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Post by Laura on Sept 17, 2003 21:20:05 GMT
Hello,
I found this message board while searching the internet for contacts with Croatian ex-patriates living in Britain, and wonder whether anyone out there can help me! I am a student at Cambridge University and am currently researching for a dissertation about the experiences of people who left the former Yugoslavia during the war.
I am especially interested in discussing the decisions which prompted people to leave, and I wonder whether anyone reading this might be willing to be interviewed for this project.
I understand that these are deeply sensitive issues and would be happy to discuss my work fully with anyone interested. I promise to treat all contributions sensitively and without prejudice. Contributors are under no obligation to say certain things, can remain anonymous as they choose, will be very welcome to see the final work and can withdraw at any point.
If you would be willing to talk about how you came to Britain, and what prompted you to leave Croatia, please do e-mail me for more details: lauramorley2003@yahoo.co.uk
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Post by Pushy Coup Rats on Sept 17, 2003 22:09:01 GMT
When someone is shooting at you it's usually advisable to get out of the way.
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Post by Laura on Sept 18, 2003 0:15:57 GMT
So was it the case that everyone left if they possibly could?
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Post by Desi on Sept 18, 2003 1:46:43 GMT
Do more research and then when you are ready come back Laura.
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Post by KK on Sept 18, 2003 8:56:59 GMT
When someone is shooting at you it's usually advisable to get out of the way. Is that something that often happens to you in Australia?
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Post by Pushy Coup Rats on Sept 18, 2003 9:09:09 GMT
I've never been to Australia in my life. Does it happen to you much in Zanzibar, majmune glupi?
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Post by Mirko on Sept 18, 2003 9:34:30 GMT
Very few Croats left Croatia during the war. Almost all stayed there to defend their country (actually many long term foreign residents returned to Croatia to do the same). But there are number of Bosnian Croats and Croatian Serbs, who came to the UK and stayed here.
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Post by Pushy Coup Rats on Sept 18, 2003 9:43:11 GMT
I go along with what Mirko said. My auntie and cousin came and stayed with us in 1991-1992 because the back of their flat faced the frontline and kept getting shot at... but all my other relatives stayed either to fight or because they were afraid someone would move into their property if they left. Some of my friends stayed to fight, though our generation was too young really to fight and die in 1991(many of them are finding normal life hard to cope with now, have problems with unemployment)... those who left went to places like Sweden and Germany, and they learnt the language and live there now as they are doing quite well. Only one friend came to the UK and he hated it.
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Post by Dalmatinski Srbin on Sept 18, 2003 10:48:06 GMT
laura, You can try and contact some people this way: www.bosnia.org.uk for the Bosnian institute as they have a lot of info on the whole of bosnia and www.serbiancafe.co.uk for opinions from Serbs as well I hope this helps Regards
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Post by Devils Advocate on Sept 18, 2003 11:02:46 GMT
We Croatians were ALL fascists, and Serbs were innocent victims. The people of Vukovar got what they deserved. There was no such thing as Greater Serbia, it was just poor Serb farmers protecting themselves... don't farmers in this country have tanks, artillery and fighter planes to protect themselves, too?
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Mira
Full Member
Posts: 91
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Post by Mira on Sept 18, 2003 12:17:29 GMT
I left Croatia years before the was started, but my family still lives in Eastern Croatia. During the war, they all stayed and when it got really bad, my parents arranged a contingency plan for my sister and brother to come and stay with me, which never came to fruition. They all wanted to stay at home and would not allow anybody to drive them out of their home. My uncle and aunt were refuges but never left Croatia. Evening living in another part of the country and not being allowed to live in their own home was terribly stressful and upsetting.
Most people that I know that were refuges were mothers with small children that went to Austria and Germany for a short period of time, but never to England. If my memory serves me right most refuges to England came from Bosnia and Kosovo.
Anyway, I agree with the comments before, you should have done more paper research before you started asking for this information, since if you had done that you would have know such facts as number of refuges that came to UK and their ethnic make up as well as some of the underline reasons for them leaving. After all, if somebody is pointing a gun at you. You have very few choices.
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Post by CueRack on Sept 18, 2003 13:55:03 GMT
Well I hope a few people managed to reply to Laura's request via email. It would be a such a shame that her opinion of Croats in the UK are not judged by the above opinions. I would've thought that in these circumtances, where people truly want to know, and learn, about our experiences then we'd give them all the information they need. Any opportunity for Croats to tell their side of the story should be welcome, not dismissed so foolishly with comments such as "do some more research"... My dear fellow Croats, is not Laura's request to you research in itself?
Laura, I'm sorry that I'm not able to reply to your request as my circumstances are quite different to those you are after. I do hope however that you managed to get some suitable information for your research.
Please also, ignore comments from such immature people like Dalmatinski Srbin and Devil's Advocate. The Croatian voice has for such a long time been tainted by the rantings of the propaganda war machine these two are slaves of.
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Post by Devils Advocate on Sept 18, 2003 14:57:19 GMT
Read my post again, then look up irony in a good dictionary
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marko
New Member
Posts: 0
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Post by marko on Sept 18, 2003 15:01:39 GMT
Dear Laura
Some Croats came to England during the war, but those were mainly from Bosnia ( big cosmopolitan centres), but also some from Croatia, again mainly from towns and large cities, such as Zagreb, Rijeka and Split.
The irony is that those who did not have the need to come ( were not persecuted or expelled from their homes) made it here and those who did have the need didn't make it.
For two reasons:
- lack of established Croatian community in the UK
- They were too poor to travel and have been memebers of the right-wing extremist groups such as HDZ, HSP and so on.
It is also worth remembering that most Croats from regions affected by war have been members of Ustasha movement during the Second World War and I don't think they would find England a friendly place. Germany and Austria are another matter altogether.
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Post by Pushy Coup Rats on Sept 18, 2003 15:40:56 GMT
"It is also worth remembering that most Croats from regions affected by war have been members of Ustasha movement during the Second World War and I don't think they would find England a friendly place. Germany and Austria are another matter altogether. "
WHat a load of bollocks
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