President Sacks Staff Member after Croatia Independence Comment

The President of Croatia Ivo Josipović has sacked his chief analyst Dejan Jović after he claimed that the referendum to decide Croatia’s independence in 1991 was non-liberal and anti-democratic…

“I stated yesterday that I absolutely disagreed with such statement. It is a wrongful and detrimental statement and therefore I decided to relieve Jović of his duty,” Josipović said on Thursday.

Jović recently stated in a journal published by the Zagreb-based Faculty of Political Science that referenda for independence of republics from the former Socialist Yugoslavia, except Montenegro’s referendum on independence from Serbia in 2006, were rather non-liberal.

“There was not much freedom. And there is no freedom either nowadays. Aggressiveness and violence were main characteristics of our referenda on independence”, the former chief analyst said.

A massive 93% of voters voted in favour of Croatia becoming independent at a referendum held on 19 May 1991.