CROATIA1 97

In an ultra-nationalist act, Biserka Legradic´, a Croat, urinated on the Serb anti-Fascist monument at Veljun in May. © Globus

IHF FOCUS: Elections; freedom of expression and the media; freedom of association and public assembly; judicial system; misconduct by law enforcement officials; conditions in prisons; secret services; religious intolerance; return of refugees and displaced persons; international humanitarian law; protection of minorities; social rights; women’s rights.

According to the Croatian Helsinki fair. Fearing that the 3 January 2000 parlia- Committee, the overall human rights situa- mentary elections would be organised in a tion following the early 2000 elections similar atmosphere, 140 NGOs initiated a could be defined as “less bad” than it was major campaign under the name “Glas 99,” before the elections. Still ’s record with the Croatian Helsinki Committee as was not good: it did not comply with its in- one of the founders. The motto of “Glas 99” ternational commitments and the stan- was to “Get out and vote!” dards of democratic countries. However, The turnout rate of the elections was some of the most severe human rights vi- more than 78 percent. Some sociologists olations ceased with the end of the previ- estimated that the “Glas 99” campaign in- ous Croatian Democratic Community duced up to 4 percent of the total voting (HDZ) Government. Reforms started to population and 15-20 percent of the youth take place and Croatia took important steps to exercise their right to vote. A coalition of towards becoming a European democracy. six democratic parties won the elections. Their margin of victory came close to two- Elections thirds of the parliamentary seats, thus al- Due to the bias of numerous influential lowing the new Government to pass con- media that were controlled by the former stitutional changes, which moved Croatia ruling party, HDZ, as well as due to irregu- from a semi-presidential system into a par- larities in the electoral process itself, the liamentary system. previous Croatian elections held in 1995 Following the parliamentary elections, and 1997 could not be considered free and a similar NGO coalition “Glas 2000” with 98 CROATIA the same aim was formed for the presi- between and at the local lev- dential elections. It urged the candidates to el started appearing. define more clearly their positions on what Yet state television continued to send powers and authorities they would use if numerous programmes on the activities of they were elected President. By forcing the state authorities and the ruling party politi- candidates to take clear positions on this is- cians. The transformation of the Croatian sue, “Glas 2000” contributed to the estab- television from a one-party institution to a lishment of a more parliament-oriented po- public institution has taken much too long. litical system in Croatia. This change en- It took the new authorities six months to tered into force with the constitutional initiate public discussion and to draft a new changes, which were passed by the proposal for the new law on Croatian tele- Parliament on 10 November. vision. The Croatian Helsinki Committee ex- pressed several basic complaints regarding Freedom of Expression and Media the draft proposal of the law. Among other Independent observers agreed that things, it demanded a more precise defini- one of the most important plus points of tion of the role and influence of civil socie- the January elections was the new demo- ty on the editorial policy of the most influ- 2 cratic atmosphere and its impact on the ential media in Croatia. media. They marked the end of a 10-year In April the Croatian Helsinki Commi- autocratic government by the HDZ and its ttee urged that new authorities urgently re- President Franjo Tudjman. During that peri- vise and change all laws used by the for- od, freedom of expression was systemati- mer regime to restrict freedom of expres- cally restricted, and critical journalists were sion and the media, especially provisions of subject to various forms of pressure. The the Penal Code stipulating “verbal offence.” new daily Republika revealed that the close However, the Government failed to abolish circle of President Tudjman held a monop- many such provisions, including those en- oly on almost 80 percent of the media abling hate speech. In addition, the law on market in Croatia, causing a media war be- telecommunications, which had served as tween the two most influential media out- an efficient instrument to give media con- lets. Although the police investigation was cessions to the followers of the HDZ au- still underway as this is being written, this thority was not even discussed. scandal showed clearly three main prob- The Ministry of Internal Affairs rejected lems existing in the Croatian media: secret the requests by Feral Tribune and Nacional and non-transparent media ownership, journalists to open the files compiled by the connections between media, politicians Service for the Protection of the Constitutional and different fractions of the secret servic- Order (SZUP) in recent years for inspection. es, and the manipulation of information. These files were used for political manipula- After some initial hesitation, the first tions by HDZ officials. Sˇime Lucˇin, the new move of the new Government was to dis- Minister of Internal Affairs, rejected the re- miss the rigid HDZ leadership of Croatian quest despite the fact that he had promised state TV (HRT) and to select new execu- to open the SZUP files to all citizens. tives according to their professional merit, Toward the end of 2000, the leaders of not party membership. Following the ap- the six-party ruling coalition became in- pointment of the new leadership, hate creasingly dissatisfied with the media’s in- speech and usual attacks on critics of the tervention in the political scene. Zlatko party in power, the Serb minority and Tomcˇicˇ, President of the Parliament of the NGOs ceased on television. Moreover, tele- Republic of Croatia, said that some media vision programmes with positive messages “want to be beyond the Government and on reconciliation and mutual co-operation to rule the entire political scene” and criti- CROATIA 99 cised them for not being a “very good com- initiated investigation into the sale of news- panion to the new authorities,” for offering papers during the previous Government. irrelevant information and for carrying out The first case was the purchase of 3 investigative journalism. Vecernji list, one of the most influential dai- In late 2000, the Croatian Helsinki ly newspapers in Croatia, by an unknown Committee reported other negative phe- holding company from the Virgin Islands in nomena regarding the media. Although the 1998. However, all the witnesses sum- illegal phone-tapping of journalists was fi- moned to a hearing denied any responsibil- nally stopped, the relationship between ity and connection with the obviously illegal journalists and Secret Services continued. It purchase. According to some newspaper ar- appeared that the Secret Services leaked ticles, leaked tape recordings between for- not necessarily truthful material to certain mer President Tudjman and his closest ad- media outlets in order to defame some visor, Ivic Pasalic, revealed that Pasalic had politicians - which were then spread as facts organised the Vecernji list take-over. - and brought financial profit to the outlets. In order to protect the citizens’ right to The six-year-old case regarding the pri- receive accurate, truthful, objective and vatisation of the most successful daily complete information, the Croatian Helsinki Slobodna Dalmacija also came into focus. Committee initiated a project whose goal is The company was given to HDZ tycoon establishing the office of a Media Ombuds- Miroslav Kutle through illegal activities of man. His /her responsibility would be to the former Government. The Agency for protect citizens from media manipulation Reconstruction and Development, headed as well as journalists against the media by former Prime Minister, Zlatko Matesa owners’ arbitrary decisions. then diverted Slobodna Dalmacija funds for his own use and ultimately brought the Annulment of Restrictive Legal Provisions journal to bankruptcy. Kutle was eventually In April, the Government annulled no- arrested for carrying out illegal business torious Article 18 of the Law on Internal transactions and other criminal activities. Affairs under which the Ministry of the Besides being charged with destroying Interior had the power to decide which in- Slobodna Dalmacija, Kutle will have to an- dividuals would be phone-tapped by the swer charges pressed against him regard- SZUP. Under this provision numerous op- ing illicit business activities pertaining to the position politicians, journalists and other distribution and publishing house Tisak, public figures and private persons had which he also destroyed. Tisak served as a been monitored because they allegedly powerful instrument in the hands of the posed a “danger to the national security.” HDZ. The Government manipulated Tisak On 10 May the Constitutional Court to destroy independent and critically orient- annulled the legal provision that protected ed media trough not giving the profits from the honour and reputation of five highest sales to them. In March 2000 the new state officials: the Presidents of the Government initiated the so-called bank- Republic, Parliament, the Government and ruptcy procedure in Tisak in order to reha- the Supreme and Constitutional Courts. bilitate it financially. Under that provision many independent journalists and publishers had been charged for critical reporting. Dropping Charges against Journalists Charges against journalists were dropped Revision of the Privatisation of Media and their complaints declared admissible. A parliamentary investigative commis- Charges against Davor Butkovic, editor- sion, established by the new Government, in-chief of the independent weekly Globus, 100 CROATIA for allegedly slandering the HDZ were Journalists continued to fall victim to dropped. In his article of May 1996, harassment and maltreatment by unknown Butkovic wrote that the HDZ leadership had perpetrators.4 composed a black list of state enemies and mentioned a few names on the list. Before Freedom of Association and Public the charges were dropped, Butkovic’s Assembly statement was confirmed by Prime Minister According to the Croatian Helsinki Ivica Racan. In the second trial against Committee, the freedom of public expres- Butkovic and his colleague Vlado Vurusic, sion improved significantly after the January criminal proceedings were discontinued elections. In the more open climate the po- because the Ministry of Defence dropped lice were more tolerant towards partici- the charges. pants in demonstrations. However, a few violent incidents were reported during a The Court (as appeals public demonstration of workers of court) rejected the complaint filed by the Zagrepcˇanka in front of the building of the State Prosecutor’s Office against the satiri- Government and some organisers of the cal independent weekly Feral Tribune for demonstrations were still being summoned allegedly slandering former President for interrogation at a police station, but in a Franjo Tudjman. The article was entitled more civilized manner than during the pre- “Bones in the Mixer.” In it, Feral Tribune se- vious years. verely criticised former President Tudjman’s The main problems were the formula- idea of creating a common grave for all the tion of the law on public gathering which persons killed during the Second World prescribed that organisers of a demonstra- War – both victims and perpetrators. The tion had to inform the police about an complaint was considered untenable be- event five days prior to it, and the decision cause Tudjman had died. of the city council of Zagreb that gatherings The Supreme Court of the Republic of were forbidden at the three main public Croatia declared admissible the complaint squares. These provisions allowed the po- by journalists and editors-in-chief of the in- lice to forbid such assemblies of some dependent weekly Nacional about illegal groups “because of formal reasons.” surveillance and phone-tapping of its edito- A new law on associations was being rial staff in 1998. Earlier, two courts had re- drafted in order to enable free gathering of individuals and to decrease the influence of fused to consider the complaint. The the state bodies on the establishing and the Supreme Court ordered the county court to activities of associations. The Ministry of continue proceedings against representa- Justice consulted various NGO experts on le- tives of the Ministry of Interior for illegal gal issues and together with them participat- phone-tapping. ed in several public debates. The Croatian The number of so-called media court Helsinki Committee, in co-operation with trials also decreased: while in 1999 there other NGOs drafted a number of proposals were about one thousand such cases, by for the improvement of the draft law. The the end of November 2000 there had NGOs primarily demand that the State (in been a 5-percent reduction of law cases accordance with European standards) facili- against publishers for compensation for tate the freedom of gathering and activities causing “emotional distress”. Still, the without any restrictions. They also stated that Municipal Court of Zagreb had dealt with registration of the associations should be 143 cases of “verbal offences” against jour- necessary only for the organizations that nalists and editors-in-chief, a “crime” that wish to gain the status of a legal entity but it still existed in the Penal Code. should not be made obligatory. CROATIA 101

Judicial System Misconduct by Law Enforcement The Croatian courts were generally in- Officials efficient, with cases proceeding at a very The Croatian Helsinki Committee slow pace. The right to a fair trial in reason- recorded several serious violations of the able time was frequently violated. The police procedure despite the fact that the longest court proceedings involved labour police apparently made serious efforts to issues. transform themselves into a correct and Since the autumn of 2000, the post of civilised service. It also seemed that the state public prosecutor was vacant, creating number of cases of misconduct decreased additional problems. Also the question of towards the end of the year. the existence of the State Judicial Council The reported misconduct involved mi- remained unresolved. On the positive side, norities, individuals living in war stricken re- some constitutional changes were adopted gions, and, to a significant extent, the Roma which strengthened the independence of population. Also, in Vukovar, the police loo- the courts and increased the power of ked inactively as the returnees took the law courts. into their own hands and forcibly evicted Due to the increase of organised crime, people form their apartments in plain view drug dealing and corruption, the Government of the police. set up the Office for Combating Organised Crime, which should be defined by a law. Conditions in Prisons The Croatian Helsinki Committee was Numerous prisoners contacted the working on two projects regarding the in- Croatian Helsinki Committee and com- dependence of the Croatian judiciary and plained about illegal and abusive behaviour monitoring court procedures with the goal by fellow prisoners or, in some cases, the of assessing the legality of the court proce- prison employees. The Committee estab- dures and the independence of the judici- lished that prisoners’ rights had indeed ary. It also monitored the first criminal pro- been violated: most cases involved physical cedure against a “criminal organization” in and sexual abuse. The fact that aggressive Croatia with 14 defendants accused of prisoners were not isolated from the rest of making profit from selling drugs, money the inmates increased the problem: the laundering and even killing people. The “survival of the fittest” prevailed. Most of families of some defendants had asked the the victims were inmates who in one way Committee to professionally and impartial- or another were different from the rest of ly look into the process taking into account the prison population (e.g. ethnicity) or ex- that there were some complaints regarding pressed differing opinions. the legality of the earlier measures and Prisons often also lacked adequate prison treatment of the defendants. The medical care, good nourishment and satis- County Court of Zagreb decided that be- factory hygiene conditions. cause of security and economic reasons the court proceedings be held in the sport In September, Croatian Helsinki Com- hall of the district prison, a fact which be- mittee activists visited the district prison in ˇ came a major issue. For the first time in the Sibenik after five inmates had brutally tor- Croatian legal history, the institution of the tured a new prisoner. unknown “protected witnesses” and a “re- According to prison guards, in bigger pentant” were involved in the case. How- penal institutions there were cases of or- ever, their role had not been defined in de- ganised corruption inspired by the high au- tail by the Criminal Procedure Code. thorities. Sporadic suicides evidenced the Particularly problematic was the question of potentially traumatic atmosphere in these the protection of witnesses. institutions. 102 CROATIA

Secret Services punishment of xenophobic incidents and Immediately following the two elec- the promotion of inter-religious tolerance. tions, the new Minister of Internal Affairs, A new law on religious communities Sˇime Lucˇin, revealed that to his knowledge was under preparation. The Croatian Helsinki secret services had opened files on 95,000 Committee criticised that the draft law dis- cases during the past decade against indi- tinguished religious communities as “tradi- viduals and groups in Croatia. The fact that tional Christian” and “other religious com- there were nine secret service organiza- munities” and thus violated the constitution- tions in Croatia showed the strength of the ally guaranteed equality of all religious com- repressive apparatus of the Tudjman munities before the law (Article 41 of the regime. Constitution). Moreover, the draft law did not In March the weekly Nacional5 pub- explain why it used the criteria of one hun- lished a series of articles on the activities of dred years of existence of a certain religious the Military Secret Service SIS and other se- community in order to recognise its status as cret services aimed against the Croatian “traditional,” and not the 50-year criteria of- Helsinki Committee, “Glas 99” and other ten used in the legal regulations on many NGO’s and international organizations work- other rights. According to the Committee, ing in Croatia. These activities carried the such a formulation would cause divisions code name “Cameleon” and were officially and pave the way to a policy of discrimina- carried out in 1998. However, the SIS con- tion in the field of, for example, law, policy, fi- tinued the operation and increased its nance and education, and would not help at depth just before the January elections and, all in re-shaping Croatia into a contemporary among other things, infiltrated into “Glas and democratic State. The Committee stated 99” central offices to find information on its that the law should recognise, register and funding by American organizations or finan- guarantee the already existing rights and the cial irregularities of any sort. Finally, after acquired legal personality, which various reli- public concerns raised about the SIS’s oper- gions possessed. Moreover, due to the so- ation, the state prosecutor initiated in May called division into “adopted” and “recog- an inquiry into the death of Darko Jurisˇic´, nised” religious denominations dating back the program co-ordinator of “Glas 99,” who to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slo- died in a traffic accident on 14 December venians, many religious communities had 1999. The findings of the inquiry were still not been able to register at all although they pending at this writing. However, the early could do that in the Federal People’s Repub- results have clearly shown an incredible de- lic of Yugoslavia after 1945. The Committee gree of infiltration of the secret services in asked that the criteria of historic origin be en- the work of NGO’s and civic initiatives as tirely dismissed as archaic, undemocratic, well as unacceptable encroachments on the unjust and discriminatory. In its opinion, such basic rights of many citizens of Croatia. a criteria was unconstitutional. Furthermore, the secret services had still not undergone a full reform, which would limit Return of Refugees and Displaced their activities to those allowed by law and Persons improve the quality of internal controls of Returnees the secret services. Problems regarding the return of refugees and displaced persons remained Religious Intolerance one of the main human rights concerns. In According to the Croatian Helsinki spite of the fact that the central authorities Committee, the main reason for religious often emphasised their readiness to sup- intolerance could be attributed to inappro- port the programme of return of refugees priate legal regulations. They hindered the to pre-war homes, post-war ethnic animos- CROATIA 103 ity was still wide-spread at the local level, ceeded at a very slow pace. The Croatian and the economic problems and unem- Helsinki Committee regional centre in ployment added to the difficult situation for Vukovar reported that only those Croats the refugees. and Serbs returned who did not have any Since the change of the party in pow- other place to go. At the same time, the er, the entire atmosphere regarding the re- process of Serbs leaving the Danube region turn of the refugees changed to a more continued. positive one. However, returnees still faced The greatest obstacle to the return of serious problems in getting back their right- both Croats and Serbs was lack of employ- ful property. The main obstacle was the ob- ment because the economy of the region struction by the housing commissions to was devastated. The housing commission the whole process and the failure of the lo- did not implement the governmental cal authorities to implement positive deci- “Return Programme” but was even in- sions. volved in cases of forcible evictions. It ad- The situation was very serious in Plasˇki, vised those who could not find accommo- where the housing commission had not re- dation to move into “someone’s empty solved positively one single case of the re- flat” – which led to the prosecutor filing a turn of property although, as of March, 173 complaint and issuing large fines. cases of persons had submitted a request. Additional inter-ethnic tensions in the Danube Region were further inflamed by the published lists of neighbours who had Knin allegedly been accused of war crimes. In According to official data, 15,000 eld- this way thousands of persons were ac- erly Croatian citizens of Serb ethnicity re- cused in an illegal manner, instead of let- turned to the wider area of Knin to their ting the state prosecutors exercise their devastated houses or were accommodated duty. in their relatives’ houses. The Croatian Helsinki Committee believed that the figure Protection of Refugees and Immigrants was exaggerated. According to the In the treatment of refugees – particu- Committee, the most current problem in larly on the local level - ethnicity still played this area was the numerous unresolved re- an important role: no refugees were cared quests for the return of property to their for properly, but non-Croat refugees were rightful owners: only ten percent of proper- particularly discriminated against. Proce- ty had been returned. The Knin housing dures before the administrative bodies, so- commission stated that it had resolved al- cial assistance, medical protection and tem- most 60 percent of the requests, but that porary accommodation were less available figure referred only to cases where the for non-Croats. They did not obtain materi- owner had to pay the temporary user in or- al help in reconstruction and renovation of der to move back into his/her house. their homes and it was almost impossible Returnees with pre-war tenancy rights for Muslim and Serb refugees to find a job. were in the worst possible situation be- Therefore, they often left the country and cause their cases had not been resolved at all in Knin. The issue concerned mostly ur- sought employment abroad. ban Serbs who were forced to wait for their One hundred Croatian citizens of Serb cases to be solved in the Federal Republic ethnicity in the town of (Karlovac- of Yugoslavia. County) sent a petition to the Croatian Helsinki Committee and sought Vukovar help regarding the return to their houses The return of Serbs to the Croatian and apartments. They were embittered and Danube region and the city of Vukovar pro- disillusioned because they had not re- 104 CROATIA ceived their property back after awaiting for ble for most of the crimes, particularly men several years. The Serb houses that were under the command of Serb war criminal, given to Croat settlers for temporary use af- Zˇeljko Razˇnjatovic´ (Arkan), committed cru- ter the military operation “Storm” in many el murders of Croat civilians who lived in cases were not used at all or were given to Dvor. Members of the V Corps slaughtered Croat returnees from Bosnia and Herzego- ten civilians. In Donji , in the Duga vina. Not a single request by Serbs from Resa municipality, members of the Croatian Gvozd regarding return or renovation of army slaughtered several civilians of Serb their houses was resolved. The greatest ob- ethnicity, who remained in their houses. stacle to the return of Serb property was Some villages were burnt down, for exam- the head of the municipality, Mirko Putric´, ple Paukovac in the territory of Dvor. who demanded that the Serbs first have to The former Government ignored the apologize to Croats before they would deal Helsinki Committee’s reports about the with Serbs. above incidents. The new Government re- opened discussions on this issue and some procedures referring to the former International Humanitarian Law Sector North were reinitiated. In July the Croatian Helsinki Commit- tee published the report Military Operation Protection of Minorities Storm and its Aftermath, Part 2, the Former The January elections brought relief to Sector North. The report was based on the members of minority groups: the atmos- data collected for several years during field phere among the public and in the media investigations in the territory of the former 6 grew more tolerant towards them. The au- UN Sector North. The territory included thorities in all their public appearances em- the former municipalities of Duga Resa, phasised the equal rights of all Croatian cit- Dvor, Glina, Hrvatska Kostajnica, Karlovac, izens regardless of their ethnicity and the Ogulin, , Sisak, Slunj, Vrginmost respect of their rights. The Parliament (Gvozd) and . The Helsinki amended the Law on the Use of Language Committee activists visited 160 villages in and the Letters of Ethnic Minorities and the the area and interviewed about 300 wit- Law on Education and Upbringing. Chan- nesses of the events during and after the ges of the Constitutional Law on Human military operation “Storm” on 4-7 August Rights and Freedoms and the Rights of 1995. The Committee established the Ethnic and National Communities were deaths of 267 but it believed that in total adopted on condition that the authorities in more than three hundred had died. Among the period of six months create a special the 267 civilians who were killed or disap- model of autonomy acceptable for the peared in the above-mentioned region, 76 most numerous ethnic minorities in had died in refugee camps while 191 were Croatia. The November amendments to killed in or disappeared from their houses. the Constitution introduced positive dis- In the region of Glina and Dvor, a great crimination against the minorities regarding number of refugees got killed in cross fire their voting rights: the minority members between the two enemies. Individuals from shall be given one more ballot to vote for the Croatian army units, which were situat- both a candidate in general voting lists and ed in that region, killed numerous people another on the lists of the ethnic minorities. in villages in the Karlovac, Duga Resa, However, at the local level, the ani- Gvozd, Vojnic´, Petrinja and Slunj municipal- mosity towards the Serb and Muslim mi- ities. However, the V Corps of the army of nority members was still common. Roma – , and Serb paramil- numbering about 60,000 - faced most in- itary formations were most likely responsi- tolerance and the state authorities tended CROATIA 105 to turn a blind to such cases. Almost 90 journalists said on 9 November in a “satiri- percent of the Roma youth were unem- cal” talk show during his commentary on ployed and forced to support themselves the raising of the level of the river Sava: by performing humiliating work such as “The water wave will flood the Roma set- gathering rubbish, begging, prostitution and tlements down the river.” When asked working on the black market. Only 10 per- where these Roma settlements were, he cent of Roma children attended obligatory replied: “near Jasenovac,” referring to the elementary schools and a minimal number largest Ustasha concentration camp during of Roma attend high schools and universi- WW II where, among other people, thou- ties. In some schools they were subjected sands of Roma were killed. to segregation. On 5 November, the daily Slobodna The school principle of the settlement Dalmacija depicted on its front page a pic- of Strmec near Varazˇdin decided that Roma ture of a parliamentary assembly with a ti- pupils were put into a special department tle: “Among 45 SDP members only four are and had to attend special courses. Catholics.” In the article itself all the SDP In a suburb of Zagreb a restaurant had members of the Parliament and the a sign on its walls saying: ”We do not serve Government were listed according to their drinks to Roma people!” religious conviction. The article ended with the words suggesting that Croatian society A number of physical attacks and as- was threatened by de-Christianisation. saults – particularly by skinheads - against Roma were reported. Social Rights Hate Speech In 2000, the majority of cases the The victory of the democratic opposi- Croatian Helsinki Committee dealt with tion in the January elections did not bring were related to social rights, particularly the the expected more responsible behaviour right to employment, severance pay and regarding minorities on the part of the me- pension, failure to register workers as well dia and various individuals and institutions. as harassment at work and prohibitions on The already notorious promoters of hate joining trade unions. The situation was ag- speech, such as well-known MP Ante gravated by the great number of bankrupt- Djapic´, continued with their threats in pub- cies. The unemployment rate increased by lic speeches directed against Serb minority the end of December to 22.4 percent. members. On Independence Day, Djapic´ Sixty employees of the Zagreb Service publicly told the Serbs of Vukovar: Centre (ZUC) had been illegally employed “…The former authorities may have and worked without working contracts, reg- given you before, or these authorities may istration at social security and pension au- give you hundreds of laws on pardon, hun- thorities. The ZUC employers also commit- dreds of laws on reconstruction, but when ted a whole series of other violations and we come to power, we will show you!”7 criminal acts which were investigated by In May, during a commemoration of a the State Inspectorate, the financial police massacre committed by Ustashas on Serb and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The sit- civilians during WW II in the village of uation of the employees only worsened af- Veljun, near Slunj, Biserka Legradic´ urinated ter the whole process: the executive board on the tombstones of the victims of put serious pressure on those who dared Ustashas. cite irregularities. In the morning programme of an inde- Another large group who sought help pendent radio station in Zagreb, one of the at the Croatian Helsinki Committee were 106 CROATIA refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina According to a research, 49 percent of men who had become Croatian citizens while and 35 percent of women agreed that “a they obtained their rights to pension in woman’s place was primarily at home.”9 Bosnia. Their pensions were paid by the According to the same research mothers Croatian Pension Fund until an inter-state spent 90 percent of their free time doing agreement was signed between Croatia something for the family, and only 2 per- and Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding so- cent for themselves. Economic depend- cial and pension insurance. After that, they ence influenced decision-making within the had not received any payments.8 family. Some 86 percent of Croatian women Women’s Rights were very or quite interested in politics, a figure which surpassed the interest of the The Croatian legislation did not contain average man in Europe. However, wo- any provisions to define or punish discrim- men’s interest in politics extended well be- ination against women although Croatia rat- yond their real political participation: in the ified the Convention on the Elimination of House of Representatives, only 21 of the All Forms of Discrimination Against Women representatives were women. From the (CEDAW) in 1992. In principle, it was legal- members of Government, there were 13 ly possible to file a complaint of gender- percent women.10 based discrimination against anyone, but it The Criminal Code did not specify vio- was very difficult to enforce it in practice. lence within the family and the law stipulat- Women’s unemployment was one of ed it as a criminal act of violence in general. the most serious concerns, especially of A criminal procedure could be initiated women aged between 40 and 50. Single through a private complaint, or as a distur- mothers were in a particularly bad situation. bance of public order and peace. In prac- Nearly 32 percent of women had looked tice, the majority of women did not seek for a job for over two years, the vast major- police protection out of fear or because ity of them being over 45. In addition, em- they could not afford the costs of legal pro- ployers were reluctant to hire women be- ceedings. Violent behaviour was punishable cause of their right to maternity leave. by a maximum of 30 days imprisonment.

Endnotes 1 Based on the Annual report 2000 of the Croatian Helsinki Committee. 2 For details, see the Croatian Helsinki Committee demands regarding a Draft Law on HTV, June 14,2000 3 Novi list, 20 May 2000. 4 The Croatian Helsinki Committee Statement No. 124 on physical attack on journalist Goran Flauder, 28 September 2000. 5 16, 23 and 30 March 2000. 6 It represented a follow-up of the previous report (former Sector South), which was pub- lished in April 1999. 7 The Croatian Helsinki Committee Statement No. 119, 1 June, 2000. 8 The Croatian Helsinki Committee Statement No. 113, 19 January, 2000. 9 Inga Tomic´-Koludrovic´ and Suzana Kunac, Risks of modernization; Women in Croatia in ‘90’s, March 2000. 10 Women’s Informing Office, (Zˇenska infoteka) “Risks of Modernization: Women and Elections 1999,” 1999.