Replies

What mistrust are you referring to? What is wrong with nationalism? Should the Croatian clergy go liberal and propose support for female clergy, homosexuals, etc?

Only 10,000 Croats have been allowed to return to RS, the pressure that Croatia has received regarding Serbian refugees has been on a scale several times larger than that which the RS has received. Croats want to return to their homes in Derventa, Bosanski Brod, Bosanski Samac and in Stolac, but their homes were 100% destroyed in 1992 by the Serbs through dynamiting.

As for the overall position of Croats in BiH, Puljic is referring to the fact that the Serbs have their own entity, and that Croats are stuck under Muslim domination in an unequal Federation forced upon us by the international community.

Dio, of course not! (on the "going liberal")

What's wrong with nationalism? A lot. What's wrong with patriotism? Nothing.

I thought the Catholic Church in Croatia should have stood up against some of the most egregious human rights abuses of minority Serbs, Roma and Muslims rather than encouraging "unforgiveness". Perhaps they should have preached some tolerance for law-abiding minorities instead of talking about them as if they were vermin, as the Djakovo priest did. Also, why didn't I ever see any of those nice clean nuns who rode trams around in Zagreb... why didn't I ever see them in Sector North helping the remaining elderly and handicapped starving Serbs... or the equally starving and terrified Croat refugees from Drvar who were resettled in burning villages? I sure could have used their help!

I concur with your point about being stuck in an unequal Federation, and I don't blame them for being resentful. And I think everyone who wants to return to their homes, wherever, should be allowed. I'm sorry to hear about Bos. Brod. I thought that town was clear for return. The Americans were there. What happened?

Oh, one last comment. The Cardinal called for dialogue about the problem, because the the "only alternative is war". And he is right. So long as the Croats feel isolated and discriminated against in BiH, there is a festering sore which could erupt in war. No one likes to be the marginalised minority, especially in that part of the world! And the Federation has put the Croats in just such a position. It is truly in the interests of longterm peace to assist the Croat population in BiH, as well as the Muslim and Serb populations. I truly hope that all will be allowed to return. What's happened with Drvar? I felt so sorry for the Croat refugees from there. What a h*ll they went through!

A Bosnian Croat living in Amsterdam, says the Croat government is purposely not putting any money into Croat returns to the RS, but is putting much money into Mostar and other areas where Croats dominate. Further she is bitter because Tudjman with the silent blessing of the Catholic Church specifically targeted the Croats in the RS to move across the border in 1990 and 1991 as part of its 'One Nation - One Country'. Apparently Croats called those who wished to stay traitors.

Don't feign ignorance on this policy or what happened Diocletian you are too involved in the area not to know about this. This wasn't ethnic cleansing by the Serbs but purposeful cleansing - to shore up other areas by the Croats and started even before the war in Croatia 1990!

(Bolding mine):

http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503&L=justwatch-l&D=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=33610
Is this cardinal amnesia that cardinal Puljic suffers from - a contagious thing? Has it been forgotten that this exodus of the Bosnian Croats began even before the war did in Bosnia-Herzegovina? All those 'apartment & houses swapping', silent ethnic rearrangement operations with the blessing of Tudjman and the Catholic Church? When cardinal Puljic is crunching his exodus numbers today, is he including all those Bosnian Croats who left Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1990 and 1991, especially from what is today known as Republika Srpska, lured by the mighty 'One Nation - One Country' call from across the border? Anybody using 'ancestral homes' expressions back then was, in fact, considered anti-Croat, and 'constituent nation' expression was used almost exclusively to justify the creation of Herceg-Bosna and its aspirations to join greater Croatia. So when cardinal Puljic is using these expressions today to cry over the plight of the Bosnian Croats, without taking out the splinter from his eye first, it is in the most hypocritical manner. Today's plight of the Bosnian Croats does indeed have a lot to do with the policies of the Croatian government next door, past and present, as it is very easy to compare some other numbers, the numbers of zeros in sums of money Croatian government invests in Croatian communities, those in Herzegovina and those outside it. Mr. Barisic, please, take a look at those numbers, and see if you can find any related to a Croatian program of return or reconstruction in Republika Srpska:
http://www.vlada.hr/Download/2003/07/30/057-10_b.pdf. These official documents of the Croatian government can be found at this address, under a link that clearly reads 'financial support for Croatian minorities':
http://www.vlada.hr/Default.asp?ru=265&sid=&jezik=1. This year, Croatian programs and institutions in Mostar alone will receive Croatian government's support of close to a hundred million kunas,
http://www.fena.ba/rubrika.html?fena_id=FMO74253&rubrika=BH, a huge part of it going to the Mostar (Croatian) University, whereas I don't see any numbers dedicated to, for example, grants and stipends to Croatian students in Banja Luka or Sarajevo, something that would encourage them to study or plan a future closer to their ancestral homes.
With respect,
Maja Lovrenovic, Bosnian Croat now living in Amsterdam