CROATIA: Croatia sought to mollify Italy yesterday after it denounced a proposal by the country's prime minister to return property confiscated after the second World War to Austrian citizens, ignoring similar Italian claims and the fierce opposition of Croatia's president.
Croatia's conservative premier Ivo Sanader has initiated a deal with Vienna that would open the way to potentially huge compensation claims from people who were expelled or fled from communist Yugoslavia to Austria, where they took citizenship.
Many Italians also fled and had property confiscated by the government of Josip Broz Tito, and ties between Zagreb and Rome have been strained by a dispute over the Istrian peninsula, which was part of Italy, but is now split between Croatia and Slovenia.
"The foreign ministry notes with increasing concern the accumulation of negative signals towards Italy coming from Croatia," the ministry said in a statement.
"Deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini has announced that he will reconsider overall bilateral relations with a view to protecting Italian national interests, and will take all necessary measures, including those at the EU level, to achieve that goal."
But Croatia insisted yesterday that it was willing to pay Rome €30 million owed under agreements struck between Yugoslavia and Italy. "We have been ready to pay for some time, but Italy has not yet agreed to that and has not given us a [ bank] account to pay the funds to," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Ivana Crnic.
Justice minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt said 4,211 foreign citizens had filed requests for compensation since 1991, estimated at a total equivalent to some €103 million. "Croatia has received requests from citizens from 35 countries, while Austria, Israel, Slovenia and the United States have asked for talks on bilateral agreements to regulate the compensation issue," she said.
Analysts say Mr Sanader's deal with Vienna could be payback for Austria's brinkmanship earlier this year, when it is thought to have refused to agree to the start of EU accession talks with Turkey unless they were also initiated with Croatia.
President Stipe Mesic urged parliament to block a deal that he said could cripple the state. "If Croatia starts righting communist wrongs beyond international accords that have solved those problems, I have every reason to believe this will threaten the very functioning of the state," he said. "It is my constitutional duty to intervene."
