Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, March 9 (CP) – The coastal town of Sibenik Inside nightclub was attacked by unknown assailants throwing explosive devices in the early hours of Sunday.

Croatian Radio Television (HRT) is reporting that this is the second attack on the club over the past year.

Police have said no one was injured in the blast and damage to property was minor, but they were searching for the culprit who faces charges of endangering lives and property through dangerous conduct.
 

Zagreb, March 9 (CP) – A ship owned by Osijek’s Koteks construction company has sunk on the Drava River with some 50 litres of fuel on board.

The tourist ship that was moored near the eastern Croatian town of Osijek on the Drava River had been empty with no crew or passengers on it.

Immediately after the report of the ship sinking made by a local fisherman, emergency service crews arrived at the scene placing an eco barrier not allowing the spread of the oil slick that formed.

The relevant services are to assess the reason for the ship sinking.

An emergency crew in charge of clean up of the river waters from hazardous chemicals is to arrive from Ivanic Grad.

The sunken ship was used for ferrying tourists from the Drava River to the Danube and was purchased some 10 years ago and turned into a luxury passenger ship.

If there is any environment damage, the owner of the vessels will have to foot the bill.

Zagreb, March 9 (CP) – The former Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic may become Croatia’s Ambassador to United States, according to unofficial report by state-run Croatian Radio Television (HRT).

The unofficial report states that Grabar Kitarovic has been accepted by the US government and Kitarovic could head to the US by the end of March.

So far there have been no official confirmations of this.

Grabar Kitarovic had been Croatia’s Foreign Minister between 2005 and 2008 and was recently succeeded by Gordan Jandrokovic.

Zagreb, March 8 (CP) – The deputy president of the Croatian Serb SDSS party, Milorad Pupovac has warned that the SDSS may leave the coalition government if Croatia recognizes Kosovo too soon.

Pupovac did say, however, that there was no danger of this happening at this point.

He reiterated the views of the Independent Serbian Democratic Party (SDSS) that the time was not right for recognizing Kosovo, as premature recognition may have an impact on inter-ethnic relations in Croatia, on the relations between Croatia and Serbia and stability in the region.

Earlier, the deputy PM and also an SDSS party member Slobodan Uzelac warned that it was not time yet for Croatia to recognize Kosovo.

So far Kosovo has been recognized by 27 world countries, 16 of them European Union members.

Zagreb, March 8 (CP) – The repeated expert tests on the car in which Macedonian pop star Tose Proeski had died in a car crash in Croatia on October 16, 2007 has shown damage that could have resulted from the car being tempered with.

So far all the blame had been put on Georgi Georgijevski, Proeski’s friend and driver of the car that fateful morning, when the vehicle travelling from Skopje in Macedonia to the Croatian capital Zagreb veered off the road and hit the protection barrier leaving Proeski dead.

The latest findings of Croatian experts have resulted in the Macedonian Interior Ministry immediately demanding the car be shipped to Skopje, where the wreck will be further analysed by German VW experts.

Croatia has been blamed on several occasions by the Macedonian media of concealing evidence and for killing Proeski, so that many believe this latest announcement will further fuel speculations about the start’s assassination and conspiracy theories.

Tose Proeski, a child singing star turned much loved pop musician in the area of former Yugoslavia has published seven albums, some of them published in Serbian and Croatian versions.

Zagreb, March 8 (CP) – Croatia’s assistant Foreign Minister Neven Pelicaric has spoken to Swedish Ambassador to Zagreb, Lars Freden expressing concern over the statement of his colleague in Belgrade Krister Bringeus made on Thursday that Croatia and Serbia would joint the EU together between 2012 and 2015 and demanding an official position on this.

Ambassador Freden reiterated the official stance of Sweden that it was planning to complete the negotiations on Croatia’s EU bid during its presidency over the EU in 2009.

Freden said that statements conveyed in any other way did not represent the official stance of Sweden.

At the same time, Croatia’s Ambassador to Sweden Svjetlan Berkovic had demanded an official explanation of the statements by Ambassador Bringeus and was informed the statement was misquoted, its aim being to spur on Serbia to start focusing on its future EU membership.

Croatia is currently in a very delicate position, as it’s EU negotiations have been all but halted due to it announcing the implementation of its Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) against EU members, putting its goal of completing entry negotiations by 2009 in question.

Statements like the one by the Swedish Ambassador to Belgrade, although allegedly misquoted are not helping the situation and a recent poll has shown that 66 percent of Croatian citizens do not believe Croatia will join the EU in 2009, but that this would happen at a later time.

Zagreb, March 7 (CP) – After holding an emergency meeting with coalition partners, HSLS and HSS, PM Ivo Sanader said that the coalition had not dissolved over the issue of the Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) or the EU and stressed that it needed to be seen what was more important if Croatia cannot have both.

The Peasants’ Party (HSS) leader Josip Friscic has said that ZERP should not be backed down on, stating that Croatia was blackmailed, while the other coalition partner HSLS’ Djurda Adlesic has remained tight-lipped on the issue.

Sanader has announced a meeting with presidents of parliamentary parties on Tuesday, while the issue of ZERP or the EU is to be put before the parliament on Wednesday.

However, talks with coalition partners are to continue during the weekend, but it seems like Sanader is preparing the nation for letting go of ZERP in favour of the EU entry negotiations being given some impetus and Croatia making it into the EU before 2015, the year of Croatia’s entry according to sceptics.

Zagreb, March 7 (CP) – Croatian PM Ivo Sanader has stated that Croatia would decide on officially recognizing Kosovo during March.

However, Sanader declined to speculate on any specific recognition date.

This comes following the call made by Serbian president Boris Tadic on Thursday for Croatia not to recognize Kosovo, as it may result in ’serious political and economic consequences’.

Sanader reiterated Croatia’s wish for good neighbourly relations with all of its neighbours adding that he would propose the holding of a bilateral meeting with Serbian counterpart Tomislav Kostunica that would cover unresolved issues.

So far Kosovo has been recognized by 27 countries.

Zagreb, March 7 (CP) – The trial of three Croatian generals at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) begins today in The Hague.

The three are to be tried for war crimes committed during the 1995 operation Storm.

The three generals are accused of taking part in a joint criminal enterprise with the aim of forcibly and permanently remove the ethnic Serb population from the so-called Krajina region in Croatia.

The trial is expected to last about 14 months with 138 witnesses testifying on the side of the prosecution and defence.

The trial was to have begun in May of 2007, but due to conflict of interest raised in the case of three of the defence lawyers additional time was granted for newly appointed defence lawyers to get acquainted with the case.
The trial begins some six years after the first indictment was filed.

Zagreb, March 7 (CP) – Croatian Sunce Koncern and an international investment group Marfin Investment Group-MIG headquartered in Greece have signed an agreement on MIG purchasing 75 percent of the Sunce Koncern shares for €155 million.

Sunce operates and is the owner of 11 hotels on the Croatian coast and is also the owner of a land plot with construction and development papers.

The transaction should come about at the end of the second quarter of 2008.