Rainbow flags fly across Europe at Gay Pride parades

Yahoo – AFP, June 9, 2018

Marchers carry a rainbow flag aloft at a Gay Pride parade in Zagreb, Croatia
(AFP Photo/STRINGER)

Bucharest (AFP) - Thousands of people took to the streets to support LGBT rights in cities across Europe on Saturday, with marchers waving rainbow flags and condemning discrimination in all its forms.

Peaceful parades took place across European cities including the capitals of Italy, Greece, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland.

In Bucharest, some 3,000 people marched through the city centre with many celebrating a ruling made by the EU's top court earlier this week.

The European Court of Justice ruled in favour of Romanian gay man Relu Coman's right to have his US husband Robert "Clai" Hamilton live with him in Romania.

"Clai and I are two people who did not accept discrimination. If more of us did the same, the world would be better," Coman told AFP at the march.

Romania does not recognise same-sex marriage and had argued that Hamilton was not entitled to EU residency rights awarded to spouses.

The European court ruling means that same-sex partners of EU citizens have the right to live in any member state whatever their nationality, even in countries that do not recognise gay marriage.

Two men kiss at the Baltic Pride parade in Latvia's capital Riga (AFP 

Photo/Ilmars ZNOTINS)

In Warsaw, tens of thousands marched for the annual "Equality Parade" to protest discrimination not just against LGBT people but also women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.

Organisers said 45,000 people took part, while the town hall gave a lower estimate of 23,000.

'Love knows no boundaries'

"I come from a small town and first marched for equality 10 years ago, without telling my parents," Dominika Wroblewska said at the Warsaw parade.

"It's very moving for me, especially since I came out a year ago," she said.

Rainbow flags fly at the parade in Riga (AFP Photo/Ilmars ZNOTINS)

Her partner Alicja Nauman said she was marching "because I want to live in a place where all love is accepted, because love knows no boundaries".

"The situation in Poland is bad because same-sex couples cannot marry or adopt children."

Thousands, including members of a LGBT police association, also turned out for the 14th edition of Gay Pride in Athens.

The Athens events had previously been largely shunned by institutions and notably harassed by far-right groups, but this year's edition was attended by a delegation from the liberal-conservative New Democracy party.

Not to be outdone, the facade of parliament, overlooking Syntagma square at the heart of the festivities, was symbolically lit up in all colours of the rainbow in a government initiative.

Since the leftist government took office in 2015, Greece has extended civil partnerships to same-sex couples, authorised sex changes from the age of 15 and legislated for children to be adopted by same-sex partners -- though New Democracy voted against the reforms which the powerful Orthodox Church also opposes.

The "Baltic Pride" parade in Latvia's capital Riga included members of the gay community from fellow Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania.

A handful of anti-gay protesters rally before the parade in Riga (AFP Photo/

Ilmars ZNOTINS)

One of the organisers, Kaspars Zalitis, told AFP that about eight thousand people marched.

"Latvia is in last place in the European Union when it comes to the rights of LGBT people," Zalitis said.

"There is no protection against hate crimes, no respect for trans people, that's why we think this issue is greatly urgent."

About 30 people protested before the start of the parade in Riga, following a call by a rightwing group for a demonstration against "the promotion of homosexuality".

In Rome, thousands also marched Saturday just days after Italy's new families minister from the far-right League party caused a storm, saying homosexual families do not legally exist.

"It's very important that we're here, because we need to respond and show that it's not true that we don't exist," said Andrea, 27.

Judges award Slovenia high seas access in row with Croatia

Yahoo - AFP, Jo Biddle, June 29, 2017

In a complex 300-page judgement, the judges ruled Slovenia should have 

"a junction area" with international waters, allowing "freedom of communication" to

all ships, civilian and military, seeking access to Slovenia (AFP Photo/Jure Makovec)

The Hague (AFP) - International judges on Thursday awarded Slovenia key access to international waters off the Croatian coast, sparking a furious reaction from Zagreb which said it would refuse to implement the ruling.

In a complex 300-page judgement, the judges ruled Slovenia should have "a junction area" with international waters, allowing "freedom of communication" to all ships, civilian and military, seeking access to Slovenia.

They determined that the "junction between the Slovenian territorial sea and the 'High Sea' is an area in which ships and aircraft enjoy essentially the same rights of access to and from Slovenia as they enjoy on the high seas," presiding judge Gilbert Guillaume said, in a two-hour long judgement.

In Ljubljana, Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar hailed the ruling as a "historic moment for Slovenia," saying the judgement "is definitive and must be applied on both countries, Slovenia and Croatia".

The Slovenian leader said he would call his Croatian counterpart during the day to "begin dialogue on implementing the decision".

"Slovenia will do nothing to harm relations between our countries or our citizens," he said.

But Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said his country will refuse to implement the ruling, saying it was "not obliging us in any way".

Poisoned relations

The sea corridor will be about 2.5 nautical miles wide, and lies about 12 nautical miles beyond the territorial limits of both Croatia and Italy.

But in the case which was first lodged with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2009, the court rejected Ljubljana's claim that the whole of the southwestern Piran bay was Slovenian territory.

Instead they determined the maritime border "shall be a straight line joining a point in the middle of the channel of the St Odoric Canal" heading straight into the bay from the mouth of the Dragonja River.

The area under dispute is a tranquil bay on the northern Adriatic Sea, where the medieval buildings of the southwestern Slovenian town of Piran tumble down to a sleepy port.

But the bay is also shared by Croatia, and the dispute over where the sea borders should be drawn has poisoned relations between the neighbours since they both declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

In 2009, the two countries signed an EU-backed deal to allow the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague to solve the long-standing dispute over the 13 square kilometres (five square miles) of largely uninhabited land and Piran Bay.

Slovenia, which has just 46 kilometres (29 miles) of coastline, had argued its access to international waters was at stake because Croatia, whose coast stretches for 1,700 kilometres, wanted the border to be drawn down the middle of the disputed bay.

'Freedom of the seas'

The judges stressed that the aim of the corridor was to "guarantee both the integrity of Croatia's territorial sea and Slovenia's freedoms of communication between its territory and the high seas."

Zagreb had only agreed to join the proceedings after Ljubljana lifted its veto in 2009 to Croatia's accession to the European Union. But it pulled out again in 2014 following a phone tapping scandal.

A Slovenian judge from the tribunal and a Ljubljana official were recorded discussing tactics for a ruling favourable to Slovenia.

Observers have warned that if Zagreb does not comply with the ruling it could further strain already tense relations with Slovenia, which is Croatia's key entry point into the passport-free Schengen zone.

Hundreds of children put to work as beggars; four gangs work in NL

DutchNews, June 22, 2016

Police outside the house in
Barcelona. Photo: OM

Dutch police have identified four criminal gangs who are putting Roma children on the streets to beg and steal in the Netherlands, the public prosecution department said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The Dutch probe is part of an international investigation into the exploitation of some 300 children by criminal gangs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain, the department said. 

The children, ranging in age from eight to 16 – come from Bosnia, Croatia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia, the NRC reports. According to police spokesman Arthur de Rijk, they have been lured away from poor families and taught to steal in groups. They are expected to ‘earn’ up to €1,000 a day, he told the paper. 

Raids

Some of the children were found in Spain last week and brought back to the Netherlands where they are now in the hands of social services. 

They were found in police raids in Barcelona, where six children, ranging in age from under one to 15, were found living in a filthy home with a 49-year-old man and a 46-year-old woman, said to be from eastern Europe. Four of the children were already on a Dutch watch list.

‘They had been put under the supervision of Dutch social services earlier and so we are responsible for them,’ a prosecution department spokeswoman said. Eight other Roma children who are known to the Dutch authorities are still missing. 

Amsterdam 

The children, put to work in groups, were stealing up to €1,000 a day, police said. The money was passed on to criminal families who spent it on fast cars, luxury homes and gambling, according to Dutch media reports. 

The investigation began a year ago after police noticed they had been repeatedly arresting the same children pick-pocketing at Amsterdam’s central station.

‘We started to look into where the children lived,’ Arthur de Rijk said. ‘Their parents never came to pick them up. It was always other family members but they never had ID. Something was not right.’ 

DNA

In one case, dna tests showed the woman who came to fetch two children was not their mother, as she claimed to be. Various children were placed in care but encouraged to run away by their ‘families’. 

The two adults arrested in Barcelona will be extradited to the Netherlands to face charges. Five of the children have been placed in a secure unit to stop them running away. A sixth remains in Spain where she has to serve a youth detention sentence.

Norway ranks as world's best place to be a mother

Yahoo – AFP, 5 May 2015

Norway ranks as the world's best place to be a mother, well ahead of the 

United States which dropped to the 33rd spot in the annual scorecard 

released by Save the Children (AFP Photo/Olexander Zobin)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Norway ranks as the world's best place to be a mother, well ahead of the United States which dropped to the 33rd spot in the annual scorecard released by Save the Children on Monday.

Somalia is the worst place, just below the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Save the Children also reported that 

mothers are having a tougher time in the

 world's expanding cities, with survival

 gaps between rich and poor widening 

(AFP Photo/Olexander Zobin)

Save the Children released its 16th annual Mothers' Index, which rates 179 countries based on five indicators related to maternal health, education, income levels and the status of women.

This year, the United States dropped from number 31 on the list to 33, behind Japan, Poland and Croatia.

American women have a one in 1,800 risk of maternal death, the worst level of risk of any developed country in the world, according to the report.

An American woman is more than 10 times as likely to die in childbirth than a Polish woman.

Scandinavian countries have consistently taken the first spots in the Mothers' Index, with Norway this year beating out Finland which held the top spot last year.

Among the top ten, Australia is the only non-European country, at number nine.

France and Britain take the 23rd and 24th spot, below Canada at number 20.

The ten worst places are all sub-Saharan African countries, with Haiti tied with Sierra Leone for the 169th spot.

Nine of the bottom ten countries are wracked by conflict.

The disparity in terms of infant mortality is striking.

In the top 10 countries, one mother out of 290 will lose a child before the age of five. In the bottom 10, that rate stands at one in eight.

Dying young in Washington

Save the Children also looked at infant mortality rates in the world's 24 wealthiest capital cities and found Washington had the highest rate at 7.9 deaths per 1,000.

By comparison, Stockholm and Oslo had infant mortality rates at or below 2 deaths per 1,000.

Somalia is the worst place to be a mother, just below the Democratic

 Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, according to Save

the Children (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles said the data confirmed that a country's economic wealth is not the sole factor leading to happy mothers, but that policies need to be put in place.

In the case of Norway, "they do have wealth, but they also invest that wealth in things like mothers and children, as a very high priority," Miles said.

Save the Children also reported that mothers are having a tougher time in the world's expanding cities, with survival gaps between rich and poor widening.

Cities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe have the highest gap for child survival, with poor children three to five times more likely to die than their affluent peers.

Related Articles:

Jokowi: Revoke Licenses of Private Hospitals That Refuse KIS Patients

As world honours the dead, Indonesia begins tsunami memorials

Women attend a prayer service at Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, in

 the northern Sumatra island, on December 25, 2014, prior to the 10th anniversary

 of the tsunami that hit the west coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/

Chaideer Mahyuddin)

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… Mass Human Death

The final one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past some challenges of the Human heart.

"Dear Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow, emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"

And I say to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons? They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective]. They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the way!"

Do you understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.

They knew the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding Israel.

And that's what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have helped create."

When you go home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of what you have before you?

Strike the light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here, and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you live in.

Achievable in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You shall see.

And so it is.

Kryon

Top U.N. Court Rejects Balkan Genocide Claims

Naharnet Newsdesk, AFP, 3 Feb 2015

The U.N.'s highest court on Tuesday rejected rival claims of genocide by former foes Croatia and Serbia in landmark rulings over the bloody Balkans wars of the 1990s.

International Court of Justice chief judge Peter Tomka dismissed Zagreb's claim that Serb forces committed genocide during Croatia's war of independence.

He made a similar ruling in a counter-claim by Belgrade over a Croatian counter-offensive that forced 200,000 Serbs to flee after the last major battle of the 1991-1995 war.

The case had been described by Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic as perhaps one of the "most important events" determining his country's relations with Croatia.

Zagreb dragged Belgrade before the ICJ in 1999 on genocide charges linked to the war in Croatia during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Serbia was accused of ethnic cleansing as a "form of genocide" in the town of Vukovar and other areas, leading to large numbers of Croats being displaced, killed or tortured and their property destroyed.

About 20,000 people died in the conflict, one of several bloody wars that shook the Balkans in the 1990s.

Vukovar was captured after a three-month-long attack by the Yugoslav army (JNA) and Serb rebels.

After its fall, about 22,000 non-Serbs were expelled, and about 350 people from the Vukovar region are still reported missing.

Zagreb had wanted the ICJ judges to order Belgrade to pay compensation.

Belgrade responded with a counter-suit in 2010, saying about 200,000 ethnic Serbs were forced to flee when Croatia launched a military operation to retake its territory in 1995.

Following Zagreb's counter-offensive, called Operation Storm, the proportion of ethnic Serbs in Croatia shrank from 12 percent to four percent.

Belgrade was outraged in 2012 when Operation Storm's Croatian military commander, Ante Gotovina, was acquitted on appeal before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"The irony is that Croatia... which with its forceful separatism, triggered an avalanche of the horrid civil war in the former Yugoslavia, is accusing someone else of genocide," Serbia said in a statement as the case was being heard last year.

So far the ICJ, which rules in disputes between states, has recognized only one genocide case since opening its doors in 1946.

Genocide is the most serious of international crimes but also the hardest to prove.

In 2007 the court ruled that genocide had taken place in 1995, at Srebrenica in neighboring Bosnia, when almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered and their bodies dumped in mass graves by Bosnian Serb troops that overran a U.N.-protected enclave.

The decisions in the current case, which was heard in March last year, were reached by a 17-judge bench.

Both Belgrade and Zagreb had said ahead of the verdict that they would accept the ruling.

Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic had said that Zagreb's main goal was to "present what happened in the war and that was aggression against Croatia".

Serbia's Dacic said on Sunday: "This will be one of perhaps the most important events for our bilateral relations with Croatia."

"It will probably be the end of a process that has lasted for 15-20 years (and) will put an end to both sides' fight to prove who the worst criminal is."

"Maybe we'll have an opportunity to leave the past behind and turn towards the future."

Related Article:

ICJ dismisses genocide claims by Serbia, Croatia

Grabar-Kitarovic: Croatia's first female president

Yahoo – AFP, 12 Jan 2015

Presidential candidate of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) Kolinda

 Grabar-Kitarovic votes at a polling station on the second run of the presidential

elections in Zagreb on Jaunary 11, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Zagreb (AFP) - Croatia's first female president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, is a moderate conservative who styles herself as "a woman of the people" and likes to joke that she is one of the few career diplomats who can milk a cow.

Before beating her incumbent rival Ivo Josipovic in a run-off vote on Sunday, the 46-year-old had held the posts of foreign minister, ambassador and NATO assistant secretary general.

"I never gave up my convictions and I still invest in the same values: homeland and family are my life choices," said Grabar-Kitarovic of the main opposition HDZ party.

An energetic politician with a gentle smile, Grabar-Kitarovic often emphasises that she is a country girl, who had a happy childhood being raised in a modest butcher's family.

She was born in a village in the hinterland of the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka.

"My mum is my hero. She is the one who nurtured my ambitions," the former top diplomat said.

Her rural past has left her with manual labour skills of which she is proud.

"I'm probably the only woman in NATO who knows how to milk a cow," she has joked.

Grabar-Kitarovic graduated in English and Spanish at Zagreb University before obtaining a masters degree in political science.

She joined the conservative HDZ in the 1990s and was the European affairs and foreign minister from 2003 to 2008. After that she became Croatia's ambassador to the US until 2011 during which time she was named NATO assistant secretary general for public diplomacy, becoming the first woman to fill that post.

Grabar-Kitarovic, praised for her eloquence and firm debating, represents moderates within HDZ.

During the campaign she said she would support a potential gay choice of her child and legalise medical marijuana. A staunch Catholic, Grabar-Kitarovic has also said she respects a women's right to choose regarding the abortion issue.

Fashion experts here have often criticised Grabar-Kitarovic over her rather tight outfits, her hair tied up in a chignon and the false lashes she does not want to give up.

"These are secondary things ... Appearance is important, but instead of remembering one's hairstyle people will rather remember one's smile that opens all the doors," the radiant blonde told a local weekly.

Grabar-Kitarovic has a daughter and a son, and describes her husband as a "professional dad".

Pope Francis marks 100 years since start of World War I

The head of the Catholic Church has used a ceremony to mark the outbreak of World War I 100 years ago to warn about a kind of "third war" being fought today. Pope Francis also denounced those who profit from conflict.

Deutsche Welle, 13 Sep 2014

Pope Francis on Saturday called for stronger collective action by the international community to prevent war and terrorism. Speaking at a cemetery in Redipuglia, near Italy's border with Slovenia, the pope didn't point to any single nation or leader, but warned that less visible forces created the conditions for military conflict.

"In today's world, behind the scenes, there are interests, geopolitical strategies, lust for money and power, and there is the manufacture and sale of arms," he told a crowd of thousands at the graveyard, where more than 100,000 Italian soldiers who died in World War I are buried.

"Even today, after the second failure of another world war, perhaps one can speak of a third war: one fought piecemeal, with crimes, massacres, destruction," the pontiff said.

"The shadow of Cain hangs over us today in this cemetery. It is seen here. It is seen from 1914 right up to our own time. It is seen even in the present," he added.

The trip to the cemetery was thought to be infused with personal meaning for the pope, whose grandfather fought for Italy in nearby battlefields in the last two years of World War I.

An estimated 200,000 Roman Catholics, mainly from Italy, Slovenia and Croatia attended Saturday's ceremony, according to Vatican Radio.

pfd/nm (AFP, AP, epd)

Croatian Fans Saddened After World Cup Brazil Match

Jakarta Globe – AFP,  Jun 13, 2014

Referee Yuichi Nishimura, center, of Japan gestures for a penalty during the 2014
 World Cup opening match between Brazil and Croatia at the Corinthians arena in
Sao Paulo on June 12, 2014. Brazil defeated Croatia 3-1. (Reuters Photo/Murad Sezer)

Zagreb. Croatian fans were saddened and disappointed after their national team, known as the ‘Fiery Ones’ (Vatreni), was defeated 3-1 in the World Cup opening match by hosts Brazil late Thursday.

Thousands of fans watched the match on cafe terraces in towns and cities across Croatia. A thunderstorm that hit the Croatian capital just before the match chased away many fans, but thousands of supporters still gathered at the Zagreb’s main square.

Nearly all were dressed in Croatia’s distinctive red and white squared shirts as they watched the match on a 52-square-meter screen above an improvised stage.

“It’s a pity, the referee ruined us!” said a bitter Goran Vlahic, 28, as he was leaving the square with his girlfriend.

He was referring to Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura’s highly dubious decision to award a penalty in the second half after Fred backed into Croatian defender Dejan Lovren and fell over.

Vlahic echoed the view of many fans, and national team coach Niko KOvac included, that the referee was making “bizarre decisions” to Croatia’s detriment.

“If that was a penalty then we should not play football anymore!” Kovac told Croatian state-run HRT television.

“It’s shameful. We did our best… I’m disappointed,” he emphasized.

The Croatian papers labelled the clash the “biggest match in Croatia’s history” and the whole country has been gripped by World Cup fever.

Cafes have installed new TV screens on terraces and been redecorated in red and white chequerboard patterns. There were live broadcasts in the main squares of big towns and cities.

Giant posters of the Croatian team stare out from shop windows in the capital Zagreb, especially midfielder Luka Modric and striker Mario Manduzkic. Many shopkeepers also wore red-and-white jerseys.

World Cup fueled patriotism is expected to lead to a 30 percent boost in alcohol sales.

Croatia needs a boost. The economy is entering a sixth year of recession, with unemployment topping 22 percent.

Using the 2008 European Championships, Croatia’s last appearance at a major football tournament, as a benchmark economists expect each match in Brazil to generate 50 million euros ($68 million).

That means the team’s three opening group matches will add an estimated 0.35 percent to annual output — and more if they progress into the later rounds.

The economic crisis means few Croatians have been able to make the pilgrimage to Brazil, but some 6,000 Croatian fans were at the opening match in Sao Paolo.

That has left authorities having to cater to huge crowds back home. In Zagreb’s main square up to two million people are expected to pass through a giant “Fan Zone” to watch the games over the next month.

Many in the country of 4.2 million are just glad to have some distraction from day-to-day economic worries.

“For small nations such as ours, these sports events provide an opportunity to show ourselves off to the world. We still remember the famous 1998 tournament when we showed that we can win against a mighty country like Germany,” said sociologist Suncica Bartoluci.

Croatia still have to play against Mexico and Cameroon.

Agence France-Presse

Catastrophic floods bring down Bosnia ethnic barriers

Yahoo – AFP, Rusmir Smajilhodzic, 20 May 2014

A photo shows houses over a ravine after a landslide occurred in the flooded

 village of Kosova, near the northern Bosnian city of Doboj, on May 19, 2014

(AFP Photo/Elvis Barukcic )

Zepce (Bosnie-Herzégovine) (AFP) - When Ibro Begic decided to tackle the hazardous mountain road to reach those stricken by record floods near his Bosnian town, he was also challenging deep ethnic divisions left over from the brutal conflict of the 1990s.

When news reached him last week that the Serb-populated town of Doboj had been inundated, Begic immediately called on 10 friends to put together a relief operation.

It was a generous move, made remarkable by the fact that Begic is a Bosnian Muslim and a former soldier who fought the Serbs during the country's horrific civil war between 1992 and 1995.

"During the war, we were in enemy armies," he told AFP. "But the war is history. Humanity is something else."

Villagers inspect damaged road after a

 landslide in the flooded village of Kosova,

 near the northern Bosnian city of Doboj,

 on May 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Elvis

Barukcic )

Having gathered supplies including milk, sheets and rubber boots, Begic set off along the mountain pass -- the only road still open to Doboj from his town of Tesanj in central Bosnia.

He says the response he received from the Serbs in Doboj, one of the worst-hit towns where at least 20 people have died or are missing from the floods, was immense gratitude mixed with "shock".

"God asks us all to help each other in need. I am certain that the Serbs would do the same," Begic said.

'A turning point'

It is certainly not the only instance in Bosnia where the difficult legacy of the war -- which has left the country politically divided between Serbs, Croats and Muslims -- was put to one side during the devastating flooding of the past week.

The small town of Zepce, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) further south from Tesanj, is mostly populated by Croats.

When a stream of Muslims began to arrive here from villages dotted around the region, few expected a warm welcome. The experience was a painful reminder of the war when tens of thousands were expelled from their homes by both Croats and Serbs.

But this time around, they were met with nothing but friendship.

A local high school gym in Zepce was ready to shelter the first group of evacuees from the Muslim village of Zeljezno Polje.

One of the villagers, Elvir Cizmic, a soldier during the war, told AFP: "Honestly, I did not expect such a solidarity. In just a few hours, people brought food, clothes and offered their homes to the families."

Around 30 to 40 people, mainly elderly women, were sheltering in the school when AFP visited, while dozens of young volunteers moved between them offering assistance.

"No one asked us for our name or our religion. They helped us in a way that I would not expect even from Muslims," Hanifa Masic, a 68-year-old evacuee, told AFP.

She hugged one of the young volunteers, a Croat called Ivana Grlic, who looked happy to help.

For Cizmic, the disaster marks a "turning point in relations between the three communities".

"I believe it will greatly help to regain trust between the people who had been pushed into the war," he said.

'Solidarity'

Like nothing else in the past two decades, the natural disaster has allowed people to ignore the divisive nationalism spouted by many of their political leaders.

Bosnian Hanifa Masic (2rd L), 68, from the village of Zeljezno Polje, is comforted

 by young volunteers at a refugee collective center in Zepce, after she lost her home

following a landslide in her village, on May 19, 2014 (AFP Photo/Elvis Barukcic )

Even Milorad Dodik, the fiercely nationalist president of the Bosnian Serb entity, had to express his gratitude to the Muslims who came to help their Serb neighbours in the northern town of Samac.

"I thank you on behalf of all residents of Samac to whom aid was brought by the (mainly Muslim) town of Gradacac, which provided inflatable boats and rescuers," Dodik said.

The compliment was returned by Edhem Camdzic, an Islamic mufti from the northern town of Banja Luka, who said he had come across an "honourable man, a Serb, who has been rescuing people with his inflatable boat regardless of their ethnicity" during a tour of Muslim villages.

"Amid this tragedy, I am so delighted to see this solidarity between people who generously helped each other," said Camdzic.

More than a quarter of Bosnia's 3.8 million population has been affected by the worst floods in a century.

The Bosnian war claimed some 100,000 lives and displaced two million people, almost half the country's pre-war population.

Related Articles:

Thousands flee floods in Bosnia and Serbia as death toll rises

Balkan floods threaten Serbia power plant on River Sava