POLITICS-CROATIA: Census Results Reveal The Loss of A Multi-Ethnic Identity

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

ZAGREB, Jun 25 2002 (IPS) - The results of the national 2001 census in Croatia show that almost 90 percent of the population are Croats and that the country has lost its multi-ethnic identity.

“Ethnic cleansing was successful in Croatia. When the number of a once relatively large minority – the Serbs – drops three fold in a decade what other expression can explain the situation?” asks Zarko Puhovski, head of the Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO).

According to the 1991 pre-war census the Croatian population was made up of 77 percent Croatians and 12 percent Serbians while the rest belonged to the categories of “Yugoslavs” which were people from mixed marriages and Italian, Hungarian and Muslim minorities. Serbs, the largest ethnic group in Croatia after Croats in 1991, now make only 4,5 percent of Croatia’s 4,4 million population. Their number dropped from 600,000 in 1991 to 201,631 in March 2001.

It was under the nationalist president Franjo Tudjman that Croatia pushed for independence from the former six-member Yugoslav federation in 1991. The push turned into a bloody war as Belgrade, the capital of neighbouring Serbia and former Yugoslavia, opposed Croatia’s move.

Apart from the involvement of the former Yugoslav army in the war operations against Croatia’s independence, the local Serb minority took up arms under the strong influence of Belgrade strongman of the time, Slobodan Milosevic.

Croatian Serbs proclaimed autonomy in the Krajina region, where they historically made up 90 percent of population, and cut Croatia into half. The Croatian army crushed the rebellion in August 1995, when more than 200,000 Croatian Serbs left the country in only one week, moving into Serbia proper. Relevant local and international statistics say that 20,000 Serb houses were torched and up to 1,200 Serb civilians killed in the aftermath of the operation code named “Storm”.

However, being a Serb was not easy in other regions in Croatia also during the 1991 to 1995 period. The urban Serb population reportedly suffered harassment and threats at the hands of the Croat nationalists while many left for Serbia proper.

For former Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, who died in 1999, and for his nationalist government, the Serb question was solved “in the best manner”, according to recently released documents from 1995.

Broader reactions to the statistics released last week ranged from indifference to the stand of one nationalist legislator that “it was the best news for years”.

Incumbent Croatian Prime Minister, Ivica Racan, said the results of census and the exodus of Serbs in 1995 was as “a consequence of (Milosevic’s) aggression”, provoked “by those who caused the cataclysm of war”.

The only critical reaction came from human rights organisations and the remaining organisations of Croat Serbs. Milorad Pupovac, leader of the Serb National Council in Croatia, said all sides should acknowledge new realities – that even though there were fewer Serbs in Croatia now they still deserved fair treatment.

“We want the Serb minority to be re-integrated into Croatian society and the nation. Unfortunately, that is still impossible,” Pupovac told IPS. “We have to accept the reality that there will be fewer Serbs in Croatia than before, but on a basis of reconciliation” he added.

Pupovac said Croatia was the only former Yugoslav country without a proper minority law despite the fact that the government promised to pass one in May 2000. But the state says it will definitely pass the law this year.

Reformers, who ousted hard-line nationalists from power in 2000, have vowed to improve Croatia’s often criticised minority record but progress has been slow. Analysts say the country needs a good minority and human rights record to be integrated into the European institutions.

They say one reason why Croatian Serb leaders worry about the percentage of population is because a 2001 local election law contains a five per cent threshold for minority representation on local council administrations. The threshold was criticised by the Council of Europe’s advisory Venice Commission as too high.

Serb leaders fear that if this limit is applied at a national level, the community will have the same status as the 19,000 strong Italian minority, the strongest after Serbs. Their representation at government level is fairly nominal.