Tuesday, February 13, 2007

"Foibe" Igniting Furious Row

The ANNOTICO Reports

Keep in Mind that Croatia is attempting to join the EU, and Italy is interested in Compensation for current property claims and compensation from Croatia, similar to the Polish claims currently presented to Germany, and of Jews already settled.

Italy and Croatia Reopen Old War Wounds

Guardian Unlimited
Ian Traynor
Tuesday February 13, 2007

A furious row was raging across the Adriatic today over the second world war after the presidents of Croatia and Italy traded accusations of racism and barbarism.

Italian diplomats called off visits to Zagreb and summoned the Croatian ambassador in Rome for a stiff talking-to; and the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, attacked Croatia after its president, Stipe Mesic, accused his Italian counterpart of racism and trying to rewrite history.

Croatia and Slovenia were stunned by a weekend speech by Italy's president, Giorgio Napoletano, devoted to the suffering of Italians in former Yugoslavia towards the end of the second world war.

Describing the pogroms of Italians by Yugoslav communist partisans as "the barbarism of the century", "ethnic cleansing" and a campaign of annexation of Italian territory fuelled by "Slav bloodthirsty hatred and rage", Mr Napoletano stirred a storm of controversy and appeared to raise questions about Croatia's bid to join the European Union.

Mr Prodi and his foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema waded into the row yesterday, with Italian officials implying that while Italy had faced up to its fascist past, Croatia had yet to do so.

"We don't need any lessons in fascism from Italy," quipped a Croatian politician after Mr Mesic said the Italian statesman's speech smacked of "open racism, historical revisionism, and political revanchism".

The dispute has to do with the pogroms and population shifts enforced at the end of the second world war all across central Europe, but it also touches on sensitive current property claims and compensation demands.

Just as millions of Germans were kicked out of central and eastern Europe and many of them killed when the Third Reich collapsed, so, after the fall of Mussolini and the capitulation of Italy, were Italian fascist occupiers and indigenous Italian communities expelled from the eastern Adriatic - the areas of Dalmatia and Istria that belonged to Yugoslavia and now form parts of Croatia and Slovenia.

It is estimated that 150,000 Italians were kicked out by vengeful communist partisans under Josip Broz Tito, and that 15,000 were killed. Many of the corpses were dumped in the thousands of caves that perforate the limestone karst of Dalmatia and Istria.

Mussolini's fascist movement had annexed the eastern Adriatic before the war and occupied it during the war. Mr Napoletano further outraged the Croats by conferring a medal on an Italian fascist governor of a stretch of Dalmatia who was executed in 1947 after being tried for war crimes by the Yugoslavs.

Observers were surprised by the strength of the language used by both sides, since both presidents are former communists with roots in the wartime partisan movements who fought guerrilla wars was against the fascists.

Similar rows are currently simmering between Germany and Poland since a German lobby has gone to the European court to reclaim property lost at the end of the war. But the German government opposes the German claims and distances itself from the German lobby. Observers noted that had a German president accused Poland of barbarism and bloodlust, as Mr Napoletano had accused the "Slavs", the international impact would have been immense.

The issue of Italian suffering at the end of the war in former Yugoslavia was brushed under the carpet for decades. But two years ago, the rightwing Berlusconi government in Rome established a day of remembrance for the victims, and last year a publicly funded Italian feature film on the events was screened to huge impact in Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia.

In former Yugoslavia, the film was seen as a sentimental outrage that falsified history, demonised "Slavs", and failed to provide any context for the revenge meted out against the Italians.

Italian officials have made it clear that Croatia could run into problems with its EU bid unless it is more accommodating towards Italy. Zagreb fears it may face demands either to return or sell property in what are now much coveted holiday hotspots in Dalmatia and Istria.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2012272,00.html

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