After almost two years of the Croatian police preventing anyone entering the territory of the self-proclaimed Free State of Liberland, the national flag is raised on the only building in the disputed 7km2 territory on February 20, 2017.
An historic day for Liberland? According to a report in Liberland Press:
"On the 20th of February 2017, Liberlanders raised their flag over the sole building in Liberland, marking their permanent presence in the area. Liberland settlers have not encountered any presence of Croatian police inside of the territory of Liberland. This marks a significant improvement in Liberland-Croatian relations after message of president of Liberland was delivered to the Croatian parliament. The President’s message called for cooperative relations on borders between the two countries and for opening doors for the development of bilateral relations. Liberland will celebrate two years of existence on the 13th of April later this year. As of today over 430,000 people have expressed interest in becoming Liberland citizens. Earlier this year, the Liberland government announced a plan to restore the building on its territory and to begin construction of a floating Liberland community on the Danube River."
For some time now, the Croatian police have been preventing anyone trying to enter the territory both from the land border with Croatia, and also directly from the Danube (the territory lies directly on the Danube and has not been claimed by Serbia or Croatia, and thus attempts to arrest people entering directly from the Danube by Croatian police are a little controversial, as the sovereign territory of Croatia is not entered).
Whatever your opinions on the Liberland story, it refuses to go away, and an excellent video documentary on the first anniversary conference below outlines the background, including footage of Croatian patrol boats on the Danube arresting Liberland supporters in the river.
Freedom for Liberland! from MEL Films on Vimeo.
