2001, and was registered on November 13, 2001.The Association brings together an impressive number of political heavyweights and outstanding figures from all walks of Croatian public life, including former prime ministers, ministers, ambassadors, current and former Sabor deputies, university professors, museum directors, and professionals. To name just a few: Davorin Rudolf, Zdravko Tomac, Franjo Greguric, Josip Juras, Ante Klaric, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Ante Lauc, Vladimir Malekovic..."The Forum is not a political party," Dr Davorin Rudolf, the President of the Association, said in his opening speech. "It is not based on any leftist or rightist ideology, but on a program of peaceful, stable, progressive, democratic, and European Croatia. Our goal is to contribute. among other things, to a consensus concerning the key issues of Croatia and her future."At the Founding Assembly in October, there were about 50 people, including the Canadian Member of Parliament of Croatian origin, Janko Peric, and a number of well-known Croatian Americans. Partnership between Croatian home and abroad is among the planks of the Association's program.The working convention presented the Presiding Board of the Association: Davorin Rudolf (President), Osman Mufti_ (Vice President), Josip Juras (Secretary), Marina Loki_-_u_ul, Zdravko Tomac, Ante Klari_, Franjo Greguri_, Mirko Bari_i_ (Members), and Ivana Pezo (Secretary to the Board).The Convention elected the Governing Board of 77 members (with a proviso of extending it up to 120 as the Association spreads throughout Croatia), the Committee of Control, and the Council of the Impartial; it adopted eight committees (economy, human rights, legal system, Liberation War issues, national security and internal affair, foreign affairs, health and social security, and science, education, and culture). The ninth committee, for relations between homeland and the Croats abroad was proposed, and also adopted. This may be of a particular interest for the Croatian diaspora as, in our opinion, partnership between Croats at home and abroad, a creation of a Global Croatia, is a key to stable and prosperous future of Croatia and Croatian people, an issue so far either mishandled or neglected by Croatian authorities. Let us hope that the new Association may bring this home to the current Croatian Government!The National Convention of the Forum is set for January 17, 2002. The "Forum Hrvatske Sloge" (The Forum of Croatian Unity) Establishes Committee for Relations Between Homeland and the Croats AbroadZagreb, January 1, 2002. - The Committee for Relations Between Homeland and the Croats Abroad of the "Forum Hrvatske Sloge" (The Forum of Croatian Unity), an NGO dedicated to "dialogue, tolerance, and unity," has initiated its work with the coming of the new year. The Committee is headed by the Croatian-American writer, journalist, and scholar, Vladimir Goss; its members are: Drazen Jurkovic, Ivanka Jelic, Marina Vokic-Zuzul, Ante Lauc, Nada Plesnik, Zdravko Mrsic, Vesna Skare-Ozbolt, Ivan Majdak and Vuk Peric (U.S.). As the Forum gains more members abroad, the Committee will add several representatives from Croatian diaspora. The main objective of the Committee is to advise the leadership and the members of the Forum on the current issues bearing in relations between the Homeland and the Croats abroad, to prepare relevant materials for the media, and to act as a bridge between the Forum and the Croatian diaspora. Among its direct goals, one should stress creating ties between Croatia and its diaspora, attracting Croatian diaspora investment and stopping the sale of Croatia's assets to foreigners, creating mechanisms for studying and understanding Global Croatian culture, transfer of knowledge and professional experience, and building a Global Croatia lobby to spread truth about Croats and Croatia. According to a member of the Committee, one of the immediate issues facing the Committee is "representation of the dispora Croats in the Croatian Sabor... since a new electoral law is being prepared, and this would be a good opportunity to present, loudly and clearly, our attitude toward the role of the diaspora in Croatia's future." The Forum was founded in Zagreb on October 26, and it held its Working Convention on December 19. The Forum, headed by Dr. Davorin Rudolf, is not a political party, does not subscribe to any right or left ideology, but is working on a program of a peaceful, stable, democratic and European Croatia. Among other things, the Forum wants to contribute to a consensus on strategic questions facing Croatia today. For the time being, until the Forum establishes its e-mail and web-site, for more information please contact vgoss@aol.comdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 15 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7518/1/EH-January-15-1992---January-15-2002---15-Sijecnja-1992---15-Sijecnja-2002.html Click Here: Crown Home PageJanuary 15, 1992 - January 15, 200215 Sijecnja 1992 - 15 Sijecnja 2002distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 15 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7520/1/Relation-btwn-the-Hague-and-FRY---What-is-Croatia-doing.html Click Here: Crown Home PageVjesnik ran an excellent commentary today, Jan. 9, by Mark Baresic concerning the ICTY and its relations with Belgrade. This is a letter I wrote to Vjesnik, with an English translation attached.John KraljicS velikim sam zadovoljstvom procitao komentar Marka Baresica o odnosu Haskog suda sa SRJ (Vjesnik, 9. I. 2002).Pitanje je zasto se tek pred nekoliko mijeseca podigla optuznica protiv Milosevica za ratne zlocine u Hrvatskoj i Bosna i Hercegovinu? Zasto je Haski sud pustio iz pritvroa Plavsic, optuzena za genocid? Isto tako, zasto je sud pustio da Plavsic ide u Beogradu kad SRJ nista ne poduzima da suradjuje s ICTY?Medjunarodni cimbenici po svemu sudeci ne stavljaju pritisak na SRJ da ispuni svoje obveze prema ICTY-u. Ocito je da jedino Hrvatska ima moc prekinuti igru koju vodi SRJ. Hrvatska vlada, koja je ispunila skoro sve svoje obaveze prema ICTY-u, trebala bi zahtjevati da SRJ takodjer ispunjava svoje obaveze prema ICTY-u. Ako SRJ jos uvijek odbija da suradjuje, onda Hrvatska mora prijetiti da ce prekinuti suradnju s ICTY-om.Nijedna drzava nece nista poduzeti da se Srpski ratne zlocinci dovedu na sud osim Hrvatske. Ovo je obaveza koju vlada mora poduzeti da bi pravda bili izvrsena. U protivnom, svijet ce nam se smijati.S postovanje, John Kraljic, Predsjednik - National Federation of Croatian Americans, New York, USA With great satisfaction I read the commentary of Mark Baresic concerning relations between the Hague and FRY (Vjesnik, January 9, 2002).One must ask why charges were only raised against Milosevic in the past several months for war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina? Why did the ICTY allow Plavsic, charged with genocide, to be released from detention? Moreover, why did the Court allow Plavsic to go to Belgrade when FRY does nothing to cooperate with the ICTY?International factors, by all accounts, place no pressure on FRY to fulfill its obligations toward the ICTY. The Croatian government, which has fulfilled almost all of its obligations toward the ICTY, must demand that FRY fulfill its obligations as well. If FRY continues to refuse to cooperate, then Croatia must threaten to break its cooperation with the ICTY.Not one state will do anything to bring Serbian war criminals to trial other than Croatia. This an obligation which the government must undertake for justice to be carried out. If not, the world will laugh at us.distributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 13 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7521/1/Yugoslavia-documentary.html Click Here: Crown Home PageFrom: Gerard , Hilda Foley To: KNPMurphy@aol.comCc: Program@KOCE.orgSubject: Yugoslavia documentaryDear Mr. Murphy:Regarding the recently aired documentary :"Yugoslavia Yesterday, Todayand Tomorrow" the criticism lies not so much in what was presented butin what was omitted. Considering that it was sponsored by ICN, whosechairman is Serb national Milan Panic, a person very involved inYugoslav/Serb politics, it should not come as a surprise. Several statements were made which were misleading and therefore wouldnot be understood by the viewership in the right context. It wasmentioned that in WWI Croatia and Slovenia "alined themselves" againstSerbia. There is no explanation that both countries were at that timepart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and consequently had no choice. Second, there is no mention of Serbia's often brutal subjugation and themurders of Croatia's intelligentsia in both Yugoslavias. No mention ofthe killing of four Croatian Representatives, including the much admiredpacifist leader Stjepan Radic in the Parliament in Belgrade in 1928. Allof this is also part of Yugoslavia's history. The Croatian Nazi puppet state of WWII is mentioned, where tens ofthousands of Serbs and Jews were killed, but no mention is made of theequally brutal Serb Nazi puppet state of WWII under Serb general Nedic,where also tens of thousands of Jews and other nationalities were killed.Serbs proudly declared to the Germans that "Belgrade is now Jew-free"!Then there is the myth, too often perpetuated by Serb propaganda, thatSerb partisans drove the Germans out of Yugoslavia. Nothing could befurther from the truth. The antifascist partisans were organized byCroats in June of 1941, their leader was Josip Broz "Tito" - half Croat,half Slovene, and while he was a communist, the large majority of theCroatians that comprised the partisan movement fighting the Germans andItalians were simply antifascist freedom fighters. The Serbs wereroyalist Chetniks, who mostly fought against the partisans and oftencollaborated with the Germans and Italians. Their brutality caused afascist Italian major to threaten them with the withdrawing of supplies, yet one of their leaders, Orthodox priest Djuic, lived happily ever afterhere in So. California instead of being extradited to Yugoslavia on warcrime charges. Croatia's city Vukovar, that was demolished by the Serbs in 1991 ismentioned, but given the impression that "it had a large Serb population"It was 37%, and that included Yugoslav military personnel living there.The 63% of non-Serbs, mostly Croats, were brutally driven out, which wasshown in the film. The film shows the market place bombing in Sarajevo, cleverly puttingdoubt as to who did it - suggesting that the Bosnian Muslims did it tothemselves - but it did not mention the worst massacre of the whole war,the 7,000 Bosnians murdered in Srebrenica. Is it because no one in thewhole world could have doubt as to who did it?The crux of the matter is, no one should have the right to revise historyand documentaries should not be presented which do not tell the wholestory. Sincerely,Hilda M. FoleyNational Federation of Croatian Americansdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachments is strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possible extent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender by telephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 11 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7522/1/Interview---Mijo-Brajkovic-most-successful-exporter-from-BH.html Interview - Mijo Brajkovic, most successful exporter from BHÂpolitics/entrepreneurshipÂÂFrank BrozovichÂÂJanuary 07, 2002ÂÂÂÂHEADLINES, Monday January 07, 2002ÂÂSource: Slobodna Dalmacija, January 04, 2002ÂÂÂINTERVIEW: MIJO BRAJKOVIC, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF THE ALUMINIJ MOSTAR COLOSSUS,ÂTHE MOST SUCESSFUL EXPORTER FROM BiHÂÂAluminij d.d. Mostar ended one more fiscal year with exceptional results inÂspite of the political spasm it was working in. We asked Mijo Brajkovic howÂthe company and he himself handled all of this, and will it finally pull outÂof this political squeeze this year.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Despite political pressure, we made production progress in theÂyear 2001. we reached record metal production of 95.6 thousand tons, whichÂis our all-time record. That is an increase of 1,000 tons and it put us atÂthe top among aluminum producers in the world.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe average pay in Aluminij is 1,300 marks, and we all receivedÂChristmas bonuses in the amount of 70% of our pays. I would like to seeÂsomeone in Croatia boast with these results. If we add that in the past yearÂwe set aside 17 million KM for customs, duties, benefits, and taxes, then weÂcan ask ourselves what these petty politicians want from us and how long willÂthey keep accusing us."ÂÂÂAnd what kind of financial results resulted from that? How much did AluminijÂexports, in 2001, amount to?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Increased productivity and production didn't follow evenÂexpected financial indicators. Our products are on the world's aluminumÂmarket in London, and their price fell last year. Aside from that, ourÂexports for the year 2001 amount to 300 million DEM, and we export toÂGermany, Switzerland, France, USA, Canada, and other countries.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIt can be said that Aluminij has become a pet in the world; it isÂthe only BiH representative in the business world of the West and receivesÂcredit without any problems.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Federal Premier Alija Behmen stated recently that BiH did notÂreceive anything from the international community in 2001, but we are justÂrealizing a credit of 140 million DEM for electrolysis modernization, andÂthese days we are finalizing credit for rolling mill modernization.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂTwo months ago, in Geneva, we received a plaque for the qualityÂof our products. And while others in the world are praising us, in BiH weÂare being labeled and accused."ÂÂÂIn the year 2001, political pressure on Aluminij, and on yourself personally,Âwas fierce, how did your foreign partners react to that?ÂÂÂ"That nasty politics didn't vacillate our partners and investors in the world.ÂÂÂThe BiH delegation lead by Dr. Zlatko Lagumdzija visited Europe and informedÂon the pressures to Aluminij. I think that Dr. Lagumdzija was told that ourÂcompany is a strategic partner of German companies and that it would be wiseÂto treat Aluminij d.d differently.ÂÂÂA substantial amount of German capital is invested into Aluminij, and itÂisn't good that its leadership be exhausted in defense from politicalÂaccusations."ÂÂÂAnd what impact did this have on Aluminij itself?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"We say that politics didn't cause any damage in the world, butÂwithin our country it did because we had to expend 30% of our force onÂskirmishing, and not on production."ÂÂÂThe Republic of Croatia, actually TLM Sibenik, owns about 20% of AluminijÂshares. It is the first Aluminij investor?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"We learned that they reacted somewhat secretively in order toÂprotect the interests of TLM. We would have liked it if they did this loudlyÂand publicly, so that our people know what's going on.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThe Republic of Croatia invested 18 million DEM in the firstÂsteps of renewing Aluminij, and it is the first investor. That is capitalÂthat the Republic of Croatia itself must protect, and it was brought intoÂquestion with some sort of petty-political games.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂAnd the blow to TLM's capital is a clear message to all foreignÂinvestors that investing into BiH is not safe, and thus is not smart."ÂÂÂLagumdzija announced that priority number one for the New Year is theÂcontinuation of economic reforms in BiH; which were begun with the arrival ofÂthe Alliance to rule. What are those economic reforms?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"I am not aware of those reforms. They haven't reached us yet,Âbut I'm happy when I read about it. We in Aluminij will be the first toÂwelcome economic reforms."ÂÂÂAccording to Lagumdzija the second priority of those reforms is strengtheningÂstate authorities and its institutions. What do you think about that?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Without real economic reforms at the whole of BiH level, thereÂcan't be those on the plan of state government and its institutions. TheÂstate is not its own purpose and must be regulated with good laws. It mustÂopen itself to those who work successfully and export, and that doesn't exist.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂThere are no reforms if those who work successfully and exportÂare not stimulated, because then we will create a black and gray economyÂourselves, which will cause the priorities to be endangered, and that meansÂthe economy."ÂÂÂWhat does that mean from your experience in Aluminij?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Our company is the largest exporter in BiH, but we neverÂreceived even 1KM in the name of stimulation, rather certain people, who weÂknow of, blacken our name to our exporters. That was done without success.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂWe pay the most expensive electric energy. We paid for warÂdamages by ourselves, we resolved the issue of laid off employees on our own,Âand we are proud to say that Aluminij did not receive a penny of the manyÂbillions of dollars that the international community invested into BiH."ÂÂÂHERCEGOVACKA BANKA STILL OWES US MONEYÂÂÂAs long as we are talking about these problems, tell us how you personallyÂcame to be on the Hercegovacka Banka provisional administrator's unfit list?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"That at any rate is a question to ask Toby Robinson. IÂpersonally don't have an account, a savings-bank book, or credit withÂHercegovacka Banka. Nor am I a shareholder of the bank. The same goes forÂAluminij. We operated through this bank and all of this was done veryÂcorrectly.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂHowever, Hercegovacka Banka owes us 300 thousand dollars, so weÂshould put it on our list. The facts are not important in this whole matter,Âbut rather that I am Mijo Brajkovic and I don't expect that someone willÂapologize to me for this false accusation."ÂÂÂThe decisions on laid-off Aluminij employees and severance pays made theirÂway to the FBiH Council for executing Article 143 of the Labor Law. How didÂthey pass over with this institution?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"Erneveza Grustanovic, the president of that Council, announcedÂon the Federal Television before Christmas that only Aluminij's decisionsÂwere brought out in accordance with the law. She added that Aluminij'sÂdecisions were prioritized to have their legality evaluated. We askÂourselves why we were a federal priority, as if we are the biggest criminalsÂin this country.ÂÂÂAnd now that the council has announced that everything is in perfect order, IÂpersonally protest against those labor unionists, politicians, andÂjournalists, who accused and labeled us as nationalistic hardliners for sixÂwhole years. If there were rule of law in BiH, we would sue them, but we areÂaware of the fact that nothing would come of it."ÂÂÂWhat is up with the privatization of Aluminij? Why hasn't privatization comeÂto order yet?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"First I would like to say that according to existing validÂdocumentation, Aluminij is a company of cantonal relevance, and is under theÂauthorization of the Cantonal Agency for Privatization, not the FederalÂAgency. Two years ago we submitted all the necessary documentation forÂprivatization to the Cantonal Agency, but nothing has been set in motion yet."ÂÂÂWhat is the hold up?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"We were told that they were waiting for the OHR's report onÂAluminij's operations, which was completed three months ago, and stillÂnothing. Somebody is obstructing this and we are afraid that ourÂprivatization will fall into the pre-election scissors, and that many peopleÂwill begin to lay claim on us and manipulate with us.ÂÂÂAnd this would be damaging to all the peoples as well as to our region. WeÂwonder how other companies that submitted their documentation to the CantonalÂAgency after we did, have gone into privatization, and we are still waiting.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂSomebody has to explain to us what the hold-up is when the lawÂclearly states that two months after submitting documentation, if no faultsÂare found, privatization must be implemented."ÂÂÂYou are moving towards modernization of the whole company, all of itsÂcomponents, which will be completed by June of this year. What is the wordÂon human resources for the new technologies?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"We hold the principle of new people for new technologies, and weÂdo so by sending our people abroad on specialization. To date we have sentÂeighteen of our people to the USA, eighteen to Germany, and at the currentÂtime we have two groups in Sweden who are doing a course on expenses forÂAluminij. We know that new technology and new equipment are not enough, butÂthat the people are what is important, and that is how we act. We must beÂconcerned about the future of Aluminij, and that means young employees."ÂÂÂWe are currently in the beginning of the year 2002, and what does this yearÂhold for Aluminij?ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ"In June of this year we will complete the modernization that isÂcurrently in process, and an increase in production will follow immediately.ÂBy the end of the year we will have produced 101 thousand tons of metal, andÂin the year 2003, production will reach 118 thousand tons. Imagine whatÂconstant increases in production, and not hiring new people, means for BiH.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂIncreasing capacity utilization and lowering the cost ofÂproduction? Have you ever heard anyone in BiH talk of increasing productionÂand productivity?ÂÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Wed, 09 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7529/1/E-Carla---figure-of-the-year-in-The-Scotsman.html International figure of the yearÂÂThe Scotsman - United Kingdom; Dec 29, 2001ÂÂÂKNOWN by Sicilian mobsters as La Puttana (the whore) and by SlobodanÂMilosevic as "the new Gestapo", Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor at theÂinternational tribunal in The Hague, worked in 2001 to bring the formerÂYugoslav leader to justice.ÂÂÂShe made legal history in February with the first war crimes trial in whichÂrape was depicted as a tool of war and a crime against humanity. In thatÂcase, three Serbs were jailed for the systematic rape and torture of womenÂand girls during the Bosnian war.ÂÂÂAs attorney general in Switzerland, she was the only figure in public lifeÂwith a round-the-clock armed guard.ÂÂÂNow Ms del Ponte is taking on NATO. This week she deplored the fact that theÂformer Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, and his military commander,ÂRatko Mladic, were still at large. NATO was the most powerful organisation onÂEarth, she told the BBC, so why had they not been captured?ÂÂÂGood question, and it was not for want of trying by the tireless Ms del Ponte.ÂÂAll Material Subject to CopyrightÂÂÂBrian GallagherÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7528/1/E-HAS-MESIC-LOST-TOUCH-WITH-HIS-OWN-PEOPLE.html HAS MESIC LOST TOUCH WITH HIS OWN PEOPLE?ÂÂÂcommentary byÂÂÂJean W. Lunt-MarinovicÂÂÂThere have been two defining moments in American culture in the 20th centuryÂwhich have bound American people in common suffering -- and suffering is whatÂultimately binds a nation -- the assassination of President Kennedy and theÂterrorist attacks on the 11th of September. The Croatian nation and itsÂpeople have been bound in common suffering during the 20th century also.ÂÂÂFirstly, the unprecedented assassination of five Croatian 'front benchers' inÂa full session of parliament in Belgrade, by Serbian assassin Punisa Racic,Âbrought the entire Croatian nation into the streets in mourning and inÂprotest for several days in 1928. Secondly, after World War II, hundreds ofÂthousands of Croatian men, women and children were massacred and thrown intoÂvarious pits along a march of death ordered by Tito. Current excavations inÂSlovenia are uncovering horrific evidence, and many other sources acknowledgeÂthat this tragedy undeniably happened -- sources differing only as to numbersÂand who was actually guilty: the Yugoslav Partisans or the British. In theÂspring of 1945 the Croatian nation and half a million of its people wereÂbutchered because of the bloody Yugoslav idea -- every Croatian family hasÂits own victims.ÂÂÂIn December 2001, Croatia's President Mesic awarded the highest CroatianÂmedal to the widow of Sir Fitzroy Maclean posthumously on his behalf. ThisÂlatest anti-Croatian outrage is proof that President Mesic of Croatia hasÂlost all touch with his own people.ÂÂÂNeither the British nor the Americans are anxious to bring up these terribleÂcrimes against humanity and have kept as much evidence as possible hidden inÂarchives since WWII. To date no attempt to investigate those post WWIIÂcrimes (against the Geneva Convention 1929), known as the Bleiburg Genocide,Âhave been carried out at an official level in Britain.ÂÂÂIn World War II the British people and Allies worked and fought to defeatÂNazism -- the installation of post-war communist regimes in East and SouthÂEastern Europe was definitely not the reason that they fought and died.ÂAccording to former President Truman in the book 'Strategies of Containment',ÂTito killed more than 400,000 of his opponents in communist Yugoslavia beforeÂhe could finally establish himself as a dictator. If at least one of Tito'sÂwestern allies acknowledged that more than 400,000 of Tito's opponents wereÂmurdered, and other sources agreed that those killed were mostly Croats, thenÂthere was surely even more Croatian victims. These crimes need to beÂinvestigated officially, and certainly not rewarded.ÂÂÂSome evidence has gradually surfaced over the decades from archives to proveÂthat high-ranking British officials were instrumental in bringing Tito toÂpower. During WWII Fitzroy Maclean had been the key figure in the making orÂbreaking of the Yugoslav Partisans. As the British Liaison officer for PrimeÂMinister Churchill, already stationed inside wartime Yugoslavia, FitzroyÂMaclean (formerly of the British diplomatic service in Moscow and fluent inÂRussian) secured Allied support for Tito and the communist 'Yugoslav'ÂPartisans. The legacy of Fitzroy Maclean went beyond the defeat of HitlerÂhowever. The British decision to support Tito secured the creation of aÂsecond totalitarian communist Yugoslavia which led to the deaths of hundredsÂof thousands of innocent Croatian civilians.ÂÂÂThere is no doubt that Fitzroy Maclean was well aware of high level ordersÂregarding the fate of Tito's Croatian opponents, as he dined in Belgrade inÂthe spring of 1945 with Tito. According to F. Lindsay in 'Beacons in theÂNight -- With the OSS and Tito's Partisans in Wartime Yugoslavia', AmericansÂassigned to Fitzroy Maclean during WWII accepted the fact that the YugoslavÂoperation was under British command. Thus any knowledge or complicityÂregarding the post-war genocide of Croatian civilians and prisoners of warÂrests with the British more than the Americans, and certainly with 'Tito'sÂterrorists'.ÂÂÂTo this day much controversy and buck-passing still surrounds theÂresponsibility for the murder of all of Tito's Croatian opposition during theÂspring of 1945. The awarding of a medal posthumously to Fitzroy Maclean isÂincomprehensible to me, and to Croatian people, and the rational judgment ofÂthe current Croatian president is in question, as is his next electionÂvictory. Who will Mesic punish, or reward next? Punisa Racic? It is as ifÂAmericans awarded a medal to Lee Harvey Oswald or Benedict Arnold, or to BinÂLaden. On thing is for sure, no German leader would ever award a medalÂposthumously to Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris of Bomber Command for theÂunnecessary cruel bombing and killing of over a hundred thousand refugees andÂcivilians in Dresden.ÂÂÂwritten byÂÂJean W. Lunt-Marinovic, Australia, 2 January 2002.Âdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7527/1/E-IS-CROATIA-HEADING-EAST.html Croatian Herald, December 14, 2001.ÂÂIS CROATIA HEADING EAST?ÂÂby Brian Gallagher,ÂÂOn 29 October Prime Minister Racan signed the Stabilisation and AssociationÂAgreement (SAA) between Croatia and the European Union (EU). EU ExternalÂRelations commissioner Chris Patten denied any intention of recreatingÂYugoslavia. Prime Minister Racan claimed that Croatia could accept regionalÂco-operation but not regional fate. Not only do articles 11-14 of theÂcontradict the Prime Minister, but a speech made by Chris Patten demonstratedÂa desire to recreate Yugoslavia in some form leading to a 'West Balkans'Âpolitical structure; a vision seemingly publicly agreed to by the CroatianÂforeign minister.ÂÂÂÂÂArticles 11-14 firmly of the SAA link Croatia to the rest of the SAAÂstates: former Yugoslavia - minus Slovenia plus Albania. These articlesÂrequire Croatia to sign 'bilateral' agreements on 'regional conventions' withÂother states that sign and SAA agreement with the EU. The 'regionalÂconventions' cover areas such as political dialogue, a free trade area,Âmutual concessions on movement of workers and capital as well as matters suchÂas the field of Justice and Home Affairs.ÂÂÂÂÂThese 'bilateral' agreements must be concluded within 2 years of each SAAÂstate signing such an agreement. If not, all relations with the EU cease.ÂCroatia's fate is very firmly tied then with that of Macedonia, Yugoslavia,ÂBosnia-Hercegovina and Albania. All countries with serious problems, withÂwhich close association will do Croatia tremendous harm.ÂÂÂÂÂA few days before the signing of the SAA, on 25 October, Chris Patten gaveÂthe opening statement to the Regional Conference for South East EuropeÂ(Stability Pact) in Bucharest. His speech focused on the SAA. What he had toÂsay should cause every Croatian citizen grave concern.ÂÂÂÂÂPatten said that one way of shoring up strong institutions in the 'WesternÂBalkans' is by the EU strategy of "re-connecting the ties that bind peoplesÂof the region together". A somewhat clear admission of his desire to restoreÂsome form of Yugoslavia.ÂÂÂÂÂIn the speech, Patten elaborated on the 'Western Balkans' plan. He clearlyÂstates that the SAA is "more than a bilateral process." He wants to seeÂcountries "weave a web of bilateral and regional relationships betweenÂthemselves, as a basis for greater economic and political stability in theÂregion". He wants the region to establish "a network of close contractualÂrelations among themselves mirroring the bilateral relationship with the EUÂcontained in SA agreements". It is clear that from this that Patten sees aÂregional fate for Croatia in the 'Western Balkans'; one cannot concludeÂotherwise. He appears to advocating a 'Western Balkans' mini EU. Indeed, itÂsounds like it may be a structure even deeper than the former Yugoslavia.ÂÂÂÂÂHe firmly states the a country's ability in implementing this part of theÂSAA agenda will be highly influential in the EU assessment of a country'sÂability to join the EU - create a mini Balkan EU or you don't get into theÂEuropean Union. It is worth noting here that Chris Patten was the formerÂBritish Conservative Party chairman between 1990-2, the period during whichÂthe Conservative government did tremendous damage to Croatia, and was a closeÂconfidante of John Major. In other words, he is not a natural ally forÂCroatia.ÂÂÂÂÂAt the same conference, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula gave aÂspeech. Did he disagree with Chris Patten's West Balkan's 'web' destiny forÂCroatia? Did he advocate an individual approach for Croatia, as Slovenia didÂwith such success? Not a bit of it. "Croatia will not fail to remain true toÂthe aspect of the Stabilisation and Association Process which promotesÂregional stability in our common interest". It would appear that MinisterÂPicula is sold on the 'Western Balkans' vision for Croatia.ÂÂÂÂÂHowever, it seems that all this is not being made clear to the CroatianÂpeople. Indeed, the contrary impression is being given. The joint declarationÂof the EU and Croatia on political dialogue at the signing of the SAA hasÂamongst its aims merely a comment on "promoting regional co-operation" andÂdeveloping "good neighbourly relations". This hardly gives an indication toÂthe reality of articles 11-14 or tie in with Chris Patten's 'Western Balkans'Âvision. The comments in the declaration on the matter mask the reality ofÂwhat is meant by "regional co-operation".ÂÂÂÂÂOn the occasion of the signing of the SAA, Chris Patten claimed that the EUÂdoes not wish to create a new Yugoslavia. He did not mention his 'WestÂBalkans' web vision or his "reconnecting ties" ideas. Prime Minster RacanÂstated that Croatia is prepared for regional co-operation but not ties.ÂÂÂÂÂThis conflicts somewhat with both articles 11-14 and Patten's BucharestÂspeech. It would appear that one thing is told to Croats; another to theÂinternational community. Indeed, the Croatian government approach seems to beÂto domestically claim that they are firmly against any idea of regionalÂstructures - but signing up to them anyway in the hope that nobody notices.ÂÂÂÂÂIt is important to note that Croatia is not being forced to do anythingÂhere; Slovenia ensured it was not part of this plan simply by refusing allÂregional ideas. Croatia has accepted the SAA with enthusiasm. Chris PattenÂsaid that creating ties between the SAA countries would be a factor inÂdetermining EU entry. Yet, by creating ties with such economic and politicalÂdisaster areas such as Serbia and Albania, the chances of Croatia joining theÂEU will fall dramatically.ÂÂÂÂÂWhat is truly insidious about the whole SAA/'West Balkan' process is thatÂit will not happen overnight - it will happen over a period of years. OnlyÂCroatia and Macedonia have signed the SAA, and the agreements have to beÂagreed by all EU national parliaments. Essentially, this is a long process.ÂIn about ten years time Croats will suddenly realise they are in somethingÂcalled the 'West Balkans' and not the EU and wonder how it happened.ÂÂÂÂÂIn Serbia, there are no illusions about what is happening. Serbian PrimeÂMinister Zoran Djindjic recently visited the United States. There, he putÂforward ideas to "advance the region's economic integration". He even gave aÂreport on countries in the region, expanding to include Bulgaria and Romania.ÂOf Croatia, he noted that it was "not so fast in doing reforms as expected".ÂIt would appear that Mr Djindjic perhaps has ambitions beyond being merelyÂPrime Minister of Serbia. It is supremely ironic that the Croatian people'sÂeagerness to join the EU and the West may be used against them to end up in aÂ'Western Balkans' association firmly faced East.ÂÂÂÂÂMy thanks to Claire Wardley for pointing me to the Patten speech.ÂÂÂÂÂChris's Patten's Bucharest 'West Balkans Web' speech can be found at:ÂÂÂÂhttp://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/news/patten/sp01_489.htmÂÂÂÂÂForeign Minister Picula's Bucharest speech can be found at:ÂÂÂÂhttp://www.mvp.hr/mvprh-www-eng/2-aktiv/govori/011025_jie.htmlÂÂÂÂÂThe SAA can be seen at the EU website at:ÂÂÂÂhttp://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/croatia/com01_371en.pdfÂÂÂÂArticles 11-14 'Regional Cooperation' are on pages 18/19ÂÂSubmitted by Brian GallagherÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7526/1/E-Letter-to-Ms-Bloomfield-Holocaust-Museum-re-Jasenovac.html Subject: letter to Ms. Bloomfield re: JasenovacÂÂMs. Sara BloomfieldÂMuseum DirectorÂWashington Holocaust MuseumÂWashington, D.C. via fax 12. 28. 2001ÂÂÂDear Ms. Bloomfield:ÂÂThe reports by the press of the find of Jasenovac items in Banja Luka,ÂBosnia Herzegovina, (that were stolen from Jasenovac by the Serbs), andÂtheir return to Croatia, have repeatedly been distressing to Croatians,Âas Jasenovac has been mentioned again and again as the only WWIIÂconcentration camp of former Yugoslavia, while some even suggest that itÂwas hidden all these years from public knowledge. Nothing could beÂfurther from the truth, as I am certain you are aware of it.ÂÂWhat most of the media and public are not aware of is the fact that mostÂof the persons responsible for the atrocities committed in JasenovacÂduring the Croatian Nazi puppet regime of WWII were tried and punished byÂthe communist Yugoslav government after the war and that Jasenovac alsoÂcontinued to serve as a brutal concentration camp under the communistÂregime for anti-communist Croatians who had nothing to do with fascism.ÂÂAfter Croatia became independent in 1991, it kept up Jasenovac as aÂcommemorative site for all the victims that were held there. The CroatianÂgovernment and people never denied Jasenovac's existence and the crimesÂcommitted there by the Ustasha regime horrified them. The only denial wasÂthe grossly exaggerated number of victims that the Serbs consistentlyÂportrayed in spite of available accurate statistics by Serb and CroatianÂscholars. During 1999 the Jasenovac commander Sakic was extradited fromÂArgentina as requested by the Croatian government and was tried andÂsentenced to twenty years in prison - meaning lifetime at his age. So asÂCroatians we truly have to ask the Jewish community why Jasenovac has toÂbe continuously resurrected while Germany that killed millions of JewsÂand even France and Italy, that delivered Jews to the Nazis, are notÂbeing endlessly hounded to this day by a bad press and worse assumptions?ÂÂThere is also a very important question to be asked: Why is the HolocaustÂMuseum and the Jewish community at large totally ignoring Serbia's WWIIÂNazi puppet regime under general Nedic that rounded up all Serbian JewsÂin large concentration camps of Serbia's Sajmiste, Banjica and others,Âwhere they either killed them or delivered them to the Germans? SerbsÂproudly declared to Hitler that Belgrade is "Judenfrei" - "Jew free".ÂSerbia has a long history of antisemitism, long before WWII, especiallyÂfostered by its Serb Orthodox Church, while Croatia does not.ÂÂSincerely,ÂÂHilda FoleyÂMedia RelationsÂNational Federation of Croatian AmericansÂ13272 Orange KnollÂSanta Ana, Ca. 92705Âdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7525/1/E-NATO-in-the-Balkans-Time-for-a-Rethink-By-Vitomir-M-Raguz.html http://interactive.wsj.com/fr/emailthis/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1009403626892603160.ÂÂdjmÂÂDecember 27, 2001ÂInternational CommentaryÂÂNATO in the Balkans: Time for a Rethink?ÂÂBy Vitomir Miles Raguz.ÂÂThe next round of North Atlantic Treaty Organization expansion is due nextÂfall at the Prague summit of the NATO members' heads of state. NotÂsurprisingly, the debate over candidates is already in full swing. Yet almostÂall of the debate has focused on the so-called Vilnius Nine -- Albania,ÂBulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, andÂSlovenia -- named after the Lithuanian capital where their leaders met lastÂyear to begin lobbying their cases.ÂThree European states -- Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Yugoslavia --Âwere not invited to Vilnius. At the time, they had not met the internalÂstability requirements to participate and so are generally overlooked in theÂpresent discussions. Since then, however, all three have voted into officeÂnew Western-leaning governments, some for the first time, and Croatia wasÂrecently included in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, the antechamberÂfor eventual NATO candidacy. This is a significant boost for the region'sÂbasic security. Yet the advance of Western security policy in the regionÂshould not stop there. With a bit of deft handling, NATO now has theÂopportunity to reshape the region for decades to come. Let's take thisÂcase-by-case.ÂÂ* Croatia. Since we often speak of NATO membership as a reward, the delayÂin bringing Croatia into the Partnership for Peace was curious, as perhaps noÂnew state better deserved membership.ÂÂFor starters, Croatia saved Bosnia. In the summer of 1995 its militaryÂoperations ended a humanitarian catastrophe for which the West could notÂmuster an appropriate response. Four years later, during the Kosovo crisis,ÂCroatia opened its airspace to the NATO alliance, no questions asked, thoughÂit could have demanded political favors in return. And the smoothÂtransformation of Zagreb politics in January 2000 from one-party monolith toÂmultiparty government turned out to be a harbinger for furtherÂdemocratization in the region.ÂYet Croatia's positive role has been overshadowed by long held prejudices.ÂThere's the (mistaken) view that Croats joined the Axis en masse in World WarÂII while the Serbs were the sole members of the Allied partisan movement.ÂMore recently, two decisions in the International Criminal Tribunal for theÂformer Yugoslavia -- Blaskic and Kordic -- found Croatia to have beenÂinvolved as an aggressor in Bosnia in 1993, although the court's reasoningÂleft much to be desired.ÂFor all that, Croatia's stabilizing role in the region cannot be ignored.ÂCroatia is Bosnia's principal security partner. Two-thirds of Bosnia's borderÂis with Croatia. It is the primary transit country for international forcesÂand supplies to this landlocked country, and Croatia's many ports and roadsÂalong the Adriatic are Bosnia's lifelines to the outside world. Bringing NATOÂto its borders will enhance Bosnia's attractiveness to investors andÂstabilize its trade routes. From this perspective, the long-term security ofÂBosnia and the region would be best served if NATO leaders took the nextÂlogical step and included Croatia among the next round of new members.ÂÂ* Bosnia. Bosnia remains handicapped even for the Partnership for Peace,Âprimarily because it has two armies: one Serb, the other Muslim-Croat. SinceÂNATO cannot accept a country with multiple armies, it has encouraged theÂthree sides in Bosnia to form a unified force. But the Serb side is not readyÂto accept this, and the withdrawal of the Croat component from theÂMuslim-Croat army further complicates the situation.ÂÂThe Croat walkout points to the problems caused by back-door revisions ofÂDayton that are intended to centralize the state. The Western powers nowÂfavor such a policy in general, although the history of Bosnia tells us thatÂcentralization is likely to fail. Ordinary Bosnian citizens, unlike theÂgoverning elites, dismiss outright the thought of a unified army, arguingÂthat if it came to war, local Serbs and Croats would abandon ship either toÂfight alongside one of the two, or sit idly by until their own homesteadsÂbecame endangered.ÂA better alternative would be to restructure the country's security needsÂalong Costa Rican lines: that is, near-total demilitarization, with a beefedÂup police and border force and nonagression agreements with neighbors. ThisÂwould certainly benefit Bosnian taxpayers, already overburdened by militaryÂexpenditures that take up 40% of the budget.ÂNATO would be wise to consider how it can use its resources and moral forceÂto move Bosnia in this direction. It's unlikely that Bosnia will ever joinÂNATO, since the Serb side has not expressed interests beyond the PartnershipÂfor Peace. But NATO can provide Bosnia with a future, thus enhancing theÂregion's stability without having to remain stationed in the region forÂdecades.ÂÂ* Yugoslavia. After facing the might of NATO over Kosovo, it seemsÂimprobable that Yugoslavia would want to join the Western alliance at all.ÂThe new president, Vojislav Kostunica, has never addressed this issueÂdirectly, except to suggest that he would want to sue NATO for damages andÂwar crimes before considering a partnership. On the military side, theÂBelgrade elite will most likely prefer to keep an open-door policy to MoscowÂfor historical and religious reasons.ÂÂHowever, a group of Yugoslav army officers, led by wartime general MomciloÂPerisic, have called not only for Yugoslavia's membership in the PartnershipÂfor Peace, but also for early NATO membership. This may be a window ofÂopportunity for the West, if it is willing to offer carrots and exerciseÂpatience.ÂOne of the carrots would be the upgrade of the ICTY. Belgrade is not veryÂhappy with the ICTY's work so far, but neither is anyone else in the region.ÂThis regional discontent may make it easier for the Western powers to reformÂthe ICTY to the pre-1995 standards of international law. Another carrot wouldÂbe early EU candidacy, something that Belgrade dearly desires.ÂÂ* * *ÂÂWith the expansion of the European Union and NATO to Eastern Europe as far asÂthe Baltics and the Black Sea, the new Balkan states will no longer play theÂstrategic role for the Western powers that the former Yugoslavia enjoyedÂduring the Cold War. And yet the risk that they may fall prey to regressiveÂpolitical and economic forces is real. With 20,000 troops in Bosnia alone,ÂNATO now has the opportunity to play an important leadership role in makingÂsure that doesn't happen. It should seize it.Â-- From The Wall Street Journal EuropeÂÂMr. Raguz was ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union andÂNATO from 1998 to 2000. This article is adapted from the HarvardÂInternational Review.ÂÂCopyright © 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.ÂÂÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7524/1/E-Sanader---Not-yet-Bush-of-the-Balkans---Washington-Times.html Not yet Bush of the Balkans, DecemberÂ26th 2001Âby Jeffrey T. KuhnerÂÂCroatia is poised to spearhead a broad-based conservative movement in theÂBalkans. Ivo Sanader, the leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), theÂcountry's main opposition party, came to Washington last week and spoke aboutÂhis vision for the future. An admirer of President Bush's "compassionateÂconservatism," Mr. Sanader stressed that he will implement a sweeping agendaÂof tax cuts, smaller government and economic deregulation should he becomeÂCroatia's next prime minister.     This is precisely what this small Balkan country of 4.5 million needs atÂthe moment. And the fact that economic conservatism is being championed byÂthe head of the HDZ is even more remarkable.      The party's founder, former President Franjo Tudjman, led Croatia'sÂbloody drive for independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Mr. Tudjman's regime,Âhowever, was criticized by many in the West for its authoritarian rule andÂrampant economic cronyism, in which public assets were plundered by the HDZÂelite.      Although a principled nationalist who secured an independent CroatianÂstate in the face of Serbian aggression, Mr. Tudjman had a poor economicÂrecord characterized by bureaucratic statism and pervasive corruption.ÂFollowing his death in December 1999, the HDZ was swept from power and aÂcenter-left coalition government was elected on a platform of democraticÂreform and forging closer links with the West.      Yet the new administration in Zagreb has been unable to resolveÂCroatia's economic crisis. Unemployment is at 23 percent, and the country isÂsaddled with a nearly $10 billion foreign debt. Its annual per capita incomeÂis slightly more than $4,000, which is half that of neighboring Slovenia, andÂonly 60 percent of what it was prior to independence.      After revamping the HDZ into a Croatian version of the RepublicanÂParty, Mr. Sanader now seeks to use the electorate's growing frustration withÂthe government's stalled agenda to form a center-right coalition that willÂcapture power if early elections are called next year. His goal is toÂtransform Croatia into a bastion of free-market capitalism that will serve asÂa model for the rest of the Balkans.      Borrowing from the playbook of President Bush and Italian PrimeÂMinister Silvio Berlusconi, Mr. Sanader rightly argues that the best way toÂkick start Croatia's anemic economy is to slash income and business taxes,Âremove burdensome government regulations and reduce public spending.      Unlike Mr. Tudjman, Mr. Sanader is not a fiery Balkan blood-and-soilÂnationalist, but a Reaganite conservative who understands that Croatia hasÂthe potential to become one of the most prosperous countries in Europe and aÂforce for democracy and human rights in the war-torn former Yugoslavia.      Yet Mr. Sanader will never accomplish his political objectives until heÂdoes something no Croatian politician has been willing to do since theÂcountry gained its independence: confront the communist past.     Few people in Eastern Europe suffered under the iron grip of communismÂas much as the Croats. During the period of Tito's totalitarian rule fromÂ1945 until his death in 1980, hundreds of thousands of Croat writers,Âpriests, peasants and dissidents were murdered or sent to prison.      Rather than face up to this bloody legacy, Croatia's political leadersÂhave chosen to sweep communism's crimes under the rug. The result is that theÂcountry's political and economic development has been stunted by a lingeringÂneo-Marxist mindset.      The communist influence can be found everywhere. Croatia's PresidentÂStipe Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan are ex-communists who have neverÂapologized for their shadowy pasts. Many who worked for Yugoslavia'sÂnotorious secret police have not been fired from their positions, butÂcontinue to be employed in Croatia's intelligence services.      The country's economic life remains rife with Soviet-style bribery andÂcronyism. Trapped in a Titoist time-warp, many ordinary Croatians still doÂnot understand that a free-market economy depends upon social habits such asÂself-reliance, a strong work ethic and personal responsibility - virtues thatÂwere almost eradicated by decades of communist social engineering.      Hence, if Mr. Sanader is serious about leading a conservativeÂrevolution in the Balkans then he must start by immediately implementingÂsweeping decommunization. The massive public bureaucracy, which is dominatedÂby the old guard opposed to economic reform, must be dismantled. A legalÂframework needs to be created that will protect private property rights andÂthe rule of law, encouraging entrepreneurship and the creation of investmentÂcapital. Most importantly, Croatia's next leader must wage a vigorousÂcampaign against corruption.      It is a tall order. But if Mr. Sanader wants to claim the mantle of Mr.ÂReagan and Lady Thatcher, he must first adopt the anti-communism of theseÂconservative icons. Only then will he succeed in becoming the Bush of theÂBalkans.     ÂJeffrey T. Kuhner is an assistant national editor at The Washington TimesÂÂÂClick Here: Crown Home PageÂÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7523/1/E-Why-Doesnt-the-Hague-Tribunal-allow-Croats-Pre-Trial-Release.html My thanks again to Mike Baresic for the following item, which has beenÂcirculated in Croatian, but this is an English versionÂÂÂBrianÂÂÂVjesnikÂÂDecember 20, 2001ÂÂÂWhy Doesn't the Hague Tribunal allow Croats Pre-Trial Release?ÂÂÂÂBy Marko BaresicÂÂÂÂZagreb-Even though they can sometimes be deceptive, statistics most oftenÂÂreveal the criteria under which certain institutions operate. With a veryÂÂsimple comparison of facts about individuals whom the ICTY has grantedÂÂpre-trial release, one arrives at some very perplexing conclusions.ÂÂSpecifically, the tribunal has thus far allowed Serbs and Bosniaks to defendÂÂthemselves while on pre-trial release, but not a single Croat. Is thisÂÂmerely a coincidence or are these facts the result of some unwrittenÂÂ(unwritten because it would clearly be ethnic discrimination), butÂÂnevertheless very real practice? In order to avoid speculation, here's whatÂÂthe facts are.ÂÂÂÂThe Hague tribunal allowed pre-trial release for Biljana Plavsic, the formerÂÂpresident of Republika Srpska and a close associate of Radovan Karadzic. SheÂÂvoluntarily surrendered and is now in Belgrade until the beginning of herÂÂtrial. The Serbian government gave guarantees that she would return to theÂÂHague and now, instead of a Hague cell, she can choose whether to spend theÂÂwinter holidays in Kopaonik or someplace else.ÂÂÂÂAlso on pre-trial release is Pavle Strugar, an officer of the former JNA whoÂÂin 1991 led the assault on Dubrovnik. He was released on almost an expressÂÂbasis, to the chagrin of the people of Dubrovnik who cannot forget that timeÂÂwhen forces under Strugar's command pillaged the outskirts of Dubrovnik, andÂÂthe town itself and its citizens were exposed to death and destruction.ÂÂLogic suggests that the same will occur with Miodrag Jokic, and admiral inÂÂthe former JNA who, as Strugar's deputy, actively assisted in theÂÂSerbian-MonteNegrin aggression on southern Croatia.ÂÂÂÂA few days ago Bosniaks under indictment for crimes in central Bosnia alsoÂÂfound themselves free men. Enver Hadzihasanovic, Mehmed Alagic, Amir KuburaÂÂand Sefer Halilovic were received as heroes upon their return to Sarajevo,ÂÂand their government is considering whether, despite the fact that they areÂÂunder indictment, they should return to the positions they held prior toÂÂtheir departure for the Hague. Thus, negotiations are underway for HalilovicÂÂ(who is connected to crimes against Croats in Grabovica and Uzdol, and who isÂÂpassing responsibility on to Alija Izetbegovic) to return to his ministerialÂÂportfolio, and Kubura to return as an officer in the BiH Army.ÂÂÂÂIn principle, there should be no objection to this because everyone isÂÂinnocent until proven guilty. What is objectionable is that this principleÂÂdoes not appear to apply to Croats.ÂÂÂÂThe possibility of pre-trial release for Croats has in advance beenÂÂeliminated by the Hague court, which did not allow pre-trial release for notÂÂonly for Blaskic or Kordic, but not for any Croat whatsoever. Not even forÂÂthose Croats who voluntarily surrendered to the Tribunal. And those whoÂÂvoluntarily surrendered include Blaskic, Kordic, Ademi, Ljubicic, and manyÂÂothers.ÂÂÂÂGeneral Blaskic is now in his sixth year of custody in the Hague, and heÂÂstill does not have a final judgment. Kordic and the group of Croats fromÂÂcentral Bosnia who voluntary surrendered at the Split airport in 1998 underÂÂassurances from Robert Gelbard that they would receive a quick and justÂÂtrial, also were denied pre-trial release. The Kupreskic brothers, who wereÂÂrecently acquitted by the Tribunal after four years as prisoners, were alsoÂÂnot allowed pre-trial detention. At the time, they asked the BosnianÂÂgovernment to provide the Tribunal with assurances that they would return,ÂÂbut it refused. In contrast, the new BiH government quickly gave assurancesÂÂof the return of accused Bosniaks.ÂÂÂÂFurthermore, how do you explain that an officer of the Croatian Army, GeneralÂÂRahim Ademi, voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY well before Strugar,ÂÂHadzihasanovic, Halilovic and Kubura, and that they have since been releasedÂÂbut Ademi has not?ÂÂÂÂDoes this perhaps mean that the assurances of the Croatian government onÂÂAdemi's behalf (that he would return) are worth less than the assurances ofÂÂthe Serbian government or the government of the BiH Federation for Serbs andÂÂBosniaks? If that is the case, then Ivica Racan and Goran Granic should beÂÂdeeply concerned, because that fact would speak volumes about their (lack of)ÂÂcredibility and respect among Hague officials. No, as in all likelihood itÂÂhas nothing to do with that, the question becomes what exactly is going onÂÂhere.ÂÂÂÂThe attempt to connect Ademi's pre-trial release to the Gotovina case totallyÂÂlacks in credibility. If Ademi's freedom hinges on Gotovina's decision toÂÂvoluntarily arrive in the Hague, and if this type of contingency were toÂÂbecome official ICTY policy, then the guarantees of the Serbian governmentÂÂfor Biljana Plavsic and Pavle Strugar would be worthless, because thatÂÂgovernment harbors Mladic, Sljivancanin, Mrksic, Radic, and refuses toÂÂextradite them. Moreover, the President of Serbia (Milutinovic) is himself aÂÂHague indictee.ÂÂÂÂIn all likelihood what is going on here is something completely different.ÂÂWhat is happening is that the Hague tribunal appears to be applying a doubleÂÂstandard in which it grants pretrial release to some Serbs and Bosniaks whoÂÂhave voluntarily surrendered, while a Croat, meaning a member of the CroatianÂÂArmy or the HVO (even an ethnic Albanian like Ademi) who has voluntarilyÂÂsurrendered cannot receive pre-trial release, if we judge by the practice toÂÂdate of the Tribunal.ÂÂÂÂShould we then be shocked by the results of Croatian public opinion pollsÂÂwhich reveal a deep lack of trust of the Hague Tribunal, and that theÂÂprinciple criticism is that the tribunal does not act on the basis of rulesÂÂof procedure and evidence, but rather on political and other non-legalÂÂcriteria? Unfortunately, the statistics above regarding accused who areÂÂallowed pre-trial release and those who are not confirm that the results ofÂÂthese Croatian public opinion polls are not without a basis in fact.ÂÂÂBrian GallagherÂdistributed by CROWN - www.croatianworld.net - CroWorldNet@aol.comÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 06 Jan 2002 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7530/1/E-Harvard-International-Review-on-NATO-exp-by-VM-Raguz.html Nenad:ÂÂThe present edition of Harvard International Review (Fall 2001) runs my pieceÂon NATO expansion and the SEE states. It argues for Croatia's membership,ÂBiH's neutrality aka Costa Rica, and Yugoslavia's semi-neutrality.ÂÂMerry ChristmasÂVMRÂÂHarvard International ReviewÂÂFall 2001, Pages 26-30.ÂÂÂPerspectives: Vitomir Miles RaguzÂÂBalkans in NATO: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and YugoslaviaÂÂÂÂÂThe next round of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) expansion is dueÂin Fall 2002 at the Prague Summit of the NATO members' heads of state. NotÂsurprisingly, the debate over candidates is already in full swing. However,Âalmost all of the debate has focused on the so-called Vilnius Nine-Albania,ÂBulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, andÂSlovenia-named after the Lithuanian capital where their leaders met last yearÂto begin lobbying their cases.ÂÂThree European states-Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), andÂYugoslavia-were not invited to Vilnius. At the time, they had not met theÂinternal stability requirements to participate. Consequently, they areÂgenerally overlooked in the present discussions. Since then, however, allÂthree have voted into office new Western-leaning governments, some for theÂfirst time, and thus they deserve a closer look either as candidates for NATOÂmembership or as countries where NATO can play an enhanced stabilizing role.ÂÂCroatia was recently included in the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program, theÂantechamber for eventual NATO candidacy. This is a significant boost for theÂregion's basic security. The advancement of Western security policy in theÂregion should not stop there, however. Croatia should move on to the nextÂstage, not only because it deserves to, but also for the benefit of regionalÂsecurity.ÂÂOnly two European states now remain without a formal relationship to NATO:ÂBiH and Yugoslavia. BiH presents both a challenge and an opportunity to NATO.ÂWith more than 20,000 NATO troops in the country, the Western alliance shouldÂseriously consider how it can use those troops and its substantial influenceÂto permanently stabilize BiH, thereby obtaining a long-desired exit forÂitself. Given the recent political developments in Belgrade, a similarÂopportunity for advancing Western interests may lie in Yugoslavia as well,Âfor the first time in a decade.ÂÂÂCroatiaÂÂCroatia's recent inclusion in the PfP program is long overdue. Since we oftenÂspeak of NATO membership as a reward, the delay here is curious, as perhapsÂno new state deserves this honor more than Croatia. Since the breakup of theÂWarsaw Pact, Croatia has done more to benefit Western interests than anyÂother new democracy. The smooth transformation of Zagreb politics fromÂone-party monolith to multi-party government was indeed a welcome harbingerÂfor democratization in the region, but Croatia's positive role in the regionÂpredates the January 2000 elections.ÂÂTo begin, Croatia saved BiH. In the summer of 1995 its military operations,Ânamed Operation Storm, ended a carnage Europe had not seen since World WarÂII-a humanitarian catastrophe for which the West could not muster anÂappropriate response. The Western capitals often unfairly take credit forÂthis turnaround; in fact, the peace in BiH came only once the Croatian ArmyÂ(HV) had established a new balance of power in the region by its summerÂoperations. Everything that followed, from the first exercise of NATO airÂpower to the Dayton-Paris peace agreement, was a filling-in of a diplomaticÂpuzzle.ÂÂ"All along, the United States and its allies have been looking for aÂforce-other than themselves-that could check Serbian and Bosnian SerbÂadventurism and produce a military balance on which realistic settlementÂcould be built. Maybe such a force is now emerging: Croatia," wrote TheÂWashington Post three days before Operation Storm commenced. At the end ofÂthe operation the Post added, "The Croatians argue they are not the problemÂbut the solution; they claim to have created a new regional 'balance' onÂwhich 'proper' peace talks with the Serbs can begin. This line has beenÂenthusiastically adopted by the American government, which is under pressureÂto show that the quiet political support it extended to Croatia had aÂlegitimate purpose of promoting a negotiation in Bosnia."ÂÂRichard Holbrooke, the main US diplomatic broker in Dayton, makes a ratherÂunflattering reference to the HV in his peace negotiations diary as "junkyardÂdogs," typical to his style, but he adds that Zagreb had Washington's unsaidÂsupport in its endeavors in BiH out of desperation, as the only alternativeÂto the risk-averse West.ÂÂOne military analyst at the time noted that the turnaround in Bosnia was 80Âpercent the doing of the HV, 15 percent of the Bosnian Croat militia (theÂHVO), and 5 percent of the Bosnian Muslim militia (the ABiH). Interestingly,ÂBritain's leading commentator, Martin Wollacott, later concluded in TheÂWashington Times that the Croatian military victories in 1995 changed theÂfortunes for BiH, while the Western diplomatic initiative that followed onlyÂprotected the Serbs.ÂÂÂControversiesÂÂCroatia's positive role that year has been overshadowed by the oftenÂconfusing and unpopular policies of its past government, led by FranjoÂTudjman. However, the recent political changes in Zagreb allow for aÂreconsideration of Croatia's role without having to refer to its previousÂleaders' style of governing and understanding of democracy.ÂÂCroatia's positive role has also been overshadowed by two recent decisions inÂthe International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY): BlaskicÂand Kordic, in which Croatia was found to have been involved as an aggressorÂin BiH in 1993. These decisions, however, are unlikely to stand the test ofÂtime, and should be reversed. The ICTY judges disregarded the case law onÂthis issue, which required "command and control" of a country's forces inÂforeign territory. The decision also included a spurious argument that, whileÂCroatia's own forces were neither present nor involved in fighting in centralÂBosnia, its forces stationed further south in Herzegovina-forces that wereÂsecuring the isolated Croatian cities of Dubrovnik and Split-relieved theÂBosnian Croat militia from fighting the Bosnian Serb militia, thus allowingÂthese forces to engage the Bosnian Muslim militia in central Bosnia.ÂÂIn fact, the ICTY does not even have the mandate to decide on the question ofÂinternational conflict, which is the domain of the International Court ofÂJustice. The decisions in the two cases say more about ICTY than about theÂconflict in BiH. The ICTY appears to be more focused on creating newÂinternational criminal law, often far different from present internationalÂand any domestic law, rather than on dispensing justice and promoting truthÂand reconciliation in BiH.ÂÂThis type of convoluted but policy-driven common wisdom about Croatia is notÂnew. For instance, the view that Croats joined the Axis en masse in World WarÂII, while the Serbs were the sole members of the Allied Partisan movement inÂthe former Yugoslavia, was promoted for five decades. The objective was toÂdiscredit and discourage Croat self-determination, which threatened theÂstability of the favored communist regime of Tito and its unitary Yugoslavia.ÂHowever, a reconstructed history of World War II shows that the Croats, andÂnot the Serbs, initiated and provided the top leaders and disproportionateÂnumber of soldiers to the anti-fascist movement.ÂÂThe politicized description of Croatia's role in BiH in 1993 will not endureÂas long. It should take historians much less time to deconstruct the presentÂfallacy than it took them to disprove the one from World War II. In addition,Âthe International Court of Justice may play a role should Zagreb seek aÂruling there. Similarly, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in BiH-whichÂis about to emerge-will bring forth new evidence removed from emotions andÂthe logic of war.ÂÂThe truth is that Croatia was indeed involved in BiH, though not out ofÂaltruism or expansion. Like most states that act across borders, it wasÂpursuing its own security interests. For Croatia this meant limiting theÂcostly refugee outflow from BiH, and, most importantly, protecting itsÂsliver-like Dalmatian coast. Zagreb's control of the coast ran on averageÂless than 10 miles inland, stretching 250 miles from Dubrovnik to Zadar.ÂThese and other key population and economic centers were undefendable otherÂthan from neighboring Herzegovina.ÂÂZagreb thus supported and financed the Croat-majority entity in BiH, calledÂHerceg-Bosna, as an indispensable buffer zone. At the outset this zone wasÂthe only form of resistance to Belgrade's gains in BiH. Many point outÂcorrectly that if there had been no Herceg-Bosna in 1992, there would be noÂBiH today. Zagreb allocated about 10 percent of its military budgetfor theÂneeds of Herceg-Bosna. Moreover, it allowed its ports, airports, and roads toÂbe used for the benefit of the ABiH. Zagreb even served as a broker, withÂthe blessings of Washington, in the arming of Sarajevo by the regime inÂTehran.ÂÂNo less important, Croatia minimized the migration effects on the stabilityÂof Europe by keeping one quarter of all BiH refugees in Croatia, while at theÂsame time housing an equal number of its own displaced persons. It spent inÂexcess of US$1 billion dollars for the care of refugees alone. Only GermanyÂand perhaps Sweden spent more.ÂÂFour years later, during the Kosovo crisis, Croatia opened its airspace toÂthe NATO alliance no questions asked. It could have demanded a substantialÂconsideration, given its strategic importance for overflights and theÂhundreds of millions of dollars in lost tourism and shipping revenues due toÂthe air raids. One London investment bank estimated the loss at US$1.5Âbillion, a sum equal to seven percent of the country's GDP. The WesternÂalliance spent hefty amounts to stabilize the other countries in the regionÂfor hard-currency losses due to NATO intervention. However, Croatia cameÂcost-free.ÂÂCroatia is BiH's principal security partner. Two-thirds of BiH's border isÂwith Croatia. It is the primary transit country for international forces andÂsupplies to this landlocked country, and Croatia's many ports and roads alongÂthe Adriatic are BiH's lifelines to the outside world. Bringing NATO to itsÂborders will enhance BiH's attractiveness to investors and stabilize itsÂtrade routes. This is true for both of BiH's entities, the Federation andÂthe Republika Srpska. The latter's capital, Banja Luka, is only a two-hourÂdrive from Zagreb, a substantial European trade and communication center thatÂBiH still lacks. From this perspective, the long-term security of BiH and theÂregion would be best served if NATO leaders took the next logical step andÂincluded Croatia among the next round of new members.ÂÂÂBosnia and HerzegovinaÂÂWhile Croatia is now on the road to membership, BiH remains handicapped evenÂfor PfP association, primarily because it has more than one army: the SerbÂarmy and the Muslim-Croat army. The latter is segregated below the battalionÂlevel. For NATO to accept a country with multiple armies would be a precedentÂthat it is not ready to accept. Recently NATO has encouraged the three sidesÂin BiH to form a unified army. The Serb side is not ready to accept thisÂsolution, seeing it as a fundamental revision of the Dayton peace agreement.ÂThe recent political rebellion of the Croat community and the withdrawal ofÂthe Croat component from the Muslim-Croat army, only adds to the complexityÂof the BiH problem.ÂÂThe Croat walkout, which was prompted by election-law changes rather thanÂmilitary matters, points to the problems caused by back-door revisions ofÂDayton that are intended to centralize the state. The Western powers nowÂfavor such a policy in general, although it has proven to be destabilizing inÂthe short term. Moreover, the history of BiH tells us that centralizationÂalso fails in the long term. Contrary to popular wisdom, decentralization isÂa much more viable and stabilizing policy for BiH, a position that was arguedÂconvincingly by BiH's former defense minister, Miroslav Prce, in the WinterÂ2001 issue of the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs.ÂÂJust as Croats turned away from Sarajevo because of new election laws, theÂSerbs would also just as quickly turn away from state institutions if anyÂattempt to centralize the BiH armed forces materialized. The Bosnian SerbÂopposition to this model compels us to look for other solutions.ÂÂÂAlternative SolutionsÂÂThe formation of three territorial guards with common command authority,Âcombined with the demobilization of heavy weapons, may eventually becomeÂacceptable for all three sides. With this solution, a NATO umbrella andÂsub-regional non-aggression treaties between BiH and its two neighbors,ÂYugoslavia and Croatia, may be necessary to maintain stability. This shouldÂbe the first phase of a substantial decrease in military spending in theÂBalkans.ÂÂÂOther solutions are also on the table, including proposals to demobilize BiHÂaltogether; to restructure the country's security needs along the Costa RicanÂmodel; or to reduce the two existing armies into two small professionalÂarmies. The last option is either a unified army, which is unacceptable toÂthe Serbs, or two armies, which is unacceptable to NATO and the Croats.ÂÂMany also point out that complete demilitarization is more likely in BiH thanÂa unified army. Complete demilitarization would certainly be most beneficialÂto BiH taxpayers. They are already overburdened with post-war reconstructionÂcosts, and the experience of the recent war certainly calls into questionÂwhether spending for arms has any purpose at all.ÂÂMore importantly, ordinary BiH citizens, unlike the governing elites, dismissÂoutright the thought of a unified army. They argue that if it came to warÂwith either Yugoslavia and Croatia, local Serbs and Croats would abandon shipÂeither to fight alongside one of the two, or sit idly by until their ownÂhomesteads became endangered. As pointed out in 1999 by Jacques Klein, the UNÂspecial envoy for BiH to the Council of Europe, too many BiH citizens stillÂhave a problem identifying or associating with BiH. This reality is simplyÂnot conducive to crafting ambitious national-defense programs.ÂÂAs an alternative to a unified or divided army, BiH may be able to adopt theÂexample set by Costa Rica. The Costa Rica model would require completeÂdemobilization, a NATO umbrella, and non-aggression agreements withÂneighbors. It would be coupled with an expanded police force, border police,Âand state disaster-relief corps. This solution has worked for Costa Rica forÂ50 years, and it may offer the best prospects for BiH.ÂÂNATO would be wise to consider how it can use its enormous resources andÂmoral force to move BiH to follow Costa Rica's direction. It is difficult toÂsee how BiH can pursue any other model, given the extraordinary amount ofÂresources it currently wastes on military spending. BiH now spends 40 percentÂof its budget for defense, compared to Europe's average of around twoÂpercent. Clearly, there is no room to maneuver here, nor will theÂopportunities for international subsidies continue for much longer.ÂÂBiH's future lies in a neutrality similar to that of Costa Rica. Moreover,Âfuture NATO membership is only theoretical, since the Serb side has theÂconstitutional right of veto on this issue, and it has not expressedÂinterests beyond the PfP association. But NATO can provide BiH with a future,Âthus enhancing the region's stability by being realistic rather thanÂchimerical. The latter policy will force NATO to remain stationed and activeÂin BiH for decades. The former will stabilize BiH using its own economicÂresources, free of arms that could be used to ignite passions, and create anÂearly exit opportunity for NATO.ÂÂÂYugoslaviaÂÂAfter facing the might of NATO over Kosovo, it seems improbable thatÂYugoslavia would want to join the Western alliance at all. The new leader ofÂYugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica, has never addressed this issue directly.ÂHowever, his public discourse on the subject of NATO intervention suggestsÂthat he would want to sue NATO for damages and war crimes before consideringÂa partnership. Belgrade's traditional affiliation with Russia is also aÂcrucial factor. In short, Yugoslavia may prefer neutrality. This isÂconsistent with recent remarks from Kostunica's cabinet. His aides suggestedÂthat PfP association would be acceptable, but membership would be out ofÂquestion.ÂÂHowever, a group of Yugoslav army officers, led by wartime general MomciloÂPerisic, have called not only for Yugoslavia's membership in the PfP, butÂalso for early NATO membership. This may be a window of opportunity for theÂWest, if it is willing to offer carrots and exercise patience. However, asÂPerisic is considered a war criminal in both BiH and Croatia, a more credibleÂpartner in Belgrade will be needed.ÂÂOne of the carrots that would be welcomed concerns the upgrade of the ICTY.ÂBelgrade is not very happy with the ICTY's work so far, but neither is anyoneÂelse in the region. This regional discontent may make it easier for theÂWestern powers to reform the ICTY to the pre-1995 standards of internationalÂlaw .ÂÂBelgrade will look for other incentives as well, in particular regardingÂreconstruction assistance. Further, it will seek to gain advantages for theÂSerbs in Kosovo, to continue special relations with the Serb entity in BiH,Âand an early EU candidacy, which is something that Belgrade would treasureÂmuch more than NATO membership.ÂÂÂOn the military side, the Belgrade elite will most likely prefer to keep anÂopen-door policy to Moscow for historical and religious reasons. TheÂTito-style strategy of "equi-distance" was very profitable for the formerÂYugoslavia, and the new Yugoslavia is likely to play the same game. ButÂSerbia's "quasi-neutrality" (that is, its de facto economic alliance withÂBrussels coupled with military cooperation with Moscow) need not raiseÂsuspicions in the region, especially if Romania and Bulgaria are grantedÂearly membership.ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂVilnius 6+2+4ÂÂWith the expansion of the European Union and NATO to Eastern Europe as far asÂthe Baltics and the Black Sea, the new Balkan states no longer play theÂstrategic role for the Western powers that the former Yugoslavia enjoyedÂduring the Cold War. Back then, the former Yugoslavia was a territorial andÂpolitical dividing line between the East and the West, an ideologicalÂsplinter in the Warsaw Pact, and a staging ground for covert operations. ThisÂis no longer the case.ÂÂSome argue that the new Yugoslavia will still remain a strategic point ofÂinterest for the West, given its close relationship to Moscow. SurelyÂYugoslavia can be grouped with the "Russia-sensitive" sub-group of theÂVilnius Nine, along with the Baltics, Romania, and Bulgaria. But the newÂYugoslavia's importance declines as its neighbors to the east, Romania andÂBulgaria, become members.ÂÂÂÂÂÂCroatia belongs in a sub-group with Slovenia. By admitting eitherÂcountry, NATO gains an ideological surrogate whose military preparedness isÂtop-notch, even if their strategic importance is minimal. NATO experts sayÂthat relative preparedness of both countries matches that of Spain when itÂjoined in 1982.ÂÂCroatia also comes with important advantages over Slovenia. Expanding NATOÂmembership to Croatia aids the stability of the fragile Balkans. At theÂminimum, it secures supply lines to BiH. NATO also gets a winningÂcombat-experienced army into its ranks. Policy-makers will probably notÂoverlook the popular support for NATO membership that runs at 70 percent inÂCroatia, compared to 50 percent in Slovenia. Croatia has done the yeoman'sÂtask for the West for at least a decade. It should get the recognition thatÂit is due.ÂÂFinally, BiH can probably be grouped with Albania, Macedonia, and Slovakia.ÂAll will require costly programs to rationalize or upgrade their armed forcesÂto Western standards; all should be pursued with equal vigor. Even if theseÂcountries are of little global strategic value, they are important becauseÂwithout NATO leadership they may fall prey to regressive political andÂeconomic forces that are inherently destabilizing. The situation in BiHÂoffers a historic opportunity to transform the present internationalÂadministration into a viable state, allowing the Allies to draw down andÂredirect the huge resources they have invested into BiH over the years.ÂÂÂVitomir Miles Raguz was Ambassador of BiH to the E.U. and NATO from 1998-2000.Âdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.comÂÂNotice: This e-mail and the attachments are confidential information.If youÂare not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified thatÂany dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail and the attachmentsÂis strictly prohibited and violators will be held to the fullest possibleÂextent of any applicable laws governing electronic Privacy. If you haveÂreceived this e-mail in error please immediately notify the sender byÂtelephone or e-mail, and permanently delete this e-mail and any attachments. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 23 Dec 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7532/1/E-NFCA-November-Newsletter.html NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANSÂÂ1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, NWÂÂWASHINGTON, DC 20036ÂÂÂMONTHLY BULLETIN, NOVEMBER 2001ÂÂÂNFCA OFFICIALS MEET WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND ATTEND DINNER WITHÂÂPRESIDENT MESIC AND FOREIGN MINISTER PICULAÂÂÂOn Thursday, November 8, 2001 NFCA President John Kraljic and ExecutiveÂÂBoard Member Steven Rukavina met with Paul W. Jones, Director of theÂÂOffice of South-Central European Affairs at the US State Department, aÂÂmeeting which continues the dialogue the NFCA has maintained for yearsÂÂwith State Department officials. Among the many issues discussed, Mr.ÂÂKraljic and Mr. Rukavina expressed to Mr. Jones their concerns regardingÂÂthe status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and specifically notedÂÂthe need to revise the Dayton Peace Accords to protect the rights ofÂÂCroats as a constituent nation of that country. Further, they discussedÂÂthe issue of Croatia's potential membership in NATO. Following theirÂÂmeeting at the State Department, Mr. Kraljic and Mr. Rukavina met withÂÂKresimir Prisl and Mate Maras of the Croatian Embassy in Washington, DC.ÂÂÂLater that week, on Saturday, November 10, 2001, Mr. Kraljic attended aÂÂdinner with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and Croatian ForeignÂÂMinister Tonino Picula, both attending the United Nations GeneralÂÂAssembly meeting in New York City. The dinner, organized by DomagojÂÂKero, Croatia's General Consul in New York, was attended by, amongÂÂothers, Croatia's Ambassador to the United States, Ivan Grdesic, and itsÂÂAmbassador to the United Nations, Ivan Simonovic. The relativelyÂÂintimate dinner, with a total of only about twenty people attending,ÂÂallowed Mr. Kraljic and other Croatian-Americans in attendance (amongÂÂthem Anthony Peraica, NFCA member and Honorary President of the CroatianÂÂAmerican Association) the ability to discuss many issues with CroatianÂÂPresident and Foreign Minister. Among other things, Mr. KraljicÂÂpresented a list of issues which he felt needed to be addressed by theÂÂCroatian state and government in order to strengthen its ties to theÂÂCroatian-American community. These included requests for theÂÂinstitution of direct flights between the US and Croatia, the retentionÂÂof a public relations/lobbying firm by Croatia, the promotion of theÂÂstudy of the Croatian language and the establishment of a culturalÂÂcenter. Both President Mesic and Foreign Minister Picula expressedÂÂinterest in further examining these proposals.ÂÂÂThe President and Foreign Minister discussed their half-hour meetingÂÂearlier that day with President Bush during which the Croatian PresidentÂÂextended a formal invitation to President Bush to visit Croatia. Mr.ÂÂKraljic, Mr. Peraica and others expressed their concerns regarding manyÂÂissues, including Croatia's relationship with the International WarÂÂCrimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the status of Croats ofÂÂBosnia and Herzegovina.ÂÂÂÂÂMEETINGS WITH DR. FRANJO TOPIC, PRESIDENT OF NAPREDAKÂÂÂDr. Franjo Topic, President of the Sarajevo-based Croatian culturalÂÂorganization Napredak met with NFCA President John Kraljic in New YorkÂÂCity on Saturday, November 10, 2001. During their discussions, FatherÂÂTopic described the impressive work Napredak is doing in Bosnia andÂÂHerzegovina. Napredak has chapters throughout the world, including oneÂÂin the United States, headed by NFCA member Josip Knezevic. Mr.ÂÂKnezevic escorted Father Topic to a number of meetings in New York City.ÂÂAfter meeting with Croatian Fraternal Union officials in Pittsburgh, Dr.ÂÂTopic attended the American Association for the Advancement of SlavicÂÂStudies annual meeting outside of Washington, DC where he presented aÂÂpaper. During his stay in the Washington, DC area, Father Topic metÂÂwith, among others, NFCA member Steven Rukavina.ÂÂÂThose interested in learning more about Napredak or wishing to join theÂÂorganization should contact Mr. Knezevic at 718-353-0069.ÂÂÂNFCA PRESIDENT JOHN KRALJIC ATTENDS MEETING IN MONTREALÂÂÂAt the invitation of the local AMAC Chapter in Montreal, NFCA PresidentÂÂJohn Kraljic presented a paper concerning the status of CroatianÂÂimmigrants in the United States at a meeting held on October 21, 2001.ÂÂThe paper, which has been republished in a number of installments in theÂÂCroatian-Australian newspaper Hrvatski Vjesnik and appears in EnglishÂÂand Croatian on the AMAC Montreal web pageÂÂ(www.amcaqc.mcgill.ca/activities/amca_lectures/john_kraljic.htm),ÂÂpresents Mr. Kraljic's views concerning the immediate future of theÂÂCroatian immigrant community throughout the world. Among other things,ÂÂMr. Kraljic noted that the relationship between Croatian immigrants andÂÂthe Homeland had to date always been, effectively, a one way street andÂÂhe urged that the Croatian government must now turn its attention toÂÂaddressing the more mundane but important needs of the Croatian-AmericanÂÂand Croatian-Canadian community. Approximately fifty people attendedÂÂthe meeting, many of whom engaged in a lively discussion concerning theÂÂissues raised following the speech.ÂÂÂBUSINESS DEVELOPMENTÂÂÂThe NFCA Business Development Committee continues it work with the USÂÂChamber of Commerce and on a major Croatian economic developmentÂÂproject. An NFCA delegation of Steve Rukavina, Zvonko Labas, AlennaÂÂLepetic, Joseph Rukavina, Nensi Fiorenini and Vedran Podolski met withÂÂMark Van Fleet, Senior International Division Manager at the US ChamberÂÂof Commerce headquarters in early October to discuss a specific projectÂÂto assist Croatia's economy. The NFCA, in collaboration with the USÂÂChamber of Commerce, is actively pursuing financial support from the USÂÂgovernment to fund this three year project.ÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 16 Dec 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7531/1/H-Sabor-Hrvatske-Dijaspore---wwwic-hrvatskadijasporahr.html www.ic-hrvatskadijaspora.hrÂÂPostovani !ÂÂÂIzvjescujemo Vas da se odrzava prvi Sabor Hrvatske Dijaspore,na kojem ce biti prisutni hrvatski gradani i njihova pokoljenja sa sva cetri kontinenta.Detaljnije informacije na w-stranici pod Sadrzajem naslov SaborÂÂwww.ic-hrvatskadijaspora.hrÂÂPozivamo Vas da Vasim direktnim ili indirektnim ucescem pridonesete bogastvuÂsadrzaja i tema o kojima ce Sabor raspravljati.Mozda bas Vas prijedlogÂpomogne da se postigne minimum minimuma zajednistva cjelokupnog hrvatskogÂsvjetskog korpusa.Zajednicki smo jaci ,pokusajmo zajednicki razmisljat kakoÂbi osvjetlili put u buducnost.ÂÂOcekujemo Vase ocitovanje na E mail dijaspora@hi.hinet.hrÂÂUnaprijed hvala uz cijenjeno stovanje. Za Klub Niko SoljakÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 16 Dec 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7533/1/E-Kucan-urges-Croatians-to-sign-border-deal-Do-they-know.html Slovenia's Kucan urges Croats to sign border dealÂÂZAGREB, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Slovene President Milan Kucan urged Croatia onÂWednesday to avoid international arbitration and ratify a border deal withÂSlovenia, vital for the European integration prospects of the two neighbours.ÂÂ"Both countries are mature and responsible enough to be able to arrange theirÂrelations on their own," Kucan told Croatian parliament in an address duringÂhis two-day visit.ÂÂ"They do not need special envoys and there is no reason to burden theÂinternational community with our problems," he said.ÂÂThe two former Yugoslav republics must resolve a set of open issues prior toÂtheir integration into the EU. Slovenia is among front-running candidates toÂjoin, possibly as early as 2004, and Croatia signed an associate membershipÂdeal last month.ÂÂRatifying the land-and-sea border accord reached by Croatian Prime MinisterÂIvica Racan and Slovene Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek in July is a priority.ÂÂOther issues include a jointly-owned nuclear power plant at the Slovene townÂof Krsko and money owed to Croatians by Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka fromÂbefore Yugoslavia's 1991 split.ÂÂRacan told reporters on Wednesday each issue should be dealt with separately.ÂÂ"We agreed that the things we currently cannot resolve, that is the borders,Âshould not stand in the way of resolving other issues," he said after meetingÂKucan.ÂÂEarlier this year, Croatia's parliament refused to endorse the border deal,Âsaying it gave Slovenia too large a part of Croatia's northern AdriaticÂwaters in the Piran bay.ÂÂDrnovsek has said the failure to ratify the border agreement may endangerÂefforts to resolve the other issues.ÂÂCroatia and Slovenia jointly proclaimed independence from the SocialistÂYugoslav federation in 1991. Their relations have been strained ever sinceÂand a precise border was never agreed.ÂÂ12:27 11-28-01ÂÂCopyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.ÂÂop-edÂThere is no rush on this issue. Ljubljanska Banka and Krsko on the other handÂARE a rush issue. Does our Croatian Government know this? If President KucanÂis so eager to sign a treaty, he should show some good will (read respect)Âand solve two big problems like Krsko and Ljubljanska banka before any otherÂdiscussions about the borders. Does our Croatian Government know how toÂhandle this?ÂNenad BachÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 02 Dec 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7539/1/E-Armed-SFOR-soldiers-raid-the-HTV-Mostar-and-Croatian-Radio-Mostar-premises.html HEADLINES, Thursday, November 15, 2001ÂSource: Dnevni List, November 14, 2001ÂÂArmed SFOR soldiers raid the HTV Mostar and Croat Radio Mostar premisesÂÂYesterday at 10 o'clock, members of the SFOR unit of a mixed compositionÂraided into the premises of the Croat Radio Mostar and HTV Mostar. Allegedly,Âaccording to them, it is about an inspection, which was announced earlier andÂwhich is a part of the mandate of the SFOR Mission in BiH. French and SpanishÂsoldiers were armed with Heckler rifles, and they were communicating throughÂhandsets.ÂÂÂWeapons talkÂÂÂThe appearance of armed SFOR members frightened the personel of two mediaÂoutlets and introduced considerable unrest among Croatian journalists. AllÂof this reminded of the earlier military actions taken against EROTEL,ÂHercegovacka Banka, Mostar's Municipal Councli, and others. However, thisÂtime SFOR's target was the Croatian media and journalists, whose rights wereÂtrampled on in the most brutal was by the 'Peace Stabilization Forces'.ÂAccording to one of the officers, who were standing at the entrance of theÂbuilding and who wanted to remain anonymous, SFOR conducted the 'inspection'Âin accordance with the order from the CRA from Sarajevo and in coordinationÂwith their commanding officer in the Ortijes military base near Mostar.ÂAccording to Josef Macrey, the SFOR Spokesperson in Sarajevo, this is aboutÂ"a routine, announced control, whose purpose is to verify whether theÂcommunication equipment of these media outlets is in accordance with theÂDayton Peace Agreement". To our question whether he is aware of the factÂthat the Dayton Peace agreement was signed six years ago whether he is awareÂof the fact that the DPA was signed 6 years ago, we did not get aÂsatisfactory answer, except that obligations from the Agreement are beingÂimplemented.ÂÂÂThe CRA is responsible?!ÂÂÂWe contacted the CRA and received an answer from Amela Odobasic, who told us,Âafter checking, that the CRA did not issue any order for the raid of theseÂtwo media outlets. However, according to well-informed sources, close to theÂCRA, it is claimed that the CRA, "after a series of gathered information fromÂviewers, and others, the CRA decided to suggest to SFOR to conduct anÂinspection, which is part of the SFOR mandate for BiH, in which they can alsoÂexecute unannounced inspectionsÂÂÂFear and uneasinessÂÂÂTo our question whether the CRA will protect the Croat electronic media, Mrs.ÂOdobasic told us that the CRA can only suggest to SFOR not to be violentÂtowards the staff and journalists, but that SFOR inspections are a part ofÂtheir mandate.ÂÂÂWe received a few statements, from journalists who requested to remainÂanonymous, which stated that the SFOR soldiers were not violent, they wereÂpolite, but their showing up fully armed scared and disturbed them, becauseÂthat isn't an appropriate manner for conducting any sort of inspection.ÂÂÂSuccessful "InspectionÂÂÂAccording to Vlatko Menix, the Head of the HTV Mostar, the SFOR officersÂbehaved decently and the inspection was executed successfully. TomislavÂMazal, the Head of the Croat Radio Mostar, stated that the inspection in hisÂmedia outlet was executed without any problems and the SFOR soldiers behavedÂdecently.ÂÂÂSFOR breached Dayton?ÂÂÂMany people believe that the DPA was severely violated by this raid ofÂmilitary forces into premises of the media outlets, and that this case shouldÂbe examined exclusively because of such behavior of the SFOR. Also, a fewÂInternational Charters on Rights and Freedom of Media have been violated andÂnothing, including the SFOR and its mandate, can justify this. One TVÂtechnician told us: "'At the moment, when I was working on a TV report, anÂarmed solder showed up at the door and I was so scared that I did not knowÂhow to behave. I was only thinking as to how to leave the premises, but I wasÂnot allowed to, at first. Later on they allowed me to leave the room." AÂjournalist, who wanted to remain anonymous, stated: "I have neverÂexperienced such violent act and if the price of freedom is my life, then IÂwill pay the price.'ÂÂFrom foreign press office: fpo-mostar@pincom.netÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7538/1/E-Coalition-Victory-in-Australia.html The victory of the Liberal/National Party Coalition in Australia has beenÂacknowledged, for a third term, in a victory speech tonight by the Hon. JohnÂHoward. I am sure that I am not alone amongst most Croatian people inÂcongratulating him, and hope that the Croatian community in Australia can doÂits utmost to develop good relations with members of the Coalition.ÂÂÂThe victory of the Coalition in Australia will help to assure that theÂCoalition Against Terror in the world remains on a steady, united foundation,Âand in addition, it will assure that there is a balanced power sharingÂcoexistence amongst democratic nations.ÂÂÂIn addition, the failure to win the seat of Calwell Victoria Australia by theÂindependent Dr. A. Theophanous (former ALP-Socialist-Left faction) shouldÂcome as a wake up call for the Croatian community leaders in MelbourneÂAustralia. For far too long Croatian lobbyists in Australia, at least inÂVictoria, have been openly supporting only the opposition to the electedÂgovernment. How can this be in the best interests of Croatia, or HDZ?ÂÂregards to everyone,ÂJean W. Marinovic.ÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7537/1/E-Istria-is-in-Croatia-Does-our-Croatian-government-think-that.html Istria is in Croatia, yes. Most of us who are from Istria are Croatians.ÂDoes our Croatian government think that? If it does, why than don't they hireÂistrians to visible and important positions within Croatian government? WhyÂwas there not one istrian here in the United States of America, in the pastÂ10 years, who held the position of Croatian Ambassador or Croatian Consul? IÂdo not think that they have on their promises even cleaning ladies who areÂistrians, maybe one or two secretaries in 10 years in the whole USA. Maybe.ÂMaybe is time for us Croatian Americans to do something about this?ÂMario ViscovichÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7536/1/E-Jasenovac-in-the-NY-Times.html This appeared in yesterday's NY Times. We should all congratulate Mr.ÂÂMaras of the Croatian embassy for speaking up at the press conference.ÂÂAlso, note how this article desribes Jasenovac being set up by theÂÂ"Republic of Croatia." It is also "one of the . . . most brutal camps"ÂÂof WWII (one wonders how anyone can determine that).ÂÂÂI think this article again points to what I have been urging: that theÂÂCroatian govt must obtain a PR firm to deal with these kinds of issues.ÂÂThis story, for ex., should have been "spinned" as how the bad SerbsÂÂstole items from Jasenovac and took them to Banja Luka. Moreover, IÂÂhave read some estimates concerning the large number of ethnic CroatÂÂvictims at the camp (among others, Vladko Macek was a prisoner there forÂÂsome period of time). This was recognized in the press release of theÂÂUS Holocaust Museum but not in this story. That is something thatÂÂshould have been emphasized as well and, again, a PR firm would haveÂÂknown how to have done that.ÂÂÂFurther, the most authoritative numbers that I read, compiled by IvoÂÂGoldstein, show approx. 80,000 victims - here again, presumably forÂÂdramatic effect, Museum officials upped the number by 20,000, or 25%.ÂÂBased on my past experience, we can argue till we're blue in the faceÂÂthat the number was overstated without convincing the newspapers.ÂÂÂI also note the article states that 300,000 Serbs died throughoutÂÂCroatia. This is inaccurate as this number also includes, I beleive,ÂÂthose who died in BH as well. Mr. Maras' points are well taken - thisÂÂnumber includes combatants (i.e., Chetniks and Partisans).ÂÂÂMoreover, as we all know, President Mesic was in Israel 2 weeks ago andÂÂas far as I am aware a story about his visit appeared in only oneÂÂAmerican paper, the LA Times, and in no Jewish-American publications (atÂÂleast not yet). Presumably, a PR firm would have handled the story inÂÂsuch a manner to assure greater coverage of that event.ÂÂÂI will share one point which caused me some concern during my meetingÂÂwith President Mesic and Foreign Minister Picula. At least one memberÂÂof the delegation did not beleive me when I said that the Croatian flagÂÂwas consistently presented as a fascist/Ustashe flag in the US press.ÂÂThe argument was that if that were the case neither Israel nor the USÂÂwould allow such a flag to be flown.ÂÂÂThis was a major point made by American and UK reporters during the warÂÂyears. As we saw in the LA Times article, this continues to be aÂÂproblem. The answer to this issue is very simple - the "sahovnica" coatÂÂof arms was also used by the Communists as part of the coat of arms ofÂÂthe SR Croatia. There's no way the Communists would have allowed aÂÂsupposedly fascist symbol to be used.ÂÂÂJohn KraljicÂÂÂDocumenting a Death Camp in Nazi CroatiaÂÂBy NEIL A. LEWISÂÂWASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - Officials of the United States Holocaust MuseumÂÂsaid today that they had discovered and preserved a cache of decayingÂÂdocuments and artifacts from one of the lesser-known but most brutalÂÂconcentration camps of World War II. The camp, known as Jasenovac, wasÂÂoperated in Croatia by the Ustasha, the Nazi puppet government.ÂÂThe artifacts were found deteriorating in a building in Banja Luka inÂÂthe Serbian part of Bosnia last year, officials said.ÂÂPeter Black, the museum's chief historian, told reporters today thatÂÂJasenovac was crude in comparison to the industrialized NaziÂÂextermination camps like Auschwitz. Mr. Black said there were no gasÂÂchambers or crematories, so prisoners were murdered one by one withÂÂaxes, guns, knives or prolonged torture. Bodies were buried or thrownÂÂinto the adjacent Sava River.ÂÂJasenovac (pronounced ya-SEN- oh-vatz), actually a complex of five campsÂÂabout 60 miles from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, has been littleÂÂstudied in the West, but the history has long resonated in the modernÂÂBalkans, where analysts and historians have debated about how much ofÂÂthe region's violence may be traced to historic ethnic enmities.ÂÂMr. Black estimated that nearly 100,000 people had been killed inÂÂJasenovac, the largest number being Serbs, followed by Jews and Gypsies.ÂÂThe camp was established by the Republic of Croatia to eliminate anyoneÂÂwho was not an ethnic Croatian. Mr. Black said a combination of factors,ÂÂincluding the reluctance of officials to agree on what happened, had ledÂÂto its history's remaining largely hidden from scholars until now.ÂÂThe collection includes 2,000 photographs, many of atrocities; tens ofÂÂthousands of papers; and thousands of artifacts, like inmate crafts.ÂÂSara J. Bloomfield, director of the Holocaust Museum, said the projectÂÂto save the documents and artifacts was especially significant becauseÂÂof the cooperation of the government of Croatia, whose history is castÂÂin a poor light, as well as the governments of Serbia and Bosnia. Ms.ÂÂBloomfield said the governments had cooperated despite "the continuingÂÂsensitivity of all sides to this collection."ÂÂThat sensitivity was on display moments after the museum's presentationÂÂtoday when a diplomat from Croatia, Mate Maras, objected to theÂÂassertion by museum officials that more than 300,000 Serbs had died atÂÂthe hands of the Ustasha throughout Croatia in World War II.ÂÂMr. Maras complained to Ms. Bloomfield and Mr. Black that the number wasÂÂmisleading because it included what he said were combatants throughoutÂÂCroatia and thus was comparable to the hundreds of thousands of CroatsÂÂkilled in the war.ÂÂMr. Maras said that while he thought the assertions of the museum'sÂÂpersonnel about Serb casualties were misleading, he agreed it was "aÂÂgood day for Croatia to open up these sad pages of our history."ÂÂCopies of the collection have been made and will be maintained at theÂÂHolocaust Museum and in Israel, officials said. The original collectionÂÂwill be returned to a museum in Croatia, where it will be put on displayÂÂat the site of the Jasenovic complex, officials said.ÂÂÂNOTICE: This e-mail and the attachments hereto, if any, may contain legallyÂÂprivileged and/or confidential information. It is intended only for use byÂÂthe named addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient of thisÂÂe-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution orÂÂcopying of this e-mail and the attachments hereto, if any, is strictlyÂÂprohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, pleaseÂÂimmediately notify the sender by telephone and permanently delete thisÂÂe-mail and the attachments hereto, if any, and destroy any printout thereof.ÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7535/1/E-VJEZBA-AMERICKE-I-HRVATSKE-RATNE-MORNARICE.html ZAVRSENA VJEZBA AMERICKE I HRVATSKE RATNE MORNARICEÂÂÂROGOZNICA, 14. studenoga - Nakon sto je zbog nevremena odgodjena u utorak,Âhrvatsko-americka pomorska vojna vjezba SURFEX 2001. odrzana je u srijedu uÂvodama od otoka Zirja do Drvenika. Kapetan bojnog broda Marin Stosic,Ânacelnik Stozera flote Hrvatske ratne mornarice, koji je zapovijedaoÂhrvatskim snagama, ocijenio je da je vjezba uspjesno izvedena.ÂÂÂU prvom dijelu vjezbe hrvatske i americke snage manevrirale su u uskomÂobalnom dijelu mora koje je tesko za navigaciju velikih brodova, kao sto jeÂamericki ratni brod USS Ross. U drugom dijelu izveden je kombiniranÂraketno-zrakoplovno-topnicki udar na krijumcarski brod. U trecem dijelu biloÂje predvidjeno zajednicko bojno gadjanje hrvatskih i americkih pomorskihÂsnaga. No, to nije uspjelo jer se u dva pokusaja ispuhala pokretna metaÂ"Tomatokiller" za koju su bili zaduzeni Amerikanci. Ipak, istaknuo je Stosic,Âuspjesnosu provedene pripreme za bojno gadjanje, a rekao je da ne zna zastoÂje zakazala pokretna meta. Vjezbom je zapovijedao americki casnik, kapetanÂbojniog broda Kevin Quinn, dok mu je zamjenik bio kapetan Stosic. "HrvatskaÂje zahvaljujuci i ovoj vjezbi korak dalje u ispunjavanju NATO-ovihÂstandarda", rekao je Allen Robert Joseph, kapetan korvete i americki vojniÂizaslanik u Hrvatskoj.ÂÂÂ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ÂÂHrvatski Informativni Centar Tel: 385 1 / 4846 100ÂÂMeduliceva 13/II Fax: 385 1 / 4848 634ÂÂ10.000 Zagreb E-Mail: vijesti@hic.hrÂÂREPUBLIKA HRVATSKAÂÂÂhttp://www.hic.hr/hrvatski/vijesti/ÂÂhttp://www.hic.hr/hrvatski/vijesti/arhiv/ÂÂAudio: http://www.hic.hr/radio/ÂÂPretplate: vijesti@hic.hrÂÂhttp://www.hic.hr/hrvatski/vijesti/servis.htmÂÂÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7534/1/E-From-jail-to-presidency-bid.html INTERVIEW-Brovina goes from jail to Kosovo presidency bidÂBy Fredrik DahlÂÂÂÂPRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Just over a year ago, Flora BrovinaÂwas in a grim Serbian prison. Now she is campaigning to become president ofÂKosovo.ÂÂAnd the ethnic Albanian human rights activist, doctor and poet is deliveringÂa message of tolerance and co-existence, of reconciliation rather thanÂrevenge.ÂÂKosovo's ethnic Albanian majority hopes, and many minority Serbs fear, that aÂgeneral election on Saturday will move the U.N.-governed Yugoslav provinceÂcloser to independence.ÂÂBrovina, candidate of the Democratic Party of Kosovo of former guerrillaÂleader Hashim Thaci, makes clear independence is also her aim but vows to tryÂand break down ethnic barriers if elected, saying Kosovo belongs to all itsÂpeople.ÂÂ"I personally insist that all citizens must be equal and not divided into aÂfirst and a second class," she told Reuters, using words which are in tuneÂwith international officials hoping the vote will foster a more multi-ethnicÂKosovo.ÂÂArrested during NATO's 1999 bombing to end Belgrade's repression of Kosovo'sÂAlbanians, Brovina was convicted of associating with separatist guerrillasÂand jailed for 12 years on terrorism charges in a trial widely condemned as aÂsham.ÂÂShe was released after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic as Yugoslav presidentÂin a popular revolt last year.ÂÂAPPEAL TO SERBSÂÂBrovina has urged Kosovo's beleaguered Serbs to cast their ballots for theÂnew 120-seat assembly to be set up after the November 17 election, which inÂturn will elect a president, arguing the vote is a great opportunity for themÂtoo.ÂÂ"Serbs are citizens of Kosovo and they have to be part of Kosovo," Brovina,Âblonde, elegantly dressed in black and showing no trace of her difficult 19Âmonths in jail, said in an interview late on Monday.ÂÂPopular among many Kosovo Albanians, she will still face an uphill struggleÂin the race for the largely symbolic post of president against veteranÂpolitical leader Ibrahim Rugova.ÂÂBrovina insisted that despite her time in prison and atrocities committed agaiÂnst her people, she did not seek revenge. Serbs too were victims ofÂMilosevic, she said.ÂÂMany Serbs oppose the vote, arguing it will be a step to independence forÂKosovo and also that their living conditions are so miserable they shouldÂboycott the poll in protest.ÂÂBrovina said independence was inevitable, a "life or death" issue for Kosovo,Âbut she said it would be positive for Serbs as well as it would lead toÂbetter times for the impoverished economy.ÂÂFearing Albanian reprisals, about 180,000 Serbs fled Kosovo after governmentÂforces withdrew following 11 weeks of NATO bombing. Many of those remaining,Ânumbering about 100,000, live in enclaves protected by heavily armed NATO-ledÂpeacekeepers.ÂÂBrovina, 51, vowed to fight such "ghettos."ÂÂ"An independent Kosovo will guarantee the minorities equality," she said.ÂÂBut Brovina accused Belgrade's new leadership of continuing to manipulate theÂprovince's Serbs.ÂÂMilosevic may be awaiting trial at the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague forÂatrocities in Kosovo, but "Milosevic's system is still in power in Belgrade,"Âshe said.ÂÂ05:15 11-13-01ÂSubmitted by Katarina TepeshÂCopyright 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.Âdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 18 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7540/1/E-What-we-discussed-in-Zuerich-last-night--the-Middle-Way.html ... there used to be an agreement between Cro-gvt andÂus (diaspora ) that there should be an independentÂCroatia, that Croatia was a victim of SerbianÂexpansion, and that ideas "all sides gulilty", "CroatsÂare fascists etc were lies and propaganda. ThatÂ'concensus' has been shattered.ÂAll within 2 years. What will happen in the next 2Âyears, and how do we respond? Brian>>ÂÂDear Brian and all,ÂÂI am too tired to write a detailed discussion report tonight in EnglishÂon the discussion last night in Zuerich, but the essence is clearÂand stated (incompletely below); I will write longer versionÂprobably in Croatian later on as soon as I fully recover ...ÂÂThere were some 40-50 people and Ms Hloverka Srzic (HTV deputyÂdirector) was the brilliant moderator and Dr. Mate Granic, the only ZgbÂpolitician present, made an introductory speach and replied to many questionsÂ(just like several others, myself included who were at theÂ''high'' table; everything was recorded by the camera that was there ) ...ÂÂAs Dr. M. Granic is experienced, and his brother is with Racan,Âhe could hardly refuse to transfer our messages to Zagreb,Âso, we have directly ''charged'' him (he agreed) with several tasksÂgiven below; BTW off the record he told us stories onÂthe Dayton, and many oter negotiations that place theÂwhole recent history in a somewhat different perspectiveÂyet that shows that Racan et. al., including his brotherÂGoran, have failed in their part in establishing better and moreÂprosperous Croatia and a true national concensus on our future ...ÂÂFollowing Granic I was asked to summarize your/our ideasÂfrom the Internet, as well as my own vision and analysisÂand possibilities of Croatia in the 21st knowledge-century ,,,ÂI will not repeat it here as I write often to all of youÂand I will just say, that I clearly stated what are you/we discussingÂlately here and I gave Hlovorka the list of several goalsÂthat are gradually emerging after John's Montreal talk ...Âand subsequent discussions ... etc ...ÂÂ''Diaspora'': as Sito-Coric emphasized and we all agreedÂwe used the term 'izvandomovinski Hrvati' for CroatsÂworldwide, yet there was a special discussion on theÂBiH problem (their representative was there, so was Dr.ÂSpoljaric from Croatian Embassy in Bern)ÂÂWe all agreed to try to avoid the word diasporaÂ(for several reasons; one is that in the 3rd millenniumÂthe space-time notions and the Croatian population correlationsÂwill not just be ''two-dimensional''; ((sorry, but couldn't resist :-)ÂÂFew other members of the panel emphasized the problemsÂof corruption and inefficiency as well as the problem of theÂmentality (Oswin Gaupp) ... and in almost 4 hours ofÂnon-stop discussion at least 20 people joined withÂquestions or suggestions (I have 7 pages of notes ...);Âin general there were too many discussions of the pastÂand past mistakes, so people in the audience askedÂagain that we all better focus on the future.ÂÂSo, what we charged M. Granic with is roughly thisÂ(we will send it to all other politicians too and especiallyÂwill make pressure groups on the HDZ as well as Racan's SDP,Âas we simply had enough of all the political 'circus' in Zagreb):ÂÂi) This government has no program or policy concerning CroatiansÂoutside Croatia and we all had enough of that; moreover,Âthey are not qualified and that comes from foreign ambassadorsÂin Croatia and even the West experts agree.ÂÂActually I knew things were bad, yet I didn't know they wereÂTHAT bad ... and the number of testimonies was overwhealmingÂto the extent that I had to ocasionally defend the presentÂgovernment and point out 2-3 good things that they did.ÂÂAnyway, it was clear from what we heard that Racan's gvtÂdays are numbered ... So, let's replace them.ÂÂIdeally with people that are more qualified and roughly 'centrist':Âthat means those who understand what is just PLAIN LOGICÂin running a normal coherent Croatian State within the world contextÂ(and who are not crooks or extremest in the wrong way etc).ÂÂii) The expectation is that the next election will be by summer 2002Âand that the coalition of centirst parties will get in.ÂÂIf Budisa takes over again the HSLS, leaves the Racan coalitionÂand joins with the HSS, DC ... and a new arrangement is madeÂwith the HDZ then it's feasible that by summer or the autumnÂ2002 we see the political change in Zagreb.ÂÂiii) The new government (a reasonable coalition but definitely withoutÂthose who finance our direct and proclaimed enemies) willÂhave to act according to the principles that we have alreadyÂdiscussed in our forums:ÂÂ- improvement of the functioning (NON-corrupted) state and emphasis onÂthe genuine enterpreneurship and spiritual and economic recoveryÂ- true policy toward the BiH and with Croatian people worldwideÂ- active role of the HTV in altering the bolshevist mentality in CroatiaÂÂÂ... establishing medium and long term starategy.ÂÂMoreover, read this:ÂÂA minimum NATIONAL CONCENSUS on national prioritiesÂwith a clear bottom line that DOES NOT change:Âso that Racan et al fiascos like Piran bay, Prevlaka, the Hague-mistreatments,Âor selling of Croatian banks to Italians (who almost by nowÂcould keep Croatia as their demi-colony) ...ÂÂAs I said I informed them on what you are trying to achieve in the NorthÂAmerica and there was a special, wise discussion on BiH, on CroatianÂcatastrophic economy (bring the experts in and finally some strategy),Âon the Church and present conflics between the governmentÂand the Archbishop conference ...ÂÂAnyway, it was 10 pm when skillful moderator, Ms Hlovorka SrzicÂconcluded these discussions ...ÂÂMy own additional remarks are here:ÂÂIn comparison with us here (''the Internet lot'') this was ''low-tech'' groupÂand only Hlovorka Srzic uses the Net and/or one or two engineers, soÂNOTE that Croatians in Europe and Croatia are way behind the northÂAmerican Internet ''culture'' and techno-approaches ... in general.ÂÂI have heard and/or figured out things that I cannot possibly publishÂhere and that I will cautiously gradually disctribute by ''osmosis''Âbut the essence is that we really have to beware of various mediaÂjust as we have to beware of the foreign power-centersÂor our proclaimed enemies.ÂÂIt was and is evident from what M. Granic said that the USAÂIS absolutely CRUCIAL power and that what happened in a warÂand in the Dayton peace ... is the deal esentially with Washington.ÂÂThat dramatically emphasizes your role in the USA (I, for one, was awareÂof that) and the lobbying in Washington will simply be implementedÂby the next government. If not we better create a havoc ...ÂÂBesides, the problem with the '90s UK government and how to send themÂto the Hague, is a special discussion that we should not abandon soon.ÂÂDr. Mate Granic couldn't resist to gain few political points on myÂprovocation-statement that even if he would win the next electionsÂand become the Prime-minister, I would express my condolencesÂas neither him nor anyone else among them (in Zagreb) have anyÂserious economic strategy ... there is 1 Croat in 5 working etc ...ÂÂHe stated a number of tough tasks that he personally negotiatedÂduring the war (I admit that the list is impressive), or several crisisÂwhen over 1 weekend 250 000 refugies came to Croatia ...Âso, he made a point that even if the next government may notÂbe an ideal government or solve all the problems, that aÂreasonable coalition with a minimal national concensusÂshould at least DO BETTER than what we have now ...ÂÂAlthough you all know how sceptical am I of any politician'sÂstatements, I admit that M. Granic this time convinced me at leastÂthat much: if Budisa, Tomcic and Granic manage to formulateÂ''the middle, civilized way'' and a working coalition that will notÂallow that some BASIC VALUES and Crotian self-respectÂchange each 3-4 years, when SDP or HDZ dominated governmentsÂexchange power ('cause these get roughly up to 30% each) ...Âthen there is some hope for more stable future in Croatia.ÂÂIt will be interesting to see how will HDZ politically profileÂitself in the following few months, yet according to whatÂI heard last night (and from what I knew from my sources)Âthere is some serious soul-searchig going on within theÂHSS and HSLS ... wait and see ...ÂÂAnd now I need some rest from all this politics :-IÂÂDavor PavunaÂpavuna@bluewin.chÂdistributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 11 Nov 2001 07:00:00 +0000