Many Serbs displaced from Croatia by war in the region in the early 1990s are now living in Republika Srpska (RS) in Bosnia.  This group of Serb refugees has recently received notice to give back their Croatian ID cards through direct contact with either Croatia or its consulate in Banja Luka.

This is a result of Croatia’s new Law on Residency recently coming into effect, which states that ID cards are not be held by – and therefore must be taken away from – individuals who do not reside at the address listed on the government document.  Revoking these ID cards poses greater issues for these Serb refugees: they lose their right to vote, as well as no longer have the right to reclaim their apartments, repair damaged property or receive compensation for the loss of their farmland.

According to news source B92, approximately 7,000 Serb refugees residing in RS are affected by this Croatian government decision.  What’s more interesting is the manner in which this is taking place: policemen in Croatia have been given the authority “to simply erase (from registers)” any individual discovered to not be living at the address listed on the government ID card.

Heading the Association of Serb Refugees from Krajina and Croatia, Petar Dzodan explains that the coalition of refugee associations in Serbia have sent a request to the Serbian government to sign a bilateral agreement with Croatia, in hopes of protecting refugee property rights.  He explained that Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina already have an agreement of this type, while Serb refugees remain defenseless.

There’s no secret to the fact that Bosnia is one of the most corrupted countries in Europe. Some would even say it is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It’s complex government setup, ethnic and political divide and an insanely high crime rate make Bosnia an easy target for criminals to operate freely without much regard. Many wouldn’t argue the fact that since the country’s 1992-1995 war, Bosnia has been in a different kind of war for the past 20 years – fighting crimes such as drug trafficking, prostitution and various forms of government corruption.

Since the war ended very little has been done to clean up the crime plagued Bosnia. Many would even say that Bosnia is heaven for some of Europe’s biggest mafia activity who openly use the country as a middle ground to supply western Europe with drugs and many other forms of illegal activity.

But this past Friday, a step in the right direction was taken with the arrest of one of the Bosniak-Croat Federation president along with 18 other people as part of a corruption investigation.

Zivko Budimir, a president of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, the president of the region’s commission of pardons Hidajet Halilovic, and 17 other officials were arrested. The members of the government were suspected of abuse of office, receiving and giving bribes, organized crime and drug trafficking.

It’s too early to tell what will come out of the arrest, but for now it was ordered that none of the members be released on bond due to fears of them escaping the country. Never the less, it’s a step in the right direction as Bosnia is one of the world’s most over-governed countries which has four presidents and one very complex government setup.

Source (Yahoo News) Photo Credit (Vecernji)

So some good news comes out this week, yet some questions are still not answered from a year long effort to resolve questions with Croatia. Specially the agreement on the use of the Croatian port of Ploce, to which Bosnia also claims rights.

Bosnia’s Foreign Minister, Zlatko Lagumdzija recalled last weeks meeting with his Croatian counterpart, Vesna Pusic and with EU Enlargement Commissioner, Stefan Fule, where Bosnia will be able to continue to use the Adriatic port for exports if its animal products match EU standards.

This will ensure that the export and import of agricultural products can continue after Croatia joins the EU later this year.

Another issue was border crossings. This was a sensitive topic due to a fact that B&H now will be bordering a EU member country. There will be around 50 different border crossings between the two countries and some will just be for live animal crossings intended for export.

Another topic that both sides mutually agreed on was that citizens of bordering towns in B&H will get special identity cards to cross the borders without passports. Now it does not state how far into B&H this will apply to and what are considered bordering towns? Sarajevo does not fall into this category for now.

Croatia has asked the EU countries for all citizens of B&H to be able to enter Croatia with just a special identity card, the EU countries will make that decision in the near future.

So this begs the question, will the membership of Croatia into the EU be a positive outcome for Croatia and its citizens? How will it affect B&H and its economy and future?

We at Za-Vas wonder how much do the politicians benefit from pushing the EU memberships onto there citizens? Do the Balkans need the EU and can the Balkans survive through developing its own form of unity?

Time will tell and we can only hope for the best, but as history has shown, we should always prepare for the worst.