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Dokument #1032085
Freedom House (Autor)
Parliamentary elections in November 2003 returned to power a resurgent Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the rightof-center party whose nationalist policies had led Croatia through its first decade of independence. Despite the euphoria surrounding its election victory, the HDZ still has to deal with the same serious problems that led to the SDP's downfall--responding to the intense international pressure to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and revitalizing an economy increasingly burdened by $20 billion in external debt.
As part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia held its first multiparty elections in 1990, electing Franjo Tudjman, a former Communist general turned nationalist politician, as president in May 1990. Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) ruled Croatia from 1990 to 1999. As rival nationalisms competed with each other in Croatia during 1990 and 1991, Croatia's Serb population in the region known as Krajina declared independence from Croatia, even as Croatia itself was declaring its independence from the former Yugoslavia. The result was a de facto partition of the country between 1991 and 1995. In May and August 1995, a majority of the Serb population of Croatia was forcibly expelled from Krajina during Croatian military offensives to establish control over the contested territory.
On December 11, 1999, Tudjman died, and in the subsequent extraordinary presidential elections in January 2000, Stjepan Mesic of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) was elected president. In legislative elections that also took place in January 2000, a center-left coalition wrested control of parliament from the HDZ. The leader of the SDP (the former League of Communists of Croatia), Ivica Racan, was named prime minister.
In Croatia's latest parliamentary elections, held on November 23, 2003, the HDZ, together with its new leader, Dr. Ivo Sanader, gained 66 seats, making the HDZ the strongest party in the new 152-member parliament. Because of international objections to the formation of a coalition majority government with extreme right-wing nationalist parties, Sanader decided to lead a minority government with the support of the Independent Democratic Serb Party, the Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU), the Croatian Peasants Party (HSS), and representatives of Croatia's Italian minority. The HDZ's victory ended three years of a relatively weak SDP-led coalition government.
The HDZ's return to power was viewed with caution because of the party's past history of engaging in nationalist demagogy, its meddling in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina, and its poor record in dealing with Croatia's ethnic minorities. Prime Minister Sanader has claimed that the party is now "reformed" and has evolved into a normal European Christian-democratic party purged of extremists, but many of its more controversial figures from the past remain in influential positions. On a more positive note, it is widely believed that only a party with strong nationalist credentials, such as the HDZ, will have the strength to extradite Croatian citizens indicted by the ICTY, one of the most important preconditions for Croatia's entry into the European Union (EU).
An important test case of how the Sanader government will cooperate with the ICTY will be the fate of General Ante Gotovina, indicted by the ICTY and accused of responsibility for the murders and "ethnic cleansing" of thousands of Serbs during "Operation Storm" in August-September 1995. Gotovina is in hiding, but ICTY pressure on Croatia in 2003 to find and turn him over caused considerable political problems for the previous Croatian government. Britain and the Netherlands refuse to ratify Croatia's Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU--generally seen as the first step to being formally invited to join the union--until it improves its cooperation with the ICTY. Sanader himself has raised the expectations for his government by promising to return all Serb property back to its owners by the end of 2004--a promise made by the previous government in 2001, but never fulfilled--and to streamline a bloated state bureaucracy. Although Croatia's goal of entering the EU by 2007 seemed increasingly unrealistic in 2003, in February, Croatia submitted its application for candidate member status in the EU.
The new HDZ government will also have to contend with numerous economic problems leftover from the Racan period. Among these are the high external debt estimated to be close to $20 billion, or 70-75 percent of Croatia's annual GDP, and high levels of unemployment of almost 19 percent at year's end. These economic problems are already responsible for the new government's decision to backtrack on a promise to reduce the level of the value-added tax (VAT) it had promised to implement this year.
Croatian voters can change their government democratically. The parliamentary elections of November 2003 were contested by a record 34 candidates competing for each of the 152 seats in parliament. Although the elections were on the whole free and fair, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) expressed concern over the short time frame available for election administration, the lack of accessibility for out-of-country voters, particularly for refugees in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the lack of transparency in campaign financing. Respect for the separation of powers in the Croatian political system remains problematic, and there have been numerous cases in recent years in which the executive or legislative branch has failed to abide by or implement decisions made by the Constitutional Court.
Croatia's constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the press. On the whole, freedom of the media is respected in Croatia, but more reform of government media regulations is needed. The most important media outlet, HRT (Croatian Radio-Television), is still under substantial political control, despite long-running efforts to transform it into a European-style public-service broadcaster. Most observers regard the 2003 Law on Croatian Radio Television to be a step backward in terms of promoting the institution's independence. Journalistic freedom also remains weak; in a 2003 survey, half of the journalists questioned claimed that they do not feel free in their work. The penal code still allows for prison sentences for journalists found guilty of "defamation" and libel. There are no governmental restrictions with respect to access to the Internet.
Respect for freedom of religion has increased in Croatia in the post-Tudjman period, although ethnic and religious minorities enjoy these rights to a significantly lesser degree than ethnic Croatians. The overwhelming majority of Croatians are Roman Catholic. Consequently, the Roman Catholic Church has a considerable degree of power and influence in the country. An important indicator of how powerful the Church remains in Croatia, is the fact that relatively few candidates in the November elections who held views on social policy opposed by the Church succeeded in winning office. There were no reports of restrictions on academic freedom.
The constitution provides for freedom of association and assembly. A wide variety of both international and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operate in Croatia and there were no reported instances of governmental harassment of NGOs during the year. The constitution allows workers to form and join trade unions, and they do so freely. Approximately 64 percent of the workforce is unionized.
Croatia's judicial system suffers from numerous problems, including a large number of judicial vacancies and a shortage of experienced judges, both of which have led to a huge backlog of cases (estimated at 1.4 million in 2003); excessive trial length; and a lack of enforcement of judicial decisions, especially in cases relating to the repossession of property owned by Serbs. The judicial system also faces considerable intimidation in the always difficult field of war crimes prosecutions. Prison conditions generally meet acceptable international standards, and the police are considered to act professionally. However, there are reports that police treat ethnic minorities more harshly than they do ethnic Croatians.
According to international monitoring organizations, Croatia continues to fail to live up to obligations stemming from its accession to the Council of Europe in 1996 to adopt nondiscriminatory laws relating to ethnic minorities. According to a U.S. State Department report released in 2003, "A pattern of often open and severe discrimination continues against ethnic Serbs and, at times, other minorities in a wide number of areas, including the administration of justice, employment, housing, and freedom of movement."
The constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender. Domestic violence against women is believed to be a widespread and under-reported phenomenon. In July, parliament passed a Law on Gender Equality intended to further empower women in the workplace and public life. Women currently make up 27 of the 152 members of parliament, and there are 4 women in the 15 member cabinet. Trafficking in women for the purposes of prostitution continues to be a problem, although Croatia is considered to be primarily a transit country for most trafficked women sent to Western Europe.
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