ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - The anti-corruption office USKOK has indicted an Afghan national and eight Croatian nationals for smuggling migrants.

The Afghan national, who is the principal defendant in the case, is charged with having organised a ring to smuggle migrants across the Croatian-Slovenian border.

The migrants were charged €600-800 for transport from the Croatian-Bosnian border to the border with Slovenia.

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ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that he was considering not having the army participate in the coming commemoration of the 1995 military and police operation "Flash" in Okučani, to protect it from politicking, and that he would discuss the matter with Defence Minister Mario Banožić.

"A situation where soldiers have to stand for hours while politicians and government officials successively lay wreaths to comply with epidemiological measures puts in an awkward position the Army Chief of Staff as well as the commander of the land army who, if they do not want to offend anyone, have to be on duty... after arriving with me, they have to wait for (PM Andrej) Plenković, then, I guess, also for (Parliament Speaker Gordan) Jandroković," said Milanović, who is the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

"So I'm thinking about telling them to stay home, to simply protect them from any politicking... I will talk with the minister," said Milanović while visiting the Gašinci military grounds.

Milanović said that he did not see anything contentious about the fact that on Monday, at a reception he gave for retired officers and wartime commanders of the Croatian Defence Force (HVO) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he also met with retired HVO general Tihomir Blaškić, who was in the HVO delegation. 

Blaškić was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and served a nine-year prison sentence for the cruel and inhumane treatment of Bosniak civilians and POWs from 1992 to 1994.

"Had Blaškić been responsible for something that, let's say Ratko Mladić was responsible for, I would not have received him," he said.

He announced that he would also receive General Milivoj Petković when he is released from prison "because he isn't a war criminal."

The convictions against Blaškić and Petković were political convictions, he added.

The ICTY convicted Petković of crimes committed in 1993 against Bosniaks in the territory that was under the control of the Croat authorities of Herceg-Bosna

Asked if he would attend a ceremony marking the anniversary of the establishment of the 4th Guards Brigade in Split, Milanović said that he would attend the ceremony in Knin.

"I'm going to Knin, not Split, that brigade is in Knin and the army will conduct such events in barracks," the president said.

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ZAGREB, 27 April, 2021 - The ruling HDZ party's candidate for Zagreb mayor, Davor Filipović, on Tuesday presented candidates for his deputies, Iva Hraste-Sočo and Mirjana Kujundžić Tiljak.

Hraste-Sočo will be in charge of culture and reconstruction and Kujundžić Tiljak of health and education, Filipović said, recalling that he had promised to advocate the appointment of as many women as possible as managerial staff in the city administration.

Hraste-Sočo is a special advisor to the incumbent Culture Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek and former deputy to former culture minister Zlatko Hasanbegović.

Kujundžić Tiljak is a professor at the Zagreb School of Medicine and director of the "Andrija Štampar" School of Public Health.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Israeli Ambassador Ilan Mor has said in an interview with Hina that the Ustasha salute 'For the homeland ready' cannot simultaneously be a symbol of heroism and a symbol of evil, and pointed out the good example set by Germany and Austria where the glorification of Nazism is punishable by law.

The issue of the said salute used by Ustasha, allies of the German Nazis in the Second World War, is raised every April, when Croatia observes anniversaries of the breakout of inmates from the Ustasha-run concentration camp in Jasenovac in late April in 1945. The 1941-1945 Jasenovac camp was a site of torture and mass executions of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and of Croats who opposed Nazism and Fascism.

Since the 1991-1995 Homeland War, the controversial salute, whose abbreviation in Croatian is ZDS, has been permissible at commemorations of fallen defenders who used to be members of the HOS unit and who had that salute on their uniforms during that war of independence. On the other hand, for years, Jewish associations have continued requesting that the use of the salute should be outlawed, just as in the case of "Heil Hitler" salute, as its use carries a prison sentence in Germany and Austria.

"In Vukovar, the 'Za Dom Spremni' salute is considered to be part of heroism of the place, fighting against occupier and in Jasenovac  'Za Dom Spremni' is symbol of evil. So, you have to decide, it can't be the same symbol for totally different points in your history," says the ambassador after he yesterday participated in the commemorations on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the breakout of inmates from the Jasenovac death camp.

Jewish rep expects legislative changes penalising Ustasha salute to be passed by summer

The head of the Coordinating Committee of the Jewish Communities of Croatia, Ognjen Kraus, said on Thursday there was a realistic possibility for the parliament to vote in amendments to the Penal Code to penalise the use of the Ustasha salute "For the homeland ready" before its summer recess.

"I believe that there will be no problems in voting the changes in if the Prime Minister and the HDZ mean what they say," Kraus said when asked about the possibility of outlawing the Ustasha salute, an initiative he launched earlier this year.

Commenting on this statement, Ambassador Mor says: "You have to do something about it. I am not a lawyer, i am not Croat and can't give you 'yes' or 'no' (on imposing a prison sentence for that salute). In this case, Germany and Austria are very good role model."

Ambassador warns of attempts to downplay the Holocaust

Commenting on some global trends of downplaying the tragedy of the Holocaust, Mor said that a portion of the Croatian society used every opportunity to glorify the Ustasha troops and Ustasha leader Ante Pavelić.

 As if nothing had happened, as if Jasenovac had not been an extermination camp but a labour camp. This is in contradiction with historical facts and the testimonies by those who survived that period, the ambassador said.

Mor went on to say that historians in Croatia and Serbia disagreed about the numbers of Serb victims in Jasenovac, and he said that it was unacceptable to reduce such a tragedy to the issue of numbers.

"If you want to live in peace, you have to do more then producing movies, you have to have real dialogue," he said alluding also to the recent Serbian film ("Dara iz Jasenovca") about this topic which has been perceived in Croatia as well as internationally as part of the nationalistic propaganda of Serbia's authorities.

Mor urged both Croatia and Serbia to let their archives be available to experts and so that they can arrive at a point acceptable to both sides.

The same should be applied when it comes to Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, he said and called for resorting to dialogue to overcome different views on the events in the past.

In this context he mentioned the normalisation of the relations between his country and several Arab countries. Following the 1979 peace agreement with Egypt and the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan, Israel has renewed relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in the past few months.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - The conviction of Varaždin Mayor Ivan Čehok, businessman Davor Patafta and Patafta's associate Narcisa Huljev was quashed on appeal by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court stated on Friday that it established that during the trial the first-instance court violated provisions of the criminal proceedings and therefore the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in this case.

In July 2018, Zagreb County Court sentenced Varaždin mayor Ivan Čehok to two years in prison after the court found him guilty of the charges of having favoured companies owned by his co-defendant, businessman Davor Patafta, and defrauding the city budget of 14 million kuna between late 2007 and mid-2011.

Patafta was sentenced to 20 months for incitement to abuse of office. Also sentenced was Narcisa Huljev, who works for Patafta. She was given a sentence of 18 months of which she will spend nine in jail. The other indictees in this case were Tomislav Kezelj and Hrvoje Vojvoda, who were acquitted, and three firms owned by Patafta. The national serious fraud office USKOK had accused them of conspiracy to commit crime, abuse of office, and incitement to abuse of office.

Čehok resigned as mayor of over the case in 2014. He was re-elected mayor in local elections held in 2017.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Friday received European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson for talks on migration and Croatia's accession to the Schengen Area, the government said in a press release.

The officials discussed the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, which aims to halt arrivals of irregular migrants since the migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016, and to make the Union and member states better prepared for efficient migration management, the press release said.

Prime Minister Plenković underlined that for Croatia, as a country of the EU's external border, it is exceptionally important that the talks on the new pact define key issues such as responsibility and solidarity, procedures on the external borders, strengthening cooperation with third countries, efficient implementation of readmission of migrants who are not entitled to stay in the European Union and legal migration paths.

Significant investments in technical equipment to supervise the border and its border police enables Croatia to successfully protect the EU external border and the country is ready to protect the external Schengen Area border, he underscored. 

Plenković and Johansson discussed Croatia's accession to the Schengen Area. At the the Home Affairs Council meeting on 12 March Commissioner Johansson confirmed that Croatia had successfully completed the evaluation process and ensured the full application of Schengen rules and she supported the adoption of the relevant political decision in that regard.

The two officials also discussed migration trends in neighbouring countries and underscored that in order to reduce the permanent migrant pressure on the Croatian border it is key to better manage migrations along the entire East-Mediterranean route, the press release concluded.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - The Croatian parliament on Friday adopted a report on an abridged version of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NPOO) to 2026 with 76 lawmakers in the 151-seat legislature supporting the document about projects worth more than HRK 49 billion.

The 2021-2026 National Recovery and Resilience Plan contains project proposals in six areas worth HRK 49.08 billion. Its drafting and submission to the European Commission is a precondition for obtaining funds from the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for the period from 2021 to 2023. Under the RRF, Croatia has €6.3 billion in grants at its disposal, plus an additional €3.6 billion in potential loans.

The main components of the NPOO are enterprise sector; pubic administration; judiciary and state assets; education, science and research; labour market and social protection and health. Apart from the five components, there is also the initiative 'Building reconstruction' sector.

These components are divided into 22 topical sub-components that list specific reforms and investment needs.

"This is a generational opportunity," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković underscored presenting the plan to the parliament.

The plan should help us overcome the crisis as soon as possible and reforms are essential in order to absorb the available funds and they are a constituent part of the plan.

All EU member states are obliged to present their national plans by the end of April and submit them to the European Commission. After the plans are adopted 10% of the funds foreseen for each member state will be paid out in the second half of this year. Croatia can thus tap €600 million in the second half of 2021.

The investments listed in the plan have to be implemented by 31 August 2026.

Opposition parties once again complained that they did not see the entire plan but just a shortened version and that they do not believe that the plan will result in recovery or resilience.

Parliament today adopted four semi-annual reports on the absorption of European structural and investment funds for 2020 and 2019.

If all four reports are combined, we agreed projects worth more than €5 billion, (which is 45% of the funds agreed to until then) €3.02 billion has been disbursed (which is 60% of what had been paid until then) and more than €2 billion has been certified.

A report on the situation in the territory of Croatia from 2013 to 2019 was adopted as was a semi-annual report by the Croatian National Bank on the financial situation, and a report on the work of the State Commission to Supervise Public Procurement Procedures in 2019 was also adopted. 

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Findings of an inspection in the work of the social worker involved in the supervision of a family whose child died of injuries in the town of Nova Gradiška show that the social worker concerned did no make professional mistakes and that she acted in line with professional protocols.

The expert evaluation of the work of the social worker shows that she did not make mistakes or omissions which could have been conducive to the lethal outcome.

The 2.5-year-old child recently died of the grave injuries caused by domestic violence. The child had been admitted to a Zagreb-based hospital in very serious condition, and despite the efforts of the hospital's staff during her treatment, she succumbed to the injuries.

Following her death, the relevant ministry ordered an expert evaluation of the work of the social welfare centre in Nova Gradiška..

On 19 April, the Croatian Psychological Chamber said that an inspection at that centre showed that the psychologists in charge of the case acted in line with professional standards and measures defined by that centre.

In the period when the violent death happened, the relevant social worker was in self-isolation due to coronavirus.

The child and her family were under the supervision of the social welfare centre in Nova Gradiška for several years.

The family has been under supervision since 2017 and the child, who was given to foster parents for some time, was returned from the foster family to her biological family in line with a decision by that centre.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman on Friday condemned the removal of the Croatian flag from the ambassador's official residence in Belgrade, saying that such incidents fomented an atmosphere of hate, hostility and intolerance.

"Such incidents are certainly not conducive to understanding (...) We hope and wish for the relations between Croatia and Serbia to be good because it makes sense that we should have stable relations," he told the press.

Croatian Ambassador Hido Biščević told N1 television on Thursday it was no accident that the Croatian flag was taken down from his residence and that the incident reflected "part of the atmosphere" in Serbian society, which he said continued to feed on hate speech.

Unknown persons removed the flag from the building which has video surveillance but no guards most likely on Wednesday morning, he said.

The Serbian Foreign Ministry said this was an "injudicious and isolated act," hoping that it "won't cast a shadow on efforts to set Serbia-Croatia relations on new foundations so that in future they can develop in the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation."

Grlić Radman said that because of such incidents "we can't say the relations have good prospects, we can't talk about a good future, but we must believe in a good future."

He announced that he will go to Subotica on 28 April for the laying of the cornerstone of a new Croatia House. His talks with local officials will also address an initiative, opposed by Croatian linguists, to declare the Bunjevci dialect an official language in that town in northern Serbia.

The minister reiterated that the initiative was contrary to the Croatia-Serbia agreement on the protection of national minorities.

He said that on 27 April the prime minister of the Vojvodina province, Igor Mirović, would visit Petrinja, struck by a devastating earthquake last December.

Serbia's EU path "goes also across Croatia"

The minister went on to say that Serbia's EU path "goes also across Croatia." Before Serbia joins, it is necessary to resolve the issue of the war missing, universal jurisdiction, and reparations for POWs, he said.

Serb representatives have three guaranteed seats in the Croatian parliament and Croatia wants Croats in Serbia to be represented as well, he added.

Serbia "must actively and strongly deal" with reforms, the fight against corruption, and the rule of law, he said.

Serbia was granted EU candidate status in March 2012 and began accession negotiations in January 2014.

Ambassadorial appointments

Although Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and President Zoran Milanović have not yet agreed on the appointment of new ambassadors and consuls, Grlić Radman said he did not think the process was blocked and that there was "only one Croatian diplomacy."

He dismissed the possibility of a quota or a 50:50 model (between the president's and government's proposals). He said "agreement must be reached" and that one could talk about the list of candidates the government had sent the president, but that the government was not in favour of quotas.

He said the candidates were "professional diplomats who have proved themselves on the job."

Milanović, on the other hand, wants it to be known who is behind which ambassador for responsibility's sake, saying that this has been the practice before.

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ZAGREB, 23 April, 2021 - General Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa and of Allied Air Command, visited Croatia on Thursday, the Defence Ministry said on Friday.

Harrigian met with the ministry state secretary, Zdravko Jakop, the director of the Croatian Armed Forces General Staff, Major General Ivica Olujić, and the commander of the Croatian Air Force, Brigadier General Michael Križanec.

They discussed the development of bilateral cooperation in defence and Agile Combat Employment, which is based on interoperability, as well as agreements regulating access to the Allied infrastructure and air space.

The Croatian Army, as an active NATO member, is participating in many international military exercises and activities which enhance the common capabilities and intensify cooperation between the member states, including the DEFENDER-Europe 21 and Astral Knight 21 exercises.

Jakop thanked the U.S. for donations and training assistance, saying that the bilateral relations were developed and that the U.S. "is the most important strategic partner in global security building."

Harrigian said he was looking forward to joint participation in Astral Knight, an exercise taking place in Croatia which, he said, offers an exceptional opportunity to train with some of the strongest allies.

Križanec underlined the importance of joint participation in international military exercises and activities this year, including  Adriatic Strike 21, Astral Knight 21 and Immediate Response 21.

Air forces, owing to rapid action and deployment in an exceptionally wide operations area, play a significant role in supporting deterrence as a key element of NATO's collective defence, he said.

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