Croatia Travel Blog

Croatia became a candidate for EU membership in June 2004, it has seen more than its fair share of ups and downs on the issue of European integration. But in March 2005 its latest down proved very low, with Croatia being bluntly told that it would not be able to enter the EU without dramatic improvements in its handling of the war crimes issue.

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Croatia was once desperate to join the EU mainly to show they weren’t like the savage Balkans but belonged to civilized Europe. It’s amazing how the tide has turned in 10 years. Gotovina is part of it, of course and I confess I don’t see him on the same level as Mladic or Karadzic. As bad as the Krajina operation was, it wasn’t Srebenica by a long shot. When the Krajina Serbs had the region, they made short work of the remaining Croats and were encouraged to do so by the unrelenting propaganda from Belgrade. Their secession was also actively encouraged by Belgrade which was behind them 1000% until. . .they weren’t. They left the Krajina Serbs to fend for themselves knowing that Croatia was never going to permit the secession of that piece of territory. When Gotovina swept in as part of Operation Storm (with American backing, I might add), it was with recruits that were only too aware of the atrocities perpetrated against the mostly elderly Croatian residents who had stayed in the region. That doesn’t in any way justify or excuse their own atrocities but to put Gotovina on the same level as the Bosnian Serbs is simply absurd. Britain and the EU are and always have been determined to see that conflict as “ethnic hatreds” rather than the Serbian land grab it initially was (until Tudjman lined up with the Hercegovina Croats to carve up Bosnia). The war was mainly (although not exclusively) one of Serbian aggression. Recasting it as a conflict where everyone was equally responsible is a means of excusing Europe’s disgraceful passivity in the face of ethnic cleansing. Get over it, Del Ponte.

Posted under Life in Croatia |