Last year, when The Hague charged national hero General Janko Bobetko with war crimes during the war of independence, the coalition government of Prime Minister Racan nearly collapsed. Croat nationalism resurfaced in a popular wave of support for Bobetko and the Croatian armed forces. The government tried to avoid a showdown with both the country’s right wing and The Hague, without denying the charges. The eighty-four-year-old general had the good grace to die before anyone had to deal with the main substance of the indictment against him: a hundred Serb civilians murdered in the course of a few days by the soldiers under his command.
The EU recently presented Croatia with a list of 2,500 niggling little questions, including queries about its human-rights record, its media restrictions, and, not insignificantly, what it plans to do about the Serbian refugees who want to return home or at least recover some of their property. The Hague wants to know when Croatia plans to turn over another general, the notorious Ante Gotovina, charged with masterminding an ethnic-cleansing sweep of Serbs in the final months of the war. These are the issues holding up Croatia’s entry into the lucrative EU club, a distinction seventy-five percent of Croatians want.
To its credit, Croatia has turned over other Hague indictees and has vowed support for the war-crimes tribunal. And Croatia has a better record for allowing refugees to return than Bosnia, for example. But such progress is threatened in the pending election.
Following the water-polo fracas, the Sabor drafted legislation governing behaviour at sports matches that includes provisions designed to keep fans in line and strict punishments for those who misbehave. That attempt to mute the extremists, however, might backfire: Right-wing agitators are again active in the country’s sports arenas where fans have declared they plan to defy the new law.
Croatian intellectuals have called on their fellow citizens to recognize that they have a history of nationalist intolerance and to confront their misdeeds in the war. But it’s doubtful the Croat public will respond sympathetically. The coffee is good. The beaches are full. And perhaps sports hooliganism and nationalistic chest-thumping would give them just that much more in common with the rest of Europe.
