CROWN - Croatian World Network

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Kostelic siblings make history winning on same day

Croatia's Janica Kostelic smiles on podium after winning the women's World cup slalom in Bormio, January 5, 2003.Kostelic won the race in a time of one minute 36.74 seconds ahead of Austria's Elisabeth Goergl and Sweden's AnjaPaerson. REUTERS/Claudio Papi

Croatia's Janica Kostelic celebrates her 21th birthday with a cake after winning the World cup women's slalom inBormio, January 5, 2003. REUTERS/Claudio Papi

World Cup leader Janica Kostelic, of Croatia, celebrates as she watches her brother Ivica winning the men's slalom atKranjska Gora, Slovenia, on television, after she captured her fifth season victory in the women's World Cup slalom raceat Bormio, Italy, Sunday, Jan 5, 2003. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)

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"They're out of thisworld.?"

No, they are from CROATIA

Kostelic siblings make history winning on same day
Sun Jan 5, 7:10 PM ET

By ERICA BULMAN, Associated Press Writer

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia - Janica and Ivica Kostelic were already the stuff of myth in their native Croatia, idolized byyoung and old alike. Now they've made history by becoming the first siblings to win World Cup Alpine races on thesame day. "You can't touch them!" yelled 19-year-old fan Vanja Rebic, one of the hundreds of thousands of Croats who watched as
the races were replayed over and over again Sunday in Croatian bars and cafes.
"They're out of this world."

Janica began the day with a resounding slalom victory in Bormio, Italy, finishing a whopping 2.08 seconds ahead of Austria's Elisabeth Goergl. After receiving cake and a toast at the finish line to celebrate her birthday she turned 21on Sunday Janica and her father then watched on television as her brother captured another slalom in KranjsjkaGora, Slovenia, less than an hour later.

"It's a great day for our family," said Janica, the younger and more prolific winner of the family. "It's a strange recordindeed, but I'm pleased with it. What Ivica has done means a lot because we've spoken for years about winning a race onthe same day.

"And it's great it happened on my birthday. He couldn't have given me a better present."
Croatian sports commentator Ivan Blazicko hailed the day as "another unforgettable day bestowed upon us by theunforgettable Kostelics."

Even Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan joined the well-wishers, sending separate congratulatory letters, praisingtheir "spirit and motivation."

Last year, Janica and Ivica had both won on the same weekend, each clinching the slalom at the World Cup finals inFlachau, Austria.

Some 15 sets of siblings have won races since the creation of the World Cup almost 40 years ago, but none ever won arace on the same day. The closest any came was on Feb. 8, 1983, at St. Anton, Austria, when American Steve Mahre wona World Cup slalom while his brother Phil won the combined, a paper event computed from his performances in thedownhill and the slalom.

The American Cochran family was the only to boast three World Cup winners on the tour, with Barbara and Marylineach recording three career victories in the technical events in the early 1970s, and brother Bob clinching a giant slalomat home in Heavenly Valley at the World Cup finals in 1973. The Kostelics have both enjoyed their share of success this season, with Ivica claiming a new night knock-out slalom inSestrieres, Italy, two weeks ago and topping the discipline standings, and Janica leading the women's World Cup overalland slalom rankings after five victories.

However, over the years, Janica has generally stolen the spotlight, winning the World Cup overall in 2001 and becomingthe first Alpine skier to capture four medals in a single Olympics. She also has a commendable 23 World Cup victories toher name.

The two, who are coached by father Ante Kostelic, had been in position to set a record in Salt Lake City as the firstbrother-sister team in 22 years to win Alpine skiing medals at the same Olympics.

Janica did her part, winning the slalom, giant slalom and combined event and getting the silver in the super giantslalom becoming the first Alpine skier to capture four medals in a single Olympics but Ivica missed a gate in themen's slalom.

The Kostelics are icons in Croatia and their rise from poverty and gloom to fame and stardom has become a fable forchildren in the country of 4.5 million, which is struggling to emerge from the ravages of war after it declaredindependence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Janica's Salt Lake performance drew tears to the eyes of many, who recalled her hobbling on crutches from damagedknee ligaments only months before the races.

"The Kostelics are setting international standards for skiing in a country where most people don't even get to see snowduring winter," marveled Mirela Dabic, a housewife in Zadar on the Dalmatian coastline. "They are not normal."

Sunday's win marked Janica's fifth of the season.

She completely dominated the field, posting the fastest time in both runs. The 2.08 second margin over Goergl was thebiggest margin of victory in a women's slalom since 1973, when France's Danielle Debernard won by 2.12 seconds inNaeba, Japan.

Ivica led after the opening leg and had a total time of 1 minute, 44.71 seconds on the badly rutted course to record hissecond straight victory. Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder was runner-up in 1:44.98 and Olympic slalom championJean-Pierre Vidal of France was third in 1:45.03.

"I didn't watch her race because I was preparing for my race," Ivica said. "But we had a guy on the team watching theTV and telling us the times over the radio. When I heard Janica had won by two seconds I was jumping up and down injoy."

The two will have another chance to win on the same day on Jan. 19 when the men race a slalom inWengen, Switzerland, and the women compete in a giant slalom in Cortina, Italy.

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Hrvatska - neutralna drava

Hrvatska - neutralna drava?
U svom praznicnom broju Slobodna Dalmacija donosi tekst Hrvatska postaje neutralna drava?. Iako je na svenacionalni cilj Europska unija, u slucaju fijaska hrvatske prijave za punopravno clanstvo u EU, proglaenje neutralnosti nije samo realistican, nego gotovo imperativan treci put hrvatske politike - kae se u clanku. Moda niste znali, ali vodeci hrvatski intelektualci, politolozi i novinari okupit ce se 23. sijecnja u zagorskom dvorcu Beanec kako bi raspravljali o intrigantnoj temi "Hrvatska neutralna drava?" Glavni promotor te rezervne ideje je dr. Andelko Milardovic, voditelj Centra za politoloka istraivanja uZagrebu.

http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20030106/temedana01.asp

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Meri Cetinic

Svim citateljima Crown-a sretnu i uspjesnu Novu 2003 godinu zelim.Nesto vise o meni mozete naci na mojim Web stranicamahttp://www.mericetinic.com/ , gdje je medju ostalog i moj zadnji album "Malo mora na mom dlanu",za koji sam dobila nagradu "Porin" kao najbolji album zabavne glazbe u 2001.godini.Gdje god bili saljem vam moje najiskrenije cestitke i veliki pozdrav iz nase lijepe Hrvatske

MeriCetinic.

Hello to the readers of Crown, wishing you a happy and successful New year!

If you wish, you can visit my web site http://www.mericetinic.com/ where you can find more information about me, including my newest album '' A Bit of Sea on the Palm of my Hand '' that won a Porin award - best Croatian album for the year 2001.
Wherever you are, I send you sincerest greetings from Croatia!

Meri

Op-ed

Meri is one of our Croatian's DIVA. Consistent in her musical carrier andadmired all over the world by her Croatian fans. I am one of them. Genuine andstrong Dalmatinka. Support her !

Nenad Bach

Meri Cetinic´ was born June 15 1953 in Split, Croatia. Her family background is from Blato on the island ofKorcula, where her parents were born, moving later to Split at the beginning of the 1950s, when Meri wasborn. Growing up in a humble albeit harmonic family atmosphere, alongside a father who was an electrician, mother housekeeper and two older brothers Ante and Boris she began to show signs of exceptional musical talent, singing in particular, at a very early age. As a child she began to perform in public, and during elementary school took all the lead roles in schoolperformances. Meri completed her secondary school education at the Music High School and graduated from the Teachers Academy in Split with a major in Music.

Her brother Ante, 5 years older than Meri, proved to be an influential and respected musician inSplit. All the greatest musical talents in Split at the time would get together in their apartment, and Meri, still a child, would stand aside absorbing them all.

At an early age she began to listen to Black American musicians, loving both Blues and Gospel music. At 14 she won 1st place with the song Warm and Tender Love by Percy Sledge, at the Raspjevanom proljecu (Springtime) Festival in Split. At 15 she became a member of the CHE band as an organist. Meri, at that time, played the first Hammond organ in thecity. When she was 17 she stopped with CHE and began to sing in the group Delfini (Dolphins) as a solo vocal singer, touring for the first time across the former USSR. Her repertoire consisted mainly of songs by Janis Joplin, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and similar groups and singers.

Soon after she began to sing with the Delfini she broke with the group in order to enroll into the Teachers Academy in Split, and studied voice with Prof. Branka Ristic´. At the Academy she meets Slobodan M.Kovacevic´ with whom she forms the group More (The Sea), wherein Meri plays piano and is the solo vocalist. Alongside S. M.Kovacevic´, Meri becomes a composer and arranges music for the band. They release several singles and the album More which made great success, as did its cover song More. Furthermore, at the Splitski festival, (Split Festival) the group achieves two more successes with the hit songs Gdje god dapodjes? (Wherever You May Go) and Samo simpatija (Just a Sweetheart). After several successful and flourishing years with More, Meri begins here own solo musical career.

Her main partner was her brother Ante, who at the time was already living in the Netherlands, and with his assistance she recorded a number of albums:
Meri (1979), recorded in Zagreb with leading studio musicians and the Zagreb Soloists
Ja sam zena (Im a Woman) (1980), recorded in Arnhem, Netherlands, is Meris first complete authors work. A number of Dutch musicians play a part in the recording of the album, which went diamond and as such became the first diamond album in Croatian pop music.
U prolazu (In Passing) (1981), Arnhem
As (Ace) (1982), Arnhem
Pras?ina s puta (Dust on the Road) (1983), Arnhem

Meri composed her own songs on all of these albums, with lyrics by Ivica Flesch,Jaksa Fiamengo, Krsto Juras and Momcilo Popadic. Meri sang all the backup vocals and played the piano, while the entire production and arrangement of the music, and all other instruments were played by her brother Ante Cetinic´.

Parallel to this authors album, in cooperation with the composer Zdenko Runjic´, Meri performs mainly at recurring Split Festivals, and year after year wins with songs such as Lastavica (Swallow),Cetiri stadjuna (Four Seasons), U prolazu (In Passing), and later with songs Konoba (Tavern) (S. M.Kovacevic´ Sunjic´), Zemlja dide mog (My Homeland) (V. Barc?ot I. Cetinic´), and others.

Remaining albums:
1 Meri VI
2 Zlatni snovi (Golden Dreams) in cooperation with Z. Runjic´ M.Dosen
3 Potrazi me (Look for Me) (1988) in cooperation with Ivo Lesic´
4 Zasto te volim (1992) (Why do I Love You?) in cooperation with Remi Kazinotti

After her move to Zagreb in 1996, Meri records another complete authors album entitled Putovanja (Journeys) (1998). She records most of it in Zagreb (a small part of the album is recorded in Split) with studio musicians from the popular group Song Killers. Meri herself arranged all the songs and co-produced the album with Ante Pecotic´ and Jos?ko Banov. It is on this album that Ivana, Meris daughter, makes her debut performance, and the two of them work together.

Her most recent album Malo mora na mom dlanu (A Bit of Sea in the Palm of My Hand), a live concert recording from the National Theatre in Split, Meri works together with her long-standing friends (Banov, Brodaric´,Siriscevic´), and singing with her as her guests and friends are Oliver,Kondza, Tedi, klapa Kumpanja and other klape.The album received the Porin award for best pop album in 2001.

Other than studio recordings and festivals, Meri has been touring across Croatia and performing at concerts.She often visits the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries.

Albums:
1. More (pianist and solo vocal singer in the group More)

Solo albums:
2. Meri gold
3. Ja sam zena diamond (Im a Woman)
4. U prolazu platinum (In Passing)
5. As gold (Ace)
6. Pras?ina s puta gold (Dust on the Road)
7. Meri VI
8. Potrazi me platinum (Look for Me)
9. Zlatni snovi (Golden Dreams)
10. Zasto te volim (Why Do I Love You?)
11. Putovanja (Journeys)
12. Malo mora na mom dlanu (A Bit of Sea on the Palm of My Hand)

PORIN (award for best pop album in 2001)

Compilations:
1. Najvec´i uspjesi (Greatest Hits)
2. Sve najbolje More, more (Best of the Sea, the Sea) (1994)

Distributed by CroatianWorld

As first time travelers toCroatia

Dear Crown Readers,

My husband and I will make our first trip to Croatia at the end of May! This will be a very special trip for us as we will be celebrating our wedding anniversary. As first time travelers to Croatia, we are very interested in hearing from you on your recommendations of "must see" sites. We're also interested in hearing from you on recommendations for hotel or private accommodation in various cities.

Thank you very much,
Nancy De Waard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Please email us: patandnan@prodigy.net

Guardian: Finally, The Truth

In November 1995 Bill Clinton leaned across a desk at an air force base at Dayton, Ohio and handed a Cuban cigar to Slobodan Milosevic. Not much more than three years later Clinton sent bombers to drive the Serb leader out of Kosovo. The two events bookend the grandeur of Milosevic's epic fall from grace and his descent into self-destruction.

The first of these two episodes is still the odder. When it took place Milosevic was already known to have planned, orchestrated, financed and prosecuted three wars against his neighbours. He had added a new and groteque term to the lexicon of aggression - "ethnic cleansing". He had destroyed the Serbian middle class, robbed them of their material wealth, plundered their bank accounts and handed the Serbian economy over to criminal gangs who had thanked him by sending their private paramilitary forces into neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia to burn and murder and rape. Most of the crimes for which Milosevic now stands in the dock at the Hague were committed before he shared his Cuban smoke with the President of the United States.

For in 1995, in order to bring the war in Bosnia to an end, the leaders of the western world had chosen in a quite calculated way to turn the principal architect of war into the principal bestower of peace.

What a price there was to pay for it.

Less than a year later, the Kosovo Albanians drew the obvious lesson from the moral shambles of the Dayton Agreement and it was this: in the real world only force will get you what you want.

They had been challenging Milosevic peacefully for a decade and had suffered defeat after defeat. Dayton taught them to take up arms. They started to kill Serbian policemen and civilians. The strategy was to provoke the massive and brutal retaliation that they knew Milosevic to be capable of. The cold calculus of it was known and articulated at the time - manipulate the Serbs into killing Albanian civilians and, by so doing, draw Nato into war against Belgrade. It worked more quickly than even the most optimistic Albanians had dared to believe possible.

Why did western leaders act so decisively in Kosovo when they had dithered so long and so disastrously in Bosnia?

I spent the best part of three years screaming down a telephone line from Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia, covering the conflict for the BBC. The dynamic of the conflict seemed obvious to most of us who sepnt any time there: the war was coming from Belgrade, Milosevic needed conflict to stay in power and had hijacked the Yugoslav People's Army to do it. I would come back to London after prolonged assignments to find the political classes in Britain assessing a conflict I simply didn't recognise. I thought they were talking about a different war altogether - and in a sense they were. Seen from London the war was about "ancient ethnic hatreds"; there was somethig inevitable (and therefore unstoppable) about it; and, above all, it was "horribly complicated".

It was, of course, nothing of the sort. It was very simple and straightforward. There was a war in former Yugoslavia because a criminalised elite in Belgrade, that had jumped from the sinking ship of communism onto the life raft of nationalism had chosen to have one.

Until 1995 it was hard to argue this in Britain (although important voices including Paddy Ashdown and Margaret Thatcher did). Among the journalists, those of us who took this view (and most of us did) were accused of taking sides, of being "anti-Serb" (we were not) and of being "lap-top bombadiers". This caused real problems in reporting the Bosnian war - how to explain to the reading and listening and viewing public what was going on without appeariing to have abandonned impartiality, objectivity and neutrality. I argued passionately and frequently with editors who worried that I was losing the plot.

After 1995, it all changed. By the time Kosovo exploded onto our television screens it was, suddenly, respectable mainstream stuff to say that Milosevic was a megalomaniac dictator for whom conflict had become a power base. It was no longer hard to argue this position; it was, on the contrary, ludicrous to believe otherwise.

I am convinced that one reason for this remarkable sea change in international public opinion was a documentary television series that painstakingly, forensically and compellingly chronicled the Milosevic phenomemenon. It was called Death of Yugoslavia, had cost a fortune to make and hit our screens in late 1995.

Before Death of Yugoslavia, the causes of the Yugoslavia war were "complicated" - lost somewhere in the exotic nature of the Balkans. After Death of Yugoslavia the causes were blindingly clear and were seldom argued about again. The series, unwittingly, itself became a part of the Yugoslav story. I have watched tapes of it in both Belgrade and Sarajevo in the company of Serbian and Bosnian friends and colleagues. It is a shaming, sombre experience. The whole thing unfolds before you as a deliberate, calculated criminal enterprise while a conscious stricken western world looks on and talks about ancient enmity and unstoppable passions.

Now we have the long awaited sequel from the makers of the original series Norma Percy and Brian Lapping. The difference this time is that the story they are chronicling is so well known, so documented (not least because of their own success last time round), that it hard to see how they can be as breath-takingly revealing as they were in the first series.

But they have pulled off another television coup. Here is Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy, admitting that, yes, at a secret meeting with the KLA in 1998, he did indeed tell them that Kosovo independence was an option, and the clear implication in the film that this actively encouraged the KLA to step up their campaign of terror against Serb policemen and civilians. Here too is Holbrooke being hoodwinked by the KLA into having his photograph taken sitting rubbing shoulders (literally) with a bearded gunman from an organisation most of the world still considered terrorist and then, in the next moment, Jacques Chirac describing his reaction when the photograph was published on front pages around the world then next day: "I was astonished. I telephoned Bill Clinton and told him this was unacceptable".

It is universally acknowledged that the event that tipped the world into war was the massacre at Racak in January 1999, when more than forty Albanian men were killed in circumstances that have never been explained.

Three years ago, I was part of a BBC team that spent seven months trying to pin down what really took place at Racak. At that time, Belgrade was off-limits to us. Milosevic was still in power and no-one in Serbia dared speak. Percy and Lapping have found the major who commanded the Racak operation and persuaded him to tell his story. "We killed the men guarding the trenches" he says, matter-of-factly. "And then there was a gun battle".

Much of what the western leaders say in this second series they have said before. What is new is what the programme makers have dug up in Serbia and - to a lesser extent - in Russia. Milosevic's own inner circle - hidden behind an impenetrable wall of silence until now - are talking at last. These include Milan Milutinovic who, when he steps down as president of Serbia this week, will lose his immunity from prosecution and will almost certainly join his old boss in the dock at the Hague. These old Milosevic hands - many of them, in their own ways, guilty men - have so much to reveal.

This series strikes me as as powerful, and meticulously sourced as its predecessor. And, by doing what its predecessor did - by the patient, careful assembly of evidence - it kills stone dead the Balkan myths that prevented the world from acting in Bosnia. By revealing who chose violence, when, where and how they did it, it quietly, unsensationally lays the blame squarely where it belongs.

ˇ The Fall of Milosevic continues on Sunday, 7.30pm, BBC2

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Sveti Vlaho 2003

LIBERTAS FOUNDATION
777 W. 9th Street, SAN PEDRO, CA 90731,
Tel: (310) 548-1446, Fax: (310) 831-8382, E-mail: Dubrovnik5@aol.com

January 1, 2003

Popular Croatian Singer Matko Jelavic will perform for Sv. Vlaho "festa" in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, San Jose on Feb. 2, and New York on Feb.8, 2003

Another Gala Dinner/ Fundraising and celebration of Sv.Vlaho - St.Blaise, Patron Saint of Dubrovnik is coming soon!

To commemorate our 12th anniversary, on February 1, 2003 at St.Anthony's Croatian Parish Center in Los Angeles, Libertas Foundation will publish a Souvenir Book.
We invite all businessmen to help us in our fundraising efforts by placing an ad in the book.

This event is a sell-out every year. We anticipate 450 people from Greater Los Angeles area to attend our " festa", which has become one of the premiere events in the Croatian-American community of Southern California.

The Souvenir Book will be distributed to all attendees and advertisers, giving you and your business a tremendous exposure and recognition.
We hope you will consider helping us raise funds for newly established scholarship fund "Ante & Evelyn Mrgudic", Caritas Knin Soup Kitchen, Wheelchairs for Croatia and many other humanitarian projects.

At this holy time of the year, when we celebrate holidays with family and friends, let us not forget those who are less fortunate and in need of help. You can help by placing an ad in the Souvenir Book, attending our fundraising dinner or by sending a tax-deductible donation.
Please feel free to email us at Dubrovnik5@aol.com or call any of our volunteer Committee member for any questions or suggestions you may have.

Due to time constraint, we urge you to contact us regarding advertising in the Souvenir Book as soon as possible but not later than Jan.10, 2003. Your generosity and support will be very much appreciated.
SRETNA NOVA GODINA!

Niko Hazdovac
President

Program/Souvenir Book Committee:
Vladimir Lonza - (310) 547-2128
Vesta Lobro - (310) 514-1807
Dubravka Taylor & Yul B.Draskovic - (818) 240-7702

Libertas Foundation is 501(c)(3) non-profit humanitarian organization.
Your contribution is tax deductible as allowed by law. (Federal ID #:33-0496929)

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NFCA
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF CROATIAN AMERICANS
1329 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036
PHONE: (202) 331-2830 NFCAhdq@aol.com FAX: (202) 331-0050

For Immediate Release: January 3, 2003

NFCA CONDEMNS CHRISTMAS EVE ATTACK ON CROATS
IN 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 Americas 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 Senates 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.

Distributed by CroatianWorld

Goran Visnjic

Goran Visnjic, star of NBC's television show 'ER' poses with his dog Bugsy in an ad produced by PETA, in it's anti-fur ad targeting Eastern Europe. Workers began posting the billboards in Zagreb, Croatia Friday, Jan. 3, 2003. Visnjic is a native of Croatia.(AP Photo/Robert Sebree)

Op-ed

To paraphrase it:

"If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear mine" - Nenad Bach -

This add is so indicative of what is our potential. You remember Paul Hogan(Crocodile Dundee) and his "I'll put another shrimp for you add" that increasedAustralian tourism for 80% (not sure about percentage, but huge one).

Can you imagine Goran Visnjic on the walls of Dubrovnik recitingShakespeare and maybe putting some olive oil and barbequing fish "foryou". We need people with vision who can promote our Magic Kingdom ofCroatia.

Nenad Bach
Editor - in Chief
CROWN

Animal Rights Group Ads Feature Visnjic

By The Associated Press

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP)--An animal rights group kicked off its first antifur campaign in eastern Europe with roadside billboards featuring Goran Visnjic and his pet dog Bugsy.

The billboards show a picture of Visnjic, star of NBC's ``ER,'' cradling Bugsy and the slogan: ``If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear any fur.''

Workers began posting the billboards in Zagreb early Friday.

Michael McGraw, a spokesman for Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said billboards would also be displayed in the city of Split and later in other eastern European cities.

He said the billboards would be followed by a leaflet distribution campaign during which activists would target fur-wearers who are walking dogs.

The campaign is also being run by local group Animal Friends Croatia.

Visnjic, who grew up in Sibenik, said in a statement released by PETA that he decided to support the campaign after he and his wife read a magazine article about fur.

``We were disgusted,'' the 30-year-old actor said. ``What's going on? Civilization is advancing, but some people are going backward. Today we can use many different materials to warm ourselves without killing other beings.''

Visnjic joined the cast of ``ER'' in 1999. He plays Luka Kovac, a Croatian doctor who immigrated to the United States after the violent deaths of his wife and children.
___

On the Net:
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Web site: http://www.peta.org

NBC Web site: http://www.nbc.com/ER/index.html

http://www.austin360.com/aas/life/ap/ap_story.html/Entertainment/AP.V9540.AP-Visnjic-Animal.html

Distributed by CroatianWorld

BLOODSTAINED CHRISTMAS

IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

To the American media and all those concerned with peace and stability
in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the world.

January 1, 2003

The slaughter of Andjelko Andjelic (68) and his two daughters, Mara (46)
and Zorica (27) took place in the village of Kostajnica, near the town
of Konjic, in Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 24, 2002. Andjelkos
son Marinko (30) was seriously injured during the attack. They were
gunned down in their home while making Christmas preparations.

A couple days later, the killer was caught and he admitted to the
massacre without much hesitation. For him this was a heroic spiritual
experience. He was doing the will of Allah. The victims were members of
a Croat Catholic family who returned a few years ago to their home after
living outside the country as war-refugees. The murderer was Muamer
Topalovic (25), a Muslim, from a nearby village. The timing of the
killings was very symbolic.

To the time of peace, joy, and love for all Christians, this young
Muslim responded with hate, fear, and death. The primary message of his
evil act was that Bosnia and Herzegovina, more specifically the
Bosniak-Croat Federation entity, is a land of Islam and not a place for
the Croat Catholics. Stay away from the homes of your ancestors was
the murderers blood-written statement to the Croat refugees.

Topalovic, according to his confession, belongs to two Islamic
organizations, Jemiet el Furkan and the Active Islamic Youth. The first
is directly and the other indirectly sponsored by Islamic fundamentalist
forces from Saudi Arabia.

The massacre in Kostajnica is just a culmination of anti-Croat
activities since the Dayton peace treaty was signed at the end of 1995.
Shortly before this last Christmas, a Catholic church in Alipasino Polje
near Sarajevo was vandalized. Among other symbols of hate, the
intruders left fecal matters on the altar. A gang of Muslims marched
into a Catholic Church in Novo (New) Sarajevo during the services and
verbally harassed the pastor and the faithful. A young man was beaten
so hard that he ended in a hospital for posting flyers announcing a
traditional Christmas concert at the Catholic Cathedral in Sarajevo. A
Nativity display in Mostar was set ablaze and in the same city
anti-Christian leaflets were distributed calling Muslims, among other
things, not to celebrate the Christian New Year.

The latest massacre and other harassments indicate a clear pattern of
violent activities on the part of Muslim fanatics in order to scare
away the Croat war-refugees returning to their homes. A series of
violent attacks in 1997 and 1998 in central Bosnia resulted in the
deaths of seven Croats. Several attacks were made on buildings
belonging to Catholics or Catholic organizations, including a Catholic
school. A car bomb exploded in Mostar. And even the Deputy Minister of
Interior, a Croat, was assassinated on the streets of Sarajevo in 1999.

Quite often these and similar occurrences are dismissed as incidents
caused by some mentally deranged individuals and/or fanatics. But there
are certain patterns that point out that the Kostajnica massacre and
other acts of violence against the Croats in the Bosniak-Croat
Federation are only symptoms of much deeper processes that are taking
place in the country.

First, all of such incidents are done in the name of religion and not
nationalism which implies that Bosnia is moving in the direction where
every government and every legal system will be seen as illegitimate if
it is not Islamic in nature.

Second, 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. Obviously, to use
violent means against the infidels in order to achieve that goal is
encouraged or at least permitted.

Third, the countrys judicial-cum-political authorities are constantly
unable to catch the culprits. Topalovic is the first such offender to
be caught. In the case of the murder of Jozo Leutar, the above
mentioned Deputy Minister, the Sarajevo authorities with the help of the
international representatives jailed and tried six Croats for the
crime. But thanks to the perseverance of a couple of local newspapers
it was recently uncovered that the persecutions case was knowingly based
on the account of a witness who was well-paid by some high government
officials in Sarajevo.

Fourth, the representatives of the international community, who are the
true rulers in the country, are not undertaking the necessary steps to
protect those who are returning to their homes. On the contrary, they
are tolerating Islamic extremism in Bosnia because the West, more
specifically the United States, is not eager to offend the Saudi rulers
by pushing their humanitarian cronies from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Fifth, the Islamic religious leadership in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
although expressing its dissatisfaction with the intrusion of the Saudi
puritanical Wahhabi doctrine and repetitiously proclaiming its adherence
to religious toleration, is not doing enough to promote such toleration
among its faithful. Fanatics such as the Kostajnica murderer or those
desecrating Catholic churches and attacking nuns and people who wear
Christian symbols on the Streets of Sarajevo, did not come from the
moon. Someone made them religious fanatics. Someone has taught them
that Islam permits them to kill innocent Catholic neighbors for a
greater religious cause. Those who teach and/or tolerate such teaching
are the true murderers. The fact is that such indoctrination is taking
place in Bosnia and Herzegovina; otherwise, there would not be killings
and acts of violence against Christians done in the name of Islam.
Thus, the Islamic leadership in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosniak
community as a whole have a grave responsibility in their hands if they
want to be taken seriously as peace partners in making Bosnia and
Herzegovina a multi-religious and multi-ethnic country.

We hope that the so-called fanatics are not simply a visible expression
of a subtle desire and effort of the Bosniaks to squeeze the Croats out
of the country, specifically from the Federation, and claim the land as
their Ottoman inheritance. If the above mentioned and similar events
are a continuation of the struggle for ethnically cleansed territories
then there is no hope for Bosnia and Herzegovina, its inhabitants, or
peace in that land.

Hopefully the Bloody Christmas in Kostajnica will be a wake up call for
all those who hold that every human life is holy and that people
regardless of their faith and ethnicity can live in peace.

Ante Cuvalo, Ph. D. - President Petar Radielovic - Secretary
Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina 3734 E. Locksley Dr.
19121 Wildwood Avenue Pasadena, CA 91107
Lansing, IL 60438 Tel. 626-795-3495
Tel/Fax (708) 895-5531 E-Mail: petarr@earthlink.net
E-Mail: cuv@netzero.com

***
The Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1994 by
Americans Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Alliance was an
active promoter of the preservation of a Bosnia and Herzegovina in
which the Bosniaks (Muslims), Croats and Serbs would enjoy equal
national rights as the three constituent peoples in an undivided country
in which the equal rights and freedoms of all its citizens, regardless
of race, ethnicity or creed, would be guaranteed.