Tomo Medved

Croatia is actively exploring the possibility of reintroducing mandatory military service, signaling a potential shift in the country's security strategy. Veterans Minister Tomo Medved disclosed that the proposal is in its early stages, with a concrete plan for training young individuals yet to be presented.

Croatia's Minister of Veterans' Affairs, Tomo Medved, said the authorities remain committed to finding all the remaining missing persons from the 1991-95 war, as five more war victims were formally identified on Friday at the Dr Juraj Njavro National Memorial Hospital in the eastern town of Vukovar.

The Croatian Veterans' Ministry told BIRN that preliminary findings show that human remains discovered at an illegal landfill between the villages of Pacetin and Bobota near Vukovar are those of at least ten people who were middle-aged or older.

Five people who had been missing since the 1991-95 war in Croatia were identified on Friday at the forensic department in the eastern town of Osijek.

Among those whose remains were identified was Croatian soldier Tomislav Balic, a member of Croatian Army's 204th Vukovar Brigade.

Turkey is ready to support Croatia on the issue of responding to disasters, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Feb. 26 and pledged to provide help in the reconstruction of earthquake-affected zones.

"The government is currently facing two crises, COVID-19 and earthquakes, we decided today to declare a catastrophe in the Sisak-Moslavina County, parts of Zagreb and Karlovac County, but also to form a Crisis Staff headed by Tomo Medved. Representatives of all will be included. Milosevic and Horvat will be the deputies", Plenkovi said, as Jutarnji reports.

In 2020, unlike in previous years, commemorations in Croatia dedicated to the events that happened during the 1990s war were conducted with the minimum of incidents and nationalist rhetoric.

A ceremony was held to unveil the Monument to the Homeland in Zagreb on Thursday, the 21st anniversary of the death of Franjo Tudjman, the first Croatian president after the war for independence from Yugoslavia.

War veterans' associations and Croatia's war veterans' minister have condemned President Zoran Milanovic for saying that a controversial plaque with the Ustasa slogan 'Za dom spremni' ('Ready for the Home(land)') should be removed.

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, YIHR, a regional organisation of young activists and experts on transitional justice, presented a piece of analysis on Monday that shows how convicted war criminals continue to play prominent roles in the public arena in the Balkans.