Boy Scouts Marcus Plaisance, far left, and Jacob Bennett, seated, watch as members of a Croatian Boy Scout troop, Marko Coza and Tino Krylic, explore the cannons at the Vicksburg National Military Park Monday. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[07/17/01] Oskar Polla’s life has forced him to think about secession, racial strife and battles between neighbors.

But Polla, 17, hadn’t heard of the American Civil War until he came to Vicksburg during the weekend.

Polla and nine other Boy Scouts from Croatia, a republic on the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe, toured the city en route to their organization’s national jamboree in Virginia. Along with Scouts from Vicksburg, Clinton and Baton Rouge, the Croats Monday looked through the Old Court House Museum, lunched at Walnut Hills and scampered along the ridges where Americans tried to kill each other 138 summers ago.

“I enjoyed listening about the Civil War,” Polla said, smiling at his almost-perfect English. “It was very interesting. It’s not something we’ve studied.”

Polla’s nation emerged in the early 1990s from the disintegration of Yugoslavia, a multi-ethnic land created by diplomats after World War I. The Serbs who controlled the Yugoslavian government tried to retain Croatia by force, leading to a civil war that horrified the world with reports of “ethnic cleansing.”

The Croatian Scouts are from Rijeka, a coastal city that the Serbs didn’t touch. “We were lucky,” said Alen Matejcic, a 29-year-old computer programmer who serves as the troop’s scoutmaster.

But the Croats aren’t about to embrace their former countrymen, Matejcic said.

“We fought a defensive war,” he said. “Both sides did bad things, but we were invaded.”

Studying the American Civil War, particularly in Vicksburg, should give the Croatian Scouts hope for their homeland, said Steve Elwart, a local assistant scoutmaster.

“It’s a positive message for their country,” Elwart said. “It shows that you can have a civil war but still thrive. They’re learning about peace and reunion.”

Still, although secession didn’t succeed here, the Lost Cause seemed to have found one adherent among the Croats. Leo Pavic, 13, bought a Confederate battle flag at the military park gift shop and brandished it around the battlefield.

“I like the flag a lot,” Pavic said. “It’s a lot prettier than the other (Union) flag.”

For all the similarities of their homelands’ pasts, the Scouts found topics other than history to talk about.

“They taught us how to say a lot of cool words,” said Joseph Miller, 15, a Scout from Baton Rouge. “I can’t tell you what most of them were.”

Khalid Ibrahim, 14, a Vicksburg Scout, said the Croats would be good additions to his troop.

“They’re cool because they’re different,” Ibrahim said. “They’re very organized and have such good manners.”

The Croatians are being sponsored in America by George Chalet, a Boy Scouts international representative from Baton Rouge. Chalet said he met Matejcic and his Scouts at an international jamboree in Holland in 1995. They met again at a jamboree in Chile in 1999 and arranged a trip to America.

Founded in 1910 in England, the Boy Scouts have affiliates in more than 100 nations.