Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In 2013, Croatia joined the European Union—a benchmark of the progress the nation has
made since Tu
đ
man. But the road to EU membership has been a rocky one, and several
thorny issues face contemporary Croatians.
The legacy of the 1991-1995 war has yet to fully resolve itself in Croatia. The then-pop-
ularpresident,FranjoTu
đ
man,isnowviewedwithregretandsuspicionbyasignificantseg-
ment of Croatian society (see sidebar). Others feel shame about reports that have emerged
aboutCroatiansoldiers'ethnic-cleansing activities duringthewar.SeveralCroatianofficers
were indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands. The highest-profile of these—Lieutenant
GeneralAnteGotovina—wasdiscoveredhidinginSpainin2005,arrested,extradited,tried,
convicted...and then acquitted on appeal in 2012. Yet to this day, many Croatians feel that
the soldiers branded as “war criminals” by The Hague are instead heroes of their war of in-
dependence.
Croatia's relations with its neighbors—many of whom were involved in the wars of the
1990s—are also sometimes problematic. While Croatia and Slovenia had a shared goal dur-
ingthosewars(namely,separatingfromYugoslavia),manyCroatiansresentSlovenia'slack
of military support. Decades later, tensions still persist. Slovenia briefly blocked Croatia's
EU membership bid in an effort to resolve a longstanding border dispute (described on
here
). On recent trips to this region, when I show people the cover of this topic, people
in both countries express displeasure about being grouped together. Ironically, even many
Croatians who were vehemently opposed to EU membership were outraged that Slovenia
tried to prevent it.
Anothervexingissueintoday'sCroatiaisgovernmentcorruption—perhapsbestembod-
ied by the country's previous prime minister, Ivo Sanader, who abruptly resigned in 2009,
and soon after was arrested and convicted to a 10-year sentence.
Croatians—andespeciallyexpatslivinghere—reportthatthecountryisexcessivelybur-
eaucratic, and can be a tough place to do business. Laws tend to be implemented, then
quickly overturned. In the last few years, a ban on shops being open on Sundays, a smoking
ban, and a zero blood-alcohol limit for drivers have all come and gone.
In2012,two-thirdsofCroatiansvotedinfavorofEUmembership.Butwhenitwentinto
effect on July 1, 2013, some were caught off guard by the stringent new lifestyle that came
with it. As if eager to prove they were upstanding citizens, Croatian government officials
ratcheted up enforcement of often-ignored laws and regulations. Undercover tax inspectors
were deployed throughout the country, ensuring that businesses small and large were prop-
erly issuing receipts and reporting their earnings. A strange paranoia swept over small-busi-
ness owners during the summer of 2013, as rumors spread like wildfire about shops and
restaurants being shut down for days at a time because of just a few kunas' discrepancy in
