Whose Interests Are Served by Calling the Gospić Protest Anti-Croatian?

The central question, the article argues, is why a legitimate and necessary civic uprising is being discredited as “anti-Croatian.”

The comparison reaches back 35 years, to the attack on Gospić. Shelling continued for days, nights and years, destroying the city street by street and house by house. Residents defended it in the first days before buses carrying defenders arrived from Rijeka, Zagorje, Zagreb, Slavonia, Istria and the islands.

Now, the citizen initiative Gospić je naš dom is invoking that history in a call for renewed public action. It urged people across Croatia to join a march for Lika on Sept. 5 and pressure the authorities to remove dangerous waste from the area and from its karst underground.

The initiative says the waste poses a serious threat of contaminating soil and water. Its appeal uses the language of defending home and country: “Thirty-five years later, we are defending our home again. For all Gospić and all Lika. For Croatia.”

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Thirty-five years later, we are defending our home again. For all Gospić and all Lika. For Croatia.