Kostelic Wins in Women's NorAm Cup

By Associated Press

November 17, 2002, 8:26 PM CST
WINTER PARK, Colo. -- Olympic champion Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the NorAm Cup slalom Sunday. 
Kostelic, who won three gold medals and a silver in Salt Lake City, finished in a time of 1 minute, 31.35 seconds. German Martina Ertl was second in 1:31.70. 
Olympic silver medalist Laure Pequegnot of France finished third in 1:32.30. She is the defending World Cup slalom champion. 
The top U.S. racer in the first of two days of slaloms was Sarah Schleper, who finished seventh in 1:33.39. 

Copyright Š 2002, The Associated Press 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-ski-womens-noram-cup1118nov17,0,7426374.story?coll=sns-ap-sports-headlines  
 


Kostelic Wins in Women's NorAm Cup

The Associated Press

WINTER PARK, Colo. (AP) - Olympic champion Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the NorAm Cup slalom Sunday.
Kostelic, who won three gold medals and a silver in Salt Lake City, finished in a time of 1 minute, 31.35 seconds. German Martina Ertl was second in 1:31.70.
Olympic silver medalist Laure Pequegnot of France finished third in 1:32.30. She is the defending World Cup slalom champion.
The top U.S. racer in the first of two days of slaloms was Sarah Schleper, who finished seventh in 1:33.39.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20021117&Category=APS&ArtNo=211170852&Ref=AR 
Posted on Sun, Nov. 17, 2002 
Kostelic Wins in Women's NorAm Cup
Associated Press


WINTER PARK, Colo. - Olympic champion Janica Kostelic of Croatia won the NorAm Cup slalom Sunday.

Kostelic, who won three gold medals and a silver in Salt Lake City, finished in a time of 1 minute, 31.35 seconds. German Martina Ertl was second in 1:31.70.

Olympic silver medalist Laure Pequegnot of France finished third in 1:32.30. She is the defending World Cup slalom champion.

The top U.S. racer in the first of two days of slaloms was Sarah Schleper, who finished seventh in 1:33.39.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/sports/4543921.htm 

SudacTours USA

Local - KCRA TheKCRAChannel.com
Mystical Priest Visits Capital City
Fri Nov 15,11:21 

A mystical priest from Croatia, who is drawing thousands of Catholic faithful across America, appeared in Sacramento Thursday evening. 

The Rev. Slatko Sudac reportedly has the stigmata -- the wounds of Christ, which is a powerful sign to Catholics. Some believe he can even do miracles. 

Sudac co-hosted a mass inside the auditorium with Bishop Frances Quinn, who was formally the bishop of the Sacramento Diocese. Sudac is a fast rising star in the Catholic Church with an international following. Some critics say his mystical powers are a fraud, but some people believe he's a living saint. 

"The majority of the people come because of what he represents and who he is," said attendee Arlene Cervelli. "I think he is a rare and holy person," said attendee Bill Shaneyfelt. Sudac says he received the stigmata three years ago, bleeding from on his wrists, feet and side. 

"He's very, very deep, and you have to listen because he says things so profound," said follower Phyllis Sadro. 

Admission to the event was $60, which the people gladly paid. 

Sudac does not display his stigmata or other reported abilities, such as levitation or precognition, in public. But his followers have no doubts. 

http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/1675042/detail.html 

You've probably gathered by now that we're really into feedback. There is a "Contact KCRA" link on the top of virtually every page of this site. Let us know what you think! 
You can contact the station by phone at (916) 446-3333. To reach the news department, call (916) 444-7316. 

CroatianLand for lease ONLY

The 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. 

Item 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. 
Without 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. 

It 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. 

We 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 2002

Club Coordinator
Niko Soljak, Prof. Ing.
dijaspora@hi.hinet.hr 

Peraica wins Cook County Baord seat.

By Mickey Ciokajlo, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporters Colleen Mastony and Stanley
Ziemba contributed to this report

November 6, 2002

Despite Tuesday's strong Democratic tide, Republicans retained their five seats on the Cook County
Board, 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 of
thousands of his own money to beat his well-financed and well-connected Democratic opponent, Ronald
Serpico, the Melrose Park mayor.

"I'm filled with exhilaration," said Peraica, who had 53 percent of the vote with 99 percent of
precincts reporting. "I'm humbled by the whole experience."

In two other closely watched County Board races, Republican incumbents Carl Hansen and Peter
Silvestri 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 primary
challengers toppled five incumbents, including Carr.

While results of the primary were dramatic, most observers expect Board President John Stroger, who
won 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 and
Treasurer 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 a
swing district. In the other four districts where challengers beat incumbents in the primary, the
challengers 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 with
Loren-Maltese convicted of federal corruption charges and awaiting sentencing that group switched
its 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 party
endorsement, Peraica won nearly 48 percent of the vote.

In the county's 9th District, Republican Peter Silvestri, a two-term incumbent, held off a stiff
challenge from Democrat Robert Martwick, 36, son of longtime Norridge Township Democratic
committeeman. 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 County
Board by taking nearly 60 percent of the vote against Brian McPartlin, a young Democratic challenger
who waged a high-profile campaign.

In other races of local interest, unofficial results showed Democrat Kevin Joyce winning the 35th
House 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 Mayor
Richard 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 election
to Joyce. "You just can't fight City Hall. We're going to lose our suburban voice in state
government."

In the north and northwest suburbs, Democrat Elaine Nekritz, a non-practicing attorney from
Northbrook, beat Republican Mary Childers, a former alderman from Des Plaines, in the 57th House
District 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 from
the 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 vote
against 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 27th
Senate District.


Copyright (c) 2002, Chicago Tribune

http://chicagotribune.com/archives 

Treći Put HrvatskeVanjske Politike
proglasiti neutralnost na 25 do 30 godina

... Budućnost Hrvatske trebalo bi se temeljiti na razvijeno
demokratskoj, pravnoj i socijalnoj državi, razvijenom tržišnom
gospodarstvu te dobrim odnosima s cijelim svijetom. Ako već ne može
prije 2020. godine u EU, a ne želi biti dijelom "Treće lige Zapad", onda
bi trebala proglasiti neutralnost na 25 do 30 godina, kao Austrija. To
bi vrijeme valjalo iskoristiti za osnaživanje institucija, pravnoga i
gospodarskog projekta. Tako osnaženoj ne bi joj trebale EU integracije s
neizvjesnim rezultatom, bez izračuna cijene prihoda i rashoda i
referenduma, 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)

Dog rescued after year down 30ft pit 

Nov 12 2002

A dog has been rescued after being trapped down a deep pit in Croatia for more than a year.

The dog was probably thrown into the 30 ft deep pit with a litter of puppies, the Zagreb newspaper Jutarnji reported.

Dinko Novosel, a member of an animal protection group, abseiled into the pit and rescued the dog.

The mongrel had survived by drinking rain water and eating dead animals, Novosel said. Locals use the pit, located on outskirts of a forest in central Croatia, as a dump for dead pets.

Novosel said the dog was given sedatives in food before it was rescued.

"Our first attempt to save the dog was without much luck as it was too startled and just scrambled into a small side crevice," he said

The dog was taken to a veterinary clinic in the capital Zagreb after the rescue. Novosel said that several dog lovers had already contacted him offering a home for the animal.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0700world/page.cfm?objectid=12357641&method=full&siteid=50082 

Letter To Lord Robertson

Lord Robertson
NATO Secretary General
NATO Headquarters
Blvd. Leopold III
1110 Brussels, Belgium
Nov. 10, 2002

Dear Lord Robertson,

It is rather perplexing that NATO wishes Croatia to accept total regional cooperation with the very nation that has subjugated it and led a brutal war against it in the past century - Serbia. Why should Croatia be closely associated with nations with which it shares no common cultural or historical ties except ones by force and decisions in the last century - again by the Western Powers? Croatia is a western-oriented, 
central European nation, not Eastern European or Balkan. Certainly NATO members Greece and Turkey are in the Balkans and cannot be considered Western European, yet Croatia, right across from Italy is being designated as an East European, Balkan country. Why this difference?

Croatia's army is far more experienced and ready for NATO membership than any of the others lately considered for acceptance. It is simply a lame excuse to say that Croatia is not ready for NATO because its army is"politicized". Croatia's army never influenced elections, yet Turkey has been in NATO in spite of a strong military influence in its nation. 


In turn, NATO is already accepting Yugoslavia/Serbia into some of its policy groups, SEEGROUP and SEECAP, a country which has far more indicted war criminals than any other of the recent wars in former 
Yugoslavia and which it still refuses to extradite. One of them, Seselj, is still a member of Parliament! In addition its army is still communist and not under the government's control. That fact was clearly illustrated recently as repeatedly military equipment and intelligence was transferred to Iraq. 

Croatian authorities caught the latest shipment in full cooperation with NATO and other Western intelligence. What has Croatia earned for such full cooperation? - A push into Serbia's arms with the SAA nonsense and no foreseeable date of admittance into NATO. In view of the Iraq scandal, Serbia should be removed from SEEGROUP and SEECAP as it has no place in determining any NATO policies. 

Furthermore, are you aware that Yugoslavia's president Kostunica has made public statements during the recent election campaign that "Republika Srpska" in Bosnia is only temporarily separated from Serbia and will eventually be Serbia's again? In that case it would border Croatia's "Krajina" region that Serb rebels and Yugoslav army occupied during the war. How long before Serbia tries to take also that region? It is obvious that Serbia is not a peace-loving nation but one always looking for expansion into others' lands by any means. 

It is wrong to plan any "mini-NATO" in Eastern Europe that only divides nations into East and West again. Croatia should have the right to join NATO on its own merits, not in some "group setting" that does not naturally exist. Croatia does not want to be pushed into associations with countries like Albania and former Yugoslav republics Serbia , Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia, which have been repeatedly cited as the worst countries of Eastern Europe in regard to smuggling, especially in human beings and drugs, lawlessness and other criminality. ( See Jane's Intelligence Review, Nov. 04 2002). Note that Croatia is not cited in any such reports. It simply does not belong in such company. There has been too much injustice and unfairness toward Croatia and hopefully NATO will recognize this and correct it. 

Very truly yours,

Hilda M. Foley
Public Relations
National Federation of Croatian Americans
13272 Orange Knoll
Santa Ana, Va. 92705 USA

Croatians in Bosnia-Herzegovina 

To all: today's lead editorial in the Washington Post (below), preceded by my letter to the editor (ps: my letters never get published):
Anthony Margan
Arlington, VA 

Dear Sirs,

For those decision makers in Washington currently pondering the vexing question of what to do in Iraq, post Saddam, the editorial "After the War" (11/12) does well to offer up Bosnia as a "sobering example", but also misses the mark on one key point. 

While correctly arguing that Bosnia "is now not a failed state", the editorial suggests that as part of the "good news" after years of direct rule from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Sarajevo "several hundred thousand refugees and victims of ethnic cleansing have returned to their homes." Not mentioned was that the majority of these refugee returns have been to the Federation part of Bosnia - the 51% jointly shared by the Bosniaks and Croats. Relatively few Bosniaks (or Muslims) have returned to the other 49% half - called the Republika Serpska (RS), while just a few thousand Croats have returned to the RS. These astonishing figures can be confirmed in reports issued by the UNHCR and The Office of Cardinal Puljic in Sarajevo. 

The RS today is the most intolerant and ethnically-pure statelet in all of Europe. Since the signing of Dayton seven years ago, the RS appears to have successfully dodged all efforts of the OHR to allow refugee minority returns, and to arrest Serbian war criminals and to adhere to the rule of the law. Is it any surprise to now discover that companies located in the RS (in collusion with companies based in Belgrade) have been providing weapons, military jet parts and other technical assistance to Saddam for the past several years? Or to hear President Kostunica of Yugoslavia making recent public comments about the eventual "union" of Serbia and the RS? A more important question is when will the OHR and the State Dept take stronger action regarding the RS and it's benefactors in Belgrade. Bosnia is indeed a sobering example.

Sincerely yours,

Anthony Margan 
washingtonpost.com 
After the War 

Tuesday, November 12, 2002; Page A24 
WHAT DOES it take for outside powers to rebuild a war-ruined and badly divided country? Bosnia offers a state-of-the-art -- and sobering -- example. Seven years after a U.S. intervention helped end its civil war and Western troops poured in to keep the peace, the Balkan nation of 3.5 million remains far from able to live on its own. The good news is that the horrific fighting that killed a quarter of a million people in less than four years has not been renewed, that several hundred thousand refugees and victims of ethnic cleansing have returned to their homes, and that peaceful and free democratic elections were held this month for all levels of government -- the sixth elections to be staged in as many years. But the peace continues to depend on 12,000 foreign troops, including 2,000 Americans; the functioning of government relies in no small part on the interventions of a Western "high representative" with near-dictatorial powers; and, most discouraging of all, the victors in the recent elections were the same nationalist parties that tore the country apart a decade ago. Bosnia is not now a failed state, but it is a center for the trafficking of women and narcotics, a hide-out for war criminals and a steady drain on Western aid and defense budgets. It's not likely to collapse soon, but neither will foreign troops and administrators likely be able to safely pull out for many years to come.
The Bush administration has from its onset disparaged the nation-building projects supported by President Clinton in Bosnia and elsewhere in the Balkans, and it has occasionally threatened to withdraw American troops. In Afghanistan the administration has deliberately pursued a different model, eschewing international administration or a large foreign peacekeeping force and trying to invest a skeletal Afghan government with authority. But that strategy has left Afghanistan at the mercy of brutal warlords and at perpetual risk of chaos. So now White House officials, looking forward to Iraq, are floating still another model: direct administration by the U.S. military. The idea is a regime that would last for a period of several years while a civilian democracy was constructed.
The Bosnia experience offers some support for this more muscular postwar scheme. Paddy Ashdown, the veteran British politician and statesman who is now the high representative in Bosnia, has pointed out that the repeated elections in that country have sometimes impeded rather than advanced the progress of desperately needed economic and political reforms. Most of the important changes in the country, from guarantees for returning refugees to the purging of criminals from government, have happened on the orders of Mr. Ashdown and his predecessors. And further progress is unlikely unless Western governments tightly condition continued aid on concrete steps by the Bosnians. In short, while democracy should be a central aim of postwar nation-building, it cannot necessarily be the starting point -- and even if it is, a strong outside authority is essential.
Yet Bosnia also shows that it is far easier to take over a devastated state than to let go of it. The Clinton administration originally promised, with calculated insincerity, that U.S. troops would be needed only a year. They have now been there nearly seven, and Mr. Ashdown and other international experts believe they will be needed for several more years at least. Iraq offers a far larger and more complicated challenge of nation-building; it can only be expected that any postwar mission will be even harder and take still longer. The Bush administration needs to be honest, both with itself and with the public, about the scale of the coming commitment -- and scrupulous about planning for the long term. Just as it unwillingly inherited the Clinton administration's scheme for Bosnia, its successors will surely be burdened with implementing the decisions made in the coming months about Iraq.
Š 2002 The Washington Post Company 

VUKOVAR 

November 18

1991-2002

OVČARA 2002

photo: D.Borovcak 

VUKOVAR

Index:
1. VUKOVAR: BOOK "APPEALS BY DR. VESNA BOSANAC" PRESENTED
2. 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF SKABRNJA MASSACRE MARKED
3. VUKOVAR MARKS 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF TRAGEDY
4. BOOK WRITTEN BY CROAT DETAINED IN BOSNIAN SERB CAMP PRESENTED
5. ANNIVERSARY OF HERZEG BOSNIA MARKED IN MOSTAR
--------------------------------------------

1. HINA - http://www.hina.hr
VUKOVAR: BOOK "APPEALS BY DR. VESNA BOSANAC" PRESENTED

VUKOVAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - A collection of appeals the war-time head of the Vukovar hospital, Dr. Vesna Bosanac, forwarded to international associations, warning about daily artillery attacks on the hospital during the Serb siege of the town in 1991, was presented at the Vukovar hospital on Monday evening. "How can we expect the same community to understand Croatia today, if it did not want to understand it then and help save the wounded from the Vukovar hospital," a war-time surgeon at the hospital, Juraj Njavro, said presenting the book. War-time health minister Andrija Hebrang said "appeals for Vukovar are needed today as well, because we are again facing a situation when we have to justify the existence of a free Vukovar". (hina) rml sb

--------------------------------------------

2. HINA - http://www.hina.hr
11TH ANNIVERSARY OF SKABRNJA MASSACRE MARKED

SKABRNJA, Nov 18 (Hina) - Government and parliament officials, Zadar County and city officials, representatives of Homeland War associations and Skabrnja municipal officials on Monday laid wreaths at a monument erected at a mass grave at the local graveyard in Skabrnja to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the Serb massacre of civilians and soldiers from the southern municipality. Wreaths were laid by a government delegation, led by minister Gordana Sobol, a parliamentary delegation, led by vice-president Ivica Kostovic, and delegations of Zadar County, the City of Zadar, Homeland War associations, Skabrnja municipality and many others. Sobol reminded that 86 lives in Skabrnja were given for Croatia's freedom but that children in the village were still endangered by unexploded mines. The government will do all it can to restore security in Skabrnja, Sobol said. "Not even today, 11 years after the horrendous massacre, is this Croatian tragedy less shocking, but we are not here to instigate hatred and division but warn about the morality of the Homeland War," the minister said.

Parliament vice-president Kostovic said it was incomprehensible that the suffering of Croats from Vukovar to Skabrnja was being forgotten due to the theory of equal responsibility as promoted by the Hague tribunal. One must not insult the Croat people with indictments which the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague is issuing against Croatian officers and which mention genocide and ethnic cleansing, he said. (hina) rml sb 

--------------------------------------------

3. HINA - http://www.hina.hr
VUKOVAR MARKS 11TH ANNIVERSARY OF TRAGEDY

VUKOVAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - More than 10,000 people marched with lit candles through the streets of Vukovar on Monday, Memorial Day of 1991 Vukovar Victims, paying respects to people killed and missing during the Greater Serbian aggression. State, county and town delegations, as well as representatives of veterans' and war victims' associations laid wreaths at the foot of a memorial at the Memorial Cemetery of Homeland War Victims at which 646 victims of Greater Serbian aggression against Vukovar have been buried.

Presidential Advisor for internal affairs, Igor Dekanic, laid a wreath on behalf of the President. Parliamentary president Zlatko Tomcic laid a wreath on behalf of the Croatian parliament, and Vice-Premier Zeljka Antunovic on behalf of the government. Among the numerous residents of Vukovar, returnees, war victims and war veterans were Croatian Homeland War Veterans' Minister Ivica Pancic, the president of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS), Drazen Budisa, the president of the Croatian Christian Democratic Party (HKDU), Anto Kovacevic, the president of the Croatian Bloc party (HB), Ivic Pasalic, the vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Jadranka Kosor, the vice-president of the Democratic Centre (DC), Vesna Skare Ozbolt, and representatives of other political parties.
In 90 days during which Vukovar was defended before it succumbed to Serb attacks, 600 Croatian soldiers and more than a thousand civilians had been killed, 22,000 Vukovar Croats and other non-Serbs had been displaced, and 10,000 imprisoned soldiers and civilians taken to concentration camps. Six hundred and twenty people are still registered as missing from Vukovar-Srijem County. Most of them were last heard of or seen in Vukovar.About 1,800 Croatian soldiers participated in the defence of Vukovar, fending off the superior enemy for full three months. On November 18, 1991, the Serb aggressor managed to break through the exhausted defence and enter the town. 
(hina) lml sb

--------------------------------------------

4. HINA - http://www.hina.hr 
BOOK WRITTEN BY CROAT DETAINED IN BOSNIAN SERB CAMP PRESENTED

ZAGREB, Nov 18 (Hina) - A book entitled "Apartman 102" ("Apartment 102" in an unofficial translation), written by a Bosnian Croat woman, who was detained in a Serb detention camp, was presented in Zagreb on Monday evening. 

The author of this book, Jadranka Cigelj, wrote about her suffering and the suffering of other women and men imprisoned in the Serb-run concentration camp in Omarska (north-western Bosnia), where she had been detained from 14 June to 8 August 1992. After being released from the camp thanks to the mediation of some western European reporters, Cigelj co-operated with International Red Cross, associations for the protection of human rights, and spoke about the atrocities, committed in the camp, before the German Bundestag and U.S. Congress and Senate. Since September 1992 Cigelj has been living in Zagreb, and she has gathered over 15,000 statement for the Croatian section of the international society for the human rights, while working on a project called "The Voice of the Victim - the Voice for the Victim". (hina) ms

--------------------------------------------

5. HINA - http://www.hina.hr
ANNIVERSARY OF HERZEG BOSNIA MARKED IN MOSTAR

MOSTAR, Nov 18 (Hina) - The general vicar of the Mostar-Duvno diocese called for support for the establishment of a Croat entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina in his sermon at a memorial mass for killed Croat soldiers, held on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the Croat Community of Herzeg Bosnia. The mass was said at the cathedral in the southern city of Mostar on Monday.

The Croat Community of Herzeg Bosnia was established on November 18, 1991. In the autumn of 1993 the Croat Republic of Herzeg Bosnia was established, however, the Dayton Agreement of 1995 did not recognise it as the country's third entity. Rev. Luka Pavlovic spoke affirmatively about the Croat Community of Herzeg Bosnia and the Croat Republic of Herzeg Bosnia, opposing the use of the attribute "so-called" with their names. The Catholic dignitary believes that Herzeg Bosnia was established as a framework for the freedom of the Croat people in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but was later abolished.

“The Croat politicians in Bosnia-Herzegovina now have the duty to fight for what we once fought for," Pavlovic said. The service was also attended by a delegation of the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia-Herzegovina, led by acting president Barisa Colak.

Rev. Pavlovic called on the gathered to pray for deceased Croatian politicians, a former president of the Croat Republic of Herzeg Bosnia, Mate Boban, former Croatian president Franjo Tudjman, former Croatian defence minister Gojko Susak, and a former deputy interior minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jozo Leutar. (hina) rml sb

--------------------------------------------
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 Nations
http://www.crowc.org/