Croatia May Offer Holidays Behind Bars

[Ivo Skoric]

This unique tourist offer is in sync with x-treme tourist demands.
Maybe Modric should get in touch with NBC or CBS and put the next
Survivor show up on the Naked Island. Fear Factor Croatia. Reality TV
material for sure.

"Weaker inmates would carry out light toil, while fitter inmates
would 'kill themselves' with work in the sun during the day and spend
the night in solitary confinement," Modric said. I hope just he'd be
careful not to exceed the price of a regular gym membership for the
opportunity to kill ourselves in the sun...

ivo

------- Forwarded message follows -------
 Croatia May Offer Holidays Behind Bars

Wed Nov 17, 7:56 AM ET

By EUGENE BRCIC, Associated Press Writer

ZAGREB, Croatia - Croatia may reopen its most notorious communist-era
prison for tourists willing to part with their money to re-enact the
life of a political prisoner — including hard labor, stale food and
nights in solitary confinement.

The plan has the support of some local officials and even former
inmates, who have offered to work as tour guides, though the city
council has yet to make a final decision.

"If you want to experience some of the torture that political
prisoners underwent ... just come along," said Josip Modric, an
architect who is promoting the project.

Modric envisions tourists being issued convict uniforms, pounding
large stones with a sledgehammer and hauling the pieces on their
backs to quarries around the prison on Goli Otok, a barren island in
the northern Adriatic Sea.

Those who sign up would be given written awards after completing
their "prison sentence."

Goli Otok — which means Naked Island — was a miniature gulag set
up by Yugoslavia's communist dictator Josip Broz Tito after World War
II. It housed 3,000 inmates at its height but has been derelict since
its closure in 1989.

To bring in tourists, Modric wants to build a gondola connecting the
mainland to Goli Otok and a smaller neighboring island that served as
a political prison for women.

Local officials have expressed interest but say they are unsure how
well a vacation from hell will sell.

"How avant-garde or realistic this idea is remains to be further
analyzed," said the head of the district's tourism office, Alen
Andreskic.

A final decision was expected within a few weeks.

Modric insisted he would offer gluttons for punishment only as much
as they could take — with plenty of expert supervision.

"Weaker inmates would carry out light toil, while fitter inmates
would 'kill themselves' with work in the sun during the day and spend
the night in solitary confinement," Modric said.

"Of course, unlike real prisoners, nobody would be tortured."

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Ivo Skoric
19 Baxter Street
Rutland VT 05701
802.775.7257
ivo at balkansnet.org
balkansnet.org