According to ezinereligion, in 2007, Croatia had an estimated population of over 4 million people, composed of multiple ethnic groups including Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks. The official language was Croatian but several other languages were also spoken. The economy was largely based on exports of manufactured goods, foodstuffs and chemicals. In terms of foreign relations, Croatia had close ties with its neighbors Slovenia and Hungary and maintained diplomatic relations with several other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. Politically, Croatia was a parliamentary republic led by President Stjepan Mesic since 2000 until his term ended in 2010. Following his term Ivo Josipovic became President in 2010 and is still in power today.
Yearbook 2007
Croatia. According to CountryAAH, Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. The opposition leader and former Prime Minister Ivica Rac̆an passed away in April. He resigned from the post of leader of the Social Democrats a few weeks before he died, when cancer of the brain was detected. Rac̆an was prime minister in 2000–03 and was considered by many to have led the country out of international isolation after the 1990s war. During his reign, democratization was carried out and K. embarked on the road to EU membership.
Independent MP Branimir Glavas was arrested in April after a Croatian court indicted him and six others for ordering murders of Croatian civilians in the city of Osijek in 1991.
- According to abbreviationfinder: HR is the 2-letter acronym for the country of Croatia.
In June, Croatian-Serb ex-separatist leader Milan Martiç was sentenced to 35 years in prison by the UN Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Martiç was convicted of a number of crimes committed in connection with attempts to ethnically cleanse the Republic of Krajina in the early 1990s.
Later that month, Serbia’s President Boris Tadiç apologized to all Croatian victims of the war between K. and the then Yugoslavia in 1991–95. Tadiç was the first Serbian leader to apologize for Serbia’s role in the war, which is estimated to have claimed 20,000 lives.
In September, the UN tribunal also sentenced two Serbs to a massacre in the city of Vukovar in 1991. The two former Yugoslav army officers were sentenced to 20 and 5 years in prison respectively. A third defendant, Miroslav Radic, was released when the Hague Court did not consider it proven that he knew of the massacre of close to 200 people who were removed from a hospital. The acquittal caused great anger in Croatia, and in November Radic was again prosecuted, now by the Osijek court. An arrest warrant was issued for Radic, who returned to Serbia after the release in The Hague.
In November, parliamentary elections were held. The Conservative government party HDZ lost some mandates while the Social Democratic SDP went ahead. However, HDZ remained the biggest. Both parties initiated talks with potential coalition partners.
Croatia weather in March, April and May
Average daily temperatures between 11 ° C and 22 ° C can be expected over the next three months. It gets warmest in May in Split, while March is noticeably cooler in Zagreb. Temperatures in Zagreb are between 11 and 21 ° C and in Split between 13 and 22 ° C.
Do you want to go on a beach holiday? The water temperatures are in March, April and May 12-17 ° C.
In March, at about 8 days to be expected precipitation in April at about 8 days and in May at 6 (split) to 10 days (Zagreb).
In the period from March to May the sun shines on average between 4 and 9 hours a day. The sunniest weather is in May in Split, but with less sun you will have to make do with Zagreb in March.
Civil War
On June 25, 1991, both Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent states. Based on the Serbian population of Krajina, the Serbs then began extensive attacks with the assistance of the Yugoslav army. The Yugoslav and Serbian authorities were less interested in accepting Croatia’s detachment than Slovenia, because of the Serbian population in Croatia.
The civil war began in July, and in August several Serbian territories were declared independent, including Western Slavonia. The following month, the UN adopted a trade blockade that included weapons and other military equipment against the rest of Yugoslavia. By November, the Yugoslav army, with the support of Serbian paramilitaries, had occupied about a third of Croatia. Croatia’s army was initially inferior, but eventually the Croatians organized effective resistance. Both sides blamed each other for atrocities. In the fall of 1991, the city of Vukovar in Slavonia was bombed for three months, and Serbian paramilitaries moved in and killed on foot. Thousands of people were killed during the fighting in Croatia in 1991-1992, and a quarter of a million were displaced.
Peace Negotiations
The UN was drawn into the conflict towards the end of 1991, after the EC failed in ceasefire negotiations. In January 1992, a peace plan was adopted on the deployment of a UNPROFOR peacekeeping force in the Serbian-controlled areas of Krajina and Slavonia. The UN deployed 14,000 men; the plan was to demilitarize the Serbian territories and to ensure that the Yugoslav army withdrew. In anticipation of a political solution in Croatia, the UN should also monitor the Croatian-Serbian forces in Krajina.
Despite the peace plan, small clashes between the parties continued. The UN only partially achieved the goal of demilitarizing the Serbian territories, and in June Croatia launched an offensive in the territories. The UN adopted a resolution on the withdrawal of the Croatian forces, and the relationship between Croatia and the UN was thus strained.
At the beginning of September 1992, the Yugoslav Prime Minister stated that Yugoslavia was willing to recognize Croatia with the borders from before the outbreak of the civil war. The condition was that the Serbian areas should be guaranteed a special status. At the end of the month, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and the Yugoslav President agreed to work towards a normalization of relations between the countries.
The situation became very tense when the Croatian army attacked Krajina in January 1993. The Croatian Serbs broke into the UN weapons stockpile and took back the equipment they had supplied. Yugoslavia threatened to invade unless UN forces intervened. In mid-January 1994, the Croatian government suggested that Croatia might consider invading Bosnia-Herzegovina, to support Bosnian Croats. But in late February, President Tudjman accepted a US proposal to divide Bosnia-Herzegovina, which opened the way for the so-called Herceg-Bosna area to be incorporated in Croatia in the long run.
In mid-March 1994, Croatia – after major international pressure – approved a revised peace plan. The plan was for the UNPROFOR forces to be replaced by a new force known as UNCRO (UN Confidence Restoration Operation). Among other things, the force was deployed at the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia, effectively preventing weapons supplies to the Serbian-controlled areas in Croatia.
Lightning war and recapture
In May 1995, Croatia recaptured the UN-protected area of West Slavonia. The Serbs responded by bombing Zagreb. The international community then intensified its efforts to bring peace to Croatia. In early August of that year, the Croats captured the rest of the Serbian-controlled Krajina through a lightning war. Serbian houses were burned down and over 150,000 Serbs fled. The Croatian offensive continued into Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the exception of Eastern Slavonia, Croatia had now regained control of the territories corresponding to the situation in the declaration of independence in 1991. The reconquest led to the escape of hundreds of thousands of Serbs; About 600,000 settled in eastern Slavonia, which was still a UN zone under Serbian control.
In October 1995, new clashes between Croatian and Serbian forces in eastern Slavonia occurred. President Tudjman and HDZ had opted for the area to be incorporated in Croatia. Croatian authorities and Serbian local leaders have now started peace talks in the city of Erdut, where US Ambassador and UN Peace Broker Thorvald Stoltenberg also participated. An agreement was reached that the UN should establish a temporary government in eastern Slavonia, demilitarize the area, establish a police force with the participation of both Serbs and Croats, and in addition, secure refugees return. In November, the parties also agreed that Eastern Slavonia should be reintegrated into Croatia. After Croatia gained full sovereignty over eastern Slavonia in 1998, tens of thousands of Serbs have left the area.
The UN established a transitional regime in East Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmium (UNTAES) in mid-January 1996. Troops were also deployed to replace UNCRO and an Obsacre Observer Force on Prevlaka (UNMOP) to oversee the demilitarization of the peninsula south of Dubrovnik. The observers left the peninsula in 2002. In the spring of 1996, regional political institutions were established in eastern Slavonia, and one year later regional elections were held. The United Nations closed down the transitional regime in January 1998.