Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
After the war, Tito's Communist Party won the Yugoslav election, but Tito was not
in lockstep with Stalin and declared Yugoslav non-alignment in 1948, which allowed
him to function as a cafeteria Communist.
The country endured a Soviet blockade in the 1950s under Tito, but Tito's local
site-management policy allowed tourism to flourish along the Adriatic coast. He also
gave each of Yugoslavia's six republics— Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia/Herzego-
vina, Macedonia, and Montenegro —control over its own internal affairs.
Tito died on May 4, 1980, at the age of 88, leaving the Yugoslav state without a
strong successor. To complicate matters, the region's economy was deteriorating in
the wake of the 1970s oil crisis, a huge national debt, and the disappearance of for-
eign credit sources. Yugoslavia began to crack along national, religious, and ethnic
lines.
In 1987, Slobodan Milo s evi 5 emerged as a proponent of Serb superiority while
working toward installing a Communist government in Yugoslavia. Two years after
Milo s evi 5 's debut as a champion of Serbs, the Berlin Wall came down, leaving him
holding an unpopular position while the rest of Europe raced off in the opposite ide-
ological direction.
In May 1989 the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), led by former general and
historian Franjo Tu d iman, became one of the first non-Communist organizations in
Croatia, and in less than a year it began campaigning for Croatia's secession from
Yugoslavia. By April, free elections were held in Croatia and Tu d man was sworn in as
president the next month. He promptly declared Croatian statehood, a preliminary
stage before independence, and a constitution was written that declared the Serbs in
Croatia a national minority rather than a unique nation within the republic, a move
that fomented outrage in the Serb community.
In 1991, Milo s evi 5 began gathering support for a Greater Serbia, which was to
include all the areas of Croatia and Bosnia/Herzegovina where Serbs were in residence.
Hostilities broke out in 1991 with Milo s evi 5 and Serb forces from all over Yugoslavia
pouring into Croatia. During the violence, cities such as Dubrovnik, Vukovar, and
Osijek suffered heavy damage; thousands of Croatians were forced to leave their
homes; thousands more were killed. Hostilities raged until peace was restored in 1995,
but it was 3 more years before the last Serb military units left Croatia.
In April 2001, Slobodan Milo s evi 5 was arrested and charged with corruption in
connection with the war. In November of that year the UN War Crimes Tribunal
charged him with genocide stemming from his alleged activity during the 1992-95
Bosnian campaign. Milo s evi 5 died in 2006 while in UN custody at The Hague before
his trial could be concluded.
CROATIAN PEOPLE & CULTURE
After centuries of occupation by foreign powers, the 4.5 million citizens of Croatia are
embracing their hard-won independence in a big way and reasserting their national-
ism. Croatians living on the Venetian-influenced Dalmatian coast and the central
European interior are now reveling in their heritage by reviving customs, traditions,
and even national dishes that were put aside during the foreign domination. Many of
these traditions revolve around religious holidays and saints' feast days and the village
church is once again a center of community for Croatians, 90% of whom are Roman
Catholic, 4% Serbian Orthodox, and 1% Muslim.
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