For Immediate Release
Contact: Erik Milman
202-33-2830
OFFICIALS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS
MEET WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT
(Washington, D.C., March 17, 2002). On Monday, March 10, 2003, John
Kraljic, President of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA),
Steve Rukavina, a former President of the NFCA, Erik Millman, the Development
Director of the NFCA and Joseph Foley of Foley Government & Public Relations,
Inc. met with State Departmentofficials to discuss various issues related to
relations between Croatia and the United States.
The meeting focused on a number of matters, including Croatia’s candidacy for
NATO. Mr. Kraljic noted that the NFCA and Croatian-Americans beleived that
Croatia had been unfairly put behind Romania and Bulgaria in its bid for NATO
membership. “We certainly support NATO’s expansion to include Romania and
Bulgaria,” Mr. Kraljic noted after the meeting, “but any objective
comparison of the social, economic, and political indicators shows that
Croatia is way ahead of both countries. While US officials havecited to
problems with respect to Croatia’s internal policies toward refugee returns
and general civil rights, we noted that such problems were prevelant in
practically all the other nations invited to join NATO at the Prague summit
late last year.”
The NFCA also discussed its concerns with the International Criminal Tribunal
forthe Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The NFCA emphasized Croatia’s continued
cooperation with the ICTY and noted that Croatia’s determination to integrate
into NATO, the EU and other Western institutions was being stymied by
unsubstantiated charges made by the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor. “We told State
Department officials that we beleived that the Chief Prosecutor is
essentially an official who was not subject to any control by the UN Security
Council and was irresponsibly making statements regarding Croatia which had
an immediate effect of Croatia’s re-integration with the West,” Mr. Kraljic
noted.
Mr. Kraljic also stated that the NFCA expressed its continuing concern with
respect to the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). “I expressed
my frustration at the continued failure to bring a final peace to BH. It seems
to me that we cannot call the Dayton process a success as BH continues to
essentially be an international protectorate almost 8 years after the end of
the war. The Croats of BH have especially suffered as a result of this
continued instability having their rights to elect their own leaders
overruled by international bureacrats.”
Mr. Rukavina brought up the possibility of a possible foregiveness of a
portion of Croatia’s growing foreign debt. He also generally discussed the need to
direct American aid to economic reconstruction rather than questionable
think-tanks. “We find that much of the money earmarked for Croatia by the
United States is used to fund expensive studies by American consultants the
worth of which is highly speculative,” Mr. Rukavina stated. Mr. Kraljic
added that he also pointed to the funding of various NGOs in Croatia by
USAID. “We beleive that Croatia’s democratic transformation is stabilized
and the need for international aid to NGOs in Croatia, some of which are
dominated by ex-Communists,
is simply not necessary and indeed has added little to increasing civil and
political rights in Croatia.”
The NFCA will continue to focus on the issues it raised at the meeting with
the State Department last week in its lobbying efforts in Washington. The NFCA
calls on all Croatian Americans to increase their involvement in the American
legislative process to insure that the interests of Croatia and Croats is
well represented.
The NFCA is a national umbrella organization which organizations have
approximately 130,000 members.
NFCAhdq@aol.com
For Immediate Release
Contact: Erik Milman
202-33-2830
OFFICIALS OF THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS
MEET WITH THE STATE DEPARTMENT
(Washington, D.C., March 17, 2002). On Monday, March 10, 2003, John
Kraljic, President of the National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCA),
Steve Rukavina, a former President of the NFCA, Erik Millman, the Development
Director of the NFCA and Joseph Foley of Foley Government & Public Relations,
Inc. met with State Departmentofficials to discuss various issues related to
relations between Croatia and the United States.
The meeting focused on a number of matters, including Croatia’s candidacy for
NATO. Mr. Kraljic noted that the NFCA and Croatian-Americans beleived that
Croatia had been unfairly put behind Romania and Bulgaria in its bid for NATO
membership. “We certainly support NATO’s expansion to include Romania and
Bulgaria,” Mr. Kraljic noted after the meeting, “but any objective
comparison of the social, economic, and political indicators shows that
Croatia is way ahead of both countries. While US officials havecited to
problems with respect to Croatia’s internal policies toward refugee returns
and general civil rights, we noted that such problems were prevelant in
practically all the other nations invited to join NATO at the Prague summit
late last year.”
The NFCA also discussed its concerns with the International Criminal Tribunal
forthe Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The NFCA emphasized Croatia’s continued
cooperation with the ICTY and noted that Croatia’s determination to integrate
into NATO, the EU and other Western institutions was being stymied by
unsubstantiated charges made by the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor. “We told State
Department officials that we beleived that the Chief Prosecutor is
essentially an official who was not subject to any control by the UN Security
Council and was irresponsibly making statements regarding Croatia which had
an immediate effect of Croatia’s re-integration with the West,” Mr. Kraljic
noted.
Mr. Kraljic also stated that the NFCA expressed its continuing concern with
respect to the status of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). “I expressed
my frustration at the continued failure to bring a final peace to BH. It seems
to me that we cannot call the Dayton process a success as BH continues to
essentially be an international protectorate almost 8 years after the end of
the war. The Croats of BH have especially suffered as a result of this
continued instability having their rights to elect their own leaders
overruled by international bureacrats.”
Mr. Rukavina brought up the possibility of a possible foregiveness of a
portion of Croatia’s growing foreign debt. He also generally discussed the need to
direct American aid to economic reconstruction rather than questionable
think-tanks. “We find that much of the money earmarked for Croatia by the
United States is used to fund expensive studies by American consultants the
worth of which is highly speculative,” Mr. Rukavina stated. Mr. Kraljic
added that he also pointed to the funding of various NGOs in Croatia by
USAID. “We beleive that Croatia’s democratic transformation is stabilized
and the need for international aid to NGOs in Croatia, some of which are
dominated by ex-Communists,
is simply not necessary and indeed has added little to increasing civil and
political rights in Croatia.”
The NFCA will continue to focus on the issues it raised at the meeting with
the State Department last week in its lobbying efforts in Washington. The NFCA
calls on all Croatian Americans to increase their involvement in the American
legislative process to insure that the interests of Croatia and Croats is
well represented.
The NFCA is a national umbrella organization which organizations have
approximately 130,000 members.
NFCAhdq@aol.com