ZAGREB, 1 April, 2021 - War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved, who heads the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County, has said that local communities could take over, through local hospitality service providers, the preparation of meals for people affected by the quake.

This past weekend the Croatian Red Cross (HCK) distributed 21,000 tonnes of food, 14,000 warm meals and 5,675 litres of water, Medved said at a government session on Thursday.

He said that local government units had been suggested to take over, if possible, through local providers of hospitality services, the preparation of meals, which would help local employers and enable employment of local workers.

Medved noted that the state would continue to pay for the meals as long as necessary.

He added that water in the entire area was safe for consumption and that the HCK and the Croatian Firefighters Association were working on pumping out and rehabilitating wells, with 63 wells having been pumped out and 42 rehabilitated.

The local water supply network is being reconstructed and a new network of arterial water mains is being built, he said.

"Requests have been submitted for the removal of 560 buildings and 6,447 requests have been submitted for renovation work," Medved said speaking about the situation three months since the 6.2 magnitude earthquake.

So far, 1,805 housing containers and small houses have been installed and 2,141 have been connected to the power grid.

Five new mobile network stations have been installed to improve mobile signal strength.

By 28 March, 37,954 facilities were inspected, and of them 4,602 were found to be unfit to live in, 8,180 were found to need repair work and 25,000 were found to be fit to live in, Medved said.

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ZAGREB, 19 March, 2021 - Damage done to listed buildings and monuments in the quake-hit Sisak-Moslavina County has been estimated at €400 million, while the total damage done to cultural heritage in all the quake-hit areas of Croatia is put at €640 million.

These figures were presented on Friday after Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek met the task force for dealing with quake aftermath in Sisak-Moslavina County for the talks on registering the damage to cultural heritage.

Obuljen Koržinek informed the task force of the next steps to be taken including urgent measures for the protection and preparation of documentation for the reconstruction of individual listed buildings and monuments.

Reconstruction will be such that it will preserve all the features of the area, however, (listed) buildings will also be renovated to be quake-resistant and energy efficient, the minister said.

Yesterday, we estimated the damage to cultural heritage at €640 million, with just over €400 million in Sisak-Moslavina County and just over €200 million in the nine other affected counties. As far as listed buildings in Petrinja alone are concerned, the damage done to them is estimated at more than €100 million, said Minister Obuljen Koržinek.

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ZAGREB, 27 February, 2021 - The head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December earthquake said on Saturday there would be lunch for everyone as long as necessary, refuting reports that only those whose homes were labelled as unfit for use in Petrinja would receive lunch as of 1 March.

"What the needs are is in the remit of municipalities and towns, which deliver this information to the task force," Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved told Croatian Radio.

According to some newspapers today, a notice saying that no one whose home was not given the red label in Petrinja would get lunch as of 1 March stood on the tent in town where lunch is distributed for several days but then disappeared.

Medved refuted those reports. "From day one, Croatia has been supporting its citizens and will do so as long as necessary," he said, adding that the task force would ensure as much food as municipalities and towns requested.

As for the drop in meal requests, he said it was due to the nicer weather, adding that Glina requested 2,200 meals on 20 February and 1,700 today. "Canceling or reducing the number of the necessary meals is out of the question."

Medved went on to say that since the earthquake 1,520 housing containers or mobile homes had been set up near damages homes, with 1,867 connected to electricity, and that 50 new transformer stations had been built.

More then ten container settlements have been set up, the biggest one in Petrinja with 83 housing and six technical containers, he said. The preparation of such a settlement in Glina is under way, with 46 containers ready, he added.

Medved said 11,510 buildings were so damaged in the magnitude 6.2 tremor that they were unfit for use. He added that 1,696 applications had been filed for reconstruction.

ZAGREB, 20 February, 2021 - Red Cross Croatia executive president Robert Markt said on Friday that the Red Cross had so far raised HRK 48.6 million (close to €6.4 million) for victims of the 29 December earthquake and that one-off allowances would be paid to all citizens whose properties were damaged. 

The citizens whose damaged properties are located in Sisak-Moslavina, Zagreb and Karlovac counties were able to submit their applications for aid by February 19. So far, 19,000 applications have been received.

In an interview with Nova TV, Markt said the Red Cross would wait for applications that had been sent by post to process them as well.

He explained that the two main criteria for aid were that the applicant had permanent or temporary residence in the earthquake-hit area on 29 December and that they had proof of the damage caused to their property.

Markt could not say how much the one-off allowance would amount to, noting that it would depend on the number of applicants. He added, however, that it would be different for single-person households and families.

Markt also said that the campaign to raise money for the earthquake victims would last until the end of March.

He stressed that donations continued arriving to the earthquake-hit area.

"We are glad that Croatian and international companies keep contacting us with offers and donations," he said.

ZAGREB, 20 February, 2021 - Humanitarian assistance to the area hit by the 29 December earthquake has been provided equitably but some aspects of public policies for the area have had ethnic undertones, shows a short survey conducted by Hina.

Over the past 30 years the region of Banija has experienced a number of waves of destruction and suffering, with some families now having to rebuild their homes for the third time. One of the accompanying phenomena have been strong ethnic divisions in the area.

Five stakeholders spoke to Hina about the fairness of humanitarian assistance in such circumstances, while the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, the Croatian Catholic University and Caritas Croatia did not send their answers.

Red Cross Croatia spokeswoman Kristina Zorić said that the Red Cross had at no moment felt any divisions in the region.

We never made any distinctions when distributing humanitarian aid and we were never approached in that sense, she said.

The Red Cross distributed and continues to distribute aid to citizens in need, regardless of the degree of damage to their properties, Zorić said.

No ethnic bias in distribution of aid

Aneta Vladimirov of the Serb National Council (SNV) pointed to the decades-long state of neglect of Banija and its status of transition loser.

Also visible in this region, where the beauty of nature is in strong contrast to poverty, is the legacy of the 1991-95 war, difficult for all residents regardless of their ethnic background, she said.

Vladimirov noted that apart from isolated incidents, no ethnic bias could be noticed in efforts to remove the consequences of the earthquake and help the victims.

A sociologist from the Zagreb Faculty of Law, Siniša Zrinščak, said that there were no studies on possible ethnic bias in the provision of assistance and there was too little information on that in the public sphere.

"We have seen people saying that they have received aid. We have also heard Caritas say that aid has been distributed evenly to everyone, and there is too little information in the media to make a different conclusion."

Earthquake brought people together

Hrvoje Sekulić, who coordinated a volunteer unit in Petrinja, said that up to 300 people, mostly volunteers, had provided help to earthquake victims through that unit.

The earthquake did not reflect any divisions, it elicited unity. Volunteers and war veterans were glad to provide help to everyone, he said, adding that local residents were grateful for the help.

"Maybe initially it was difficult to reach all hamlets in the area, but (Red Cross executive president Robert) Markt told me they had done their best to reach everyone. I cannot speak about state services. Being part of a large system, it took some time for them to start functioning but I believe they, too, have done a good job," Sekulić said.

Serb villages in state of neglect

Vladimirov pointed to the success of the SNV's campaign "Banija is our house" and its having underlined the importance of coordination between state agencies and nongovernmental organisations.

She commended as impressive the solidarity of Croatian citizens, as well as people from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other non-EU countries.

Glina Deputy Mayor Branka Bakšić Mitić said earthquake assistance was provided evenly, and she estimated that post-war reconstruction, too, was evenly accessible to everyone who applied for it.

However, of the 72 families who still do not have housing containers, 50 are Serb families, and there are also Roma and a few Croat families, she said, warning that housing containers were not an adequate type of accommodation, especially in the current winter conditions.

Asked to comment on the assessment that the state the region was in was due to both social and ethnic factors, Bakšić Mitić said: "You can go through Croat and Serb villages and see for yourself. Serb villages lack public lighting, roads are in a poor state, waste is not being collected, not to mention water supply and sewage infrastructure. Serbs were the only ones in the area of Glina without electricity. Those who returned to their villages (after the war) have left in the meantime."

Vladimirov agrees that the origin of problems in Banija is definitely to some extent attributable to the fact that the implementation of basic infrastructure projects in villages inhabited by ethnic Serbs has been slow.

Development instead of empty words

Sociologist Zrinščak was critical about some of public references to the region's suffering in the war.

"What is the purpose of those references if you do not see how it contributes to help that area, if there are no changes in development policies? I have not seen any changes in the region's level of development in the past 30 years," he concluded.

Vladimirov believes that the success of the SNV's humanitarian campaign is also owing to the cooperation between the two deputy prime ministers heading the task force dealing with the earthquake aftermath (Boris Milošević and Tomo Medved) even though, she says, the state must learn from the example of Banija with regard to solidarity as a policy and investment in the system of civil protection.

"We did not have that until now," she says, hopeful that changes will happen in that regard.

February 18, 2021 – A rather strong earthquake hit the Petrinja and Sisak area today at around 1:08 pm. It was also felt in other parts of Central Croatia, mostly in Zagreb.

Today, February 18, 2021, at 1:08 pm, seismologists from the Croatian Seismological Service recorded a relatively strong earthquake with the epicenter not far from Petrinja, near Glinska Poljana. The magnitude of the quake was 4.0 according to Richter and the intensity in the epicenter of the 5th degree of the EMS scale.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) estimates the earthquake's magnitude was 4.2. The epicenter was 17 km northwest of Sisak and 45 km from Zagreb, at a depth of 2 km.

Map of felt reports received so far following the #earthquake M4.2 in Croatia 40 min ago pic.twitter.com/v5o3qNRdMx

— EMSC (@LastQuake) February 18, 2021

Citizens from all over central Croatia report they felt the earthquake – from Zagreb, Karlovac, Velika Gorica, Sisak, Petrinja, Varaždin – and even from Ptuj in Slovenia. In just a few minutes, the EMSC collected thousands of earthquake reports. According to citizens' reports, the earthquake was a short but strong blow and waving.

"At first, it seemed to rumble, and then it shook for a few seconds," said one witness.

"About five seconds of good shaking in the Maksimir area. Another intensive aftershock," said another witness.

"A hit, then prolonged rocking, six to seven seconds duration," are some more of the comments from witnesses.

As Index reports, the earthquake was felt even during the Government session in the National and University Library in Zagreb.

"Here, we have just felt an earthquake in the National and University Library," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said during the session.

After this first blow, two more slight tremors hit Sisak and its surroundings, magnitudes 2.3 and 1.5 on the Richter scale. The EMSC reports that these are all aftershocks of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit Petrinja and Sisak-Moslavina County on December 29, 2020, and left many damages.

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ZAGREB, 13 February, 2021 - Two moderate earthquakes measuring 3.7 and 3.3 on the Richter scale were recorded on Saturday morning with the epicentre near Petrinja, Croatia's Seismological Survey said.

The magnitude 3.7 tremor occurred at 4.55 am and the magnitude 3.3 tremor at 5.19 am.

The quakes were felt in Zagreb as well.

The Petrinja area was hit by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake on 29 December which killed seven people and caused enormous damage.

ZAGREB, 11 February, 2021 - Deputy Prime Minister Tomo Medved said on Thursday that 1,377 housing containers and mobile homes had been set up in Sisak-Moslavina County so far, and 391 more containers would arrive soon.

Medved said in today's cabinet meeting that the construction of the container settlement in Petrinja was progressing faster than expected.

"By Thursday, 81 housing containers will be set up, and the first containers will be ready to move in by the weekend," he said, adding that preparations for setting up container settlements in Glina were in progress.

To date, HRK 73 million has been spent on the payment of cash benefits to citizens, and an additional HRK 8.2 million has been paid to war veterans in the form of one-time assistance.

After the adoption of the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Act, the task force dealing with the earthquake aftermath has been working on assembling mobile teams of experts who will help citizens in preparing documentation for submitting applications for reconstruction, and they are also preparing a mobile office.

Six companies have been mobilised so far to work on the demolition of dangerous buildings, and 39 buildings in the quake-hit area have been marked for demolition. The state has allocated land to Sisak, Petrinja and Glina which will be used for the collection and disposal of construction waste.

To date, 28,780 buildings damaged in the earthquake have been inspected, and 3,537 are unusable, while 6,224 are temporarily unusable, Medved said.

ZAGREB, 5 February, 2021 - A magnitude 3.8 earthquake was registered at 9.03 a.m. near Petrinja, Croatia's Seismological Survey said on Friday.

The intensity at the epicentre was V degrees on the EMS scale, and the quake was felt in the wider Petrinja and Sisak area.

The area was struck by a devastating magnitude 6.2 earthquake on 29 December 2020.

ZAGREB, 30 January, 2021 - The head of the task force dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December earthquake, Tomo Medved, said on Saturday that the second phase of the clear-up process had begun - removing the buildings that were so damaged in the earthquake that they presented danger to human lives and health as well as to adjacent buildings.

The first buildings condemned were the old army barracks and the old department store in Petrinja. Medved said that such buildings had to be removed to clear the ground for new buildings and because they posed a risk in the event of a new earthquake.

The members of the task force also visited a site in Petrinja where a container settlement was being built. About a hundred containers would be used for housing and as many for businesses, while 5 containers would serve as sanitary facilities.

The first containers are arriving next week and all the containers will be set up by mid-February, spokesman for the task force Mladen Pavić said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković also arrived in Petrinja to give support to the task force and thank everyone for helping with the relief effort.

He said that the beginning of the removal of damaged buildings would speed up the pace of the reconstruction process. He added that it was good that 1,025 mobile homes had been set up in the area and that 1,061 accommodation facilities were connected to power supply.

Plenković announced that Transport Minister Oleg Butković, Finance Minister Zdravko Marić and Deputy Prime Ministers Tomo Medved and Boris Milošević would meet with representatives of the state-owned HAC motorway operator on Monday to discuss completion of the motorway between Lekenik and Sisak.

"We think this project must now be given a priority because a better road connection is crucial for the long-term revitalisation and economic recovery of Sisak-Moslavina County," the prime minister said.