Croatia: International Recognition 30 Years On – The Grim Road Nobody Saw

After the newly inaugurated Parliament of the Republic of Croatia passed the Constitutional Decision on the Sovereignty and Independence of the Republic of Croatia on June 25, 1991, and the Decision on the Termination of State-Legal Relations with communist Yugoslavia on October 8, 1991, Croatia became an international recognised state on January 15, 1992. As at that date some 30 countries had officially recognised its independence. On January 16^th, 1992, Australia had recognised Croatia’s independence thus becoming one of the first non-European countries to do this and by May 1992 some 77 countries had followed suit.  International recognition came in wartime conditions after Croatian military and police forces successfully defended much of the state’s territory from Greater Serbia aggression and suffered ethnic cleansing of Croats from one third of Croatia’s territory, mass murder, genocide, rapes, horrific tortures of Croats, with many villages and towns suffering devastation and destruction.

For 30 years, Croatia has established itself internationally, becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the European Union and numerous international organisations, and has made a significant contribution to building world peace by participating in peacekeeping operations. 

On 15 January 2022, we also mark the 24th anniversary of the successful completion of the process of peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region into the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia.

It must also be noted that for 30 years Croatia has failed miserably at completing its transition from communism into democracy. The central values of the Homeland War that brought its independence have not been upheld to any noticeable degree. It must be noted that Croatian authorities have consistently been pushing Croatian independence activists out of the picture starting with forced retirement of some 18 Army Generals in 2000 and ignoring, or rather, purposefully omitting to give due respect and recognition to all who have contributed in the creation of the independent Republic of Croatia and its diplomatic relations and missions across the world. Croatia’s diplomatic and consular missions have consistently ignored to invite to their stately celebrations and functions in the diaspora the majority of the individuals who sacrificed so very much for Croatia, even the many holding Croatia’s Medals of Honour for taking significant part in the creation of the independence are consistently shunned and ignored and “new” faces brought to functions and celebrations who were never seen at crucial activities for independence but kept a safe distance from it all. This is not to say that “new” faces are not welcome, but it becomes deeply disturbing to a Croatian patriot when the people who sacrificed much even in the establishment of Diplomatic-Consular Missions are not respected as a group and given the respect they deserve. The “fashion” it seems for the last 22 years is that one or two such persons are chosen symbolically and invited to stately functions and rest ignored because they may have criticised the government for inefficiency in the transition from communism! I recently asked a very prominent person in the creation of Croatia’s independence and help for the war effort to defend Croatia if he were invited to a recent function the Croatian Embassy had organised and his response was: “No Ina, I have not towed the Party line, their line, for quite some time so I am not welcome there …”.     

Former communists or their offspring have persistently held power since year 2000. ensuring lustration does not proceed, hence, ensuring corruption and nepotism rooted in communist Yugoslavia thrive – still to this day!

To demonstrate the above persistence in keeping the communist mindset thriving in Croatia I found the best evidence in retired General Zeljko Glasnovic’s Fabebook posting the day before the 30^th anniversary of the international recognition of Croatian independence in which he quoted the stark and awful reminder by Don Vinko Puljic about the terrifying facts of the Croatian communist-laced powers in control of the country. The quote goes like this:

“Tomorrow, the Croatian state will celebrate the 30th birthday of its international recognition.

Many will remember many great moments and achievements on this occasion, so I decided to make a modest contribution to saving from oblivion at least some of the works (of corruption and grand theft) that have marked and defined modern Croatian society over these three decades:

Prime Minister: Prison. ✔

Deputy Prime Minister: Prison. ✔

Head of the Prime Minister’s Office: Prison. ✔

Minister of Economy: Prison. ✔

Minister of Agriculture: Community work sentence. ✔

Minister of the Interior: Prison. ✔

Minister of Defence: Prison. ✔

Minister of EU Funds: Prison. ✔

Minister of Culture: Prison. ✔

Minister of Construction: Prison. ✔

Minister of Administration: Awaiting criminal trial. ✔

Secretary of State: Prison. ✔

SOA (Security and Intelligence Agency) Director: Prison. ✔

VSOA (Military Security and Intelligence Agency) Director: Prison. ✔

VSOA Deputy Director: Prison. ✔

Permanent Representative to the UN: Prison. ✔

Mayor of the capital city: Prison. ✔

Mayor, miscellaneous: Prison. ✔

Mayor, miscellaneous: Prison. ✔

Prefect, miscellaneous: Prison. ✔

Deputy Mayor, miscellaneous: Prison. ✔

Member of Parliament, various: Prison. ✔

Party president, miscellaneous: Prison. ✔

Executive President of Dinamo: On the run from prison. ✔

President of Hajduk: Prison. ✔

President of Rijeka: Prison. ✔

President of Osijek: Prison. ✔

President of the largest company in the country: Prison. ✔

Dean of the Faculty of Law: Prison. ✔

Director of City Cemeteries: Prison. ✔

President of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce: Prison. ✔

Director of Croatian Roads: Prison. ✔

Director of Croatian Motorways: Prison. ✔

President of the Board of the Croatian Railways: Prison. ✔

President of the Board of Croatian Forests: Awaiting criminal trial. ✔

Director of Hrvatske vode (Croatian Water): Community labour sentence. ✔

Croatian TV HRT director: Prison. ✔

Director of JANAF (Adriatic Oil Pipeline): Prison. ✔

Director of the Croatian Lottery: Prison. ✔

Director of HEP (Croatian Electricity): Prison. ✔

Director of INA (Croatian Naphtha Industry) : Prison. ✔

Member of the Supervisory Board, various: Prison. ✔

Congratulations to all the others who are not mentioned, and who have also in these 30 years in a similarly selfless and generous way built and shaped the land we have dreamed of for centuries and will leave to our children.”

To compound the problems Croatia has created for itself via its inept governments through these past three decades, heavily laced with communist mindset and corruption, the Late 2021 Census now reveals that Croatia has lost just under 10% of its population within 10 years which loss is mainly reflected in the mass exodus of young or working-aged people to other countries in search of employment and better living standards. True, there have been quite a number of Croats returning to live in Croatia from the diaspora but still about 400,000 have vanished and Croatia’s population now officially stands at 3.88 million.

One may hope that the coming decade will see a move in the right direction designed to eradicate corruption and theft to attract more people back into Croatia. For a multitude of Croatian patriots including those who actively participated in the creation of its independence the past 30 years could easily be described as horrible and gut-wrenching. Perhaps that is the price of abandoning communism and paying in blood for that? In any case this anniversary is the best thing that happens in the lives of Croatians who helped deliver independence! Congratulations and thank you to all involved! Ina Vukic