Ethnic Intolerance, Hate Speech Persists in Croatia: Report

Human Rights House Zagreb said in its annual report published on Friday that "as in previous years, war crimes prosecutions were stagnant" in Croatia in 2019, while hate speech and intolerance toward minorities persisted in the public arena and the digital environment.

"Instead of improving regional co-operation with the judiciary of the countries where war crimes indictees live, the number of trials in absentia is increasing. Croatia continues to prosecute a small number of suspected members of Croatian military and police units," the report said.

It noted that the identification of wartime missing persons did not make significant progress in 2019. According to the Ministry of Croatian Veterans' Affairs, the fate of over 82 per cent of people who disappeared during the 1990s war has been resolved, but there are still 1,871 unresolved cases.

"The identification process is still not effective, especially because of the extremely poor cooperation between the relevant authorities of Croatia and Serbia," the report said.

According to the report, the trend of "denying and ignoring judicially established facts" continued in 2019, as did the phenomenon of "glorifying the war efforts of people convicted of war crimes".

The report also criticised the history curriculum for Croatian schools, which it said "does not support a critical understanding of historical events and multiperspectivity, but promotes nationalist discourse".

The report highlighted a series of verbal attacks on the Serb ethnic minority in Croatia.

"What continues to cause concern are statements in the media and on social networks specifically targeting the Serb national minority, characterised by ethnic intolerance, hate speech, discriminatory speech and...