Croat people

The 27th anniversary of the killings of 26 Bosnian Croats in Buhine Kuce on January 9, 1994 will be marked on Saturday with a Catholic mass and the laying of flowers at the local cemetery.

Fadil Novalic, the caretaker Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation entity, was detained Thursday overnight by the state law enforcement agency SIPA together with the head of the Civil Protection and the owner of a private company as part of an investigation into the purchase of allegedly overpriced Chinese respirators. 

Ivo Tomasevic, secretary-general of the Bishops' Conference, the permanent assembly of Catholic bishops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told BIRN on Friday that a mass to commemorate the killings of Croatian Nazi-allied troops and civilians by the Yugoslav Partisans at the end of World War II will not be cancelled despite condemnation from politicians, anti-fascist activists and many public figures.

Croatian media reported that Split county court found former Croatian Defence Council fighters Marinko Maric and Zeljko Rodin guilty of war crimes against Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war held at detention camps in the Western Herzegovina area from July to September 1993.

The retrial of wartime prison officers Ivan Kraljevic, Mato Jelcic, Stojan Odak, Vice Bebek, Vinko Radisic, Slavko Skender and Dragan Milos, who are accused of abusing detainees at the Military-Investigative Prison in Ljubuski, opened at the Bosnian state court on Monday.

Bosnia's Central Election Commission, the CIK, has been accused of perpetuating discrimination in the country after it ruled that Svetozar Pudaric - an independent candidate for the election in October - could not stand as he is Bosnian Serb living in the wrong entity - the mainly Bosniak and Croatian Federation entity.

A coalition of non-Serbian parties, "Together for Bosnia", which gathers nine Bosnian Croat and Bosniak parties, will contest the October general elections in Republika Srpska together, representing what they describe as a pro-Bosnian platform.

Bosnian Croats are abandoning the Herzegovina region, largely because of the poor job situation and low wages - and the better opportunities on offer in the EU.

The first official foreign visit of the new Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, will be on March 3 to Sarajevo, where she will meet Bosnian senior officials.  
 
The planned visit is attracting attention, having in mind conflicting statements she has made about her future position on Bosnia and Herzegovina.