Herzegovina lobby

The Herzegovina lobby or Herzegovinian lobby is composed of Croat emigrants from the Herzegovina region of Bosnia and Herzegovina who seek to influence the foreign policy of Croatia. The lobby helped fund Croatia's war-time president Franjo Tuđman, his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) political party, and his involvement in the Bosnian War, during which the lobby openly advocated annexing Herzegovina.^[1] It continues to play a factor in contemporary Croatian politics^[2] and has become the most powerful lobby in Croatia.^[3]

During the Bosnian War, Croats in Herzegovina, were more interested in unifying with Croatia than being a part of an independent Bosniak-dominated Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to the strength of the Herzegovina lobby in Zagreb, moderate Bosnian Croats were mostly ineffective in influencing Croatian foreign policy on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many extremists from Herzegovina served in the Croatian police force and to participate in skirmishes with Serbs.^[1] By late 1991 about 20,000 Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly from the Herzegovina region, enlisted in the Croatian National Guard.^[4]

The Herzegovina lobby's bonding in Croatia began with Tuđman's ouster of Stjepan Kljuić, the moderate and independent elected leader of the Bosnian branch of the HDZ, and replacement with Mate Boban.^[5][6][7] Boban, who favored Croatia to annex Croat-inhabited parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina,^[8][9] was in charge of advancing the lobby's agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[10] A rift existed in the HDZ between Croats from ethnically mixed areas of central and northern Bosnia and those from Herzegovina.^[11] After Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina gained the ability to vote in Croatia's elections they played a growing role in the country's politics.^[1] The approximately 365,000 Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina consistently voted for the HDZ.^[12] In the 1994 elections, the Croatian diaspora received twelve to fourteen of the 164 seats in the Croatian Parliament, significantly larger than its share of Croatia's population.^[1] The lobby was accused of behaving in a Mafia-like manner due to their corruption and violence in Croatia.^[13]

Gojko Šušak, who believed in a Greater Croatia,^[2] played an vital role in funding the HDZ.^[14] He was considered the leader of the Herzegovina lobby^[15][16] and was "adept at tapping the purses of the tight-knit Herzegovinian community in the Americas, delivering millions of dollars worth of contributions to Tuđman's campaign." He provided the HDZ a critical advantage over the political opposition and for his efforts became the Croatian Minister of Defence.^[17] Several other top positions within the HDZ government were also secured.^[18] In his position he protected and promoted generals from Herzegovina in the Croatian Army^[19] and acted as a "conduit" of Croatian support for Croat separatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[20] At its peak the amount of money from Croatia that funded the Croatian Defence Council surpassed $500,000 per day.^[21] After Šušak's death in 1998, Ivić Pašalić took over as head of the lobby.^[22] By 2000, about 300 million euros were transferred by the Croatian government into Herzegovina each year, mostly from the budget of the Ministries of Defence, Reconstruction, and Social Affairs.^[23]

Notes

1. Saideman & Ayres 2012, pp. 64-6.
2. Toal & Dahlman 2011, p. 63.
3. Cvijetić 31 January 2000.
4. Hockenos 2003, pp. 91-2.
5. Lampe 2000, p. 376.
6. Gow 1997, p. 82.
7. Toal & Dahlman 2011, p. 68.
8. Ramet 2006, p. 343.
9. Tanner 2001, p. 286.
10. Toal & Dahlman 2011, p. 103.
11. Hockenos 2003, p. 92.
12. Bellamy 2003, p. 73.
13. Bellamy 2003, p. 93.
14. Søberg 2007, p. 59.
15. Kifner 3 January 1994.
16. Hedl 16 November 2005.
17. Saideman & Ayres 2012, p. 64.
18. Bellamy 2003, p. 72.
19. Lukić 2008, p. 208.
20. Hoare 2010, p. 128.
21. Ramet 2010, p. 265.
22. BBC 11 December 1999.
23. Grandits 2016, pp. 107-8.

References

• Bellamy, Alex J. (2003). The Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-old Dream. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-6502-6.
• Burg, Steven L.; Shoup, Paul S. (1999). The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-3189-3.
• Change in the Offing: The Shifting Political Scene in Croatia (PDF) (Report). International Crisis Group. 14 December 1998.
• Cvijetić, Saša (31 January 2000). "Coffee With the President". Central Europe Review 2 (4).
• Gow, James (1997). Triumph of the Lack of Will: International Diplomacy and the Yugoslav War. London: C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 9781850652083.
• Grandits, Hannes (2016). "The Power of 'Armchair Politicians': Ethnic Loyalty and Political Factionalism among Herzegovinian Croats". In Bougarel, Xavier; Helms, Elissa; Duijzings, Gerlachlus. The New Bosnian Mosaic: Identities, Memories and Moral Claims in a Post-War Society. London: Routledge. pp. 101–122. ISBN 9781317023081.
• Hedl, Dragutin (16 November 2005). "The President In Hospital, Croatia On The Eve Of Elections". Institute for War & Peace Reporting.
• Hoare, Marko Attila (2010). "The War of Yugoslav Succession". In Ramet, Sabrina P. Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 111–136. ISBN 978-1-139-48750-4.
• Hockenos, Paul (2003). Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism and the Balkan Wars. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4158-5.
• Kifner, John (3 January 1994). "Croatia Threatens Direct Military Intervention in Bosnian Fighting". The New York Times.
• Lukić, Reneo (2008). "Civil-Military Relations in Croatia, 1990-2005". In Ramet, Sabrina P.; Clewing, Konrad; Lukić, Reneo. Croatia since Independence: War, Politics, Society, Foreign Relations. Munich: Oldenbourg. pp. 189–210. ISBN 978-3-48658-043-3.
• Lampe, John R. (2000) [1996]. Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country (2 ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77401-7.
• Saideman, Stephen M.; Ayres, R. William (2012). For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism, and War. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231514491.
• Søberg, Marius (2007). "Croatia since 1989: The HDZ and the Politics of Transition". In Ramet, Sabrina P.; Matić, Davorka. Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education, and Media. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. pp. 31–62. ISBN 978-1-60344-452-1.
• Toal, Gerard; Dahlman, Carl T. (2011). Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and Its Reversal. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973036-0.
• "Who will lead Croatia after Tudjman?". BBC. 11 December 1999.