ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - There will be no joint commemoration for victims of the World War II concentration camp Jasenovac on Thursday, representatives of the victims will lay wreaths separately from the state leadership while President Zoran Milanović will do so separately from the prime minister and parliament speaker.

President Milanović's spokesman Nikola Jelić confirmed to Hina that Milanović and his delegation will lay wreaths at the Stone Flower monument at Jasenovac at 11 a.m. on Thursday.

Office of the President did not receive reply from gov't, parliament

"President Zoran Milanović and his delegation will pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims on 22 April, at 11 a.m., as agreed with the organiser, the Public Institution Jasenovac Memorial Area," Jelić said.

He added that the Office of the President had not received a reply from the government or the parliament to its invitation to pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims together.

"As early as last Friday the President of the Republic proposed to the Prime Minister and the Parliament Speaker that they all pay tribute to the Jasenovac victims together, but we have not received any reply," Jelić said.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said today that a government delegation would lay a wreath at Jasenovac at 9 a.m., again dismissing the possibility of paying tribute together with Milanović, noting that "there is no reason for us to put on an act."

"As regards any joint laying of wreaths or flowers, I said yesterday.... there will be no putting on an act," he told reporters during a visit to Rijeka.

Plenković: We were not the ones to start with insults

"The President of the Republic or his staff are now launching an initiative for the Parliament Speaker and myself to lay a wreath with him in Jasenovac. We were not the ones to start with the 'animal farm', we were not the ones to start with insults or a number of other things that are most inappropriate, so there is no reason to put on an act, let that be clear to everyone," said Plenković.

He added that the organiser of the commemoration was the Jasenovac Memorial Area, not the government or anyone else, and that this year's commemoration would be held in line with epidemiological restrictions.

The government's delegation will arrive at 9 a.m. and the parliament's delegation at 10 a.m., he said.

"This has nothing to do with representatives of the victim ethnic groups. We met with them last week, we hold meetings regularly, we respect the victims and went to Jasenovac in the past four years as well. We will go this year again, next year, in 2023, 2024. This has to do with the protocol, but putting on an act is out of the question," he said.

Reporters asked Plenković if he should ignore his relationship with Milanović, regardless of how bad it may be, in situations such as commemorations, to which he said: "No, there's no need for that. In this case it is not envisaged and is out of the question."

Representatives of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascists to form separate delegation

The Serb National Council (SNV) said earlier in the day that representatives of ethnic groups that were victims of the Ustasha terror would have a separate, four-member delegation in Jasenovac.

SNV president Milorad Pupovac, the leader of the Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Communities of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, Roma association "Kali Sara" representative Veljko Kajtazi, and the leader of the SABA association of antifascist fighters and antifascists, Franjo Habulin, will lay a joint wreath at the Stone Flower monument at noon on Thursday.

Kraus confirmed to Hina that this decision was made yesterday, after it became evident that there would be no joint delegation comprising top state officials.

"After we realised that there would be separate delegations, we decided on a separate delegation as well. As you can see, a single delegation does not depend on us. We cannot support the use of commemorations for political one-upmanship," said Kraus.

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ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday the Osijek County Court should have ordered a precautionary measure for former Dinamo football club coach Zoran Mamić, who went to Bosnia and Herzegovina after being sentenced in Croatia and applied for serving his prison term there.

Speaking to the press in Rijeka, Plenković said "the Justice Ministry was very clear about ordering precautionary measures for some convicts. The competent court of first instance could and should have ordered a precautionary measure given the circumstances."

"If our judiciary thinks that this option at their disposal is in any way insufficient or not clear enough and that it should be fine-tuned, they should say so. They are the ones who can decide if certain possibilities are being used in practice or not."

Plenković said trial laws were essential and delicate and that one must also look at the general interest and a defendant's rights. "In my opinion, such situations shouldn't occur."

Asked if the agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina regulating these matters should be changed because of such situations, he said, "We can change the agreement, but I'm more interested in the practice itself which, I must say, has nothing to do with the government."

"When you look at judiciary independence indicators, the election of judges, their salaries, status - we have done the utmost about that. This is a question of implementation and specific cases which must be treated in such a way to prevent situations like this."

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ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - The Croatian Ministry of Finance sold HRK 2.34 billion worth of treasury bonds, which was by 139 million kuna higher than planned, at an auction on Tuesday,with an interest rate of a mere 0.02% for one-year-long bonds.

In advance of the maturity of HRK 2.55 billion worth of treasury bonds, the Ministry offered HRK 2.2 billion for subscription, HRK 2 billion with a maturity of one year and HRK 200 million with six months' maturity.

Financial institutions submitted bids totalling HRK 2.34 billion and the Ministry accepted all of them.

The Ministry issued HRK 2.34 billion worth of treasury bonds with a maturity of one year at an interest rate of 0.02%, which was the same interest rate as at the previous auction held on 2 March.

The balance of kuna-denominated bonds subscribed has decreased by HRK 212 million to HRK 14.32 billion.

(€1 = HRK 7.560764)

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ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - The Reporters without Borders (RSF) association has reported that the pandemic has led to a dramatic deterioration of media freedom worldwide, while its latest index shows that the situation has improved in Croatia.

Croatia ranks 56th out of 180 countries on the organisation’s annual Press Freedom Index, moving up three notches after ranking 59th in the previous report.

The organisation's latest report, released on Tuesday, reads that "Croatian journalists who investigate corruption, organised crime or war crimes are often subjected to harassment campaigns."

"Defamation is criminalised and insulting 'the Republic, its emblem, its national hymn or flag' is punishable by up to three years in prison. Worse still, 'humiliating' media content has been criminalised since 2013. Nonetheless, several courts ruled in favour of journalists during defamation trials in 2020. The government has not stopped meddling in the public TV broadcaster HRT, while HRT’s management continues to sue employees who have complained about this problem, and has gone so far as to bring a complaint against the Association of Croatian Journalists."

COVID-19 pandemic deepens financial crisis in media

"Meanwhile physical attacks, along with threats and cyber-violence, continue to be a major problem for journalists without any reaction from the authorities. The Covid-19 pandemic deepened the financial crisis in the media, leading many outlets to cut pay and stop using freelancers. The journalists’ union asked the government to intervene to help freelancers and some economic measures were taken in the summer of 2020 but not all media benefitted," reads the report's section about Croatia.

Deterioration worldwide 

The organisation warns that media freedoms have deteriorated considerably in Asia, in the Middle East and Europe, as shown by its index.

The index is based on a survey of Reporters Without Borders’ regional correspondents and takes into account issues such as the level of attacks on journalists, media independence, and transparency of government institutions.

The pandemic led to an increase in repression worldwide, according to RSF, which noted that media workers had been arrested for covering the outbreak in countries including China, Venezuela, Serbia and Kosovo.

Top 10 best countries for press freedom are as follows: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Jamaica, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.

On the other hand, the top worst countries are Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, China, Djibouti, Vietnam, Iran, Syria, Laos and Cuba.

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ZAGREB, 20 April, 2021 - The EU member-states' foreign ministers, including Croatia's Gordan Grlić Radman, on Monday expressed concern over the situation in Ethiopia, and also over the Russian activities at the Ukrainian border and in Crimea.

The developments in Ukraine and in Ethiopia were the main topics of the informal video conference of foreign affairs ministers on Monday afternoon, and the Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs  Dmytro Kuleba also joined them.

"Ministers reiterated their strong support to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, including to the non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. They also welcomed increased diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring Ukraine's territorial integrity," the Council of the European Union said on its web site.

Minister Grlić Radman was quoted in a press release issued by his ministry as saying that he praised Ukraine's efforts to implement the reforms and to deepen its relations with the European bloc.

Ethiopia

EU foreign ministers discussed the situation in the Tigray region, where fighting is ongoing, full humanitarian access is still being prevented, and human rights violations continue. They were briefed by Finland’s Foreign Affairs Minister Haavisto, who travelled to the region a second time, as representative of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to assess the situation, the Council's press release reads.

"The discussion underlined the urgent need for a monitored ceasefire to improve security conditions in Tigray, and to investigate allegations of human right abuses, war crimes and gender based violence. The High Representative encouraged the deployment of joint investigations between the Ethiopian Human Right Commission and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights."

Grlić Radman pointed out the importance of the EU's constructive role in de-escalation between Sudan and Ethiopia and in defusing the tensions between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over the issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Peđa Grbin on Friday claimed that the Prime Minister and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Andrej Plenković was the "obstacle to all reforms and changes in Croatia."

"Dear Andrej, instead of getting riled up and complaining that the opposition doesn't understand anything, tell us why are you keeping the healthcare reform on the shelf," Grbin sent Plenković a message on his Facebook profile in reaction to the prime minister's claims that while the National Recovery and Resilience Plan was being presented in parliament the opposition showed "its "emptiness, hollowness, a lack of creativity, a lack of information and knowledge," and that Grbin's rating was poor and he was not the leader of the Opposition.

"Your minister, Beroš, yesterday while he wasn't aware that the cameras were recording, admitted what we all know: Andrej Plenković is the obstacle to all reforms and changes in Croatia and the main reason why this country can't move forward," added Grbin.

Grbin posted that  "Andrej Plenković, known as a procrastinator, is a man who is keeping the health reform on the shelf because of the local election while the system is losing dozens of millions of kuna each week and people cannot get medication."

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - The Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) on Friday presented the results of its latest survey showing that there are currently at least 924 lawsuits against the media and reporters in Croatia with plaintiffs seeking HRK 78.5 million in damages.

The real number of lawsuits may be even greater because the data collected refers to only 23 media outlets, HND president Hrvoje Zovko said at a news conference in Zagreb.

The HND says on its website that "same as last year, Hanza Media has the highest number of lawsuits, 479 of them, with the average indemnity demands of 13,333 euro per lawsuit. Styria follows them with 203 lawsuits – the amounts of indemnity requests made to them result to almost € 2.7 million. In active litigation, the amount of claims ranges from several thousand kunas to even more than one million kunas, while the longest active litigation is currently in its 12th year." 

The HND will continue to warn the local and international public about that problem, said Zovko and called on all reporters for solidarity in the fight against that kind of intimidation.

HND secretary-general Ema Tarabochia reported that in February last year there were 905 law actions against media outlets and journalists . Even though this year's number is insignificantly higher, it is particularly concerning that such a number of active cases exists in any case, she said.

"Out of the total number of 924 lawsuits, 892 refer to civil actions against publishers, their editors and journalists, for compensation of damages due to violations of honor and reputation based on published texts and articles, while the remaining number of 32 lawsuits refers to currently active criminal proceedings. Among prosecutors, apart from natural persons unknown to the general public, the most prominent are persons from public and political life, followed by legal entities, politicians in power, even judges themselves," says the HND on its website.

Three active disputes against HND

The HRT national broadcaster has a lawsuit against Zovko seeking compensation of HRK 250,000 and HRK 200,000 from HND. In that same legal action HRT is seeking HRK 50,000 in damages from HTV reporters Sanja Mikleušević Pavić.

As HND said, this is a unique case where a public media service is suing one of its own employees but also a reporters' professional association.

Government should conduct education to prevent lawsuits occurring

Laywer and member of the European Commission expert group for SLAPP suits, Vanja Jurić said today that the government should conduct education for politicians, lawyers and judges in preventing lawsuits against reporters and the media and to have them realise that they need to be prepared to accept criticism.

She in particular warned of the danger of the Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).

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ZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - The Homeland Movement (DP) on Friday strongly criticised the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures (DKOM), saying its head Maja Kuhar "built her career during the term of the (Zoran) Milanović government" and calling Croatia one of the most corrupt countries globally.

"The key problem with the DKOM is that its name does not befit it. It does not supervise public procurement procedures but only resolves appeals in those procedures," DP MP Daniel Spajić said during a debate on the commission's work in 2019.

He claims that many evidently corrupt procedures, like the one for the digitisation of the health system, were not appealed against and are therefore not handled by the DKOM.

Spajić claims that Croatia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

That would not be possible if we had a proper public procurement procedure, he says.

While other caucuses commended the DKOM's work and its report, MP Bojan Glavašević of the Green-Left Bloc (ZLB) said the report was a technical document without any data on effects. There is little information regarding the DKOM's anti-corruption activities and there is not one conclusion, description of activities, or recommendation, he said.

MP Marija Selak Raspudić (MOST Party) commended the report, adding that further improvement is possible.

A fundamental improvement would be to see how much state administration bodies had to pay appellants due to poorly conducted public procurement procedures, she said.

We also want a black list of public administration bodies which have made the most errors in absorbing EU funds and we want to know who the professional appellants are, Selak Raspudić said.

MP Rada Borić (ZLB) warned of the large number of procedures with just one bidder, saying this was the greatest corruption risk.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Željko Pavić referred to the detail that there was an increasing number of appeals to documentation on public procurement and asked whether that problem could be resolved if there was a special department at the DKOM in charge of checking documents.

MPs from the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) praised the document. MP Branka Juričev Martinčev (HDZ) was pleased with the increased number of projects using EU funds and that the DKOM had handled these procedures well.

Systematic training necessary

Most lawmakers agreed that systematic training is necessary for participants in public procurement procedures to avoid errors.

In 2019 the DKOM had 1,365 appeals, including 1,209 new ones, which is a mild increase compared to 2018.

The majority of appeals referred to the selection phase (66%), however, there was a growing trend in the number of appeals related to procurement documents (32%), which can largely be attributed to a single fee to launch an appeal of HRK 5,000, regardless of the value of the procurement.

The DKOM's decisions can be disputed before the High Administrative Court and in 2019 that court quashed less than 3% of the DKOM's decisions.

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OSTZAGREB, 16 April, 2021 - Member of Parliament Zvonimir Troskot of the MOST party on Friday said that huge corruption risks and scandals are hiding under the guise of fight against COVID-19, warning of a new scandal regarding the Cijepise (Get vaccinated) application.

Yet another scandal is about to break regarding the Cijepise application whose design was awarded in a non-transparent way to a good friend of Health Minister Vili Beroš's, with details of the deal having been hidden for months, Troskot told a press conference in Parliament House.

"Huge corruption risks and scandals are being hidden under the guise of fighting against COVID," he said, recalling that MOST had requested that the procurement procedure for medical equipment should not be confidential.

There is an evident model where procurement is being segmented so it does not exceed the threshold of HRK 200,000 in order to avoid a public procurement procedure, said Troskot.

The Cijepise application is very important and should be helping citizens to get vaccinated yet instead people are being inoculated out of line, he said.

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April 16, 2021-  The Human Rights in Croatia 2020 Overview report by Human rights house Zagreb shows hate speech and poor living conditions of Serb returnees and Roma people still being problematic. The judicial system and the lack of a legal frame for civil society development remain problematic too.

In a battle against the Coronavirus, many agree and fear that human rights were put in second place, triggering the debate of security vs. liberty and justification of limiting movement, work, etc.

But human rights and their respect in Croatia was an issue, long before Covid-19. As Jutarnji List warns, the situation is not good. 

Croatia doesn't have a defined politics of making a supportive environment for the civic society development. Citizen participation in decision making is still relatively weak and the judicial system is a special problem," says Jutarnji List referring to the new report by Human Rights House in Zagreb titled „Human Rights in Croatia: 2020 Overview“.

Regarding the judicial issue, a specific example can be found in the ever-controversial  "Za Dom Spremni!"(For the Homeland Ready) salute which is recognised as a fascist salute and punishable by law but it's tolerated as part of the song „Čavoglave“ by Marko Perković Thompson and can frequently be heard during his concerts both by the singer and the audience.

„Circumstance that the salute is part of the song doesn't change the fact that it's an ustasha (Croatian fascist) salute that symbolizes criminal Naci-fascist ideology and is the violation of article 39 of Croatian constitution that prohibits any call or encouragement on national, racial or religious hatred or any form of intolerance“, continues Jutarnji List.

Still present in public space, hate speech in Croatia is also very alive on the Internet, with the Serb LGBTQ community and Roma people being the prime targets. As Jutarnji reports, last year's research show this as well as the lack of appropriate response. 

„Children and adolescences do not learn enough about human rights, equality, and solidarity, given that civil education is conducted as one of six intercourse themes in elementary and high-schools. Such approach to civil education does not secure enough time in the curriculum for quality development of civil competence of pupils“, concluded for Jutarnji List Human Rights House in Zagreb.

Educational segregation for Roma people, isolated Serb returnees migrant treatment controversies, C+ grade for LGBTQ travelers

The article also adds that Roma people in Croatia are still facing many obstacles in achieving their rights, which include employment, access to services, and adequate living standards, and there is still segregation in the education system too.

Furthermore, many Serb returnees live in undeveloped rural areas, which are isolated and offer poor living conditions. Additionally, they still struggle to achieve their asset rights, and their possession is still tangible to devastation.

Pixabay

When it comes to LGBTQ rights, as TCN previously reported, Croatia „has an index of 188 points and a grade C+ from most safe to highest dangerous places (A to F), placing it among the first third of the best countries in the world in terms of LGBTQ+ safety“. There are controversies regarding the migrants' treatment on which we recently reported on too.

Learn more about Croatia's global rankings and many more fun facts about the country on our TC page.

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