Goli Otok was fear and trepidation for the citizens of Yugoslavia.
From 1948 to 1988, the islet near Rab, in today’s Croatia, was home to thousands of prisoners who came from every part of Yugoslavia.
When the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, and the President of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, “went to war”, Goli Otok was mostly “visited” by the supporters of Stalinism among the citizens of the former state.
However, there were also ‘ordinary’ prisoners, although in smaller numbers. Estimates say that as many as 16 thousand prisoners ended up on Goli Otok, and between 400 and 600 ended their lives on the island.
Since 1988, this island has been completely abandoned. According to the Croatian media, it is visited by about 100 thousand people a year, and the municipality of Rab organizes tours of this, as it is colloquially known, the Croatian Alcatraz.
Only sheep, which graze on parts of the island reforested by the prisoners as part of their punishment, now have a permanent home there, Radio Sarajevo reports.
E.Dz.
