Politics

ZAGREB, 6 Dec 2021 - SENSE Transitional Justice Center has launched a video about the 6 December 1991 massive shelling of Dubrovnik, and the video is part of the interactive narrative "Targeting History and Memory". SENSE Transitional Justice Center is the successor to SENSE News Agency dedicated to documenting and making permanently accessible the facts about wars in the area of former Socialist Yugoslavia, established beyond a reasonable doubt at the ICTY in The Hague. The shelling of the Old City of Dubrovnik was qualified in International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)  indictments and judgments as to the "destruction or…

ZAGREB, 5 Dec, 2021 - The chairman of the Bosniak ethnic minority council in Croatia, Armin Hodžić, said on Sunday that President Zoran Milanović's recent statement on the 1995 Srebrenica genocide crossed the line no one should cross. "This kind of bargaining with genocide remembrance ... is unacceptable regardless of which side it comes from. Milanović has crossed the red line," Hodžić told a press conference in Zagreb. Hodžić criticised Milanović for downplaying the scale of the genocide, committed by Bosnian Serb forces against Bosnian Muslims in the Srebrenica area of eastern Bosnia during the war in July 1995. Hodžić…

ZAGREB, 4 Dec, 2021 - Viktor Gotovac was elected leader of the Zagreb branch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Saturday after winning 696 votes in the second round of the internal party election on Saturday, while his rival Matej Mišić received 325 votes. Of the 1,700 members of the party's Zagreb branch entitled to vote, 1,031 cast their ballot. Speaking after the announcement of the election results, Gotovac thanked everyone for taking part in the election process and "showing that the SDP is important to them because they want it to be better, have new people and work…

ZAGREB, 4 Dec, 2021 - The parliamentary opposition party Bridge started gathering signatures at over 1,200 venues across Croatia on Saturday for a referendum to regulate the work of the national COVID-19 crisis management team and abolish COVID certificates. "We have started gathering signatures for this crucial referendum to strip the national COVID-19 team of its powers, restore democracy and abolish unlawful COVID certificates," the party's MP Marija Selak Raspudić told a press conference in front of a signature collection point in Zagreb's main square. Signatures will be collected at stands in public places until 18 December. The referendum would…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021 - Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Friday that Croatia was one of Russia's "fundamental partners in the EU." Speaking after the tenth session of the intergovernmental Croatian-Russian commission for economic, scientific and technical cooperation, Patrushev said he was glad that despite the pandemic, the Croatian and Russian sides were meeting face to face. He said the working group's work was successful, that a broad dialogue was held, and that he saw there were a number of cooperation areas. Patrushev said Russia and Croatia cooperated the most in energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and education, and that the potential to cooperate…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021 - Associations for people with disabilities on Friday called for a law that will regulate social housing and ensure a sufficient number of flats for the disabled who cannot pay market rent prices. On the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, several associations, supported by the disability ombudsman, forwarded an appeal to the government for a law to be adopted on social housing which is something they have been calling for, for years. Croatia does not have any organised housing for disabled persons or any regulations in that regard. The associations said that over…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021- The Croatian Parliament on Friday added 19 items to its agenda, including amendments that would impose fines of up to HRK 50,000 on responsible persons in public bodies who fail to comply with the COVID certificate mandate. Parliament will fast-track the amendments to the law protecting the population from infectious diseases, despite objections from the opposition Green-Left Bloc, whose Sandra Benčić requested that a two-thirds majority be required to change the law. However, 77 MPs voted for fast-tracking, while 45 were against. MPs will also fast-track amendments to the Criminal Code and the Civil Protection System Act. Parliament is due…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021 - A project - Smart Villages - EU Concept for the Development of Rural Communities - was presented on Friday in Vukovar, with Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokols saying that the document represents a good basis for efforts to keep young people in rural areas and halt the scaling down of the local population. "Investing in health and education infrastructure, developing business, good management, strengthening human resources and building additional capacities in communities are required for the concept of the smart village to come to life in the full sense," said Sokol and added that this is a new concept that…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021 - The Council of Europe's European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) issued a report on Friday accusing Croatia of the severe ill-treatment of migrants by the police and the obstruction of cooperation. The CPT  published a report on its ad hoc visit to Croatia from 10 to 14 August 2020, in particular to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), "to examine treatment and safeguards afforded to migrants deprived of their liberty by the Croatian police." The Ministry of the Interior said on Friday that the CPT report was…

ZAGREB, 3 Dec 2021 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković arrived in Montenegro on Friday for a one-day visit during which he will attend a Central European Initiative (CEI) summit and meet with representatives of the Croatian community. The CEI was launched in Budapest in 1989, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the aim of assisting central and eastern European countries in joining the European Union. The initial four members were Austria, Hungary, Italy and Yugoslavia. Austria has in the meantime withdrawn from this organisation, which now has 17 members. Apart from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the…