Croatia: Croatia: Tales of Tragedies, A Grand Old Republic and 21st Century Mass
Tourism

"I am 56 and my two sons were killed in the war, aged 20 and 26"

That’s how Mdm. C introduced herself when I was brought to her house by her
sister, Mdm. D. Both were among the elderly ladies who wait for arriving
travelers at the bus station of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Once you get off the bus,
they mobbed you, offering you rooms in their apartments. Since Croatia’s
independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, (and even after the end of the war in
1995), life has been difficult for many people. Factories have closed down and
inflation has reduced the pension of many to meaningless numbers.

I did not know why Mdm. C chose to introduce herself that way. Was it to
generate some sympathy so as to mute my protests of the high room rates ? I
don’t know, but at least I was given the spacious living room turned
bedroom-for-rental, while Mdm. C sleeps in her cramped kitchen, where I spied
some pictures of her dead sons – lively, goodlooking young men, cannon fodder of
the terrible war of 1992 – 1995. Over the next few days, I was to realize that
Mdm. C’s parents, too, died during the war, not the direct result of gunfire,
but largely due to poor sanitary conditions and lack of medicine for their
illness already existing at the start of the war. She also told me about the
days spent in the bomb shelter, and the fact that her house was somewhat lower
than the surrounding ones was that the top floor was destroyed by shelling from
the “Orthodox people”. That’s how she referred to the Serbs. “Why should they
kill us ?” But she reserved her bitterest complaints towards the political
elite of Zagreb. Pointing to the newly resigned Croatian premier on TV news,
she said, “They are all thieves. I lost my sons to the nation but I have
nothing today. They have stolen everything. All their Swiss accounts,
Mercedes, and holiday houses.”

Dubrovnik of Dalmatia, southern Croatia, crown jewel of the Adriatic, is one of
the most beautiful cities of the world. Perhaps the most beautiful one on the
Mediterranean Sea. Straddled against the barren high cliffs on one side and the
crystal azure waters of the Mediterranean on the other, the high walls and
bastions of this praises from travelers, poets and writers. Also known as
Ragusa, Dubrovnik was once an ancient city state whose merchant ships sail
throughout the Adriatic. It was a real rival of Venice for many years and its
wealth had allowed it to build great churches and palaces within its walls and
on the many islands it controlled off the coast. Its fortunes declined with the
discovery of the Americas and this glorious republic was finally abolished by
Napoleon in 1806. The 20th C. brought new riches – when the age of tourism
brought tourists in huge numbers to this architectural gem and its many beaches
and islands. The good times, however, were interrupted when war broke out in
1991 as Croatia declared independence. Milosevic, President of Serbia decided
that the Dalmatian coast was too good to be given up to the Croats. Immediately
the city was blockaded by the Yugoslav Federal Army and Montenegrin militia.
Milosevic and company then cooked up this grand dream of reviving the old
Republic of Dubrovnik – and in what was one of the most comical episodes of
modern history, set up a puppet provisional government of the Republic of
Dubrovnik in the city’s suburb of Cavtat. Serbian academics produced tones to
scholarly work trying to prove that the people of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia were
not actually Croats, but Catholic Serbs, that the Dalmatian dialect was closer
to Serbian dialects than Croatian ones, etc. The problem with all these
theories, was that they forgot that the locals disagreed with them.

When the city refused to surrender, the Serbs laid destruction to the city’s
suburbs and then surrounded the city with heavy guns and artillery. From
October 1991 to May 1992, they laid siege to this ancient city, pounding it with
heavy artillery and gun fire – all these in the face of world media. The world
watched in horror as the old city burned, and smoke rose from the ancient
ramparts and cathedrals. Nine grand palaces were burnt to ashes and the
rooftops of 70% of the buildings fell to pieces. “Stop the barbaric assault on
world heritage,” the world shouted. The officers of the Yugoslav Army, could
hardly have understood that the world has changed in some ways since WWII. In
the last decade of the 20th C., we have truly entered the Age of Mass Media and
public opinion does not permit the sort of warfare practiced for centuries to be
played out in the open TV. If anything, the siege had achieved nothing but a
complete public relations disaster for the Serbs.

I met Mario, a hotel manager who was a Croatian fighter then. He drove me
around the mountains overlooking the city, pointing out the Serbian positions –
they occupied all high points overlooking the city except for the fortress built
by Napoleon. The fortress (and of course the city) was pounded heavily and the
first two levels were nothing today but ruins. The nearby TV transmitter was
completely destroyed together with the tourist cable car station. Croat forces
in the fortress were able to communicate with the forces in the city through the
10 underground levels beneath the fortress all the way down to the Old City
level. At nightfall, Croatian commandos came in on speedboats delivering
ammunition and food to the besieged citizens of Dubrovnik. A terrible 8 month
siege and finally the siege was pushed back in stages. Enormous sacrifices made
( - Mario hated the snakes most…) but the ancient city saved.

Since then, international efforts have been made to restore the city. Today as
one strolled through its ancient streets, the untrained eye could hardly have
noted any war damage, apart from difference in colour and shades of the roof
tiles. Tourism is booming in Croatia. Dubrovnik’s hotels are full of tourists
again and its streets crowded with souvenir shops, boutiques and restaurants.
Unlike most of the rest of the former Yugoslav states, Croatia (and Slovenia) is
recovering quickly. Tourism is making an impact on local employment and
economics. There is tremendous potential. Croatia now attracts 2.5m tourists,
a far cry from the almost 10m before the war. Well, if you haven’t been to
these beautiful shores – in my opinion many times more beautiful than the French
Riviera – come now before the really massive crowds come.

Apart from Dubrovnik, I also visited Split, Croatia’s 2nd largest city with the
famous Palace of Diocletian (UNESCO site) as well as the beautiful island of
Hvar with its Venetian fortress and fishing villages. Nearby is the island of
Korcula, where Marco Polo was born – the Venetians claim that he was born in
Venice, but the Croatians said he was born in Korcula which was then under
Venetian control. Off the coast of Dubrovnik is the isle of Lukum, where
Franciscan monks coexist with nudist sun-tanners and day trippers looking for
exotic flora and fauna. Welcome to the mass tourism 21st Century!

With that, I decided to proceed on to Montenegro, the junior partner in what
remains of the Yugoslav Federation. The journey itself was a most unexpected
adventure of a lifetime.


Regards,

WeeCheng
Pristina, Kosovo
Going to Albania tonight.