Protests in 15 Croatian Cities

Anti-government protesters in a peaceful march through Zagreb

Some 10.000 people rallied in the Croatian capital on Saturday to demand the government resign, AFP reports.  ”Everyone, on the streets!”, “We are Croatia!”, shouted the protesters amid the noise of whistles as they marched from a central Zagreb square to the headquarters of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. 

Since February 22 similar protests, first called through social networking site Facebook, have been organised every other day in the capital, but other towns followed. ”Jaco, just go!” protesters shouted referring to Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor as they approached the HDZ seat, secured by a heavy anti-riot police presence.  The protestors marched for three hours, blocking the traffic in the city centre and stopped briefly in front of the agriculture ministry in a sign of support to the country’s farmers who for days have rallied in several regions to demand state subsidies. 

Police said around 1,000 policemen had been deployed throughout the capital. Students, pensioners, workers and young people took part in the march, demanding early elections to be held and threatening a general strike.  Similar protests were held in several other Croatian towns. ”I hope more people will join us to send a clear message to the corrupt government that it is time to leave,” Zdenka Bosnic, a 62-year-old pensioner, told AFP.

Zeljko, a 34-year-old translator who did not want to give his last name, said he only wanted “the government to quit”.  Elections are due later this year or in early 2012. Kosor has pledged to hold them by the end of this year but says calling polls now would jeopardise Croatia’s bid to join the European Union, with talks in the final stages.

Croatia won independence from communist Yugoslavia in a 1991-1995 war that, with fraudulent privatisations in the 1990s, deeply hurt its economy. It was later hit hard by the global downturn, with unemployment now at an eight-year high of around 20 percent.  Revelations of corruption reaching the top levels in politics, including Kosor’s predeces

Croatian wanted on war crimes charges found in Kentucky

A woman wanted in Bosnia on torture charges stemming from the war following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia faces extradition after being arrested in Kentucky.

U.S. Marshals arrested 52-year-old Azra Basic (BOSH), who lives in Stanton, earlier this week.

The Croatian-born Basic is wanted in Bosnia on charges of committing war crimes against ethnic Serb civilians in 1992. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Arehart wrote in a complaint requesting extradition that Basic is wanted in Europe on charges of murder and torture.

Arehart says Basic is accused of killing at least one person and torturing others at three camps from April to June 1992.

Basic's attorney, Patrick Nash of Lexington, was not immediately available for comment Thursday morning.

Protesters in Zagreb Burn the EU Flag on Wednesday, Unrest Continues

The EU and SDP flags burning

Protesters in the Croatian capitol of Zagreb (some 5.000 people reported) burned the flags of the two most prominent political parties in Croatia, HDZ and SDP (for international readers, imagine that American protesters burn the flags of the republican and the democratic party). Following those burnings the protesters also ripped apart and burned the flag of the European Union.

The protesters also camped outside the building where the PM, Jadranka Kosor is housed chanting "no sleep tonight".

There was no reported violence. New protests are announced for the weekend in most major Croatian cities.

A video of protestors burning the HDZ flag:

New Protests Planned for Wednesday - Unrest in Croatia Continues

Protest in Croatia are becoming a daily routine as the 5th protest in the last 10 days is about to take place tomorrow (Wednesday, 3/2/2011) at 18:00. The protests are said to be peaceful and currently Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Osijek have all announced them. More cities are expected to have their minor protests. The protesters are asking for a new election because the elected prime minister Sanader is currently facing trial in Austria, while the acting PM Jadranka Kosor was not elected, but rather appointed by the accused PM.

The accused PM Ivo Sanader (left) and the acting PM Jadranka Kosor (right) appointed by him

Mesic to lead Croatian businessmen to Libya despite unrest

Former Croatian president Stjepan Mesic has said he will not give up his plan to take Croatian businessmen to Libya even as protests continue to engulf the country.

"The current situation in Libya does not change my plans to take a trip there together with some Croatian businessmen. Interests are interests, and contracts are contracts. It does not mean that agreements mustn’t be made there, because someone is protesting" Mesic said.

Mesic has good relations with Libya’s head Muammar el-Qaddafi and has tried to facilitate business agreements between this North African country and Croatian businessmen. He remains confident that Qaddafi is not behind the violence against the protesters that has claimed, according to NGOs, more than 200 lives.

"It is hard for me to link Qaddafi to an order to shoot the protesters. As far as I know him, he freed those that courts sentenced for opposing him. Libya must find strength to investigate this big drama and determine who had ordered the killing of the protesters," Mesic said.

Protests swept Libya days after those in Egypt and Tunis led to the deposition of those countries’ dictators. (http://www.emg.rs/en/news/region/148057.html)

Croatia soon to lead Afghanistan operations?

Croatia – 288 Troops are involved in three locations, as of December 2010, Croatia has 320 troops in Afghanistan, but additional platoon is on its way to bolster this number, bringing total troop numbers to 350 by the end of 2010/11. Croatian parliament voted on extra troop numbers on 7 December with all party supporting troop increase, although parliament did recognise that additional increases in troop numbers might be possible during 2011 and 2012 to help train local army and police units.

According to the Croatian Times, Croatia will host three international NATO military and Partnership for Peace programme exercises, the Croatian government has decided in a closed meeting.

Croatian soldiers will also participate in five exercises abroad, the daily newspaper Vjesnik writes.

In the same meeting, the government has also decided to send 314 Croatian soldiers on a seven-month International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) mission to Afghanistan.

It seems the number was not only increased, but doubled.

Hungary reaffirms Croatia is priority for EU presidency mandate

The Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Janos Martony has said that his country's goal is to finish Croatia's membership negotiations by the end of the European Union presidency mandate if all requirements are fulfilled by that time.
With those words Martony concluded the General Affairs Council's (GAC) discussion about Hungarian priorities as it presides of over the EU for the next sixth months.
Few other delegates mentioned Croatia in their speeches, backing Martony's expectations that the country could finish negotiations by summer, the daily Vecernji List writes.

source: hic

Will Croatian shipyards live?

The European Commission (EC) is expected to decide in the next 15 days whether to allow Croatian shipyards to take on new orders, the daily Vjesnik writes.

Solving the question of Croatia's ailing shipyards is a key condition for completing the European Union requirements on market competition. The European Union (EU) does not permit the state to support the shipyards as it had done in the past as this could lead to a more advantageous position on the market for some state subsidized firms. The Union has banned the companies from taking new orders.

Croatia offered up the shipyards for privatization last May and bidders have sent their reconstruction plans to Brussels for review. The EC is evaluating the proposals.

Just yesterday (Mon) it emerged that Samobor-based screws factory DIV could become the new owner of the Split's Brodosplit shipyard, the daily Vecernji List writes.

Some 4,000 of Brodosplit’s workers may soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief after months of uncertainty over their employer’s fate since the company was offered up for privatization last May.

Source: Croatian Times

Janaf published on Tuesday a tender for building new oil storage facilities

Croatian oil pipeline operator Janaf (JANF.ZA:) published on Tuesday a tender for building new oil storage facilities with an estimated value at about 1 billion kuna ($185.8 million).

"Building will be going on in several stages, while preparatory works will begin in mid-February. The actual building of the first three tanks will begin in May," Janaf said in a statement.

The storage tanks, with an overall capacity of 240,000 cubic metres, will be built on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, where Janaf already owns several such facilities.

The deadline for submitting bids is March 16, and Janaf plans to complete the whole project in 2015.

Janaf is some 82 percent-owned by the state and state-owned energy firms and agencies. The rest is owned by Croatian oil group INA (INA.ZA:), whose biggest shareholder is Hungary's MOL (MOLB.BU:), and several investment funds.

Janaf operates a pipeline that connects the northern Adriatic with central Croatia and on to Hungary and Serbia and owns storage facilities used by Croatia and neighbouring countries.

Janaf's installed transport capacity is 20 million tonnes annually.

Currently Janaf can store a bit over 1 million cubic metres of oil and derivatives, but its goal is to increase the capacity to 1.62 million cubic metres in the next few years.

Its shares were quoted at 3,301 kuna in afternoon trade on Tuesday, down 0.97 percent from Monday's close.

Source Reuters - Balkans.com.

Croatia signs MOU with EU to break down e-barriers

The Republic of Croatia has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the EU to join the ISA Programme. ISA, which stands for "Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations", takes a practical approach in supporting easier communication between administrations across Europe.

Participation of the candidate countries in Union programmes is an important element of the Pre-Accession Strategy. By joining the ISA programme, Croatia will become familiar with EU policies in the field of interoperability, one of the key elements identified in the flagship initiative Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE).

The ISA programme facilitates cross-border and cross-sector interaction between European public administrations, enabling the delivery of electronic public services and ensuring the availability of common solutions. It is one of the instruments used to carry out the DAE and its priorities are based on the recently adopted European Interoperability Strategy and the European Interoperability Framework.

The ISA Programme was preceded by the IDABC Programme, in which Croatia successfully participated from 2007 onwards. The key challenge for ISA with regard to Croatia and indeed all candidate countries is to support the implementation of the ‘acquis communautaire’ in the candidate countries, to integrate them in the internal market and to provide pan-European e-government services to citizens and enterprises across borders.

The ISA programme is managed by the Commission in close cooperation with the EU Member States, EEA and candidate countries, represented on the programme's management committee.

Background

The Commission’s work in the area of electronic cooperation and communication between Member States began with the simple electronic exchange of information between European public administrations under the IDA programme. Continuing these activities, the IDABC programme then shifted the approach towards a stronger consideration of end-user needs and a stronger focus on developing common solutions for all public administrations.

The participation of the Republic of Croatia in all Union programmes was established in the Framework Agreement of 22 November 2004.

Source : European Commission Press Release 1/2/2011.

Footage reveals Croatian soldiers in Afghanistan in armed combat

Croatian soldiers in Afghanistan have taken part in armed combat and not only as army trainers, footage published on Croatian daily 24 Sata shows.

The footage shows Croatian soldiers fighting Taliban insurgents in some parts of Afghanistan. A vehicle with Croatian flags can be seen in the midst of a fight and one can hear voices of men speaking in Croatian.

A different feature shows a member of the Croatian Army who returned from Afghanistan confirming the authenticity of the shots. "It is not that harmless over there…I would like the people to know where they are going and what to expect," the soldier - whose identity was not revealed - said.

In the north and near Kabul where the majority of Croatian soldiers are, the situation is getting worse, says another soldier also under the protection of anonymity.



"The stay in Afghanistan is quite dangerous - especially the guys in mentoring teams who follow the Afghani military find themselves in dangerous situations, that could be deadly," the soldier said adding that he is not sure why this information is kept from the Croatian public.

Such dangerous situations are not the norm, but soldiers can easily find themselves facing one, he adds. If Croatian soldiers train some units of the Afghani military, they are not only with them in the base but they also follow them outside into the field, the daily Jutarnji List writes.

Diaper bombs

This story takes place in the town of Slavonski Brod. Yesterday a young father of four was casually changing the diapers of his 9 month old son, and unsuspectingly threw the dirty diaper on the bathroom floor after he finished. No one could imagine what would happen next.
The diaper was laying close to a pile of dirty clothes. High temperature, moisture and feces that filled the diaper chemically reacted, creating methane, a highly flammable gas. In a few minutes a thick smoke filled the house, flames licking the walls and causing numerous explosions of installations and household appliances.

Photo by: Ivica Galovic, vecernji.hr

The father managed to get all of his children safely out of the house, and no one was injured. The house was newly furnished, and the family has relatively low income (The father works as a baker.), so this will be a hard blow to them. Nevertheless they were all happy to come out of it alive.

Croatian police (this would be strange anywhere else)

On Monday evening, the police was called to intervene in a bar. A young man (boy?) was drunk, breaking bottles on the wall and causing unrest among other people in the bar. After their intervention they let the boy sit down in his Mercedes (Obviously Mercedes is a popular car in Croatia) and drive away.

Half an hour later the boy drove his car into a light pole at high speed. He broke his legs, his skull was cracked, and he fell out of the vehicle (No seat belton, but you will see this is a good thing.). The last I heard he was in a hospital and fighting for his life, remember this happened on Monday evening, there are some rumours that he died but I have seen no confirmation.

The car was split in half, the trunk and the last seats stuck to the pole and the front part of the car 50m further away (The good part about not fastening a seat belt.)

Photo by: dnevnik.hr

The police asked to comment said this: 'He walked out from the bar, so it's not our fault.' It's a well known fact that the police in Croatia is corrupt, and drinking on the job is nothing strange so what really happened will be hard to find out. The only thing we can be sure of is that the police will hold no responsibility. Ever.

Beggers... Croatian style

A man in a wheelchair was begging on Monday morning, wheeling himself between cars stopping for the red light on a crossing in Zagreb. After a while the man drove his wheelchair to a nearby parking lot, got out of his wheelchair, folded it and put it into the trunk of his Mercedes. After that he simply sat into his Mercedes (with Krapina license plates) and drove away in an unknown direction. The only error he made was that he got caught, a man who suspected the beggar faking for some time took pictures.
Picture slide show here

The fine in Croatia for begging and false impersonating is 300 kuna (60$) or 30 days in jail.