The following problems were reported: "political influence and a severe backlog of cases in the courts, intimidation of witnesses in domestic war crimes trials, several partially in absentia trials against large groups for war crimes, unresolved restitution of nationalized property for all religious communities, incidents of societal violence and harassment of religious minorities, trafficking in persons, violence and discrimination against women, and violence and discrimination toward ethnic minorities, particularly Serbs and Roma".
In 2005, the Croatian government "demonstrated increased willingness to prosecute war crimes committed by ethnic Croats and increased its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), including initiating an interagency action plan to locate and transfer Ante Gotovina, one of the most wanted ICTY indictees, to The Hague". Gotovina was arrested in December and immediately transferred to the ICTY.
According to the report, "the judiciary continued to suffer from some political influence and a backlog of approximately 1.6 million cases. In a November 9 progress report on the country, the European Commission noted that the judiciary was one of the main areas where corruption was perceived by the public."
The State Department also quoted the OSCE as reporting "that courts reached decisions in a total of 21 war crimes cases, convicting 13 persons (12 Serbs and 1 Croat). The courts acquitted 5 persons (4 Croats and 1 Serb) and dropped charges against 4 Serbs at trial (including convicting defendants on reduced charges, then amnestying them). Approximately 60 percent of all defendants were tried in absentia; 75 percent of those were Serbs."
"Many observers questioned the impartiality of trials in the jurisdiction where war crimes occurred, since judges, prosecutors, and witnesses may be more exposed to external influences there. Courts trying domestic war crimes continued to display bias toward defendants based on their ethnic origin, although the OSCE noted that Serb defendants had a better chance of receiving a fair trial than in the past," it added.
Regarding the number of returns, the State Department also quoted excerpts from the OSCE report for 2004.
According to the OSCE, a majority of Serbs who wanted to come back have already returned to Croatia.
However, "observers continued to note that fear of arrest among ethnic Serbs for war crimes, often based on weak evidence, dissuaded some refugees from returning. The state prosecutor continued to review the list of war crimes suspects to address this concern," the report says.
In addition, "the ability of refugees to return to the country was hampered by limited access to housing, slow resolution of some bureaucratic obstacles, and lack of employment opportunities."
However, repossession and reconstruction of Serb houses were well under way.
As regards the Roma, discrimination against them continued. Members of this ethnic minority face a series of obstacles including language barriers, lack of education, high unemployment and problems to acquire Croatian citizenship.
For instance, "Romani children faced serious obstacles to continuing their education, including discrimination in schools and a lack of family support. An estimated 10 percent of Romani children began primary school, and only approximately 10 percent of these went on to secondary school," the State Department report says.
Zagreb is planning to invest about 62.5 million kuna in the next ten years to improve the position of the Roma minority.
The section subtitled "Freedom of Speech and Press" reads that "the law provides for freedom of speech and the press; however, government officials occasionally interfered with the media and attempted to influence national television (whose acronym is HTV)."
"In November, HTV management removed Tihomir Ladisic, one of two anchors of the popular political talk show, Otvoreno. The press reported that Ladisic's removal was motivated by a program, which he had edited and anchored, that spoke openly about the role of Croatian military forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina", the report says.
It goes on to say that "in December members of parliament debated a December 12 television talk show on the legacy of former president Tudjman. Members of the ruling parties attacked the program as anti-Croatian, and the parliament conveyed its dissatisfaction by refusing to approve HRT's annual report."