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LOCATION :
Crescent-shaped country between the
Danube River and Adriatic Sea. The Land is almost bisected by
Bosnia.
Over 1600
years of Great Power rivalries lie behind the division between the
related Croat and Serb peoples. Their mutual hatred dominated the
politics of the former Yugoslavia and was one of the causes of the
Balkan wars of the 1990s. Croatia lost much land to Serbia in
1991-1995, but regained it all through diplomacy and war 1995-1998.
A multi-party democracy, but it has been tainted by dictatorial
nationalism. Freedom of religion, but there is a blurred boundary
between the state and the favoured Catholic church. Yet the Catholic
leadership has been at the forefront of reconciliation and justice
issues. The capital is Zagreb and the population 4,472,600 (in year
2000) Slavic 94.5%, Romance 3.1% and other 2.4%. Official language,
Croatian; closely related to Serbian but written in Latin, rather
than Cyrillic, script.
People Groups :
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