Zoran Milanovic

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic on Tuesday defended his decision to receive in his office former Croatian Defence Council, HVO officers, including Tihomir Blaskic, who served a prison sentence for his role in crimes committed during the Bosnian war after being convicted by the UN court in The Hague.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told the annual commemoration at Jasenovac on Thursday that the Independent State of Croatia, NDH, a fascist puppet state run by the Ustasa movement and supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, was "one of the most tragic periods in Croatian history".

President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that he spoke with representatives of Croatian war veterans' associations and agreed with them that the fate of Croatian soldiers and civilians who went missing during the 1990s war for independence from Yugoslavia must finally be established.

Croatian political leaders gathered on Wednesday in the Plitvice Lakes national park to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Operation Plitvice and the death of Josip Jovic, the first Croatian police officer killed in 1991-95 war for independence.

President Zoran Milanovic joined local officials in the town of Labin in Croatia's northern Istria region on Tuesday evening to mark the centenary of the miners' rebellion against the Italian fascist authorities.

Events were held in countries across the Balkans on Wednesday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the victims of the Nazi genocide during World War II on the day on which Soviet troops entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland in 1945.

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša spoke with his Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenković on Tuesday to offer Slovenia’s assistance in the relief efforts following a devastating earthquake near Petrinja, south-east of the capital of Zagreb. Solidarity and readiness to help was also expressed by President Borut Pahor.

After a severe earthquake struck the Croatian capital Zagreb in March this year, another series of slightly smaller quakes hit the country south of the capital on Monday.

The strongest one with a magnitude of 5 on the Richter scale had its epicenter some 12 kilometres southwest of Sisak, 60 km south of Zagreb.

The first earthquake happened this morning at 6.28, only five kilometers from Petrinja, at a depth of two kilometers. The mayor of that place said that there was damage.

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.