Croatia: Youth Law

The non-communist Croatian authorities have been saying there is a need for more adequate policy on caring for young people but the public have only recently found out what the government and parliament have cooked up.

Thanks to Domagoj Margetic, chairman of the organization Croatian Youth of the Croatian Republic, the population was presented with a draft document on protecting young people in Zagreb which should serve as the model for laws in other areas and a state law.

To make things clearer please note that public events are what has so far been considered sports and cultural events not including religious services and that children are persons aged up to 14 while the youth is aged between 14 and 18. That division affected the introduction of the curfew. "Children can go to public places between 21:00 and 6:00 hours only if accompanied by adults or for fully justified reasons. Those reasons are valid only in cases when the child has not been forbidden from attending an event. Youth can go to public places between 24:00 and 5:00 hours only if accompanied or for fully justified reasons."

In other words, children and youth can't go outside without an adequate excuse in writing which they have to show to the "youth police" (also envisaged by the draft law) and stay out a few minutes after midnight. The draft overlooks one category: under aged persons who work in shifts.

It also bans youth from going to bars, restaurants and clubs, as well as the consumption of alcohol and visits to place that serve alcohol, it bans smoking, drugs, overnight stays and camps, attending boxing matches, participation in games of chance. "Children and the youth are forbidden to possess and use objects which are destructive to their respect of human dignity such as admiring and imitating acts of war and heightening sexuality."

In practice, that means that toy manufacturers will have to ask for approval that their toys do not recall war or sex. Under the draft, teaching about the dangers of AIDS or condoms will be a criminal act. It's unclear what young people will be allowed to do or what they will be allowed to do for fun but they certainly won't go on vacation alone until they reach the age of 18 and they can forget about sports because most parents don't have the money to pay for private clubs.

Slovenia: Hunting Witches

Recently, the Slovenian state media fiercely attacked a visit by former Yugoslav army general Milan Aksentijevic and other former officers to their families in Slovenia. The warnings of an infiltration of the internal enemy were initiated at a press conference by Janez Jansa's Social Democrat party when Jansa accused the authorities of allowing "aggressors" into Slovenia for political reasons.

Jansa's party feels that the former Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA) officers whose families stayed in Slovenia are mainly soldiers who took part in the aggression on Slovenia in June and July 1991 and then withdrew with their units into Croatia and Bosnia and took part in ethnic cleansing and massacres there. The reason behind all the fuss: retired general Aksentijevic was issued a 15-day visa by the Slovenian embassy in Skoplje and he paid a visit to his family.

"The return of one of the greatest hawks who became famous in all three wars in former Yugoslavia shows certain trends in Slovenian politics," Jansa said and warned that lt. colonel Fabijan Jurle was also returning. Jurle is allegedly "responsible for the shooting at electricians in the barracks in Ptuj in May 1991". Jansa concluded that a strong and well organized fifth column was returning to Slovenia.

Jansa is right when he says the attitude to former JNA officers has changed. On January 1, 1995, the Slovenian police decreased a list of persona non grate, including many JNA officers whose families stayed in Slovenia. The change of policy for these "eternally potential enemies" is not the result of new political circumstances but of international pressure.

Following the June 1991 conflict, Slovenia produced a list of 770 unwanteds. The government has now decided to remove the stain on its reputation (negotiations are underway with European financial institutions) and prior to expected sharp criticism from the human rights institutions in Geneva. The list has now been reduced to just 81 persons but there are still a lot of problems such as refusal to pay out pensions to retired JNA officers or expulsions of officers' families from their apartments.

Janez Jansa's latest witchhunt is groundless which is shown by the fact that despite the media rumblings the Slovenian courts have yet to sentence any former JNA officer.

Slovenia: VREME Correspondent Interrogated

Ljubljana's district court subpoenaed VREME's correspondent Svetlana Vasovic for a hearing on March 20 over "founded suspicion of claims that could be damaging to the reputation of state bodies." The indictment includes the interview that Vasovic and Igor Mekina had with former JNA intelligence officer Sefket Suljevic which they published in Ljubljana's Mladina magazine and VREME. The article said: "Suljevic's story is interesting because of the many violations of human rights and international and local law that Slovenian state bodies allowed and because it shows clearly that the Slovenian intelligence service has targeted former JNA officers whose families live in Slovenia and that the service is doing everything to grab documents to discredit political opponents".

The judge said the article is damaging to the reputation of the Slovenian defence ministry. Later, the Slovenian secret police offered Suljevic Slovenian citizenship (his family lives there) if he gets hold of documents which could compromise president Kucan and prime minister Drnovsek. Suljevic refused and told his story to Mladina at the time of Jansa's dismissal from as defence minister. The defence ministry filed charges against the reporters even before Jansa left over the interview. Soon afterwards, Mladina published an interview with Janez Levstek who said he had conveyed the blackmail demands to Suljevic from Jansa's deputy Darko Njavr. The prosecutor doesn't seem to know any of that and demanded a detailed interrogation before reaching a final decision on the charges.

Belgrade: Self Censorship

About a hundred people, three TV crews and a number of foreign and local reporters attended the opening of Predrag Koraksic's fourth exhibition of caricatures in Belgrade. The only problem was that the exhibit in the Art Sebastian gallery featured white walls and empty frames.

Koraksic came in a day earlier and found that every caricature portraying Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mira Markovic had been removed. Caricatures of opposition leaders in Serbia and Serb political leaders in Bosnia had been left in place. Koraksic himself decided to remove the remaining caricatures.

A likely explanation: Art Sebastian is owned by Inex Interexport, a company that takes great care to keep its relations with the authorities very sweet.