October 2004 - The run-up to the October local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina has seen much discussion about the position of Croats in BiH, with a controversial interview with Cardinal Puljic in Vecernji List's BiH edition and Doris Pack MEP highlighting the poor state of Croat refugee returns.
Croatiafocus has been far ahead of the curve. We featured an interview with Cardinal Puljic in June and an article on Croat refugee returns. Indeed, the latter article was referred to in the 30 September issue of Slobodna Dalmacija's BiH edition. The two articles are as relevant today as they were in June.
August 2004 - The UK Guardian published a story reporting MI6 activities revealed in the British press. Croatiafocus's Brian Gallagher mentioned this in a letter to the UK Liberal Democrat News three weeks previously.
April 2004 - A letter published by Croatiafocus's Brian Gallagher was reported on in the BiH edition of Slobodna Dalmacija
April 2004 - The BiH edition of Slobodna Dalmacija reports on Paddy Ashdown's UK election manifesto on Croats. Croatiafocus' Brian Gallagher reported all this in 'Ashdown's Education Manifesto' in October last year!
March 2004 - The BiH edition of Slobodna Dalmacija reports on Brian Gallagher's article 'Ashdown's Titoist soluton for Mostar'
December 2003 - Transitions on Line discusses the problem of illegal migrants using Croatia to get to Western Europe. Croatiafocus got there first in October 2001 and more recently in June 2003. However, Transitions on Line fails to discuss the EU imposed regional co-operation 'open borders' policy on Croatia which will facilitate such criminal activity. Check our EU-Croatia articles for more.
December 2003 - The International Crisis Group release a report on the BiH city of Mostar, pointing out the political implications of demographic change in the city. Croatiafocus got there first, discussing the now favourable conditions for Mostar Croats in our September 2003 article on the Croat political situation in BiH.
October 2003 - Hague Prosecutor Carla del Ponte in an outburst at the London School of Economics revealed she is to extend the indictment against Croatian General Gotovina - earlier she said Bosnian ex-president Alija Izetbegovic was being investigated by her office. We got there first by issuing a report within hours of her words - ahead of the Croatian media and the BBC who waited for sanitised statements from the Hague Prosecutor. They did not mention Del Ponte's anger at being asked about Gotovina - but we did.
October 2003 - On 16 October Transitions on-Line published an article noting the new trend for analysts to recommend dealing with nationalist parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina rather than kicking them out of power. Croatiafocus got there first by noting this trend in our article of 8 August Outbreak of democracy in BiH? Its good to see Transitions on-Line catching up with us.
Further, unlike other analysts, Croatiafocus has always advocated the recognition of parties that win elections as evidenced by Brian Gallagher's noted 2002 article Paddy in the Balkans.
August 2003 - On 10 August the Croatian newspaper Vjesnik quoted a Brian Gallagher article to author James Gow in relation to Mr Gow's apparent contradiction of the indictment of Croatian general Ante Gotovina. Mr Gow declined to comment.
July 2003 - A controversial article in the Journal of Democracy by members of the European Stability Intitiative puts forward the idea that more democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina is required and less intervention by the High Representateve Paddy Ashdown. Similar advice was given to Paddy Ashdown in an article by Brian Gallagher in Ashdown's UK party newspaper - Liberal Democrat News - in April 2002, which was picked up the BiH press at the time.
July 2003 - On 2 July The Washington Times published an excellent article pointing out the European Union plan to create a 'West Balkan' Union via the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - whilst keeping the Croatian public in the dark. Croatiafocus got there first with a published article on 13 June pointing this out and in fact first revealed the implications of the SAA in October 2001!
June 2003 - Bad publicity for Croatia was created by an Asylum Seekers article in the UK Observer newspaper. Concerns over this possibility were already being raised, as demonstrated in our article on the matter two weeks previous to the Observer item.
June 2003 - Newsweek of 23 June 2003 mentions the fact that Hague Prosecutor spokeswoman had written that the Serb exodus was ordered by the Serb leadership: contradicting the charges against Croat General Gotovina. This was first written about by Brian Gallagher - for the Antegotovina.com site - in February 2002!
