Graffiti

In the course of my perambulations in Šibenik I encountered graffiti reading Anto. This refers to the Croatian commander Ante Gotovina who participated in the 84-hour blitzkrieg operation that drove the rebels out of the Krajina in 1995. Krajina means borderland, but in this instance refers to the hinterland of mid-Croatia near the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatian Serbs in the Krajina set up a breakaway state here in 1991. They, with the Serbian dominated JNA forces, and Serbian paramilitaries menaced Croatian cities on the coast including Šibenik and Zadar. Šibenik was shelled for 6 days in September 1991 but managed to hold out. Many buildings were damaged, including the cathedral. The damage has since been repaired.


All this is by way of explaining why even though Anto was arrested in the Canaries in 2005 and is now on trial in the Hague for the human rights violations in the wake of Croatia's recapture of the Krajina and other territories, opinion about him in Croatia is divided. Many Croats regard him as a hero for recovering lost territory and that he did not plan nor was responsible for the ensuing retaliations on Serbs in the breakaway areas. No doubt he has had help hiding out for years before his capture. And since this region of mid-Croatia has actually suffered from enemy attack, feelings still run strong here as the writing on the wall showed.