ZAGREB, June 23, 2020 - Croatia will continue to insist on solving the issue of persons gone missing in the Homeland War and the equal treatment of minorities in the two states, Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said on Monday, a day after a parliamentary election in Serbia.

"There must always be cooperation, talks must always exist, especially because we are neighbours. We have certain outstanding issues, we have 1,892 missing persons we are tracing," the Croatian minister told reporters.

Asked what kind of cooperation he expected after the landslide election victory of President Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party, he said the two countries had "many topics" they could discuss that "the Croatian public must be informed about."

Croatia will continue to work so "the families of the missing and those killed have their satisfaction," said Grlic Radman. "If Serbia has committed, if Serbian politics is credible in terms of commitment to the European journey, then it must prove it."

He reiterated that Croatia would insist that the Croatian minority in Serbia had the same status that the Serb minority had in Croatia.

"We supported absolutely all Croatian representatives in the People's Assembly. Unfortunately, the Serbian side still hasn't honoured the international agreement on the protection of minorities, on fixed representation, so in the period ahead we will work very hard on achieving reciprocity," he said.

"Just as Croatia meets all standards for the protection of minorities, and the Serb minority has seats in the Croatian parliament, we will insist that the same be done in Serbia," he added.

ZAGREB, May 1, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday dismissed the president's claims that the appearance of a few men wearing T-shirts with the salute "For the homeland ready" at the Okučani celebration was intentional provocation, adding that it is Milanović's right to leave, and the obligation of others to stay.

President Zoran Milanović abruptly left the central commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Operation Flash in protest against the salute "For the homeland ready" on T-shirts of some of war veterans who arrived in the town of Okučani on Friday morning to participate in the commemoration. The salute concerned, which was used during the Ustasha regime in the Second World War, was also used by the HOS volunteers during the 1991-1995 Homeland War.

"I have understood. We have held a brief conversation, for a minute. He was obviously informed by someone that some of the participants in the commemorative event had T-shirts with the HOS insignia. It is his decision (to leave). It is his right to leave, and it is our obligation to stay," Plenković said in his comment to Milanovic's behaviour at the Okučani celebration.

Plenković dismissed Milanović's claims that those T-shirts were an intentional act of provocation.

Asked by the press whether such T-shirts bothered him, Plenković answered that "all who gave their lives for Croatia, including the fallen HOS members, have deserved my respect."

"Making differences and what the president has done is not good. We have come here to pay tribute to the fallen defenders. You can see these 51 cubes here (as part of the Okučani monument to the fallen soldiers), we have come here because of those people. There is no place for provocation, we are here also on behalf of the institutions," the premier said.

As for the said salute, the premier recalled that his cabinet had made a clear position.

"The council for dealing with the past, which we have established, has adopted a document which very clearly identifies the moments in which some insignia, used during the Homeland War, can be used and those are commemorations and times when we remember our victims," Plenković said. "We pay our deepest respects to Croatian defenders," said the premier.

Plenković recalled that during the recent commemoration in Jasenovac, Milanović said that a memorial plaque with the names of the fallen HOS soldiers which contains the "For the homeland ready" salute should be thrown away.

"You will never hear any of us saying that a plaque with the names of the fallen soldiers who defended Croatia should be thrown away," he explained.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, May 1, 2020 - President Zoran Milanović abruptly left the central commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Flash Operation in protest against the salute "For the homeland ready" on T-shirts of some of war veterans who arrived in the town of Okučani on Friday morning to participate in the commemoration.

The salute concerned, which was used during the Ustasha regime in the Second World War, was also used by the HOS volunteers during the 1991-1995 Homeland War.

"I am sorry. I came here to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for Croatia. We had agreed about all elements of the protocol. However, one of the participants who was supposed to lay a wreath before me, appeared in the T-shirt with the message 'Ready for the Homeland'," Milanović said explaining why he had left abruptly the commemorative event and was not among the state officials during the wreath-laying ceremony.

Milanović considers the whole situation as an act of provocation. "I find that this was an act of trampling on the sacrifice and on the memory of this (liberating) operation., Milanović said.

"I will not participate in any commemoration in the future with such events. I understand the prime minister and the parliament speaker. They have to," Milanović said alluding to the fact that the commemoration was held as planned with the PM Andrej Plenković and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković.

Operation Flash was launched on 1 May 1995, and within 31 hours Croatian military and police forces liberated about 500 square kilometres of territory occupied by Serb insurgents and restored control over the A3 motorway.

More politics news can be found in the dedicated section.

ZAGREB, April 30, 2020 - Marking the 25th anniversary of the Flash military and police operation, President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Zoran Milanović received for talks the army and police commanders who had participated in that operation, noting that it was an excellent operation.

"It will soon be 25 years since Croatia conducted its first major liberation operation and put an end to its four-year agony of being divided territorially and unable to function normally," said Milanović.

He added that the operation was impeccable in the military operational sense as well as in terms of respect for international law.

"That was an excellent military and police operation in every aspect," he said.

"As long as I am president, advancement in the army will be regular. There will not be any daily politicking. A system of values will exist and those are values that made it possible for us to join NATO and later the EU. That is Western democracy, which has various tones and colours and they are not all the same, but what we have in common with the countries with which we share security clauses and the article on mutual security assistance in case of an attack is that we have free elections and respect certain criteria and human rights," the president said.

"Thank you for everything you did for Croatia. Thank you for your active contributions. Long live Croatia," said Milanović.

The reception was attended by military and police commanders headed by Chief-of-Staff Admiral Robert Hranj and representatives of the Police Directorate.

More news about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 31, 2020 - President and Armed Forces Supreme Commander Zoran Milanović on Tuesday lit a candle at a monument at Plitvička Jezera commemorating Josip Jović, the first Croatian police officer killed in the Homeland War, on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of his death.

Milanović's envoy, Brigadier Darko Podrug, head of the Croatian Navy commander's office, laid a wreath at Jović's grave in Arzano.

Jović, 22, was killed and nine other police officers were wounded in a police operation on 31 March 1991 after Serb insurgents occupied the Plitvice Lakes National Park and blocked the D1 state road that connects the country's north and south.

Jović was a member of the Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit.

Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović on Tuesday paid tribute to Josip Jović, the first Croatian police officer killed in the Homeland War, as well as to other police officers and soldiers killed in the 1991-95 war.

Božinović lit a candle at a monument commemorating Jovic at Plitvice Lakes on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of his death.

Božinović, who heads the national team managing the current coronavirus crisis, said that police, together with other services, were today on the first line of defence against coronavirus, just as they had been on the first line of defence during the war.

More news about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 26, 2020 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman spoke at a UN meeting in Geneva on Tuesday about Croatian citizens missing from the 1990s war, saying it was their families' human right to find out the truth which, he added, could also help reconciliation between peoples once at war.

Croatia is still tracing 1,871 persons gone missing in the 1991-95 war between Croatian forces and rebel local Serbs and the former Yugoslav People's Army.

Speaking at the 43rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Grlić Radman said shedding light on the fate of the missing was very important for Croatia. "That is of regional and global significance and also provides greater chances for lasting reconciliation between peoples."

"That is the everyday life of hundreds of families in Croatia and that's why we must show special interest and compassion. That's our concern," the minister said.

A photo exhibition by Sandra Simunovic called "Portraits of Sadness", depicting disturbing stories about the Homeland War missing, was opened on the fringes of the meeting.

Grlić Radman also met with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, extending his support to her work on the protection of human rights in the world.

"In today's world, where international human rights and multilateralism are increasingly being violated, it's important to support the high commissioner's work," he said.

The minister also took part in a disarmament conference at which he underlined the importance of effectively complying with all international and regional agreements on disarmament.

At the UN Human Rights Council meeting, he also pushed for strengthening the economic status of women, preventing poverty, including children's, as well as social exclusion, and protecting children from violence.

More news about Croatia and the UN can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, January 15, 2020 - On this day, 28 years ago, the then member-states of the European Union recognised Croatia and on this day 22 years ago, the country completed the peaceful reintegration of its Danube region.

On 15 January 1992, Croatia's independence was recognised by the members of the EU and Germany as well as the Vatican were perceived as protagonists in those developments, while 15 January 1998 saw the completion of the peaceful reintegration of the until then occupied Danube River Region into Croatia's constitutional and legal order.

On 15 January 1992, Croatia was in the midst of the Homeland War and nearly one third of the country was occupied by the former Yugoslav army and Serb insurgents. Croatia's president Franjo Tuđman told his associates in the evening of 15 January 1992: "We have created the internationally recognised Croatia. Let's celebrate tonight and then roll up our sleeves and build a new democratic state."

Croatia's international recognition followed after it declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991. On the same day, Slovenia too declared its independence from Yugoslavia and the next day the two newly- created states recognised each other.

At that time, the Soviet Union was disintegrating too, and although they were not internationally recognised yet, several of its former republics recognised Croatia during 1991 - Lithuania on July 30, Ukraine on December 11, Latvia on December 14 and Estonia on December 31.

Iceland - the first internationally recognised state that recognised Croatia

Iceland was the first internationally recognised state that recognised Croatia, on 15 December 1991, followed by Germany on the same day, although it decided that its recognition would go into force on 15 January 1992, together with the other EU member states.

On January 13, Croatia was recognised by the Holy See, which had announced that it would recognise Croatia and Slovenia the previous December 20. On January 14, Croatia was recognised by San Marino.

After being recognised by the EU on 15 January 1992, Croatia was recognised on the same day by Great Britain, Denmark, Malta, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Norway, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Luxembourg and Greece. On January 16, Croatia was recognised by Argentina, Australia, the Czech Republic, Chile, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Slovakia Sweden and Uruguay.

By the end of that January, Croatia was recognised by Finland, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia.

Russia recognised Croatia on 17 February 1992, Japan did so on March 17, the US on April 7, Israel on April 16, however, the two countries established their diplomatic relations five and a half years later, and China on April 27.

The first Asian country that recognised Croatia was Iran on 15 March 1992, while Egypt was the first African country on 16 April 1992.

On 22 May 1992, Croatia joined the UN.

Croatia is observing on Wednesday the 22th anniversary of the peaceful reintegration of its Danube region. The process was completed during the term of the United Nations Transitional Administration of Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) on 15 January 1998.

It was the Erdut Agreement, which was signed on 12 November 1995, that enabled the peaceful restoration of Croatian sovereignty over the Croatian Danube region which was under the control of Serb paramilitaries and rebels since the launch of the Great Serbian aggression against that part of Croatia in 1991.

The Erdut Agreement on eastern Slavonia, Baranja and western Srijem was signed on 12 November 1995 in Erdut and Zagreb by the then presidential chief-of-staff, Hrvoje Šarinić, the head of the Serb negotiating team, Milan Milanović, and by the then US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, and UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg as witnesses. The treaty marked the beginning of the UN's two-year transitional administration in the area during which Croatia restored its sovereignty over the temporarily occupied parts of Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties, which enabled reconstruction in the area ravaged in the Great Serbian aggression on Croatia and the return of refugees.

The Erdut agreement was reached by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman and Serbian President Slobodan Milošević at a peace conference in Dayton, Ohio. The 14-point document provided for a two-year transitional period under UN supervision, a transitional administration, formation of a multi-national police force, local elections, and demilitarisation 30 days after the deployment of international peacekeepers. Seven provisions of the agreement dealt with human rights, refugee return, and property restitution or compensation.

The UNTAES mission was created under UN Security Council Resolution 1037 of 15 January 1996 and ended on 15 January 1998.

Two Croatian military operations in 1995 – Operation Flash which was conducted in May that year in western Slavonia and Operation Storm that liberated the largest portion of the occupied territories – paved the way for the Erdut agreement and subsequently for the UNTAES mission.

On 1 January this year, Croatia, which was admitted to the European bloc on 1 July 2013, assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The presidency over the EU is seen as an opportunity to promote the country-in-chair and making the local society more sensitive to EU-related topics.

"A strong Europe in a world of challenges" is the slogan Croatia has chosen for its presidency. The programme of its EU presidency is based on four themes or pillars - A Europe that develops; A Europe that connects; A Europe that protects; and An influential Europe.

In Croatia, a total of 161 events in relation to the presidency will be held. One of the major events will be a summit meeting between the EU and the Western Balkans, set for 7 May in Zagreb.

Apart from that, eight informal gatherings will take place in Zagreb, three in the biggest Adriatic city of Split and one in the coastal resort of Opatija.

Nine ministerial conferences will be organised in Croatia: five in Zagreb and four outside the capital city. A few expert-level meetings will be held in the eastern city of Osijek.

The accession of Croatia to NATO took place in 2009.

More info about the history of Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 17, 2019 - RECOM, the regional fact-finding commission on victims of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia, is a project which has politically failed, Nataša Kandić, a peace activist from Belgrade, said in Zagreb on Monday at a regional gathering of activists for the protection of human rights.

Since 2006, RECOM has been trying to compile a joint list of victims without success due to political resistance to combining data on the circumstances of death and the names of about 130,000 victims of the 1990s wars in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

RECOM has created a solid foundation for a regional list of victims but the project has failed politically, Kandić said at the gathering organised ahead of Croatia's presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"NGOs and civil society can't publicly acknowledge the victims because that is the task of the states," she said, adding that RECOM had been unable to meet with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović because they were told she was too busy and that naming victims was not a topic within her remit.

Vesna Teršelić, head of the Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past, said no progress had been made this year in documenting war victims due to lack of political will to access the documents of Croatia's Homeland War Memorial Documentation Centre, which collects and has access to all official documents.

The Transition Justice Forum brought together representatives of European Commission institutions, lawyers and activists. Croatia was represented by Assistant Justice Minister Ivan Crnčec, who agreed that regional cooperation was not good, blaming Serbia for it.

He said that over the past two years Croatia had been trying without success to start cooperation with Serbia. About 3,600 war crimes cases have been instigated in Croatia, about 2,100 indictments have been filed and about 640 persons have been convicted, while the figures in Serbia have been paltry and show no trend of increasing, he added.

"There is still no prosecuting on command responsibility in Serbia, which both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have managed to do," Crnčec said.

Speaking of the exchange of lists of war crimes suspects between Croatia and Serbia, he said Croatian prosecutors had given Serbia 1,534 names and received 86 in return, including 43 from an indictment filed by the military prosecutor's office for subverting the constitutional order of the former Yugoslavia.

"They won't hand over other cases instigated by the military prosecutor's office. Regional cooperation requires a lot of work but there must be at least a minimum will on the other side too," Crnčec said.

Activists called out the Homeland War Memorial Documentation Centre for not making public its list of war victims.

"Croatia's Memorial Documentation Centre announced a year ago that it would make public the names of 13,500 victims of Croatian nationality and about 7,000 victims of other nationalities... but that hasn't happened," said Kandić.

More news about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 8, 2019 - The Documenta Centre for Dealing with the Past and the Serb National Council (SNV) held a commemoration for Marija, Aleksandra and Mihajlo Zec who had been killed on Mount Medvednica, overlooking Zagreb, 28 years ago on Saturday, saying that they would ask the city authorities to name a Zagreb square or street after 12-year-old Aleksandra.

They said they would also ask the city authorities to put up a memorial plaque on the Adolfovac mountain lodge where Aleksandra and her mother Marija were shot dead by members of a special police unit under Tomislav Merčep.

Members of the unit came to the home of the Zec family in Zagreb's Trešnjevka district shortly after 11pm on 7 December 1991 and shot dead 38-year-old Mihajlo Zec as he tried to escape. Marija and Aleksandra, who witnessed the murder, were then taken in a van to Adolfovac where they were killed and the mountain lodge later burned down.

Shortly after the police found the bodies, the members of Merčep's unit Munib Suljić, Igor Mikola, Siniša Rimac, Nebojša Hodak and Snežana Živanović were arrested. Some of them confessed to the murders before an investigating judge, but at trial it was found that they did not have a lawyer present during their interviews with the investigating judge as required by law. Their earlier statements were thrown out and they were released.

Aleksandra, Marija and Mihajlo Zec are buried in Mihajlo's place of birth Gornja Dragotinja, near Prijedor, northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Journalist Drago Pilsel said at the commemoration that their murder "is one of the most shameful chapters in modern Croatian history."

"Some of the murderers later advanced in their careers and were even decorated by the then President Franjo Tuđman, which brings into question the defensive nature of the Homeland War," Pilsel said.

The head of Documenta, Vesna Teršelić, wondered if Croatian politicians and citizens "will remember not just the victims of the Homeland War, for whom Parliament has designated a special date in the calendar, but also all the children, more than 400 of them, killed in the Homeland War."

Speaking on behalf of the SNV, Saša Milošević said that the 1990s was "not just a glorious period, but also a very sad, dark, tragic and shameful period of Croatian history."

The Documenta and SNV representatives laid a wreath and lit three candles, members of the public laid roses, and a minute's silence was observed for the dead.

Among those attending were Zoran Pusić of the Antifascist League and the Civic Committee on Human Rights, and SNV president and member of Parliament Milorad Pupovac.

More news about Serbs in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 18, 2019 - Tens of thousands of citizens led by the defenders of Vukovar, together with members of the families of killed, unaccounted-for and captured Vukovar defenders, are marching down the eastern town on Monday in a memorial procession, honouring in a dignified manner the 2,717 killed in the military aggression on Vukovar in 1991.

Also in the procession are President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who will lay a wreath and light candles at a monument to the victims at the local cemetery. A wreath will also be laid and candles lit by a delegation of Vukovar's defenders, the town and Vukovar-Srijem County.

According to police, the commemorative events are passing peacefully and there have been no incidents.

Also in the procession is Lyliane Fournier, whose son Jean Michel Nicolier, a French volunteer, was killed at Ovćara near Vukovar.

She told reporters she expected the person responsible for her son's death to be brought to justice and that she had information on the killer's identity. She pushed for blocking Serbia's EU accession until it hands over all war criminals.

"Of course, Serbia's EU entry should be blocked until they provide information on where the mass graves are, extradite war criminals and apologise as the aggressor on Croatia," she said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that the government constantly invested efforts to help the City of Vukovar in its development and was also dedicated to the resolution of the issue of missing people.

"State institutions will not cease working until this issue is settled," the premier said ahead of the start of the main commemoration of the 28th anniversary of the fall of the eastern town of Vukovar into the hands of Serb rebels and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

Concerning the search for people who went missing in the 1991-1995 war of independence, Plenković said that his cabinet dealt with that issue committedly.

Croatia also holds dialogue with other countries, international organisations, in hope of accomplishing results and every year headway is made, he said.

Asked by the press whether Zagreb mulled the possibility of blocking Serbia's journey towards the European Union until the issue of missing persons was settled, Plenković said that for many years, Croatia had been tackling that issue and that its settlement required political will.

"I think that political will should be shown in Belgrade to provide Croatia with the data it keeps, so that we can learn what happened with our people," said Plenković.

Considering Serbia's EU membership aspirations, Plenković said that the process was strict and full of preconditions and it would take long under the new methodology.

These are so-called fundamental issues that should be addressed under the (policy) chapters that concern fundamental rights, the premier added.

Plenković said that 28 years after the war, one should also look to the future.

In that context he mentioned legislation on investment stimulation and added that Zagreb was conducting negotiations with the European Union to ensure a special status for Vukovar.

He said that Vukovar should be given prospects in the "homeland which has, since the tragedy of Vukovar, accomplished its national tasks thanks to the statesmanlike policy of President (Franjo) Tuđman, and this includes the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region and everything we have done in recent years to make Croatia economically strong, socially integrative and internationally positioned."

Vukovar was peacefully reintegrated into Croatia in January 1998. The peaceful reintegration began in January 1996 with the assistance of the UNTAES (UN Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium) mission.

Before the commemoration, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović briefly stated: "Respect to all, respect to the victims of Vukovar!"

More Vukovar news can be found in the Politics section.