On Tuesday, April 6th, an unknown person or group published the controversial list of participants in the Croatian War of Independence.

The list was kept secret by the Croatian government, claiming its publishing would be illegal. The infamous document contains the information on about half a million Croatian defenders. The number of participants in the war and their identity is a topic of great debate in Croatian politics, as allegedly many people on the list don’t belong there and weren’t actively participating in the defense of Croatia during the period between 1991 and 1995, but are using the rights and benefits given to the participants by the Croatian government. Although many politicians, including the Croatian president Ivo Josipović, as well as some of the participants in the war are requesting the list to be publicly available, the government refused to change the laws necessary for its “legal” publishing.

The news about the availability of the register was brought to attention by the Croatian media and spread quickly. The list isn’t complete, and lacks at least the data about the employees of the Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Judging by the comments, the available data is generally correct, with minor errors. I personally tried a query or two for certain people I knew were participating in the war, and it seems to be credible.

The Croatian government announced it will prosecute the individuals responsible.

Blocked by Croatian ISPs?

Currently, the list isn’t accessible from any of the major Croatian internet service providers. This could be possible due to the site’s host throttling the probably enormous traffic from Croatia, but also due to Croatia’s ISPs blocking the access to the website. No official information about this is available at the time of writing.

The website is accessible from other countries, including Slovenia, and can be accessed from Croatia by using a proxy.

Update (17:20) The website www.registarbranitelja.com currently seems to be inaccessible globally. Some proxy sites do display the homepage from cache, but not the search page, probably due to its dynamic nature.

Update (18:15) The website’s hosting company, InvisiHosting LLC, said to the Croatian news portal Vecernji.hr they don’t have any plans of disclosing the identity of the author. They also said their servers are currently struggling with the high traffic and demand, and that it should be accessible soon. The website still isn’t accessible from Croatia, but it can be accessed through proxys and relays such as Tor.

The website is accessible through relays such as the Tor network

Marko Rakar in jail?

Not long after the list went public, someone mentioned the name of the famous Croatian blogger and politics consultant Marko Rakar – Mrak, claiming he was involved in the publishing of the list. Mrak is the editor of the collaborative blog Pollitika, one of the largest communities in Croatia, and was responsible for making the Croatian voters list publicly available due to certain cases of dead people voting in elections. He voluntarily went to the police as he assumed he’d probably be the first place they’d investigate, and by the recent news from his attorney, is being held in custody for unknown reasons.

Marko Rakar should be released from custody during the evening.

Update Mrak was released from custody. His home and office were searched by the police.

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