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Books on Croatia
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
56,542
Population
4,496,869
Capital
Zagreb
Currency
Kuna
President
Stipe Mesic
Private sector
% of GDP
55%
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Update No: 105- (30/01/06)
Gotovina got
A great breakthrough has occurred for the Croatians. The Croatian general, Ante
Gotovina, responsible for the worst war crimes in the terrible times of 1991-95,
with the break-up of Yugoslavia, has been apprehended in the Canary Islands and
sent to The Hague, where he will be in the same plight as Milosevic.
This was the prime requirement of the West for admitting Croatia to its inner
counsels. It will now probably be made an EU member forthwith, probably next
year. But there are still problems to clear.
Balkan war crimes raid roils Croatia again
The issue of war crimes committed as Yugoslavia fell apart during the Balkan
wars of the 1990s continues to roil Croatian society.
The latest episode involves an apparent attempt by the authorities to prevent
the circulation of a video of Croatian President Stjepan Mesic's confidential
testimony to the special international court. On January 9th, the Zagreb branch
of the Croatian Disabled War Veterans Association slammed a raid on its offices
by police looking for the video, urging that those involved should be identified
and punished.
According to the association, police raided their offices with a warrant to
prevent journalist Domagoj Margetic from showing the video. The association's
Zagreb branch head, Ivan Pandza, told HINA news agency that he did not know who
summoned the police and that neither Interior Minister Dragan Jocic nor the
chief of police answered his inquiries. Margetic and Pandza were arrested and
subsequently released.
An estimated 300,000 died in the 1991-2001 Balkan conflict as millions were
forced from their homes in the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.
The killings and forcible displacement -- dubbed "ethnic cleansing" --
were the first conflicts since 1945 to have been formally judged genocide,
leading to the creation in 1993 in The Hague of the International Tribunal for
the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International
Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991,
or ICTY.
Croatia's most important trading partner is now the European Union, which it
hopes to join. As the government pursues its membership application it has
attempted to quash potentially embarrassing political fallout in the media, such
as the public showing of the videotape of the Mesic testimony.
But at this time of year everybody is aware of the cold. Energy supplies are
all-important.
In Astana, capital of Kazakstan, where President Nazarbayev was being
re-inaugurated, Victor Yushchenko, president of Ukraine, met with Croatian
President Stjepan Mesic on January 10th. They agreed to construct a
transportation route via the Balkan countries, the President's press service
said.
The President also said Ukraine was going to hold talks with Croatia to jointly
adapt to EU standards. Since Ukraine transits Russian gas for Croatia,
Yushchenko said he was satisfied with successful Ukrainian-Russian gas talks on
January 5th.
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BANKING
World Bank urges Croatia to maintain reform momentum
The World Bank plans to extend the second 150 million Euro Programmatic
Adjustment Loan (PAL) to Croatia by the middle of the year if the country moves
fast enough in structural, institutional and cross-sectoring reforms, World Bank
Country Director for Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania, Anand Seth, said in an
interview with SeeNews (Bulgaria).
Seth said the primary concerns about Croatia remained the high levels of its
fiscal deficit and foreign debt. He said that fiscal consolidation could be
achieved by implementing structural reforms, such as decreasing the subsidies to
large loss-making state-owned enterprises. Seth further said that in its path to
the next phase of the reforms, the Adriatic country would have to focus on
social and healthcare expenditures, which both tend to be much higher in Croatia
than in other benchmark countries and which put a heavy burden on the private
sector.
As part of its analytical and advisory services, the World Bank is currently
preparing its public finance review and plans to evaluate Croatia's performance
in March in order to decide whether to change its lending program to "high
case" from "base case" one.
Seth said that besides policy changes, which the Bank supported through its PAL
programs, the country needed investments in some major sectors, such as science,
education and technology in order to promote itself as a knowledge economy. That
is why the Bank would continue the support in its ongoing science and
technology, education and welfare projects, worth some US$165 million, which it
started last year. Currently, there are four more projects in an advanced stage
of preparation, worth 84.5 million Euro, thus overall commitments for active
projects total US$437 million. Under its four-year Country Assistance Strategy,
approved in December 2004, the World Bank plans to double its assistance to
Croatia to US$1.5 billion. Since 1993 the global lender has supported 29
projects in Croatia, worth US$1.67 billion and has provided over 40 grants,
worth US$40.7 million.
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ENERGY
11.3% drop in gas supplies from Russia
The gas delivery from Russia dropped to 11.3 per cent due to cold snap there New
Europe reported.
Russia, which makes 40 per cent of Croatian supplies fell 6.5 per cent. Croatia
gets the remaining gas from its own resources. The state-run INA-Naftaplin
insisted, however, that the reduction hasn't caused any effect to gas users
because of relatively high temperatures there.
Government floats 15% of Oil Co. INA
The Croatian government plans to float a 15 per cent stake in oil company INA on
the Zagreb Stock Exchange, stated Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, New Europe
reported.
Sanader didn't reveal anything with regards to the privatisation plans of the
country's national oil company INA stating, however, that they await the
financial adviser to give recommendations on the steps to be followed. The float
isn't expected to prevent Hungarian oil-and-gas company MOL, which already has a
25 per cent stake in INA, from increasing its share in INA. MOL has expressed
interest in increasing its stake in INA. Sanader said Croatia would discuss
MOL's plans with the company's executives.
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