From ally to enemy: Slovenia (2)

The dispute between Croatia and Slovenia over the Bay of Piran is not been solved yet. On the contrary, the relationship between the former Yugoslav republics worsens by the day. About a month ago Slovenia blocked Croatia's advancement towards EU-membership and Slovenia hasn't budged yet. Slovenian prime minister Borut Pahor said yesterday that his country will not yield to pressure from Zagreb or Brussels.
Croatian president Mesić responded in a way that is not untypical for him. He said that if there had not been Croatian partisans the Slovenes would be looking at the sea from a twenty kilometer distance, referring to the fact that Croatian partisans liberated Istria and the Slovenian coast. Out of 60.000 soldiers of the Fourth Yugoslav Army, almost 40.000 were Croats.
Slovenian politicians were, of course, not amused with Mesić's remark. "Scandalous", is the general political opinion. One historian said that it is regrettable that Mesić destroyed the Slovenian and Croatian brotherhood that existed during the war.
That brotherhood is long gone. Almost half of the Slovenes would now vote against Croatian EU-membership in a referendum. Slovenia threatens to organize a referendum if the border issue is not resolved to its satisfaction.
The satirical show Laku noć, Hrvatska (Good night, Croatia) mocked Mesić and the partisans in one of its sketches. We see how Mesić finds a strategy to kill Italians after Tito's complaint that the partisans didn't shoot a single Italian yet. If I heard it well, Mesić says that Italians are as naive as Albanians, using the derogatory term "Shiptar" but then changes the word into "šiperica" - a flapper. But I am not quite sure about that, so help from a native speaker is appreciated.

Croatia at the helm

Croatia is enjoying its 15 minutes of fame as it presides this month over the UN Security Council. The honour of leading the most powerful (officially) and most divided (obviously) council in the world has sparked a lively debate here about the topics that Croatia should put on the Council's agenda. I suspect the same debate kept Costa Rica busy when it took the presidency last November.
Croatia's president Stipe Mesić addressed the Council today. He said that the world in the 1990s had failed to understand how dangerous Milošević's politics were and warned the world now ignores the danger that comes from Milorad Dodik. Dodik is Prime Minister of the Republika Sprska, one of the two entities that make up Bosnia. Mesić accused Dodik, not for the first time, of destroying Bosnia.
It must be said that Mesić has always defended the unity of Bosnia, not only against Dodik but also against former Croatian president Tuđman, who would have been most happy to cut out a part of Bosnia and add it to Croatia. I don't know, on the other hand, whether keeping people in one state against their will is a smart strategy for the long term.
Even if Bosnia will get back on the UN Security Council's agenda, I doubt that will do much to easy tensions. After all, Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence left the Council as devided as Bosnia is already.