Casualties Overview

Details and trends

Croatia reported six mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties for 2011.[1] All casualties were male; there were four casualties among deminers. Seven antipersonnel mine casualties were reported for both 2010 and 2009, including three casualties among deminers in each year.[2] The annual casualty rate continuously decreased from 2004 to the end of 2011.[3]

The Croatian Mine Action Center (CROMAC) has reported at least 1,933 mine/ERW casualties between 1991 and the end of 2011 (504 people were killed and 1,429 injured).[4]

Cluster munition casualties

In 2011, there were no new casualties from cluster munitions remnants in Croatia.[5] Between 1993 and 1995, at least 206 casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes in Croatia. CROMAC recorded 32 casualties from incidents involving unexploded submunitions between 1993 and 2007.[6]

Victim Assistance

Croatia is responsible for mine survivors, cluster munition victims, and other ERW survivors.

As of the end of 2011, the total number of mine/ERW survivors in Croatia was at least 1,429.

Victim assistance since 1999[7]

Health and social services in Croatia function largely on national capacity and were considered sufficient, with relatively strong medical and rehabilitation infrastructure in the cities and social insurance covering most healthcare costs. However, quality, accessibility and affordability remained key issues, particularly for physical rehabilitation.

While some areas of victim assistance improved since 1999, until 2010 a lack of political will interfered with progress on the government’s implementation of victim assistance plans. Since 2006, CROMAC has been responsible for coordinating victim assistance, in cooperation with other government ministries and NGOs. The first coordination group was established in 2010. Since October 2007, the local NGO MineAid had requested support to undertake a survivor needs assessment as part of a larger victim assistance program. Due to MineAid advocacy, a multi-sectoral project to create a unified casualty database for needs assessment was initiated in 2010 and continued into 2012.

High unemployment among survivors worsened as a result of the global economic slowdown. Psychosocial support remained inadequate because of the general public and professionals’ lack of knowledge about this issue and a lack of community involvement. Peer support through NGOs increased since 2008. Awareness of disability rights slowly improved among survivors and the general public, but existing disability legislation was not consistently implemented.

Victim Assistance in 2011

There were no major changes in the quality of victim assistance services in 2011. Work on a unified database of mine casualties continued. MineAid continued to provide victim assistance services including psychological support. A report from a survey of 400 mine/ERW survivors was released that revealed some grave problems with the state of victim assistance, but also showed some recent improvements in informing survivors of their rights.

Assessing victim assistance needs

The process of integrating existing data held by the National Institute of Public Health, the Ministry of Interior, and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to create a unified database of mine survivors continued into 2012. In 2010, CROMAC had begun the process of integrating the existing collected data; the victim assistance coordination group prepared to share information for a unified database by creating an “Agreement on Cooperation in the development and exchange of data collection on ERW victims on mined, mine suspected and shelled areas in Croatia.”[8]

The database was being prepared by the Croatian National Institute of Public Health and was then to be maintained by CROMAC. It was to contain the following categories of data: personal data; mine incident; information on the status and degree of disability; rights obtained; and information about the education, occupation, employment and family members of landmine survivors. The database was expected to allow for improved monitoring of rehabilitation and reintegration of mine survivors into the society.[9]

The Croatian Registry of Persons with Disabilities maintains a database with 3,065 people living with disabilities who have been registered using an international classification; this database also indicates whether the injury was caused by war or explosives. Information through 2009 is included. The Ministry of Family, Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity maintains data on injured deminers.[10]

In December 2011, the Association for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities, together with the Center for Peace Studies and Karlovac County Mine Victims Association (Udruga Žrtava Mina Karlovačke Županije, KUZM), completed the survivor survey project “Twenty years later, Croatia – victims of landmines: where they are, what they are doing and what they need.” The survey, which started in October 2010, aimed to define the situation and needs of survivors. A market research agency conducted computer-assisted telephone interviews with 400 survivors and family members throughout Croatia. [11]

Victim assistance coordination[12]

The National Coordinating Body for Helping Mine and UXO Victims (Coordinating Body) was established in 2010 with 19 members including five NGOs. CROMAC is responsible for management of the Coordinating Body. Its main task is to make the victim assistance system in Croatia sustainable.[13] The Croatian Action Plan to Help Victims of Mine and UXO 2010-2014 was developed based on the Cartagena Action Plan and Vientiane Action Plan. Its main goal is to improve the quality of life of survivors, families of the survivors, and of people killed by mines and ERW. The Action Plan establishes objectives in six thematic areas: understanding the problem faced; emergency and further medical care; physical rehabilitation; psychosocial support; economic integration; laws and public policies. For each thematic area, the Action Plan presents the existing situation as a baseline along with goals and plans to achieve them by 2014, as well as sources of funding.[14]

Croatia provided detailed reporting on casualty data, as well as government and NGO victim assistance activities in Form J of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2011.[15] Some basic information on victim assistance was reported in Form H of Croatia’s Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report for 2011.[16] Victim assistance was also mentioned in CCW Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and CCW Protocol V reporting.[17] Croatia gave updates on victim assistance at the Convention on Cluster Munitions intersessional meeting and the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee Meetings in April and May 2012, at the Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut in September 2011, and at the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in December 2011.[18]

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

Croatia reported that the extent to which survivors were included in drafting action plans or implementing victim assistance was “variable.”[19] Previously it reported that survivors “are participants of all government and non-government bodies but too often their participation is a tokenism.”[20] Survivors were involved in planning and implementation of peer-to-peer, psychological support, and economic inclusion services through national and local NGOs.[21]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[22]

Croatia has a well-structured health and social welfare system, but its services are not always equally available to all survivors.[23] The 2011 survivor survey found that only 19% of survivors reported living in areas with facilities which provided them with adequate care.[24]

Basic assistance, from first-aid to informing all survivors and their families about their rights, was generally provided through government institutions. [25] As a result of years of lobbying by MineAid, in 2011, CROMAC began visiting survivors in hospitals to inform them of rights and services, following the publication of a comprehensive service directory.[26] In 2010, an integrated medical team for immediate psychological support and referral was formed.[27]

A second edition of the brochure and service directory on rights and opportunities for people with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, produced in 2010, was reprinted in 2011 in cooperation with MineAid and with the support of the Ministry of Health and Sisak-Moslavina County. It was widely distributed locally and nationally.[28]

Availability of prosthetic and orthotic as well as rehabilitation facilities in Croatia has been reported to be adequate. The Croatian Institute for Health Insurance should cover the costs of “very basic” orthopedic aids for survivors. Survivors often reported that the quality and/or frequency of orthopedic devices that they received were inadequate.[29]

The Ministry of Family, Veterans and Intergenerational Solidarity operated centers for psychosocial assistance in all 20 counties of the Republic of Croatia and the city of Zagreb to assist all people with disabilities including mine/ERW survivors and members of casualties’ families.[30] Croatia continued to report that the centers for psychosocial assistance are often understaffed and underfinanced or without programs to ensure the provision of adequate and timely services.[31] It also was reported that the government centers for psychological support existed only on paper. The only regular, ongoing and adequate psychological support service was provided by MineAid in Sisak.[32]

MineAid continued to address the needs and lack of appropriate services identified by mine/ERW survivors in past years. It provided psychological support groups for adults and children; visits by social workers to implement tailored, individual plans for improving health, education or social inclusion; and financial assistance for living needs as well as support to the development of small business plans.[33]

In 2011, it was reported that civilian victims were mostly not able to access their rights through the existing system. Mine survivors had often been told immediately after the incident that they were to blame and that the area had been marked, even if no warning signs were visible. This made it extremely difficult for survivors to access compensation through the court system. In addition, the act of blaming the survivors while they were still in hospital recovering had continuing psychological consequences.[34]

As in the past, Croatia reported that it has a highly developed legal framework with over 200 laws and by-laws relating to the rights and status of persons with disabilities, including mine survivors.[35] However, Croatia also reported that although survivors’ rights are regulated by numerous laws and regulations, the “on the ground reality” does not always follow the legislation.[36] The 2011 survey found that lack of coordination between service providers was problematic for survivors. A third of survivors surveyed reported that state institutions were insufficiently engaged in the issues of mine survivors. Almost 90% of survivor respondents said they faced some level of discrimination due to their disability.[37]

In 2011, the European Commission (EC) found that the criteria for establishing entitlements for persons with disabilities in Croatia were not applied equally and that “legislation regulating specific rights remained fragmented.” Information was lacking on rights and entitlements in the areas of social welfare, health care and pension insurance.[38] Survivors reported that current legislation did not match reality and there was no legal option for increasing the status of a survivor’s disability legal status, even in the case that they became more disabled with other health problems or amputations, for example. It often took years for survivors to complete the bureaucratic procedures to access their legal rights and benefits and many did not know about their options. Only 20% of survivors surveyed in 2011 said that they were fully informed about their rights.[39]

The office of the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities was further strengthened in 2011.[40] Employment quotas for persons with disabilities in the public sector, contained within the Professional Rehabilitation and Employment Act, were not met in 2011. However, marginalization of persons with disabilities was worse in the private sector, where employers lacked information on the incentives available to encourage the employment of persons with disabilities.[41] In 2011, it was reported that exemptions from transportation fees under the “Law on the Protection of Military and Civilian Homeland War Invalids” were no longer applied.[42]

Croatia ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 15 August 2007.