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Europe According to Croatians
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  • Duration: 1:33
  • Uploaded: 04 Jul 2011
REMEMBER! This is not my personal views of other countries but Croatian views in general when it comes about stereotypes for other nations and countries... ALSO PLEASE do not take this video as insult to any of your nations, take it as good...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Europe According to Croatians
Croatia
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  • Duration: 2:35
  • Uploaded: 28 Dec 2011
Croatia Croatian: Hrvatska officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska About this sound listen, is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterr...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Croatia
Croatians vote in EU referendum
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  • Duration: 2:19
  • Uploaded: 22 Jan 2012
Croatians are deciding on European Union membership in a referendum that many say is crucial for the future of the former Yugoslav republic, 20 years since its independence. A positive outcome of Sunday's vote, which pre-poll surveys sh...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Croatians vote in EU referendum
WOW- Croatia full documentary
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  • Duration: 24:36
  • Uploaded: 30 Sep 2011
American journalist/producer Ashley Colburn has won an Emmy Award for her documentary "WOW Croatia" which was filmed in our beautiful country....
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/WOW- Croatia full documentary
God Of Croats (Bog I Hrvati), documentary, English subtitles - Vatican's role in Holocaust
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  • Duration: 1:08:08
  • Uploaded: 09 Oct 2011
THE VATICAN'S HOLOCAUST is not a misnomer, an accusation, and even less a speculation. It is an historical fact. Rabid nationalism and religious dogmatism were its two main ingredients. During the existence of Croatia as an independent ...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/God Of Croats (Bog I Hrvati), documentary, English subtitles - Vatican's role in Holocaust
Russians and Croats
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  • Duration: 6:55
  • Uploaded: 14 Jun 2011
Two Slavic nations,that seem not to similar at first look,but they're pretty similar,if you'll take a look at their characters. Learn more about Croatia and Russia!...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Russians and Croats
UKIP Nigel Farage in Croatia ,European Union membership debate , part 1- September 2011
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  • Duration: 13:27
  • Uploaded: 07 Sep 2011
UK Independence Party leader and MEP in Croatia assisting the NO side as Croatia prepare for a referendum on EU membership. Crotatian Political class is already being bought by the EU....
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/UKIP Nigel Farage in Croatia ,European Union membership debate , part 1- September 2011
Medieval Croatia ~ Kingdom of Croatia
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  • Duration: 5:05
  • Uploaded: 13 Jul 2011
The Kingdom of Croatia (Croatian: Kraljevina Hrvatska), also known as the Kingdom of the Croats (Croatian: Kraljevstvo Hrvata; Latin: Regnum Chroatorum or Regnum Croatorum), was a medieval kingdom covering most of what is today Croatia and ...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Medieval Croatia ~ Kingdom of Croatia
Who are the Croatians?
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  • Duration: 7:50
  • Uploaded: 02 Dec 2009
Who are the Croatians? Ko su Hrvati? Covered in this video: - The incredible findings of Ivan Nasidze and his team of German, Russian, and Iranian researchers - The Croatian Dinaric Haplotype I1b (Eu7) amongst Iranians Kurds and Caucasus Po...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Who are the Croatians?
Croatian National Anthem -
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  • Duration: 2:28
  • Uploaded: 24 Feb 2012
National Anthem of Croatia - "Lijepa Naša Domovino" (Our Beautiful Homeland) Includes lyrics in both Croatian and English....
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Croatian National Anthem - "Lijepa Naša Domovino" (CR/EN)
Sabaton - Back in Control ( Croatian Version OLUJA)
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  • Duration: 3:18
  • Uploaded: 21 Feb 2012
everything is said during the video. Suggestion: Watch in 720p and full screen Thanks for watching and don't forget croatia !!...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Sabaton - Back in Control ( Croatian Version OLUJA)
CROATIA - HRVATSKA
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  • Duration: 4:32
  • Uploaded: 27 Nov 2011
Croatia - Hrvatska The new tourism star of the European Union...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/CROATIA - HRVATSKA
Croatian crimes and massacre of Muslims in the village of Ahmici 23.4.93
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  • Duration: 4:33
  • Uploaded: 30 Jan 2012
BOSNIA: MURDER OF MUSLIM CIVILIANS: British troops serving 23.4.93 with the UN have found evidence of the systematic murder of TX Muslim civilians by Croat forces in the village of Ahinici. Villagers were found lying slaughtered in the burn...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Croatian crimes and massacre of Muslims in the village of Ahmici 23.4.93
Welcome to Croatia ~ beauty, passion, pride
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  • Duration: 7:22
  • Uploaded: 24 Jan 2012
" When God created Earth, he also created all the nations and he gave piece of land to each of it. After he gave all the land to the nations he thought that he finished the job, but then he heard a small voice. " O Father, forgive...
http://web.archive.org./web/20120301150230/http://wn.com/Welcome to Croatia ~ beauty, passion, pride
REMEMBER! This is not my personal views of other countries but Croatian views in general when it comes about stereotypes for other nations and countries... ALSO PLEASE do not take this video as insult to any of your nations, take it as good...
Eu­rope Ac­cord­ing to Croa­t­ians
1:33
Croa­t­ia
2:35
Croa­t­ians vote in EU ref­er­en­dum
2:19
WOW- Croa­t­ia full doc­u­men­tary
24:36
God Of Croats (Bog I Hrvati), doc­u­men­tary, En­glish sub­ti­tles - Vat­i­can's role in Holo­caust
68:08
Rus­sians and Croats
6:55
UKIP Nigel Farage in Croa­t­ia ,Eu­ro­pean Union mem­ber­ship de­bate , part 1- Septem­ber 2011
13:27
Me­dieval Croa­t­ia ~ King­dom of Croa­t­ia
5:05
Who are the Croa­t­ians?
7:50
Croa­t­ian Na­tion­al An­them - "Li­jepa Naša Do­movi­no" (CR/EN)
2:28
Saba­ton - Back in Con­trol ( Croa­t­ian Ver­sion OLUJA)
3:18
CROA­T­IA - HRVATS­KA
4:32
Croa­t­ian crimes and mas­sacre of Mus­lims in the vil­lage of Ah­mi­ci 23.4.93
4:33
Wel­come to Croa­t­ia ~ beau­ty, pas­sion, pride
7:22
remove add to playlist video results for: croats
Boo­Boo Please Come to Croa­t­ia.
4:30
Epis­co­pal Or­di­na­tion in Croa­t­ia Byzan­tine Rite
6:59
Mateo Kovačić-Croa­t­ian Di­a­mond 2011/2012
4:39
Croa­t­ian Beach­es and Speedos - Croa­t­ia 2009
2:32
Short his­to­ry of The Croa­t­ian Checker­board
4:02
Croat-Bosni­ak War (1993-94)
9:34
Vat­i­can's role in the Holo­caust: God of Croats (Bog I Hrvati) [Doc­u­men­tary]
68:08
CROA­T­IA KRA­JI­NA FALLS REFUGEES FLEE-7.8.95
6:07
World Ac­cord­ing to Croa­t­ians
4:17


  • Bosnian Croats celebrating a religious Mass (1901). The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852.
    Creative Commons / Olahus
  • FILE - This is a Nov. 18, 1991 file photo of Yugoslav army soldiers , rear, and Serbian volunteers escorting a Croat civilian after they entered Vukovar in eastern Croatia. Goran Hadzic the last fugitive sought by the U.N. Balkan war crimes tribunal was arrested by Serbian authorities Wednesday, July 20, 2011 answering intense international demands for his capture and boosting the country's hopes of becoming a candidate for European Union membership. In the Wars Crimes indictment Hadzic is accus
    AP / Srdjan Ilic
  • Croats
    Public Domain / Croata
  • A U.S. Navy F-14B Tomcat assigned to the Jolly Rogers of Fighter Squadron One Zero Three (VF-103) flies over the Croat coastline near Pula.
    US Navy / Capt. Dana Potts.
  • Oton Iveković, The arrival of the Croats at the shores of Adriatic
    Creative Commons / Neoneo13
  • Rijeka (other Croatian dialects: Reka or Rika, Slovene: Reka, Italian and Hungarian Fiume, German: Sankt Veit am Flaum or Pflaum (both historical) ) is the principal seaport of Croatia, located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. It has 144,043 (2001) inhabitants[citation needed]. The majority of its citizens, 80.39% (2001 census), are Croats. The Croatian and the Italian version of the city's name mean river in each of the two languages.[1]
    Creative Commons / Beyond silence
  • Bosnian Croats waiting to cast their ballot at a polling station for the Croatian presidential elections, at the polling station inside Catholic school center in the Bosnian town of Tuzla, 72 kms north of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009.
    AP / Amel Emric
  • Mostar. Old part of town.Currently, the city government is equally divided Croats and Bosniaks
    European Community / Mhare
  • Eduardo Rozsa Flores, a former journalist who became the commander of the first international brigade fighting with the Croats, top left, is seen in Bresce, Croatia. Bolivian born Flores was killed in an April 16, 2009 pre-dawn police raid at the Hotel Las Americas in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Police killed two other men, Michael Dwyer of Ireland, and Arpad Magyarosi of Romania, during the raid in connection with an alleged plot to kill Bolivia's President Evo Morales. Two survivors of t
    AP / Enrico Dagnino
  • Former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament Momcilo Krajisnik enters the courtroom of the U.N. Yugoslav war crimes tribunal for his appeals verdict in the Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday March 17, 2009. Krajisnik hears Tuesday if U.N. judges will overturn his conviction for orchestrating ethnic cleansing campaigns that left thousands of Muslims and Croats dead. Both the defense and the prosecution are appealing Krajisnik's 27-year sentence.
    AP / Bas Czerwinski, Pool
  • During the Bosnian War, the town mostly escaped damage from conflict with Serbian forces, but the area experienced fighting between local Bosniak and Croat factions before the Washington Agreement was signed. After the war, Travnik was made the capital of the Central Bosnia Canton.
    Creative Commons / Christian Bickel
  • Bosnian Army officers look through binoculars during military exercise at the firing range Manjaca, near Bosnian town of Banja Luka on Monday Oct. 27, 2008. It took 60,000 NATO troops to force Bosnians to stop shooting at each other. Now, the three former rivals Muslim Bosniak, a Roman Catholic Croat and a Christian Orthodox Serb are training together as they prepare for voluntary duty as peacekeepers in other crisis areas around the world. They are unlikely peacekeepers, if only because Bosnia
    AP / Amel Emric
  • The Honorable Colin L. Powell, US Secretary of State, gives the thumbs-up as he deplanes on an official visit to Sarajevo, Bosniac-Croat Federation, Bosnia-Herzegovina (BIH), to discuss the planned transfer of peacekeeping duties in Bosnia from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to the EU (European Union) later in the year, during Operation JOINT FORGE.
    US DoD
  • Bosnian retired Gen. Rasim Delic enters the court room at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, as the court delivers its verdict in The Hague, Monday Sept. 15, 2008. Delic, 59, was commander of the main staff of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army from 1993. Prosecutors allege he was in charge of a unit of foreign fighters known as
    AP / Peter Dejong, pool
  • A Bosnian Croat woman casts her ballot for parliamentary elections in neighboring Croatia, in Banja
    AP Photo
  • A large poster of Croatian Prime Minister and the leader of the Croat Democratic Union (HDZ) of Croa
    AP Photo Amel Emric
  • ** FILE ** Milan Jelic, center, newly elected president of Bosnia´s Serb Republic, is seen during a swearing-in ceremony for new members of the National Assembly, along with Croat vice-president Davor Cordas, right, and his Muslim counterpart, Adil
    AP/Radivoke Pavicic, File
  • Croats stand by the memorial plate in front of the Vukovar hospital during the 10th anniversary commemoration of the fall of Vukovar Sunday Nov. 18, 2001. Ten years ago to this day, rebel Serbs and the Yugoslav army overwhelmed the eastern Croat city of
    AP Photo/Hrvoje Knez
  • Romano Prodi, président de la CE, reçoit Ivica Racan, Premier ministre croate. ula1
    EC
photo: AP / Tom Hevezi
Tottenham Hotspur's Luka Modric answers a question during a news conference at the White Hart Lane stadium, London, Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Tottenham will play a round of eight 2nd leg match against Real Madrid Wednesday in London.
Goal
24 Feb 2012
The playmaker has agreed personal terms in principle worth around £100,000-a-week but is yet to put pen to paper on a new deal as he worries about the club's future Bet: £5 £10 £20...
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
Actress Angelina Jolie attends a news conference during the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007 in New York. Jolie announced a commitment by members of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict to educate more than one million children affected by conflict around the world.
Austin American Statesman
14 Feb 2012
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — Angelina Jolie's new movie — a love story set against the genocide of Bosnia's war — will be shown in Sarajevo for the first time on Tuesday, but it...

Daily Press ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A former senior Croatian official has pleaded not guilty to charges that he ordered the abduction, torture and killing of Serb civilians during the nation's war in 1991-95. Former assistant interior minister Tomislav Mercep also is charged with doing nothing to prevent...(size: 1.9Kb)
Palm Beach Post ZAGREB, Croatia — A former senior Croatian official has pleaded not guilty to charges that he ordered the abduction, torture and killing of Serb...(size: 1.0Kb)
The Washington Post ZAGREB, Croatia — Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Slovakia’s Karol Beck 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 on Monday to advance to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors...(size: 1.2Kb)
Star Tribune ZAGREB, Croatia - Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Slovakia's Karol Beck 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-3 on...(size: 0.7Kb)
The Washington Times ZAGREB, CroatiaCroatians voted Sunday in favor of joining the European Union amid a record small referendum turnout in a sign of how much the debt-stricken 27-nation bloc has lost in its appeal within the aspiring member-states. The state referendum commission said that with about 50...(size: 5.9Kb)
Breitbart Croatia's president Ivo Josipovic casts his ballot at a polling station... A voter casts his ballot at a polling station in Zagreb, Croatia, Sunday,... A voter casts his ballot at a polling station in Zagreb, Croatia, Sunday,... ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) - Croatians voted Sunday in favor of joining the...(size: 4.9Kb)
m&c; Zagreb/Belgrade - Croatian voters gave the green light for their country's accession to the European Union in a referendum Sunday. 'That's it! Tonight we embark on the road to the EU,' Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic said. Two-thirds, or 67 per cent, of the ballots cast were in...(size: 3.6Kb)
The Australian A MAJORITY of Croats have voted in favour of joining the European Union, Croatia's state referendum commission says....(size: 0.8Kb)
m&c; Zagreb/Belgrade - Croatian voters gave the green light for their country's accession to the European Union in a referendum Sunday. Two-thirds, or 67 per cent, of the ballots cast were in favour of membership, the state election commission said, citing partial results. The turnout was surprisingly...(size: 2.6Kb)
more news on: Croats
Croats () are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in The United States, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Serbia, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their culture, which has been influenced by a number of other neighbouring cultures through the ages. The strongest influences came from Central Europe and the Mediterranean where, at the same time, Croats have made their own contribution. The Croats are predominantly Catholic with minor groups of Protestants, Muslims, Ortodox, Jews and secular non religious atheists, agnostics and their language is Croatian.

Locations

Croatia is the nation state of the Croats, while in the adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina they are one of the three ''constituent peoples'' alongside Bosniaks and Serbs.

Native Croat minorities exist in or among:

  • Vojvodina, the northern autonomous province of Serbia, where the Croatian language is official (along with five other languages); the vast majority of the Šokci consider themselves Croats, as well as many Bunjevci (the latter, as well as other nationalities, settled the vast, abandoned area after the Ottoman retreat; this Croat subgroup originates from the south, mostly from the region of Bačka).
  • The Šokci and Bunjevci communities in Bács-Kiskun county in Hungary.
  • Croats are a recognized people in Montenegro, where the Croatian language is in use; they mostly live in the Bay of Kotor.
  • a very small community in the Carso and Trieste area, in Italy. This is the northwesternmost area populated by Croats. They are mostly assimilated, but traces remain in surnames and some place names.
  • Primorska, Prekmurje and in the Metlika area in Dolenjska regions in Slovenia.
  • Zala, Baranya and Somogy counties in Hungary, which are border areas with Croatia).
  • Krashovans in Romania mostly consider themselves Croatian - see ''Croats of Romania''.
  • Burgenland in the eastern part of Austria, and the bordering areas of western Hungary (the counties of Vas and Győr-Moson-Sopron) and Slovakia - the Croats of ''Gradišće'' - Burgenland Croats.
  • Kosovo - Janjevci (Letničani).
  • Molise area in Italy - Molise Croats.
  • Szentendre town in Hungary, magyarized, but preserving a memory of their Croat origins (from Dalmatia).
  • The area around Bratislava in Slovakia: the villages of Chorvátsky Grob, Čunovo, Devínska Nová Ves, Rusovce and Jarovce. Most have assimilated but a small minority still preserves its Croatian identity.
  • The Moravia region in the Czech Republic. The villages of Jevišovka (Frielištof), Dobré Pole (Dobro Polje) and Nový Přerov(Nova Prerava).}

    The population estimates are reasonably accurate domestically: around four million in Croatia and nearly 600,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or 15% of the total population.

    Diaspora

    A large number of Croats were forced to leave their traditional homeland over the course of time, for economic or political reasons. Thus today there exists quite a large Croat diaspora outside their traditional homeland in southern Central Europe.

    The first large emigration of Croats took place in the 15th and 16th centuries, at the beginning of the Ottoman conquests in today's Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. People fled into safer areas in what is today Croatia, and other areas of the Habsburg Empire (today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and small parts of Italy, Germany and the Ukraine). This migration resulted in Croat communities in Austria and Hungary.

    At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, larger numbers of Croats emigrated, particularly for economic reasons, to overseas destinations. These included North America (Croatian American and Canadians of Croatian ancestry); South America, above all Chile (Croatian Chilean) and Argentina (Croatian Argentine) with smaller communities in Bolivia and Peru; Australia and New Zealand; and South Africa.

    A further, larger wave of emigration, this time for political reasons, took place immediately after the end of the Second World War. At this time, both collaborators of the Ustaša regime and refugees who did not want to live under a communist regime fled the country.

    In the second half the 20th century numerous Croats left the country as immigrant workers, particularly to go to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In addition, some emigrants left for political reasons. This migration made it possible for communist Yugoslavia to achieve lower unemployment and at the same time the money sent home by emigrants to their families provided an enormous source of foreign exchange income. During this period, tens of thousands of Croats also emigrated to neighboring Slovenia; to this day, Croats of Slovenia represent the second largest ethnic group in the country after the Slovenes.

    The last large wave of Croat emigration occurred during and after the Yugoslav Wars, when many people from the region (not only Croats but Serbs, Bosniaks and others) left as refugees. Migrant communities already established in countries such as Australia, the USA, and Germany grew as a result.

    Abroad, the count is approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but the highest estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers as much as a third and a half of the total number of Croats. The largest emigrant groups are in Western Europe, mainly in Germany, where it is estimated that there are around 450,000 people with direct Croatian ancestry.

    Overseas, the United States contains the largest Croatian emigrant group (544,270 in the 1990 census; 374,271 in the 2000 census), mostly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, with a sizable community in Alaska, followed by Australia (105,747 according to 2001 census, with concentrations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth) and Canada (Southern Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Newfoundland). Croats have also emigrated in several waves to Latin America, mostly to South America: chiefly Chile, Argentina, and Brazil; estimates of their number vary wildly. There are also smaller groups of Croatian descendants in the UK, France, Romania, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and South Korea. The most important organizations of the Croatian diaspora are the Croatian Fraternal Union, Croatian Heritage Foundation and the Croatian World Congress.

    Origins

    thumb|left|Temple of Augustus (Pula):"ROMAE · ET · AUGUSTO · CAESARI · DIVI · F · PATRI · PATRIAE" - "''Roma and Augustus Caesar, son of the deity, father of the fatherland''" The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. According to the most widely accepted ''Slavic theory'' concerning the migrations of the 7th century, the Croatian tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia. However, some scholars doubt the above theory, which is based primarily on ''De Administrando Imperio'', a tenth-century work by Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The doubt rests primarily on archaeological and historiographical grounds. In 603 AD, according to the codices of the church of Thessaloniki, Croats, who had invaded Dalmatia and Istria, have been confusing Maximus the bishop of Salona, because they wrote him back. He described the Croats as the ''"insightful"'' Slavs. According to a letter of Pope Gregory, the colonization by Slavs of Imperial estates in Istria, which were available to the public, was known since the 6th Century, but was still in the 9th Century on the agenda for a People's Assembly in Istria, which brought forth some very remarkable documents. ''D.A.I.'' states that the Croats arrived during Heraclius' regnal years (610–640 AD) from ''"Bagibareja"'', which translated means that they arrived from ''"a prominent town"''. However, there is little archaeological supporting such a migration. Moreover, it is unlikely that any political entity such as White Croatia ever existed, because the justification for it is only in the clearly erroneous translation of the word Bagibareja. Instead, Curta points to some burial assemblages in the northern Dalmatia region, which he dates to 800 AD. Here, there are some exceptionally rich burials showing Byzantine, Avar, Frankish and Slavic material elements, perhaps representing a "community of Croats". That is, Curta suggests that the Croats emerged as some kind of an elite caste of Slavic-speaking warriors, consequently spreading their influence, thus their name, over much of Dalmatia and parts of Pannonia. A theory of migration from the north to the south may be interpreted in this context as a philosophical balance with the propagation of the faith from the south to the north. Subsequent papal recognition ensured the evolution from ''"a prominent tribe"'' to a medieval kingdom. However, because of events such as the earthquakes between 350 and 450 AD, a migration theory cannot be ruled out; also because Ostrogorski claims that the Slavs, who had tried to take Thessaloniki in 597, invaded Crete in 623, but the sources for his thesis are not clearly known, and because Alexandria was taken by Khosrau II of Persia in 616, but Heraclius recovered it a few years later. Here could be a link to the linguistic Persian theory, too.

    According to the Gothic theory, Croats would be descendants of Ostrogoths/eastern Goths. This theory is based on a historic chronicle from Thomas the Archdeacon called ''Historia Salonitana'' where he mentions Croats as Goths. Also, Slavs in the area of modern Croatia are equated to Goths in Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja.

    According to the ''autochthonous model'', mostly promoted by the Illyrian Movement in the 19th century and abandoned by the mid-19th century, the Slav homeland is actually in the area of southern Croatia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round. A revision of the theory, developed by Ivan Muzić argues that Slav migration from the north did happen, but the actual number of Slavic settlers was small and that the Illyrian ethnic substratum was prevalent in the formation of Croatian ethnicity.

    The Iranian theory suggests that the Croats are a tribe from Arachosia. This theory is based solely on linguistic evidence, namely the spread of the Old Croatian ethnonym *''xъrvatъ'', almost certainly a borrowing into Slavic, probably from the Middle Persian ''"harw, hrw"'', which means ''"all, each, every"'', from the Middle Persian ''"xwad, hwt"'', which means ''"self"'', or from the Sanskrit ''"kratu"'', which means ''"insightful"''; and the use of the Sanskrit ''"Bagibareja"'', which means ''"a prominent town"''.

    It is important to note that 'origin' theories are often developed amidst a wider context of ideological-political discourse. Nevertheless the Gothic and Iranian origins theories have at times been supported by scholars such as Ivan Muzic. They represent an attempt to distance Croats from other Slavs, especially Serbs, during the volatile period of late 1970s until recently.

    For all the theories, the documentary and archaeological evidence is quite clear that the ''Croats'' emerged within ninth-century northern Dalmatia. At this time, there was no migration to account for, rather, political circumstances created a climate conducive to the emergence of a new polity in the northern Adriatic, between the Carolingian and Byzantine Empire. Ruled by local notables - the 'Croats' - the Croat ethonym later spread (and contracted) following the political fortunes of the Croat Kingdom. The creation of a Christianized Croat kingdom, recognized by Byzantium and the Papacy, cemented its existence and membership of a 'club' of European Christian Monarchic states. As Danijel Dzino summarizes, "the question whether the Croats were migrants to Dalmatia or the indigenous population is not important. The earliest Croat identity we know of appeared with the disappearance of a structural Avar continuum and the establishment of new power structures in Dalmatia which were established on a new social and spiritual system from the West, indigenous regional polities - ''zupanias'', and the use of the ancient past as a justification of that power". The Croats, based in the Nin-Knin-Skradin triangle, might have taken over local rule from an earlier socio-political collective- the ''Guduscani'' of Lika.

    Genetics & Anthropology

    Anthropologically, the craniometrical measurements made on the Croat population show Croats from Croatia are predominantly dolichocephalic, suggesting that they are more prone to dolichocephalic sub-racial types such as Nordic and Mediterranean than brachycephalic ones like Alpine and Dinaric.

    Croats from the northern regions generally have blonde-brown hair, and lighter eye colours, similar to the pigmentation of surrounding peoples such as Slovenians, Bosnians and Austrians. Croats from Dalmatia and Herzegovina generally have slightly darker hair, and higher incidence of brown eyes, although lighter hair and eyes are also common.

    Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>85%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups - Haplogroup I (45%), Haplogroup R1a (27%) and Haplogroup R1b (13%).

    Later neolithic lineages which originated in the Middle East and brought agriculture to Europe, are present in surprisingly low numbers. The haplogroups J, E and T constitute together about 13% - significantly lower than other populations in the region. The dominant presence of haplogroup I is rather interesting. This group exists only in Europe and is fairly widespread, but in relatively small percentages. Its frequency in the western Balkans is very high and the only population that has similar levels of the I group are the Scandinavians. Haplogroup I among Croatians is divided in two major subdivisions - I2a1 (33%), typical for the populations of eastern Adriatic and the Balkans, and I1 (9%), typical for north-western Europeans. Haplogroup I is believed to have weathered the last glacial maximum in the western Balkans, migrating north as the ice sheets retreated.

    There are a number of relevant conclusions that can be drawn from the genetic data.

    First of all it gives strong support to the theory that the region of modern day Croatia served as a refuge for northern populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The eastern Adriatic coast was much further south. The northern and western parts of that sea were steppes and plains, while the modern Croatian islands (rich in Paleolithic archeological sites) were hills and mountains. After the LGM, the offspring of these survivors (haplogroup I) repopulated much of central-eastern and southeastern Europe. Those who remained in the Balkans were the direct male-line ancestors of about 45% of modern day Croats in Croatia and 73% Croats in Herzegovina.

    It can be said that the Croats are "the most European people", as no other people have such a high share of this major (and probably the only) Paleolithic European haplogroup.

    The second conclusion that can be drawn is that the theory of an Iranian origin . Nonetheless Modern-day Iranians have a significantly different haplogroup distribution, although Iranic communities have lived in eastern Europe for centuries. The low frequency of ''Anatolian'' haplogroups suggests that agriculture spread into the region of Croatia primarily by way of cultural contact.

    And the third conclusion from the genetic evidence points to the fact Croats are genetically heterogeneous, pointing to a high degree of mixing of newly arrived medieval migrant tribes (such as Slavs) with the indigenous populations that were already present in the region of modern day Croatia. Hence, most modern day Croats are directly descended from the original European population of the region who have lived in the territory by other names, such as Illyrians, and their forebears. These original inhabitants also served an important role in re-populating Europe after the last ice age.

    History

    thumb|300px|left|Map of demographic distribution of main religious confessions in [[Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia|Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro in 1901:

    {| style="background:transparent;" cellspacing="5" |- valign="middle" | | |}
    ]]

    The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian Duke of Dalmatia Tomislav of Trpimir united all Croats. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of Pannonia as well as maintaining close ties with Pagania and Zahumlje.

    Since the creation of the personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Croats were at times subjected to enforced Germanization and Magyarization, especially from the 17th century onward. The ensuing Ottoman conquests and Habsburg domination broke the Croatian lands into disunity again, with the majority of Croats living in Croatia proper and Dalmatia. Large numbers of Croats also lived in Slavonia, Istria, Rijeka, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Over the centuries ensued a wave of Croatian emigrants, notably to Molise in Italy, Burgenland in Austria and eventually the United States of America and Western Europe.

    After the First World War, most Croats were united within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, created by joining South Slavic lands under the former Austro-Hungarian rule with the Kingdom of Serbia. Croats became one of the constituent nations of the new kingdom. The state was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 and the Croats were united in the new nation with their neighbours – the South Slavs-Yugoslavs. In 1939, the Croats received a high degree of autonomy when the Banovina of Croatia was created, which united almost all ethnic Croatian territories within the Kingdom. In the Second World War, the Axis forces created the Independent State of Croatia led by the Ustaše movement which sought to create an ethnically pure Croatian state on the territory corresponding to present-day countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Post-war Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became a federation consisting of 6 republics, and Croats became one of two ''constituent peoples'' of two – Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the latter one of the three since 1968). Croats in Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina are one of six main ethnic groups composing this region. Following the democratization of society, accompanied with ethnic tensions that emerged in the post-Tito era, in 1991 the Republic of Croatia declared independence, which was followed by war with its Serb minority, backed up by Serbia-controlled Yugoslav People's Army. In the first years of the war, over 200,000 Croats were displaced from their homes as a result of the military actions. In the peak of the fighting, around 550,000 ethnic Croats were displaced altogether during the Yugoslav wars.

    Post-war government's policy of easing the immigration of ethnic Croats from abroad encouraged a number of Croatian descendants to return to Croatia. The influx was increased by the arrival of Croatian refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the war's end in 1995, most Croatian refugees returned to their previous homes, while some (mostly Croat refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Janjevci from Kosovo) moved into the formerly-held Serbian housing.

    Culture and traditions

    The area settled by Croats has a large diversity of historical and cultural influences, as well as diversity of terrain and geography. The coastland areas of Dalmatia and Istria were subject to Roman Empire, Venetian and Italian rule; central regions like Lika and western Herzegovina were a scene of battlefield against the Ottoman Empire, and have strong epic traditions. In the northern plains, Austro-Hungarian rule has left its marks.

    In spite of foreign rule, Croats developed a strong, distinctive culture and sense of national identity, a tribute to the centuries in which they remained distinct, avoiding assimilation of the overlords' population. The most distinctive features of Croatian folklore include klapa ensembles of Dalmatia, tamburitza orchestras of Slavonia. Folk arts are performed at special events and festivals, perhaps the most distinctive being Alka of Sinj, a traditional knights' competition celebrating the victory against Ottoman Turks. The epic tradition is also preserved in epic songs sung with gusle. Various types of kolo circular dance are also encountered throughout Croatia.

    The Croatian language has a long written tradition with documents like Baška Tablet dating as early as 1100. The modern standard language is based on ijekavian shtokavian dialect. There are two other dialects, chakavian (spoken in Istria and Dalmatia) and kajkavian, (spoken in Zagorje and wider Zagreb area), which to an extent have been influenced and superseded by the standard, yet they still color the respective vernacular speeches. Despite that diversity, Croats take their language as a strong issue of national consciousness and are fairly negative towards foreign influences.

    Croats are vastly Roman Catholic, and the church has had a significant role in fostering of the national identity. The confession played a significant role in the Croatian ethnogenesis.

    Ragusan Republic and Dalmatia are the homeland of Croatian literature. It was developed largely in the renaissance period, with works of Dalmatian and Ragusan authors like Marko Marulić and Marin Držić, and continued through baroque with Ivan Gundulić, romanticism with Ivan Mažuranić and August Šenoa up to the modern days.

    Art

    thumb|left|Portal of Trogir chatedral by sculptor Majstor Radovan, c. 1240 In the 7th century the Croats, with other Slavs and Avars, came from Northern Europe to the region where they live today. The Croats were open to Roman art and culture, and first of all to Christianity. The first churches were built as royal sanctuaries, and the influences of Roman art were strongest in Dalmatia where urbanization was greatest, and where there were most monuments. Gradually, that influence diminished and there was a certain simplification and alteration of inherited forms; original buildings even appeared.

    The largest and most complicated centrally based church from the 9th century is St Donatus in Zadar, for its time comparable only in its size and beauty with the chapel of Charlemagne in Aachen.

    The altar enclosures and windows of these churches were highly decorated with transparent shallow string-like ornamentation called Croatian ''pleter'' (meaning 'to weed', because the strings were threaded and rethreaded through themselves). Some engravings appeared in early Croatian script – Glagolitic. Soon, Glagolitic writing was replaced with Latin on the altar boundaries and architraves of old-Croatian churches.

    right|thumb|260 px|The Walls of Dubrovnik, UNESCO Heritage By joining the Hungarian state in the twelfth century, Croatia lost its independence, but it did not lose its ties with the south and the west, and instead this ensured the beginning of a new era of Central European cultural influence.

    Early Romanesque art appeared in Croatia at the beginning of the 11th century, when the monasteries had become strongly developed and the church was undergoing reform. Many valuable monuments and artefacts were created along the Croatian coast, including the 13th century Cathedral of St. Anastasia, Zadar (in Croatian, ''St. Stošija'').

    In Croatian Romanesque sculpture there was a move away from decorative interlaced relief work (Croatian ''pleter'') towards the figurative. The best examples of Romanesque sculpture are the wooden doors of Split cathedral by Andrija Buvina (c.1220) and the stone portal of Trogir cathedral by artisan Radovan (c. 1240).

    Early frescoes are numerous and best preserved in Istria. In them can be seen evidence of the mix of influences from Eastern and Western Europe. The oldest miniatures are the 13th century gospels from Split and Trogir.

    left|thumb|Cathedral of St Stephen in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, interior from 14th century Gothic art in the 14th century was supported by city councils, preaching orders (such as the Franciscans), and knightly culture. It was the golden age of the free Dalmatian cities as they engaged in trade with the Croatian feudal nobility on the continent. The largest urban project of the time was the complete construction of two new towns – Great and Little Ston and about a kilometre of wall with guard towers between them, after Hadrian's Wall in England the longest wall in Europe.

    The Tatars destroyed the Romanesque cathedral in Zagreb during their scourge of 1240, but immediately after their departure the Hungarian king Bela IV granted Zagreb the title of Free City. Soon after, bishop Timotej began rebuilding the cathedral in the new Gothic style.

    Zadar was an independent Venetian city. The most beautiful examples of Gothic humanism in Zadar are its gilded metal reliefs, such as the Arch of St Simon by a Milanese artisan of 1380.

    Gothic painting is less well preserved, and the finest works are in Istria, such as the fresco-cycle of Vincent of Kastv in the Church of St. Mary in Škriljinah near Beram, from 1474. From that period also are two of the most ornately illuminated liturgies done by monks from Split, – Hvals’ Zbornik (now in Zagreb) and the Missal of Bosnian Duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić (now in Istanbul).

    In the 15th century, Croatia was divided among three states – northern Croatia was part of the Austrian Empire, Dalmatia (with the exception of Dubrovnik) was under the rule of the Venetian Republic and Slavonia was under Ottoman occupation. Dalmatia was on the periphery of several influences: religious and public architecture clearly influenced by the Italian renaissance flourished. Three works of that period are of European importance, and contributed to the further development of the Renaissance: the Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik, by Juraj Dalmatinac (1441); the Chapel of Blessed John of Trogir by Nikola Firentinac (1468); and Sorkočević’s Villa in Lapad, near Dubrovnik (1521).

    In northwestern Croatia the outbreak of war with the Ottoman Empire caused many problems, but in the long term it reinforced the influence of the north, where the Austrians held power. With permanent danger from the Ottomans in the east, the influence of the Renaissance was modest, while [fortification]]s proliferated, like the fortified city of Karlovac, built in 1579, and the Ratkay family's fort in Veliki Tabor, also from the 16th century.

    Some famous Croatian Renaissance artists lived and worked in other countries, like the brothers Laurana (Vranjanin, Franjo and Luka), miniaturist Juraj Klović (also known as Giulio Clovio) and the famous mannerist painter Andrija Medulić (teacher of El Greco).

    In the 17th and 18th centuries, Croatia was reunited with the parts of the country that had been occupied by the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire. Reunification contributed to a sudden flourishing of the arts in every form.

    Large fortifications, with radial plan, ditches and numerous towers were built because of the constant Ottoman threat. The two largest were Osijek and Slavonski Brod; later they become large cities. Urban planning in the baroque style was in evidence in numerous new towns such as Karlovac, Bjelovar, Koprivnica and Virovitica. Some old Dalmatian cities also had baroque towers and bastions incorporated in their walls, as in Pula, Šibenik and Hvar. The biggest baroque undertaking was in Dubrovnik in the 17th century, after the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 when almost the entire city was destroyed. Wall painting flourished all over Croatia, from the illusionist frescoes in the church of St. Mary in Samobor and the church of St Catherine in Zagreb to the Jesuit church in Dubrovnik. An exchange of artists between Croatia and other parts of Europe took place. The most famous Croatian painter was Federiko Benković, who worked almost his entire life in Italy, while an Italian – Francesco Robba, did the best baroque sculptures in Croatia.

    The Romantic movement in Croatia, arriving from Austria and the north at the beginning of the 19th century, was sentimental, gentle and subtle.

    At the end of the 19th century, the architect Herman Bolle undertook one of the largest projects of European historicism – a half-kilometer long neo-renaissance arcade with twenty domes at the Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj. At the same time the cities of Croatia underwent significant urban renewal.

    A structure that emphasizes all three visual arts is the former building of the Ministry of Prayer and Education (the so-called Golden Hall) in Zagreb (by Bolle, 1895). Vlaho Bukovac brought the spirit of impressionism from Paris, strongly influencing Croatia's young artists, including those who worked on the Golden Hall). At the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest they overshadowed all other artistic traditions of Austro-Hungary.

    The turbulent twentieth century re-oriented Croatia politically many times and affected it in many other ways, but this could not significantly alter its already unique position at the crossroads of many different cultures.

    Symbols

    The Flag of Croatia consists of a red-white-blue tricolor with the Coat of Arms of Croatia in the middle. The red-white-blue tricolor was chosen as these were the colours of Pan-Slavism, popular in the 19th Century.

    The coat-of-arms consists of the traditional red and white squares or ''grb'', which simply means 'coat-of-arms'. It has been used to symbolise the Croats for centuries; some speculate that it was derived from Red and White Croatia, historic lands of the Croatian tribe but there is no generally accepted proof for this theory. The current design added the five crowning shields which represent the historical regions from which Croatia originated.

    The red and white checkerboard has been a symbol of Croatian kings since at least the 10th century, ranging in number from 3×3 to 8×8, but most commonly 5×5, like the current coat. The oldest source confirming the coat-of-arms as an official symbol is a genealogy of the Habsburgs dating from 1512 to 1518. In 1525 it was used on a votive medal. The oldest known example of the ''šahovnica'' (chessboard in Croatian) in Croatia is to be found on the wings of four falcons on a baptismal font donated by king Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (1058–1074) to the Archbishop of Split.

    Unlike in many countries, Croatian design more commonly uses symbolism from the coat-of-arms, rather than from the Croatian flag. This is partly due to the geometric design of the shield which makes it appropriate for use in many graphic contexts (e.g. the insignia of Croatia Airlines or the design of the shirt for the Croatia national football team), and partly to the fact that neighbouring countries like Slovenia and Serbia use the same Pan-Slavic colours on their flags as Croatia.

    The Croatian wattle (''pleter'' or ''troplet'') is also a commonly used symbol which originally comes from monasteries built between the 9th and 12th century. The wattle can be seen in various emblems and is also featured in modern Croatian military ranks and Croatian police ranks insignia.

    Maps

    See also

  • List of Croats
  • Croatian diaspora
  • Croatian literature
  • Croatian Chilean
  • Croatian Argentine
  • Croatian Brazilian
  • Croatian Australian
  • Croatian Peruvian
  • Croatian Greek Catholic Church
  • Croatian Muslims
  • Croatian Eastern Orthodox Christians
  • Timeline of Croatian history
  • List of Medieval Slavic tribes
  • References

    Notes

    External links

    Matica hrvatska
  • Review of Croatian History at Central and Eastern European Online Library
  • Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina: History
  • The Croatian nation at the beginning of the 20th century
  • * Famous Croats and Croatian cultural heritage
  • *Croatian Heritage Foundation Hrvatska matica iseljenika
  • *Croatians in Arizona
  • Category:Croatian society Category:Slavic nations Category:South Slavs

    ar:كروات an:Crovates az:Xorvatlar be:Харваты bs:Hrvati bg:Хървати ca:Croats cs:Chorvati cy:Croatiaid de:Kroaten el:Κροάτες es:Pueblo croata eo:Kroatoj fa:کرووات fr:Croates ko:크로아티아인 hr:Hrvati id:Bangsa Kroasia os:Хорватаг адæм it:Croati he:קרואטים ka:ხორვატები la:Croati lt:Kroatai hu:Horvátok mk:Хрвати nl:Kroaten ja:クロアチア人 pl:Chorwaci pt:Croatas ro:Croați ru:Хорваты sq:Kroatët simple:Croats sk:Chorváti cu:Хръвати sl:Hrvati sr:Хрвати sh:Hrvati fi:Kroaatit sv:Kroater th:ชาวโครแอต tr:Hırvatlar uk:Хорвати yo:Àwọn Króátì zh:克羅埃西亞人

    This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.



    NameNigel Farage
    Honorific-suffixMEP
    OfficeEurope of Freedom and Democracy President
    Term start1 July 2009 (de facto)
    Predecessor(post established)
    OfficeLeader of the United Kingdom Independence Party
    Term start5 November 2010
    PredecessorJeffrey Titford
    Term start127 September 2006
    Term end127 November 2009
    Predecessor1Roger Knapman
    Successor1Lord Pearson of Rannoch
    Constituency mp2South East England
    Parliament2European
    Term start215 July 1999
    Birth dateApril 03, 1964
    Birth placeKent, England, United Kingdom
    NationalityBritish
    PartyUK Independence Party
    SpouseGráinne Hayes (1988-?, divorced)Kirsten Mehr (1999-present)
    Children4
    Alma materDulwich College
    WebsiteNigel Farage MEP
    Footnotes}}
    Nigel Paul Farage (; ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and is the Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a position he previously held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a current Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.

    Farage was a founding member of the UKIP, having left the Conservative Party in 1992 after they signed the Maastricht Treaty. Having unsuccessfully campaigned in European and Westminster parliamentary elections for UKIP since 1994, he gained a seat as an MEP for South East England in the 1999 European Parliament Election — the first year the regional list system was used — and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage describes himself as a libertarian and rejects the notion that he is a conservative.

    In September 2006, Farage became the UKIP Leader and led the party through the 2009 European Parliament Election in which it received the second highest share of the popular vote, defeating Labour and the Liberal Democrats with over two million votes. However he stepped down in November 2009 to concentrate on contesting the Speaker John Bercow's seat of Buckingham in the 2010 general election.

    At the 2010 General Election, Farage failed to unseat John Bercow and received only the third highest share of the vote in the constituency. Shortly after the polls opened on 6 May 2010, Nigel Farage was injured in an aircraft crash in Northamptonshire. The two-seated PZL-104 Wilga 35A had been towing a pro-UKIP banner when it flipped over and crashed shortly after takeoff. Both Farage and the pilot were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.

    In November 2010, Farage successfully stood in the 2010 UKIP leadership contest, following the resignation of its leader, Lord Pearson of Rannoch. Farage was also ranked 41st (out of 100) in ''The Daily Telegraph'''s Top 100 most influential right-wingers poll in October 2009, citing his media savvy and his success with UKIP in the European Elections. Farage was ranked 58th in the 2010 list compiled by Iain Dale and Brian Brivati for the Daily Telegraph.

    Background

    Farage was educated at Dulwich College before joining a commodity brokerage firm in London. He ran his own brokerage business from the early 1990s until 2002. In his early 20s Farage was diagnosed with testicular cancer but made a full recovery.

    Farage has been married twice. He married Gráinne Hayes in 1988, with whom he had two children: Samuel (1989) and Thomas (1991). In 1999 he married Kirsten Mehr, a German national, by whom he has two more children, Victoria (born 2000) and Isabelle (born 2005).

    Farage has also penned his own memoirs, entitled "Fighting Bull." It outlines the founding of UKIP and his personal and political life so far.

    Political career

    Conservative Party

    Active in the Conservative Party from his school days, Farage left the party in 1992 when John Major's government signed the Treaty on European Union at Maastricht.

    UKIP and the European Parliament

    Farage became a founding member of UKIP in 1993.

    He was elected to the European Parliament in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009. Farage is presently the leader of the thirteen-member UKIP contingent in the European Parliament, and co-leader of the multinational eurosceptic group, Europe of Freedom and Democracy.

    UKIP party leadership

    On 12 September 2006, Farage was elected leader of UKIP with 45% of the vote, 20% ahead of his nearest rival. He pledged to bring discipline to the party and to maximise UKIP's representation in local, parliamentary and other elections. In a PM programme interview on BBC Radio 4 that day he pledged to end the public perception of UKIP as a single-issue party and to work with allied politicians in the Better Off Out campaign, committing himself not to stand against the MPs who have signed up to that campaign (ten in all at this moment).

    At his maiden speech to the UKIP conference on 8 October 2006, he told delegates that the party was "at the centre-ground of British public opinion" and the "real voice of opposition". Farage said: "We've got three social democratic parties in Britain — Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative are virtually indistinguishable from each other on nearly all the main issues" and "you can't put a cigarette paper between them and that is why there are nine million people who don't vote now in general elections that did back in 1992."

    At 10pm on 19 October 2006, Farage took part in a three-hour live interview and phone-in with James Whale on national radio station talkSPORT. Four days later, Whale announced on his show his intention to stand as UKIP's candidate in the 2008 London Mayoral Election. Farage said that Whale "not only has guts, but an understanding of what real people think". However Whale later decided not to stand and UKIP was represented by Gerard Batten. He stood again for UKIP leadership in 2010 after his successor Lord Pearson stood down. On the 5th November 2010 it was announced Farage had won the leadership contest.

    Westminster elections

    Farage had unsuccessfully contested UK parliamentary elections for UKIP five times, both before and after his election as an MEP in 1999. Under the 2002 European Union decision to forbid MEPs from holding a dual mandate, if he was ever elected to the House of Commons, he would have to resign his seat as an MEP.

    When he contested the Bromley & Chislehurst constituency in a May 2006 by-election, organised after the sitting MP representing it, eurosceptic Conservative Eric Forth, died, Farage came third, winning 8% of the vote, beating the Labour Party candidate. This was the second-best by-election result recorded by UKIP out of 25 results, and the first time since the Liverpool Walton by-election in 1991 that a party in government had been pushed into fourth place in a parliamentary by-election on mainland Britain.

    2010 UK General election

    On 4 September 2009 Farage resigned as leader of UKIP to concentrate on his campaign to become Member of Parliament for Buckingham at Westminster in the 2010 general election. He later told Times journalist Camilla Long that UKIP internal fights took up too much time.

    He stood against Buckingham MP John Bercow, the newly elected Speaker of the House of Commons, despite a convention that the speaker, as a political neutral, is not normally challenged in his or her bid for re-election by any of the major parties.

    On 6 May, on the morning the polls opened in the election, just before eight o'clock Farage was involved in a light aircraft crash, suffering injuries described as non-life-threatening. A spokesperson told the BBC that "it was unlikely Mr Farage would be discharged from hospital today [6 May] Although his injuries were originally described as minor, his sternum and ribs were broken, and his lung punctured. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report said that the aeroplane was towing a banner, which caught in the tailplane, forcing the nose down.

    Farage came third with 8,401 votes. Bercow was re-elected, and John Stevens, a former Conservative MEP (Defected to Lib-Dems), who campaigned with "Flipper the Dolphin" (a reference to MPs flipping second homes) came second with 10,331.

    On 1 December 2010, the pilot of the aircraft involved in the accident was charged with threatening to kill Farage. He was also charged with threatening to kill an AAIB official involved in the investigation into the accident. In April 2011, Justin Adams was found guilty of making death threats. The judge said the defendant was "clearly extremely disturbed" at the time the offences happened adding "He is a man who does need help. If I can find a way of giving him help I will."

    Alternative Vote referendum, May 2011

    Farage declared himself personally in favour of the Alternative Vote system of May 2011, saying first-past-the-post is a "nightmare" for UKIP. However, the party's stance has to be decided by its central policy making committee.

    Controversies and whistleblowing

    Copyright infringement

    In 1999 the BBC spent four months filming a documentary about his European elections campaign but didn't show it. Farage, then head of UKIP's South East office, asked for a video and got friends to make illegal copies which were sold for £5 through the UKIP magazine. Surrey Trading Standards investigated and Farage has admitted the offence.

    Expenses disclosure

    In May 2009, ''The Guardian'' reported that Farage had said in a speech to the Foreign Press Association that over ten years as a member of the European Parliament he received and spent nearly £2 million of taxpayers' money in expenses and allowances, on top of his £64,000 a year salary.

    The former Europe Minister, Denis MacShane, said that this showed that Farage was "happy to line his pockets with gold". Farage called this a "misrepresentation", pointing out that the money had been used to promote UKIP's message, not salary, but he welcomed the focus on the issue of MEP expenses, claiming that "[o]ver a five year term each and every one of Britain's 78 MEPs gets about £1 million. It is used to employ administrative staff, run their offices and to travel back and forth between their home, Brussels and Strasbourg." He also pointed out the money spent on the YES campaign in Ireland by the European Commission was "something around 440 million", making the NO campaign's figure insignificant in comparison.

    Jacques Barrot

    On 18 November 2004, Farage announced in the European Parliament that Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner designate, had been barred from elected office in France for 2 years, after being convicted in 2000 of embezzling £2 million from government funds and diverting it into the coffers of his party. He claimed that French President Jacques Chirac had granted Barrot amnesty. Although initial BBC reports claimed that, under French law, it was illegal even to mention the conviction, the prohibition in question only applies to French officials in the course of their duties. The president of the Parliament, Josep Borrell, enjoined him to retract his comments under threat of "legal consequences".However, the following day it was confirmed that Barrot had received an 8 month suspended jail sentence in the case, and that this had been quickly expunged by the amnesty decided by Chirac and his parliamentary majority. The Commission's president, Jose Manuel Barroso admitted that he had not known of Barrot's criminal record when appointing him as a Commission vice-president. The Socialist and Liberal groups in the European Parliament then joined UKIP in demanding the sacking of Barrot for failing to disclose the conviction during his confirmation hearings.

    José Manuel Barroso

    During the spring of 2005, Farage requested that the European Commission disclose where the individual Commissioners had spent their holidays. The Commission did not provide the information requested, on the basis that the Commissioners had a right of privacy. The German newspaper ''Die Welt'' reported that the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso had spent a week on the yacht of the Greek shipping billionaire Spiro Latsis. It emerged soon afterwards that this had occurred a month before the Commission under Barroso's predecessor Romano Prodi approved 10.3 million euro of Greek state aid for Latsis' shipping company. It also became known that Peter Mandelson, then a member of the Commission, had accepted a trip to Jamaica from an unrevealed source.

    Farage persuaded around 75 MEPs from across the political divide to back a motion of no confidence in Barroso, which would be sufficient to compel Barroso to appear before the European Parliament to be questioned on the issue. The motion was successfully tabled on 12 May 2005, and Barroso appeared before Parliament at a debate on 26 May 2005. The motion was heavily defeated. A Conservative MEP, Roger Helmer, was expelled from his group, the European People's Party - European Democrats (EPP-ED) in the middle of the debate by that group's leader Hans-Gert Poettering as a result of his support for Farage's motion.

    Joseph Daul

    In January 2007, the French farmers' leader Joseph Daul was elected the new leader of the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED), the European Parliamentary grouping which then included the British Conservatives. The UK Independence Party almost immediately revealed that Daul had been under judicial investigation in France since 2004 as part of an inquiry into the alleged misuse of public funds worth €16 million (£10.6 million) by French farming unions." It was not suggested that Daul had personally benefited, but was accused of "complicity and concealment of the abuse of public funds." Daul accused Farage of publicising the investigation for political reasons and threatened to sue Farage, but did not do so though the court dropped all charges against him.

    Prince Charles

    Prince Charles gave a speech to the European Parliament on 14 February 2008, in which he called for EU leadership in the war against climate change. During the standing ovation that followed, Farage was the only MEP to remain seated and went on to describe the Prince's advisers as "naïve and foolish at best." Farage continued: "How can somebody like Prince Charles be allowed to come to the European Parliament at this time to announce he thinks it should have more powers? It would have been better for the country he wants to rule one day if he had stayed home and tried to persuade Gordon Brown to give the people the promised referendum [on the Treaty of Lisbon]." The leader of the UK Labour Party's MEPs, Gary Titley, accused Farage of anti-Royalism. Titley said: "I was embarrassed and disgusted when the Leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, remained firmly seated during the lengthy standing ovation Prince Charles received. I had not realised Mr Farage's blind adherence to right wing politics involved disloyalty and discourtesy to the Royal Family. He should be thoroughly ashamed of himself and should apologise to the British people he represents."

    Herman Van Rompuy

    After the speech of Herman Van Rompuy on 24 February 2010 in the European parliament, Farage—to protests from other MEPs—addressed the first long-term President of the European Council saying that he has the "charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of low grade bank clerk", also asserting that Van Rompuy's "intention is to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states." He also referred to Belgium as a "non-country", and that "nobody in Europe" knows who Van Rompuy is, nor how he was elected. Van Rompuy commented afterwards, "There was one contribution that I can only hold in contempt, but I'm not going to comment further." After refusing to apologise for behaviour that was, in the words of the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, "inappropriate, unparliamentary and insulting to the dignity of the House", Farage was reprimanded and had his right to ten days' allowance (expenses) rescinded. The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said after his meeting with Farage:- 'I defend absolutely Mr Farage's right to disagree about the policy or institutions of the Union, but not to personally insult our guests in the European Parliament or the country from which they may come. [. . .] I myself fought for free speech as the absolute cornerstone of a democratic society. But with freedom comes responsibility - in this case, to respect the dignity of others and of our institutions. I am disappointed by Mr Farage's behaviour, which sits ill with the great parliamentary tradition of his own country. I cannot accept this sort of behaviour in the European Parliament. I invited him to apologise, but he declined to do so. I have therefore - as an expression of the seriousness of the matter - rescinded his right to ten days' daily allowance as a Member'. Questioned by Camilla Long in the article entitled "brimming over with bile and booze" in which she appeared to make light over his fight against cancer, Farage declared it wasn't abusive, it was right.

    Views on the Euro

    From taking office as a UKIP MEP in 1999 Farage has often voiced opposition to the "Euro project". His argument is that "a one size fits all interest rate" can not work for countries with structually different economies, often using the example of Greece and Germany to emphasise contrast. He predicted the need for 'bail outs' before European Commission and European Central Bank officials admit that these are necessary. Farage predicted that Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain would all require such assistance. To date Spain is the only predicted country that have not asked for a 'bail out' but Farage warns: "You can ignore the markets if you want to but in time the markets will not ignore you". Farage also reinforces Germany's argument that Italy "should never have joined the Euro" but has not explicitly predicted the need for similar assistance. Farage predicts that if the situation continues it will lead to violence due to the peoples inability to "determine their own futures through the ballot box" as it will become the only "logical" tool to enable them to escape from their "economic prison" i.e. The Eurozone. He proclaims "I can only hope and pray that the euro project is destroyed by the markets before that really happens." Farage strongly opposes the use of 'bail outs' and claims "buying your own debt with tax payers money" will not solve the problem and that "if we do the next debt crisis won't be a country" "it will be the European Central Bank its self".

    Electoral performance

    Nigel Farage has contested several elections under the United Kingdom Independence Party banner:

  • Itchen, Test and Avon, European Parliament Election 1994 - 12,423 votes, representing 5.2% of total votes cast
  • Eastleigh by-election, 1994 - 952, 1.4%
  • Salisbury, 1997 general election - 3,332, 5.7%
  • European Parliament election, 1999 - elected member for South East England from party list
  • Bexhill and Battle, 2001 general election - 3,474, 7.8%
  • European Parliament election, 2004 - elected member for South East England from party list
  • South Thanet, 2005 general election - 2,079, 5.0%
  • Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006 - 2,307, 8.0%
  • European Parliament election, 2009 - elected member for South East England from party list.
  • Buckingham, 2010 general election - 8,410, 17.4%
  • Footnotes

    References

  • 2002 Amnesty law
  • Penal Code, articles L133-9, L133-10, L133-11
  • External links

  • UKIP profile
  • Profile at European Parliament website
  • Official website of the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament
  • Political group in the European Parliament
  • Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:United Kingdom Independence Party politicians Category:Members of the European Parliament for English constituencies Category:Critics of the European Union Category:People from Farnborough, London Category:Old Alleynians Category:Leaders of the United Kingdom Independence Party Category:British libertarians Category:UK Independence Party MEPs Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 1999–2004 Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 2004–2009 Category:MEPs for the United Kingdom 2009–2014

    br:Nigel Farage cs:Nigel Farage cy:Nigel Farage de:Nigel Farage et:Nigel Farage es:Nigel Farage fr:Nigel Farage it:Nigel Farage nl:Nigel Farage pl:Nigel Farage ro:Nigel Farage simple:Nigel Farage fi:Nigel Farage sv:Nigel Farage

    This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.



    partofthe Bosnian War
    conflictCroat-Bosniak War
    dateJune 19, 1992 – February 23, 1994
    placeBosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in Central Bosnia and along the Neretva river
    territoryPrior to the war the HVO controlled more than 20 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina but at the signing of the Washington agreement less than 10 percent.
    resultStalemate, Washington Agreement and creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
    combatant1
    combatant2 Republic ofBosnia and Herzegovina ---- Croatian Defence Forces
    commander1 Franjo Tuđman (President of Croatia)

    Mate Boban(President of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia)

    Milivoj Petković(HVO Chief of staff)

    Dario Kordić(political leader of Croats in central Bosnia)

    Valentin Ćorić(commander, HVO military police)

    commander2 Alija Izetbegović(President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina)

    Sefer Halilović(ARBiH chief of staff 1992-1993)

    Rasim Delić(ARBiH chief of staff 1993-1995)

    Arif Pašalić(commander, IV Corps ARBiH) ---- Blaž Kraljević (commander, Croatian Defence Forces)

    strength2}}

    The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia supported by the Republic of Croatia, that lasted from June 19, 1992 – February 23, 1994. The ICTY effectively determined the war's nature to be international between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in numerous verdicts against Croat political and military leaders. The Croat-Bosniak war is often referred to as the ''war in a war'' because it was part of the larger Bosnian War.

    There are no precise statistics dealing with the casualties of the Croat-Bosniak conflict along ethnic lines. The Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center's (IDC) data from 2007 on human losses in the regions caught in the Croat-Bosniak conflict as part of the wider Bosnian War, however, can serve as a rough approximation. According to this data, in Central Bosnia most of the 10,448 documented casualties (soldiers and civilians) were Bosniaks (62%), with Croats in second (24%) and Serbs (13%) in third place. The municipalities of Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje and Bugojno also geographically located in Central Bosnia (known as Gornje Povrbasje region), with the 1,337 documented casualties are not included in Central Bosnia statistics, but in Vrbas region statistics. Approximately 70-80% of the casualties from Gornje Povrbasje were Bosniaks. In the region of Neretva river of 6,717 casualties, 54% were Bosniaks, 24% Serbs and 21% Croats. The casualties in those regions were mostly but not exclusively the consequence of Croat-Bosniak conflict. To a lesser extent the conflict with the Serbs also resulted in a number of casualties included in the statistics.

    Background

    thumb|[[Peace plans offered before and during the Bosnian War#Vance-Owen|Vance-Owen Peace Plan ]]

    During the Yugoslav wars, the objectives of nationalists from Croatia were shared by Croat nationalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ruling party in the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), organized and controlled the branch of the party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the latter part of 1991, the more extreme elements of the party, under the leadership of Mate Boban, Dario Kordić, Jadranko Prlić, Ignac Koštroman and local leaders such as Anto Valenta, and with the support of Franjo Tuđman and Gojko Šušak, had taken effective control of the party.

    Following the declaration of independence, the Serbs attacked different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The state administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively ceased to function having lost control over the entire territory. The Croats and their leader Franjo Tuđman also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. Secret discussions between Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina were held as early as March 1991 known as the Karađorđevo agreement. The policies of the Republic of Croatia and its leader Franjo Tuđman towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and always included Franjo Tuđman’s ultimate aim of expanding Croatia’s borders.

    On November 18, 1991, the party branch in Bosnia and Herzegovina, proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole," on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    The ICTY illustrated this with the minutes of a meeting held on November 12, 1991 and signed by Mate Boban and Dario Kordić: "the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina must finally embrace a determined and active policy which will realise our eternal dream – a common Croatian state". On April 10, 1992, Mate Boban decreed that the Bosnian Territorial Defence (TO), which had been created the day before, was illegal on self-proclaimed Croat territory. On May 11, Tihomir Blaškić declared the TO illegal on the territory of the Kiseljak municipality. The HVO favoured an ethnic partition of the republic while the HOS fought together with the Muslims for the territorial integrity of the state. One of the primary pro-union Croat leaders, Blaž Kraljević (leader of the HOS armed group) was killed by HVO soldiers in August 1992, leading to the dissolution of the primary group in support of a Bosniak-Croat alliance. The situation became more serious in October 1992 when Croat forces attacked Bosniak civilian population in Prozor burning their homes and killing civilians. According to ''Jadranko Prlić indictment'', HVO forces cleansed most of the Muslims from the town of Prozor and several surrounding villages.

    The ICTY Trial Chamber in the ''Kordić and Čerkez case'' decided that the weight of the evidence points clearly to the persecution of Bosniak civilians in the Central Bosnian municipalities taken over by the Croat forces: Busovača, Novi Travnik, Vareš, Kiseljak, Vitez, Kreševo and Žepče. The persecution followed a consistent pattern in each municipality and demonstrated that the HVO had launched a campaign against the Bosniaks in them with the hope that the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia should secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and with a view towards unification with Croatia.

    Up till 1993 the HVO and the Bosnian Army (ARBiH) had been fighting side by side against the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in some areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though armed confrontation and events like the Totić kidnappings strained the relationship between the HVO and ARBiH the Croat-Bosniak alliance held in Bihać pocket (northwest Bosnia) and the Bosanska Posavina (north), where both were heavily outmatched by Serb forces.

    Chronology

    Gornji Vakuf shelling

    On January 1993 Croat forces attacked Gornji Vakuf again in order to connect Herzegovina with Central Bosnia.

    On January 10, 1993, just before the outbreak of hostilities in Gornji Vakuf, the Croat Defence Council (HVO) commander Luka Šekerija, sent a "Military – Top Secret" request to Colonel Tihomir Blaškić and Dario Kordić, (later convicted by ICTY of war crimes and crimes against humanity i.e. ethnic cleansing) for rounds of mortar shells available at the ammunition factory in Vitez. Fighting then broke out in Gornji Vakuf on January 11, 1993, sparked by a bomb which had been placed by Croats in a Bosniak-owned hotel that had been used as a military headquarters. A general outbreak of fighting followed and there was heavy shelling of the town that night by Croat artillery. The HVO demands were not accepted by the Bosnian Army and the attack continued, followed by massacres on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the neighbouring villages of Bistrica, Uzričje, Duša, Ždrimci and Hrasnica. During the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing it was surrounded by Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council for seven months and attacked with heavy artillery and other weapons (tanks and snipers). Although Croats often cited it as a major reason for the attack on Gornji Vakuf, the commander of the British Britbat company claimed that there were no Muslim ''holy worriors'' in Gornji Vakuf (commonly known as Mujahideen) and that his soldiers did not see any. The shelling campaign and the attackes during the war resulted in hundreds of injured and killed, mostly Bosnian Muslim civilians.

    Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing

    The Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniak civilians planned by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership from May 1992 to March 1993 and erupting the following April, was meant to implement objectives set forth by Croat nationalists in November 1991., deliberately discriminated against in the context of a widespread attack on the region's civilian population and suffered mass murder, rape, imprisonment in camps, as well as the destruction of cultural sites and private property. This was often followed by anti-Bosniak propaganda, particularly in the municipalities of Vitez, Busovača, Novi Travnik and Kiseljak. Ahmići massacre in April 1993, was the culmination of the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, resulting in mass killing of Bosnian Muslim civilians in just a few hours. It is the biggest massacre committed during the conflict between Croats and the Bosnian government.

    The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has ruled that these crimes amounted to crimes against humanity in numerous verdicts against Croat political and military leaders and soldiers, most notably Dario Kordić. Based on the evidence of numerous HVO attacks at that time, the ICTY Trial Chamber concluded in the ''Kordić and Čerkez case'' that by April 1993 Croat leadership had a common design or plan conceived and executed to ethnically cleanse Bosniaks from the Lašva Valley. Dario Kordić, as the local political leader, was found to be the planner and instigator of this plan. According to the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC), around 2,000 Bosniaks from the Lašva Valley are missing or were killed during this period. The events inspired the British television drama serial ''Warriors''.

    War in Herzegovina

    The Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia took control of many municipal governments and services in Herzegovina as well, removing or marginalising local Bosniak leaders. Herzeg-Bosnia took control of the media and imposed Croatian ideas and propaganda. Croatian symbols and currency were introduced, and Croatian curricula and the Croatian language were introduced in schools. Many Bosniaks and Serbs were removed from positions in government and private business; humanitarian aid was managed and distributed to the Bosniaks' and Serbs' disadvantage; and Bosniaks in general were increasingly harassed. Many of them were deported into concentration camps: Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela, Vojno and Šunje.

    According to ICTY judgment in ''Naletilić-Martinović case'' Croat forces attacked the villages of Sovici and Doljani, about north of Mostar in the morning on April 17, 1993. The attack was part of a larger HVO offensive aimed at taking Jablanica, the main Bosnian Muslim dominated town in the area. The HVO commanders had calculated that they needed two days to take Jablanica. The location of Sovici was of strategic significance for the HVO as it was on the way to Jablanica. For the Bosnian Army it was a gateway to the plateau of Risovac, which could create conditions for further progression towards the Adriatic coast. The larger HVO offensive on Jablanica had already started on April 15, 1993. The artillery destroyed the upper part of Sovici. The Bosnian Army was fighting back, but at about five p.m. the Bosnian Army commander in Sovici, surrendered. Approximately 70 to 75 soldiers surrendered. In total, at least 400 Bosnian Muslim civilians were detained. The HVO advance towards Jablanica was halted after a cease-fire agreement had been negotiated.

    Siege of Mostar

    Mostar was surrounded by the Croat forces for nine months, and much of its historic city was severely destroyed in shelling including the famous Stari Most bridge. Slobodan Praljak, the commander of the Croatian Defence Council, is currently on trial at the ICTY for ordering the destruction of the bridge, among other charges.

    The Croats took over the west side of the city and expelled thousands Further complications were caused with the incident between Croats and UNPROFOR known as ''The Convoy of Joy Incident''. This convoy of aid supplies was made up of several hundred trucks, was seven kilometres in length and was bound for Tuzla. On June 7, 1993, two members of the delegation wrote to the European Community Monitor Mission (ECMM) at Zenica about their fears for the safety of the convoy when it reached the area of Travnik and Vitez in the light of threats made to it by Mate Boban (whom the delegation had met). As a result the ECMM decided to monitor the convoy. The convoy then made its way to Central Bosnia and the area of Novi Travnik. There it was stopped at a roadblock formed by a large crowd of Croat women at Rankovići, north of Novi Travnik. Eight of the drivers were shot and killed, vehicles were driven away and the convoy was looted by civilians and soldiers. Eventually the convoy was released. In defending the convoy Britbat shot and killed two HVO soldiers. The ICTY Trial Chamber concluded that the crowds which stopped the Convoy of Joy were under the control of Dario Kordić and colonel Blaškić.

    Bosnian Army attacked the HVO in the Travnik municipality in the first week of June. By June 13, the Bosnian Army had taken Travnik and the surrounding villages. Several witnesses testified that 20,000 Croat refugees had come from Travnik as a result of the Bosnian Army offensive. However, according to an ECMM Report the first reports of ethnic cleansing and destruction were exaggerated. On June 8, there was fighting in Guča Gora with reports of atrocities and destruction, the Catholic church in flames and thousands fleeing. These reports were investigated by two ECMM monitors. They found the church still standing and the claims of destruction to be exaggerated. The movement of population was organised by the HVO. According to report dated June 9, 1993 it is the first time that the Bosnian Army have taken the military initiative against the HVO in Central Bosnia. On all other occasions the Bosnian Army have responded to HVO aggression (Gornji Vakuf, Vitez and Mostar).

    On June 9, 1993 HVO retaliated in Novi Travnik. On June 12-13, 1993 the HVO attacked villages in the Kiseljak municipality, beginning with Tulica on June 12 resulting in the deaths of at least twelve men and women and the destruction of the village. The attack began with heavy shelling of the village followed by an infantry attack from several directions. The surviving men were loaded onto a truck and taken to Kiseljak barracks. Shortly after the attack on Tulica, the associated villages of Han Ploča and Grahovci were also subject to attack. The HVO issued an ultimatum to the Bosniaks to surrender their weapons. After the ultimatum expired, the village was shelled by the HVO and the Serb Army, and houses were set on fire. An HVO infantry attack followed. Having come into the village, HVO soldiers lined up three Bosniak men against a wall and shot them. In all 64 people were killed during the attack or after HVO capture. The ICTY Trial Chamber found that the attacks on Tulica and Han Ploca–Grahovci were part of a sustained HVO attack in which civilians were murdered and subjected to inhumane treatment.

    The Remaining Offensives

    Bosnian Army launched an operation known as ''Neretva 93'' against the Croatian Defence Council and Croatian Army in September 1993 in order to end the siege of Mostar and to recapture areas of Herzegovina, which were included in self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. The operation was stopped by Bosnian authorities after it received the information about the massacre on Croat civilians in the village of Grabovica and very difficult fight for the village of Uzdol which resulted in losses on both sides.

    The entire conflict caused the creation of more ethnic enclaves and further bloodshed in the already war-ruined Bosnia. The conflict was particularly devastating for Mostar and Gornji Vakuf.

    War ends

    The Croat-Bosniak war officially ended on February 23, 1994 when the Commander of HVO, general Ante Roso and commander of Bosnian Army, general Rasim Delić, signed a ceasefire agreement in Zagreb. In March 1994 a peace agreement mediated by the USA between the warring Croats (represented by Republic of Croatia) and Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Washington and Vienna which is known as the Washington Agreement. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Croat and Bosnian government forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the start of the war the HVO controlled more than 20 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina; however, just before the signing of the Washington agreement it was less than 10 percent.

    The Croat leadership (Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić) is presently on trial at the ICTY on charges including crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war. Dario Kordić, political leader of Croats in Central Bosnia was convicted of the crimes against humanity in Central Bosnia i.e. ethnic cleansing and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

    Croatia's Regret

    Croatia's president Ivo Josipović made an official visit to Bosnia in April 2010 during which he expressed a "deep regret" for Croatia's involvement in efforts to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, resulting in the Croat-Bosniak war and suffering for many people on both sides.

    Gallery

    External links

  • The war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1991-1995 - by Branka Magaš, Ivo Žanić, Noel Malcolm
  • James Mason, photographs: War in Central Bosnia
  • ICTY: Prlić et al. Initial Indictment - The Joint Criminal Enterprise (Herzeg-Bosnia case)
  • ICTY: Initial indictment for the ethnic cleansing of the Lasva Valley area - Part I
  • ICTY: Initial indictment for the ethnic cleansing of the Lasva Valley area - Part II
  • ICTY: Kordić and Čerkez verdict
  • ICTY: Blaškić verdict
  • ICTY: Aleksovski verdict
  • ICTY: Miroslav Bralo verdict
  • ICTY: Naletilic and Martinovic verdict
  • HRW: Conflict between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia
  • United States Institute of Peace: Washington Agreement
  • Institute for War & Peace Reporting - Plan to Divide Bosnia Revealed
  • The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Paško Ljubičić indictment
  • The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Krešo Lučić indictment
  • arhivcroTV

    Related films

    - Part III. The Struggle for Bosnia

    References

    Category:Conflicts in 1992 Category:Conflicts in 1993 Category:Conflicts in 1994 Category:Bosnian War Category:Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe Category:Wars involving Croatia

    bs:Bošnjačko-hrvatski sukob hr:Bošnjačko-hrvatski sukob it:Guerra croato-musulmana in Bosnia-Erzegovina he:המלחמה הקרואטית-בוסנית nl:Kroatisch-Bosniakse Oorlog pt:Guerra croata-bósniaca ro:Războiul croato-bosniac ru:Хорватско-боснийский конфликт sr:Муслиманско-хрватски сукоб fi:Bosniakkien ja kroaattien sota sv:Kroat-bosniska konflikten tr:Boşnak-Hırvat Savaşı

    This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.



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