Stjepan Vlahovich

Collecting Croatian textiles
 

"I love the fact that peasants, sometimes looked down upon as simple people, created such sophisticated work."

Stjepan Vlahovich

Short Biography:

Stjepan Vlahovich is a second generation Croatian-American whose Grandfather emigrated to the US from the Zumberak region of Croatia and settled in Cleveland. Mr. Vlahovich's interest in Croatian folk dress and textiles began during the eleven years he was a dancer and singer with Zivili, a Columbus-based ensemble that featured Croatian folk dances and songs in its repertoire. After retiring from Zivili, Mr. Vlahovich began collecting folk dress and textiles during annual trips to Croatia. He has visited there nineteen times.

Here's the more involved version of the story:

My interest in Croatian folk culture came from a desire to explore my family heritage. My Grandfather emigrated from the Zumberak region of Croatia to the United States in the late 19th century. He eventually settled in Cleveland, where my Father was born and raised. Although I have Croatian ancestry, I grew up in Washington, DC where I had virtually no contact with Croatian culture.
However, between my freshman and sophomore years at The Ohio State University, I visited Croatia for the first time. I was overwhelmed by the experience. After my return from that trip, I took as many college courses that related to Croatian history and literature as I could. By chance, I also took a folk dance class, which sparked an interest in folk dancing.
Several years after graduating from Ohio State, I became a dancer and singer with Zivili, a folk dance ensemble that was based in Columbus. The majority of Zivili's repertoire was from Croatia. I was with Zivili for eleven years and performed with them throughout Ohio and the Midwest, in New York City, at the Epcot Center, at the 1983 World's Fair in Knoxville, and in Croatia. Through my experience with Zivili, I had my first contact with Croatian folk dress and textiles.
In 1986, after retiring from Zivili, I began annual trips to Croatia. It was then that I started to assemble my collection of textiles. I started buying them because they were the most unusual and interesting things I saw in the market. I was attracted by their great beauty. I was drawn to their intricate designs, incredible use of color, and amazing variety.
My collection began very haphazardly. I just picked up the things I came across that attracted my attention. As my knowledge and interest evolved, I tried to be more systematic, seeking pieces from all over Croatia that represent the rich variety of materials, designs, and techniques used by Croatian women in their textile art. I love the fact that peasants, sometimes looked down upon as simple people, created such sophisticated work.

One thing I'd appreciate being known on your site is my interest in having exhibitions of materials from my collection at other places. (There have been three so far, all in Ohio.) As you will see when you receive the photos from Notre Dame College, I have collected some beautiful pieces that have a great deal of symbolic meaning. I would like for more people to be able to see and appreciate this wonderful Croatian textile artwork.

Let me know if you have any questions about this information. I look forward to chatting with you again some time.

Stjepan Vlahovich

A Croatian folk dress from Bizovac in Slavonija
 

Op-ed

Dear All,

If you are interested to see this extraordinary - ordinary collection, please contact Stjepan at, as he calls himself  NarodMan@aol.com  In my eyes, you are nothing but special. Because of people like you CROWN exist. Because of the sprits like yours, we have been able to rise above obvious. Thank you, and everybody please support Stjepan and invite him to your city with his exhibition. As soon as possible. CROWN will promote it all the way. The world is yours.

Nenad

Dominant leftist media ushers in 'Croatian Deafness' era in Croatia

By: Dr. Jerry BLASKOVICH
(In California, USA)

Contrary to what many intellectuals in Croatia and some individuals in the HDZ's hierarchy may think, there is press freedom in Croatia . In fact, it's been so since Croatia 's independence - despite what nay-sayers said, domestically and internationally, during Tudjman's mandate. Interestingly, the Croatian detractors, for the most part, were media people exercising press freedom without hindrance.

But press freedom in Croatia now has a different meaning. The mainstream media, such as, Jutarnji List, Globus (both owned by Germany's VAZ); Vecernji List (owned by Austria's Styria); and Croatian Television (HRT) (run by directors who were appointed for four years by former Prime Minister Ivica Racan just before he left office) freely express what they wish - as long as it conforms to the agendas of the owners or directors.

Except for HRT, they are mainly leftist European orientated concerns, but all carry the George Soros' mind set. Political parties or individuals they deem unacceptable are sharply criticized and not given a forum. Anything the HDZ has accomplished, no matter how righteous or noteworthy, is negatively or ill reported.

Each passing day the perspective in Croatia is characterized as worsening, getting economically poorer, and without prospect of a future. The reality is that during the present HDZ government the Gross National Product has been rising yearly by 3-5 %, the unemployment rate has been dropping, and for the first time exports have exceeded imports.

Average salaries have increased by 5% while cost of living has increase only by 2%. The media is loathe to report about these statistics because local elections are pending and they wish to keep the public in the dark about the present government's success.

Instead the media has been the lambasting the government for the rise in unemployment of the last quarter. They, however, fail to say that this is a normal seasonal variation. In contrast, the present government has 2% less unemployment than did the same season under the Racan government.

Reporting about the independence movement and the Tudjman era, including the Homeland War, is largely forgotten or clouded in mist. During the last five years HRT devoted a mere 30 minutes to the Homeland War! But stories on alleged Croatian 'war criminals' have been reported upon ad infinitum.

The only exposure the average Croatian has to 'news' emanates from a press owned by foreign companies whose ideas are fostered on Croatian citizens.

Doubtless there will be a flurry of criticism from the media about the HDZ's failure for Croatia to be accepted by the European Union [EU]. But the March 17th rejection was a blessing in disguise for Croatia . Acceptance would have been disastrous to Croatia 's economy.

While Croatia 's market is relatively wide open to international business already, there are restraining stipulations. Membership would give EU countries carte blanche in Croatia , but it will not be a reciprocal arrangement. Croatia is viewed only as a consumer entity and labor source. Its goods would not be able to compete in the EU market.

Britain 's Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane has done everything in his power to bastardize Croatia in its bid for membership status. Membership into the EU before Serbia would tacitly acknowledge a military and political victory for Croatia . Countries who were philosophically against Croatia will not allow this--especially Great Britain , followed by Finland and other anti-Catholic coalition states. The EU, heeding England 's advice, is using General Gotovina as an excuse. But, if he surrenders they would find another excuse.

No other candidate to the EU has been strapped with as many stipulations than has Croatia - most certainly not Serbia . For example, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [ICTY] has demanded certain preconditions for Croatia .

Despite meeting 625 demands out of 626 ordered by the Tribunal, the ICTY continues to chastise Croatia for its uncooperative position.

The EU's major problem is the bludgeoning Muslim population. Recently the British government seriously proposed that Croatia become a 'refugee center' for immigrants who desire to settle in EU countries. The Dutch are particularly keen on this.

There is no question, as a prerequisite for Croatia 's entry, it would have to freely accept Muslims into its workforce and as quasi immigrants. Those countries with 'excess' Muslim population would have a convenient place to 'park' their problems, which would open a real Pandora's box for Croatia .

EU membership will result in a loss of Croatia 's newly found self governing. The EU have the right to dictate in internal affairs of a country if they perceive it is not working in the EU's interests. The big players, like Germany , France , and Great Britain obviously are exempt, since they 'own' the EU.

New member states will have to compromise national interests in the name of the European Union. During the next 18 months eleven countries will hold referendums to draft a constitutional treaty, which includes the EU's right to enter into treaties for the new member states.

A high functionary of the HDZ government said the reason Croatia jumped through hoops to fulfill every EU stipulation was of a misguided notion that membership would in some way distance Croatia from the Balkan or Serbian mentality.

The future of Croatia is predicated upon England 's longstanding prejudice.

As one British communiquĂŠ stated: 'If Croatia enters into the EU it would mean that we lost the First World War!'

They are using every means to hold Croatia in the same category as Serbia and Montenegro . Croatia has the misfortune to have Croatian leftists, who didn't participate in the Homeland war but kept their fingers crossed, who are working on that goal.

Croatia has a propensity of being a nation rich in slogans. Once the 'Croatian Spring' was crushed it resulted in the 'Croatian Silence' that lasted until independence. Now that the media dictates Croatian thought, this era should be properly called the 'Croatian Deafness'.

At one time the Communist Party muzzled the media, now it's the media muzzling Croatian expression. Ironically, the slant of the media is, in many ways, worse than it was during the days of pre-war Yugoslavia.

Source: http://www.croatianherald.com/newgen-news.htm
 

Freedom of Expression - Croatian Style

By Jerry Blaskovich, MD

A major drama is being played out in Croatia that has tremendous
ramifications, for it strikes at the very heart of the basic freedoms of
expression and the press.

On April 28,2005, The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former
Yugoslavia at the Hague issued indictments against Domogoj Margetic, a
former investigative reporter for ‘Hrvatsko Slovo‘, and three other
Croats for “contempt against the court for revealing a secret witness’s
identity and testimony in the Tihomir Blaskic trial“. If convicted each may serve
up to seven years or pay up to a 100k Euro fine.

The ‘secret’ witness was Stipe Mesic, Croatia’s president, whose
testimony ultimately convicted Blaskic. Interestingly, the Slobodna Dalmacija
published basically the same material, including naming Mesic, during
Racan’s tenure. Instead of pressuring the Hague, Mesic, typical of
communist rhetoric, called the paper a fascist publication, turned to Racan and
got the editor, Josip Jovic and several reporters fired then replaced them
with cadres loyal to Mesic and Racan.

Once the Croatian media learned about the indictments, instead of
interviewing representatives of “Udruzenje Novinara Republike Hrvatske”
(UNRH)[Society of Reporters from the Republic of Croatia], which
Margetic is
a member of, they interviewed the vice president of Hrvatski Novinarske
Drustvo (HND)[Croatian Reporters Society], a rival organization with a
different agenda. Of all the indicted, Margetic, is the only one in
jail, albeit on unrelated trumped up charge. Since there was no report of
Margetic’s incarceration either the Croatian media was not aware of
Margetic‘s plight or it was censored.

The arrest was doubtlessly in retaliation to Margetic’s newly published
book ‘Stipe Mesic Dossier of Treason - Unauthorized Biography of the Second
Croatian President‘ and to keep him in custody until the indictment. The
Croatian government most certainly did not want a repeat of the Gotovina
fiasco. The 600 page book documents Mesic’s career from 1958 with UDBA,
including his Hague testimony, to the present.

There was a great deal of enthusiasm projected at the book’s
prepublication launch on February 11th, when over 200 people attended a forum that was
chaired by academics and prominent professors.

Just prior to the book becoming available to the public the publisher of
"Stegatisak" called Margetic the morning of March 9th and told him that
"a member of the POA (ProtuobavjeĹĄtajne agencies)[counter-intelligence
agents] threatened to confiscate the books" and that Margetic should come at 2
PM to attend a meeting at the publishing house. Anticipating the worse,
Margetic sent some colleagues instead. Meanwhile Margetic called Tomislav
Karamarko, POA head, and Ivan Jarnjak, president of the Parliament Committee for
Internal Affairs and National Security, to prevent destruction of the
books. His pleas fell on deaf ears since the building was surrounded by the
police at 2 PM. That evening, at 6 PM it was confirmed that the books were
destroyed. An arrest warrant was issued for Margetic.

While four media outlets had the story about the destruction of the
books, no one was allowed to print anything because of a ban from the office of
the president of the republic Stipe Mesic. Disingenuously the warrant had
nothing to do with the book, but for an 1993 alleged crime for which he
had been exonerated. The major and only witness ‘against’ him testified at a
hearing that the charges against Margetic were invalid and trumped up.

Nonetheless, with an arrest warrant out for him Margetic went into
hiding and was finally arrested on 21 April. The police told Margetic’s friend,
who was present at the arrest, that Margetic was charged with “illegally
ease dropping” on an unnamed person in 2003. Once incarcerated the charge was
changed to a failure to pay a mortgage or loan (default) for a piece of
property he had purchased.

It would be a long stretch of naivety if anyone believes that Margetic’s
arrest was not coincidental to the publication of his book. Because of
his investigative reporting and well documented books Margetic has been thru
the revolving door of the Croatian justice system.

After a series of articles in the Hrvatsko Slovo exposing Mesic and
Racan‘s illegal dealings, Mesic, in August 2004 publicly characterized the
newspaper that prints lies and Margetic, as “anti-civilized’. Most significantly
he
ordered the political coverage of the newspaper be changed. The
following day, Stjepan Seselj, Director of Hrvastka Slovo, told Margetic to stop
writing about Mesic or be fired. Margetic elected the later option.

On 1 September, the police arrested Margetic on a rather nebulous
charge. He remained incarcerated for six days and freed without comment. Not
coincidently, the arrest came on the heels of his newly well documented
published book ‘Tko je opljaèkao Hrvatsku’ {Who looted Croatia}, which
contained a virtual who‘s who of the political elite.

Prior to that arrest, Margetic was also arrested in 2002. Despite the
arrest took place in his home, he was charged with vagrancy. This particular
arrest came after he wrote a series of articles that outlined Racan’s
government’s secret agreements with the International Monetary Fund, agreements which
members of Sabor (Croatian Parliament) were not aware of.

Interestingly, the judge who supposedly issued the arrest warrant denied
issuing any order against Margetic. The interrogations never mentioned
his arrest charge, but focused on his investigative reporting. Nonetheless
he was incarcerated for two weeks and set free without an apology.

Unquestionably all of Margetic’s arrests resulted from publication of
his books and exposes that addressed Mesic and Racan chicanery, while the
alleged charges were mere smokescreens. Given the dire political climate
in Croatia, how the Margetic affair will end is conjectural.
 

Lies about Stepinac

by Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Truth & Justice
The View from Washington

Lies about Stepinac
Of all the news accounts regarding Pope John Paul II’s funeral and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s accession to the papacy, the most interesting was the American liberal media’s attempt to once again smear the reputation of Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac. The New York Times published an article saying that the late Pope John Paul had “incensed” his critics by the decision to beatify Cardinal Stepinac in 1998. The article went on to claim that Stepinac was the “archbishop of Zagreb during World War II, when a Nazi puppet
regime ruled Croatia and 700,000 Serbs, Jews and others were sent to death camps.”
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour also cited the beatification of Stepinac as one of the most “controversial” acts of John Paul’s papacy. She scolded the pope for elevating to sainthood a man who was the head of the Croatian Catholic Church at a time “when the Croatian fascists
were almost aligned with the Catholic Church and had had these terrible pogroms against the Serbs during World War II.” It is easy to dismiss these claims as ignorant statements from reporters who should know better. But that would be a grave mistake. For the
charges leveled by The New York Times and CNN against Stepinac are the culmination of decades of effective propaganda by Yugoslav authorities and Serbian lobbying organizations within the United States.
The essence of this smear campaign is the allegation that Stepinac, along with the Croatian Catholic Church, collaborated with Ante Pavelic’s fascist regime. Moreover, Stepinac’s critics charge that the archbishop either tacitly supported or at the very least turned a blind
eye to the crimes perpetrated by the NDH, such as mass murder, genocide and forced religious conversions. Stepinac is largely viewed by America’s Serbian community and their political allies as a “murderer saint.” Although many in the U.S. establishment media do not take
such an extreme position, they certainly believe that Stepinac was some kind of a fascist collaborator.
What is remarkable about the “Stepinac-was-a-Nazi-quisling” myth is that it is entirely false. In fact, the allegations are directly contradicted by the overwhelming historical evidence that has come to light since the collapse of Yugoslavia. The wealth of information that has emerged
from the newly discovered archives in Moscow, Belgrade and Zagreb has been especially damaging to Tito’s communist regime. This is particularly true about Stepinac and the numerous lies propagated against him. Stepinac was not a fascist, nor even an authoritarian right-winger. Rather, he was a principled constitutional liberal who supported Vladko Macek’s Croat Peasant Party. In 1938, after he became Archbishop of Zagreb, he openly declared that he had voted for Macek in the
elections.Nor was he a Serbophobe as some of his later critics have charged. Instead, the opposite was true. For much of his youth, Stepinac had been a champion of South Slav unity. During World War I, he even volunteered to join the Yugoslav Legion to fight Austro-Hungarian
troops on the Salonika front. But his rapid disillusionment with Royalist Yugoslavia paralleled that of most Croats. It was Belgrade’s stifling brutality, its numerous pogroms against Croatian peasants, its imprisonment of leading Croatian politicians (Stjepan Radic being the most
notable) and exploitation of the Croatian economy that most disturbed him.
In fact, no other figure in Croatian history—with the possible exception of Franjo Tudjman—so closely embodied the political evolution of the wider Croatian public as did Stepinac. When he fell under the spell of South Slav unity, so did they; when he reached out for Radic’s
program of home-rule and social democracy, so did they; when he drank from the poisoned chalice of Pavelic’s pseudo-independent state
only to recoil in disgust, so did they; and when he stood up to Tito’s victorious armies in defense of human rights and national self-determination only to be crushed, so did they. Stepinac’s major flaw was that he was prone to be naïve about politics (and on this he also reflected the great weakness in the Croatian
national character, which sadly continues to this day). Nowhere was this trait more clearly on display than during the first several weeks of the NDH. Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia in April, 1941, Stepinac—along with many other Croats—did initially welcome
the creation of the NDH. Yet Stepinac’s reasons were similar to those of many of his fellow countrymen: It was not a fascist state that he welcomed, but the end of Croatia’s subjugation under Serb-dominated Yugoslavia. However, he quickly realized that Pavelic’s NDH was an entirely different creature from what he had hoped and expected. The Ustashe almost immediately began to erect a racialist totalitarian state modeled on Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. Moreover, the Ustashe
quickly lost whatever mass appeal they had when the actual terms of this supposed new “independent” state were made known to the public. Croatia was truncated into several parts, with much of Dalmatia annexed to Italy and German and Hungarian troops exercising “spheres of influence” over large swaths of NDH territory, including Bosnia. In short, rather than securing genuine national independence, Pavelic had transformed Croatia into a colony of Berlin and Rome. He had simply transferred his country from one foreign dictatorship to another; only now it was not the Serbs, but the Germans and Italians who
were calling the shots. Pavelic’s dwindling popularity among most Croats was evident from the summer of 1941 and lasted until the end of the war. His regime had
alienated most people in Dalmatia. It was also deeply unpopular in Croatia’s population heartland of Slavonia, where the overwhelming  majority of citizens retained their loyalty to the Croatian Peasant Party (many of whose leaders were imprisoned by the Ustashe). Much of  the Zagreb bourgeoisie and intelligentsia were also opposed to him. However, Pavelic’s lack of support was especially evident in the fact  that, throughout his entire tenure in office, he never managed to orchestrate the kind of fascist mass rallies common under Hitler, Mussolini  and Franco. The Croatian public quickly understood that Pavelic was not their liberator, but their slave master.
Stepinac’s genius and moral greatness lay in that he realized this and sought to do something about it. In numerous letters and homilies  throughout 1941 and 1942, he chastised Pavelic and other senior members of the regime for the mass killings, rapes and state-sanctioned
racial laws directed against Jews, Serbs and Gypsies. “No one can deny that these terrible acts of violence and cruelty have been taking  place,” Stepinac wrote to Pavelic in a letter dated Nov. 20, 1941. “The Croatian nation has been proud of its 1,000-year-old culture and  Christian tradition. That is why we wait for it to show in practice, now that it has achieved its freedom, a greater nobility and humanity than
that displayed by its former rulers.”
He later denounced to Pavelic the Jasenovac concentration camp as “a shameful stain on the honor of the NDH.”
In a powerful homily delivered from Zagreb Cathedral in the fall of 1942, Stepinac assaulted the anti-human and collectivist ideologies of  Nazism, fascism and communism. “Each nation and each race has the right to life and treatment worthy of man,” he said. “This is why the Catholic Church has always
condemned, and is today condemning the injustice and acts of violence committed in the name of theories of class, race and nation.” Yet Stepinac did more than speak out against the evils of his time. He also acted, often at the risk of his own life. The Archbishop directly
intervened to save thousands of lives—Jews, Serbs and anti-fascist Croats—during the war. Amiel Shomrony, who served under the last  Chief Rabbi of Zagreb, Miroslav Freiberger, has testified that Stepinac rescued countless Jews by helping to smuggle them to Hungary and
then on to safety in Palestine. Following Stepinac’s 1946 conviction by Tito’s Partisans on trumped up charges of collaboration with the Ustashe, Louis Braier,
then-president of the Jewish Community in the United States, said that the Archbishop was “one of the few men who rose in Europe against
the Nazi tyranny precisely at the moment it was most dangerous. He spoke openly and fearlessly against the racial laws. After His Holiness,
Pius XII, he was the greatest defender of the Jews persecuted in Europe."
By the end of the war, Stepinac had become such a staunch opponent of the NDH regime that many of his closest aides urged him to flee to
the Vatican for fear that he would be murdered by Pavelic’s secret police. Until the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991, the communist
authorities sought to cover up the fact that, for much of the Second World War, Tito’s Partisans frequently incorporated Stepinac’s
speeches in their propaganda, especially his assaults on fascism, racism and Pavelic’s violation of human rights.
Upon coming to power, Tito realized that the Archbishop was his most dangerous opponent. The communist strongman was determined to
destroy Stepinac’s reputation. Tito also sought to smash the principal bulwark to his totalitarian rule: the Croatian Catholic Church.
For the Partisans, Stepinac’s great sin was that he refused to follow the example of the Serbian Orthodox Church hierarchy, which had
become co-opted by the new regime. Stepinac, however, spurned Tito’s demand that Croatia’s Catholic Church separate from the Vatican,
and form its own “national” church with the Archbishop as its head.
In the end, the Archbishop refused to be corrupted by power. His greatness lay in the fact that, more than any other individual during
post-World War II Yugoslavia, he grasped the entire evil nature of Tito’s communist empire. Stepinac courageously spoke out against all of
the crimes committed by the communists—the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Croatian dissidents; the confiscation of private
property; the restoration of a centralized, Serb-dominated autocracy anchored in Belgrade; the abrogation of basic human rights and democratic freedoms; the expulsion of 700,000 ethnic Germans; the destruction of Croatia’s economy and environment; and the imposition
of monolithic state control over the media and education.
Milovan Djilas, who was Tito’s right-hand man for much of the 1940s before he became disillusioned with the brutality and mendacity of the regime, later admitted that “we communists did not want any opposition, none whatsoever.” Stepinac understood that Tito’s Yugoslavia was a genocidal project that sought to eradicate Croatia’s distinct culture and national identity.
And that the Partisans’ main thrust of attack was to strangle the cradle of Croatian civilization, the Catholic Church. This is why the communists immediately launched a sweeping campaign to persecute the church. Hundreds of priests and nuns were slaughtered. Church property was confiscated. Numerous churches were turned into warehouses and communist “cultural centers.” Compulsory civil marriage was introduced.
Most importantly, jurisdiction over education was stripped from the Church and placed into the hands of the state, thereby enabling the Yugoslav authorities to systematically indoctrinate the youth. The schools, along with the media, were the primary vehicles by which the authorities in Belgrade brainwashed the Croatian youth. The result was that it produced generations of self-loathing Croats who were taught
to despise their culture, history and religion.The linchpin of this anti-Croatian, anti-Catholic strategy was to portray all Croats who championed national independence as “fascists”
seeking to revive Pavelic’s NDH. As part of this strategy, Tito’s Communists had to present the Catholic Church as a reactionary, pro-Ustashe organization complicit in genocide and mass murder. And Stepinac, being the most famous symbol of the Croatian Catholic Church and the Croatian national cause, had to be crucified. His 1946 show trial in Belgrade was a complete sham. The “guilty” verdict was decided before the trial even began. Djilas himself confessed that Stepinac was condemned not for any supposed collaboration with the NDH, but for his opposition to Tito. “He would certainly not have been brought to trial for his conduct in the war … had he not continued to oppose the new Communist regime,” Djilas later wrote.
“"To honestly tell the truth, I think, and not only I, that Stepinac is a man of integrity, a firm character, who is impossible to break,” Djilas
said in 1956. “He was really unjustly convicted, but how many times has it happened in history that just people were convicted out of political necessity."Only Stepinac’s international notoriety saved him from a grisly execution. Still, he suffered harsh imprisonment, and then later house arrest
and internal exile in his native village of Krasic. Moreover, evidence now shows that he was slowly poisoned to death by Tito’s secret police.
The real tragedy of Stepinac is not that he suffered and died on behalf of his people and his faith. This is the duty of all devout Christians. It is also not that the Croatian media and diplomatic corps has been weak in its defense of this great man against the barrage of propaganda emanating from Belgrade, the Serbian lobby in Washington and their hacks in the U.S. media establishment.
No. The real tragedy is that many Croats, especially those on the Mesic-Racan-Pusic Left, actually believe many of the lies told about Stepinac. They are the products of decades of Communist social engineering. And while Tito’s multinational Yugoslavia may be dead, they continue to share many of its goals and prejudices. For these hard leftists, the Catholic Church, with its opposition to abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage and sexual permissiveness, continues to be a reactionary force that needs to be marginalized. They continue to excuse the numerous crimes of communism. They continue to deride Croatian patriotism and the existence of a distinct national identity. And they
continue to view themselves as “anti-fascists,” insisting on perpetuating the Titoist myth that cut-throat Ustashes are lurking under every corner in Croatia.
In short, they have retained the self-hating, racist attitudes inculcated by their former communist masters. They genuinely believe that to be a
proud and authentic Croat is to be some kind of a fascist. This is why their current political agenda is to de-Tudjmanize and de-Croatianize their country, and to strip it of all national symbols and content. Their hope is for Croatia to again plunge itself into an internationalist project, whether it be a European socialist super state or a reconstituted Balkan union. Stepinac’s enduring legacy is that he offered a distinctly different vision for Croatia. He understood that God, country and family were the fundamental institutions of a just society. He saw the evils of totalitarianism and imperialism. He championed a democratic and independent Croatia, rooted in its Catholic heritage and based on human rights, social justice and constitutional self-government. Stepinac embodied the very best of Croatia—the Croatia of priests and peasants, princes and poets, knights and kings, professionals and philosophers. His Croatia
was not that of gangsters, opportunists and cheap propagandists; it was neither communist Red nor fascist Black. Rather, it was a democratic and patriotic White.It is this inspiring vision, along with his principled defense of human freedom in the face of unimaginable horror, which makes Stepinac one of the giants of the 20th century. He is Croatia’s saint.
 

- Jeffrey T. Kuhner is communications director at The Ripon Society (www.riponsoc.org), a major Republican think tank based in Washington, D.C. He is also a regular contributor to the Commentary pages of The Washington Times. This essay is adapted from Mr. Kuhner’s upcoming book, “Fatal Embrace: The Croat-Serb Conflict in the 20th Century.” Mr. Kuhner would like to give special thanks to
Danica Ramljak for her invaluable research assistance in the writing of this article.


Nadnaslov: Novoobnovljene laĹži o Stepincu plod su srpske propagande u Americi

STEPINAC – SVETAC KOJI JE STRADAO I UMRO ZA SVOJ NAROD I VJERU!
Glavni StepinÄ?ev 'grijeh' nije bila navodna suradnja s Pavelićem, nego to ĹĄto je bio oporba diktatoru Titu!

Pod 1) Njegova je veliÄ?ina u tomu ĹĄto je, bolje nego itko u poratnoj Jugoslaviji, prozreo svu zloću Titova komunistiÄ?kog carstva. Stepinac je
hrabro istupao protiv svih komunistiÄ?kih zloÄ?ina: masovnih ubojstava stotina tisuća svojih hrvatskih politiÄ?kih protivnika; konfiskacija
privatnog vlasniĹĄtva; povratka centralizirane autokracije uĹĄanÄ?ene u Beogradu i pod prevlašću Srba; krĹĄenja temeljnih ljudskih prava i
demokratskih sloboda; protjerivanja 700.000 pripadnika njemaÄ?ke manjine; uniĹĄtenja hrvatskog gospodarstva i okoliĹĄa i nametanje
monolitne drĹžavne vlasti nad medijima i naobrazbom

Pod 2) Hrvatski mediji i diplomacija slabi su u obrani ovoga velikoga Ä?ovjeka protiv propagandne bujice iz Beograda, srpskog lobija u
Washingtonu i njegovih plaćenika u najmoćnijim ameriÄ?kim medijima. Prava tragedija je ĹĄto mnogi Hrvati, osobito oni s
Mesić-RaÄ?an-Pusićkine ljevice doista vjeruju u brojne laĹži koje su reÄ?ene o Stepincu. One su proizvod desetljeća komunistiÄ?kog socijalnog
inĹženjeringa. I dok je Titova Jugoslavija moĹžda doista mrtva, oni i dalje dijele mnoge njezine teĹžnje i predrasude

PiĹĄe: Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Zanimljiviji od svih medijskih prikaza pokopa Ivana Pavla II. i izbora kardinala Josepha Ratzingera za novog papu bili su pokuĹĄaji ameriÄ?kih
liberalnih medija da joĹĄ jednom okrnje ugled kardinala Alojzija Stepinca.

New York Times je tako objavio Ä?lanak u kojemu stoji kako je papa Ivan Pavao 'razjario' svoje kritiÄ?are odlukom da 1998. godina beatificira kardinala Stepinca. U Ä?lanku se dalje tvrdi kako je Stepinac bio «zagrebaÄ?ki nadbiskup tijekom 2. svjetskog rata, u vrijeme kada
je Hrvatskom vladao nacistiÄ?ki marionetski reĹžim, a 700.000 Srba, Ĺ˝idova i drugih poslano u logore smrti».

Christiane Amanpour sa CNN-a također je navela StepinÄ?evu beatifikaciju kao jedan od 'kontroverznih' poteza pape Ivana Pavla. Ona ga je ukorila ĹĄto je uzdigao na Ä?ast oltara Ä?ovjeka koji je bio poglavarom hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve u vrijeme «kada su hrvatski faĹĄisti bili
gotovo svrstani s katoliÄ?kom crkvom i provodili straĹĄne pogrome protiv Srba tijekom 2. svjetskog rata».

Lako bi bilo opovrgnuti ove tvrdnje kao neznanje nedoraslih izvjestitelja da to uistinu nije bila teĹĄka pogrjeĹĄka. OptuĹžbe New York Timesa i CNN-a protiv Stepinca tek su vrhunac djelotvorne promidĹžbe jugoslavenskih vlasti i srpskih lobistiÄ?kih udruga u SAD-u.

SrĹž ove crne legende je tvrdnja kako su Stepinac i hrvatska katoliÄ?ka crkva surađivali s faĹĄistiÄ?kim reĹžimom Ante Pavelića. Ĺ toviĹĄe, StepinÄ?evi kritiÄ?ari tvrde kako je nadbiskup preĹĄutno podupirao ili barem gledao kroz prste zloÄ?inima NDH, kao ĹĄto su masovna ubojstva,
genocid i nasilno pokrĹĄtavanje. Srbi u Americi i njihovi politiÄ?ki saveznici Stepinca uglavnom smatraju 'svecem ubojicom'. I mada mnogi vodeći ameriÄ?ki mediji ne dijele takvo ekstremno stajaliĹĄte, oni zacijelo misle kako je Stepinac bio neka vrsta faĹĄistiÄ?kog suradnika.

U mitu o Stepincu kao 'nacistiÄ?kom kvislingu' zapanjuje ĹĄto je on potpuno laĹžan. Ovim tvrdnjama, zapravo, proturjeÄ?e neoborivi povijesni
dokazi izaĹĄli na svjetlo dana nakon raspada Jugoslavije. Obilje podataka iz novootkrivenih pismohrana u Moskvi, Beogradu i Zagrebu osobito je razorno za Titov komunistiÄ?ki reĹžim. Ovo posebno vaĹži za Stepinca i mnogobrojne laĹži koje su se ĹĄirile o njemu.

Stepinac nije bio faĹĄist pa ni autoritarni desniÄ?ar. Naprotiv, bio je dosljedni ustavni liberal koji je podupirao Hrvatsku seljaÄ?ku stranku Vlatka MaÄ?eka. Nakon ĹĄto je 1938. godine postao zagrebaÄ?kim nadbiskupom, otvoreno je izjavio kako je na izborima glasovao za MaÄ?eka.

Međ) Hrvati su slijedili Stepinca, a ne Pavelića

Stepinac nije bio ni srbofob, kao ĹĄto su mu neki kasniji kritiÄ?ari predbacivali. Istina je suprotna: dobar dio svoje mladosti Stepinac je
zagovarao juĹžnoslavensko jedinstvo. Tijekom 1. svjetskog rata Ä?ak je dragovoljno pristupio jugoslavenskoj legiji u borbi protiv austrougarske vojske na solunskoj bojiĹĄnici, ali se, kao i većina Hrvata, brzo razoÄ?arao kraljevskom Jugoslavijom. NajviĹĄe ga je muÄ?ilo
sirovo beogradsko nasilje, brojni pogromi hrvatskih seljaka, uhićenja vodećih hrvatskih politiÄ?ara, u prvom redu Stjepana Radića, kao i gospodarsko izrabljivanje.

Zapravo, ni jedno drugo ime u hrvatskoj povijesti – moĹžda s izuzetkom Franje Tuđmana – nije tako rjeÄ?ito utjelovilo politiÄ?ki razvitak ĹĄire hrvatske javnosti kao Stepinac. Kad je on postao zatoÄ?nikom juĹžnoslavenskog jedinstva, i ona je to bila; kad je pio iz zatrovanog pehara Pavelićeve nazovi-nezavisne drĹžave i zatim ga s gnuĹĄanjem odbio, uÄ?inili su to i Hrvati; kad se suprotstavio Titovoj pobjedniÄ?koj vojsci braneći ljudska prava i nacionalno samoodređenje, plativĹĄi to skupo – i Hrvati s bili s njim.

StepinÄ?eva glavna grjeĹĄka bila je politiÄ?ka naivnost (i u tome je on slika i prilika te velike mane u naravi hrvatskog naroda, koja, naĹžalost, traje do dana danaĹĄnjeg). Ona je najjasnije iskazana u prvih nekoliko tjedana NDH. Nakon napada nacistiÄ?ke NjemaÄ?ke na Jugoslaviju u travnju 1941. godine Stepinac je – kao i mnogi drugi Hrvati – prvotno pozdravio stvaranje NDH. Ali njegove razloge dijelili su mnogi njegovi sunarodnjaci: nisu oni klicali faĹĄistiÄ?koj drĹžavi nego kraju hrvatske potlaÄ?enosti u Jugoslaviji pod srpskim gospodstvom.

On je, međutim, ubrzo shvatio kako je Pavelićeva NDH potpuno drukÄ?ija tvorevina od one koju je oÄ?ekivao i kojoj se nadao. UstaĹĄe su gotovo od poÄ?etka gradile rasistiÄ?ku totalitarnu drĹžavu po uzoru na Hitlerovu NjemaÄ?ku i Mussolinijevu Italiju. Ĺ toviĹĄe, ustaĹĄe su brzo izgubile i masovnu potporu koju su na poÄ?etku imali kad je javnost upoznala stvarne zasade ove navodno nove 'nezavisne' drĹžave. Hrvatska je raĹĄÄ?ereÄ?ena na nekoliko dijelova: veliki dio Dalmacije pripojen je Italiji i NjemaÄ?koj, a mađarska vojska drĹžala je vlast u 'utjecajnom podruÄ?ju' na velikim dijelovima zemlja NDH, ukljuÄ?ujući i Bosnu.

Umjesto da osigura istinsku nacionalnu nezavisnost, Pavelić je pretvorio Hrvatsku u koloniju Berlina i Rima. Jednostavno, svoju je zemlju iz
ruku jedne strane diktature predao drugoj, samo su sada, umjesto Srba, gazde bile Nijemci i Talijani.

Pisma Paveliću

Sunovrat Pavelićeve popularnosti među većinom Hrvata bio je oÄ?it od ljeta 1941. godine i takav je ostao do kraja rata. Njegov reĹžim odbacivala je većina ljudi u Dalmaciji, a bio je vrlo neomiljen u srcu hrvatske Slavonije, gdje je velika većina građana bila i dalje odana Hrvatskoj seljaÄ?koj stranci (Ä?ije su mnoge vođe dopale ustaĹĄkih zatvora). I velik mu se dio zagrebaÄ?kog građanstva i inteligencije odupirao. Ali, manjak potpore Paveliću osobito se oÄ?itovao u tome ĹĄto tijekom cijele vladavine on nikad nije uspio orkestrirati onakve masovne skupove, uobiÄ?ajene kod Hitlera, Mussolinija i Franca. Hrvatska javnost brzo je shvatila kako Pavelić nije nikakav osloboditelj nego goniÄ?
robova.

StepinÄ?ev genij i moralna veliÄ?ina je u tome ĹĄto je to shvatio i pokuĹĄao neĹĄto poduzeti. U brojnim pismima i propovijedima tijekom cijele 1941. i 1942. godine ĹĄibao je i druge visoke reĹžimske duĹžnosnike zbog masovnih ubojstava, silovanja i drĹžavno sankcioniranih rasnih zakona, uperenih protiv Ĺ˝idova, Srba i Cigana. «Nitko ne moĹže zanijekati da se događaju ta straĹĄna djela nasilja i okrutnosti», pisao je Stepinac Paveliću u pismu od 20. studenog 1941. godine. «Hrvatski narod ponosi se svojom tisućljetnom uljudbom i hrvatskom tradicijom. Stoga oÄ?ekujemo da se na djelu pokaĹže, danas kad smo postigli slobodu, viĹĄe plemenitosti i Ä?ovjeÄ?nosti, nego ĹĄto su to iskazivali njezini bivĹĄi vladari.» (op. prev.: navodi su prijevod s engleskog).

Kasnije je Paveliću prokazao jasenovaÄ?ki koncentracijski logor kao «sramnu ljagu na Ä?asti NDH».
U snaĹžnoj propovijedi u zagrebaÄ?koj katedrali u jesen 1942. godine Stepinac je napao neÄ?ovjeÄ?ne kolektivistiÄ?ke ideologije nacizma, faĹĄizma i komunizma.

«Svaki narod i svaka rasa ima pravo na Ĺživot i postupanje dostojno Ä?ovjeka», govorio je. «Stoga je katoliÄ?ka crkva uvijek osuđivala pa
osuđuje i danas nepravde i nasilja koja se provode u ime klasnih, rasnih i nacionalnih teorija».

Ali Stepinac nije samo propovijedao protiv zala svoga doba. On je i djelovao, Ä?esto dovodeći u opasnost i vlastiti Ĺživot. Nadbiskup se tijekom rata izravno zaloĹžio za spas tisuća Ĺživota – Ĺ˝idova, Srba i antifaĹĄistiÄ?kih Hrvata. Amiel Shomrony, koji je bio suradnikom posljednjeg zagrebaÄ?kog glavnog rabina Miroslava Freibergera, posvjedoÄ?io je kako je Stepinac spasio bezbroj Ĺ˝idova pomaĹžući im u bijegu do Mađarske, a zatim i do utoÄ?iĹĄta u Palestini.

Jedan od najvećih branitelja Židova

Nakon ĹĄto su Titovi partizani 1946. godine osudili Stepinca na osnovi namjeĹĄtenih optuĹžaba za suradnju s ustaĹĄama, Louis Braier, tadaĹĄnji predsjednik Ĺ˝idovske zajednice u SAD-u, rekao je kako je nadbiskup bio «jedan od rijetkih ljudi koji su se u Europi digli protiv nacistiÄ?ke tiranije upravo u vrijeme kad je to bilo najopasnije. Govorio je otvoreno i neustraĹĄivo protiv rasnih zakona. Nakon Njegove Svetosti Pija XII. on je bio najveći branitelj Ĺ˝idova, progonjenih u Europi».

Krajem rata Stepinac je postao tako Ĺžestoki protivnik reĹžima NDH da su ga mnogi najbliĹži prijatelji nagovarali na bijeg u Vatikan iz straha da ga Pavelićeva tajna policija ne ubije. Sve do raspada Jugoslavije 1991. godine komunistiÄ?ke vlasti pokuĹĄavale su prikriti Ä?injenicu da su, uvelike tijekom 2. svjetskog rata, Titovi partizani Ä?esto umetali StepinÄ?eve govore u svoju propagandu, navlastito njegove napade na faĹĄizam, rasizam i Pavelićevo krĹĄenje ljudskih prava.

Po dolasku na vlast Tito je shvatio kako je Stepinac njegov najopasniji protivnik. Ovaj komunistiÄ?ki diktator odluÄ?io je sruĹĄiti StepinÄ?ev ugled pokuĹĄavajući ukloniti i glavni kamen spoticanja njegovoj totalitarnoj vladavini: hrvatsku katoliÄ?ku crkvu.

Za partizane StepinÄ?ev veliki grijeh bilo je odbijanje da slijedi primjer hijerarhije Srpske pravoslavne crkve, koju je nova vlast vezala uza se. Stepinac je, pak, s prijezirom odbio Titov zahtjev za odvajanjem hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve od Vatikana i stvaranjem vlastite 'nacionalne' crkve s nadbiskupom na Ä?elu.

On je na kraju odbio prodati se vlasti. Njegova je veliÄ?ina u tomu ĹĄto je, bolje nego itko u poratnoj Jugoslaviji, prozreo svu zloću Titova komunistiÄ?kog carstva. Stepinac je hrabro istupao protiv svih komunistiÄ?kih zloÄ?ina: masovnih ubojstava stotina tisuća svojih hrvatskih politiÄ?kih protivnika; konfiskacija privatnog vlasniĹĄtva; povratka centralizirane autokracije uĹĄanÄ?ene u Beogradu i pod prevlašću Srba; krĹĄenja temeljnih ljudskih prava i demokratskih sloboda; protjerivanja 700.000 pripadnika njemaÄ?ke manjine; uniĹĄtenja hrvatskog gospodarstva i okoliĹĄa i nametanje monolitne drĹžavne vlasti nad medijima i naobrazbom.

Shvatio je kako je Jugoslavija genocidni projekt

Milovan Ä?ilas, koji je tijekom Ä?etrdesetih godina proĹĄlog stoljeća bio Titova desna ruka, prije nego ĹĄto se razoÄ?arao grubošću i podmuklošću reĹžima, kasnije je priznao da «mi komunisti nismo htjeli nikakvu oporbu».Stepinac je shvatio kako je Titova Jugoslavija genocidni projekt koji je htio iskorijeniti posebni hrvatski nacionalni identitet i kulturu pa je glavna oĹĄtrica partizanskih nasrtaja bila kolijevka hrvatske civilizacije, katoliÄ?ka crkva. Upravo stoga su komunisti odmah pokrenuli veliku kampanju njezinog progona. Ubijene su stotine svećenika i redovnica, a crkvena imovina je konfiscirana. Brojne crkve pretvorene su u skladiĹĄta i komunistiÄ?ke 'domove kulture'. Uvedena je obveza građanskog braka.

Ĺ to je najvaĹžnije, naobrazba je oduzeta crkvi i dana u drĹžavne ruke, Ä?ime je jugoslavenskim vlastima omogućena sustavna indoktrinacija mladeĹži. Ĺ kole i mediji bile su glavna sredstva kojima su beogradske vlasti ispirale mozak hrvatskoj mladeĹži. Posljedica su bila naraĹĄtaji Hrvata koji su prezreli svoj identitet, uljudbu, povijest i vjeru.

NajjaÄ?e oruĹžje ove protuhrvatske i protukatoliÄ?ke strategije bilo je prikazivanje Hrvata, koji su zagovarali nacionalnu nezavisnost, 'faĹĄistima' koji Ĺžele oĹživjeti Pavelićevu NDH. Kao dio ove strategije Titovi komunisti morali su predstaviti katoliÄ?ku crkvu kao reakcionarnu, proustaĹĄku organizaciju, sudionicu genocida i masovnih ubojstava. A Stepinac, kao najslavniji simbol hrvatske katoliÄ?ke crkve i hrvatske nacionalne stvari, morao je biti razapet.

Njegovo suđenje 1946. godine bilo je potpuna prijevara. Presuda «kriv je» donesena je joĹĄ prije poÄ?etka suđenja. I sam Ä?ilas priznao je kako Stepinac nije bio osuđen zbog navodne kolaboracije s NDH nego zbog oporbe Titu. «Zasigurno mu se ne bi sudilo zbog njegova ponaĹĄanja tijekom rata da se nije nastavio opirati novom komunistiÄ?kom reĹžimu», napisao je kasnije Ä?ilas.

«Iskreno govoreći, mislim, i ne samo ja, kako je Stepinac bio Ä?astan Ä?ovjek Ä?vrste naravi kojega je nemoguće slomiti», rekao je Ä?ilas 1956. godine. «On je bio doista nepravedno osuđen, ali u povijesti se Ä?esto događalo da se ljude osudi zbog politiÄ?ke potrebe».

Stepinca je od užasa smrtne kazne spasio samo njegov svjetski glas. Ali, nije ga spasio od teškog sužanjstva, a kasnije i kućnog pritvora i unutrašnjeg izgnanstva u rodnom selu Krašiću. Štoviše, ima novih dokaza kako ga je Titova tajna policija postupno trovala.

StepinÄ?eva vizija Hrvatske

Stvarna StepinÄ?eva tragedija nije to ĹĄto je stradao i umro za svoj narod i vjeru. To je duĹžnost svih vjernih kršćana. Nije ni istina da su hrvatski mediji i diplomacija slabi u obrani ovog velikog Ä?ovjeka protiv propagandne bujice iz Beograda, srpskog lobija u Washingtonu i njegovih plaćenika u najmoćnijim ameriÄ?kim medijima.

Ne, prava tragedija je da mnogi Hrvati, osobito oni s Mesić-RaÄ?an-Pusićkine ljevice doista vjeruju u brojne laĹži koje su reÄ?ene o Stepincu. One su proizvod desetljeća komunistiÄ?kog socijalnog inĹženjeringa. I dok je Titova Jugoslavija moĹžda doista mrtva, oni i dalje dijele mnoge njezine teĹžnje i predrasude. Za ove tvrde ljeviÄ?are, katoliÄ?ka crkva, sa svojim protivljenjem pobaÄ?aju, eutanaziji, homoseksualnim brakovima i spolnoj razuzdanosti i dalje je reakcionarna snaga koju treba ukloniti. Oni i dalje opravdavaju brojne komunistiÄ?ke zloÄ?ine, i dalje ismijavaju hrvatsko domoljublje i postojanje zasebnog nacionalnog identiteta, i dalje doĹživljavaju sebe kao 'antifaĹĄiste' ustrajavajući na titoistiÄ?kom mitu kako u Hrvatskoj «ustaĹĄa viri iza svakog busa».
Jednom rijeÄ?ju, zadrĹžali su rasistiÄ?ki stav samoporicanja i mrĹžnje koji su im usadili njihovi bivĹĄi komunistiÄ?ki uÄ?itelji. Oni doista misle da biti pravi i ponosni Hrvat znaÄ?i biti neka vrsta faĹĄista. Stoga je njihov politiÄ?ki program detuđmanizacija i dekroatizacija zemlje te uklanjanje njezinog nacionalnog znakovlja i sadrĹžaja. Nadaju se da će Hrvatska ponovno uroniti u joĹĄ jedan internacionalistiÄ?ki projekt, zvao se on europska socijalistiÄ?ka naddrĹžava ili obnovljena balkanska unija.

StepinÄ?evo trajno naslijeđe je njegova drukÄ?ija vizija Hrvatske. On je znao da su Bog, domovina i obitelj temeljne ustanove pravedna druĹĄtva. Vidio je zla totalitarizma i imperijalizma. Zagovarao je demokratsku i nezavisnu Hrvatsku, ukorijenjenu u svojoj katoliÄ?koj baĹĄtini i zasnovanu na ljudskim pravima, druĹĄtvenoj pravdi i ustavnom suverenitetu. Stepinac je bio izraz onog najboljeg u Hrvatskoj – Hrvatskoj seljaka i duhovnika, pjesnika i vladara, junaka i kraljeva, znanstvenika i filozofa. Njegova Hrvatska nije Hrvatska kriminalaca, beskiÄ?menjaka i jeftinih propagandista; nije bila ni komunistiÄ?ki crvena, ni faĹĄistiÄ?ki crna. Prije – demokratski i domoljubno kao snijeg bijela i Ä?ista.

Upravo ova njegova pobuđujuća vizija, kao i dosljedna obrana Ä?ovjekove slobode, suoÄ?ene s nezamislivim strahotama, Ä?ine Stepinca jednim od divova 20. stoljeća. On je hrvatski svetac.

(Jeffrey T. Kuhner direktor je komunikacija u Ripon Societyju (www.riponsoc.org), uglednoj analitiÄ?koj skupini ('think tanku') ameriÄ?ke Republikanske stranke, sa sjediĹĄtem u Washingtonu u SAD-u. Redovni je komentator Washington Timesa. Ovaj esej je prilagođeni izvadak njegove knjige Fatalni stisak: hrvatsko-srpski sukob u 20. stoljeću, koja je u pripremi. Gosp. Kuhner posebno zahvaljuje gospođi Danici Ramljak na njezinoj dragocjenoj pomoći u pisanju ovog Ä?lanka.)

Croatia’s Democracy on Trial
 

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Truth & Justice
View from Washington

The recent indictments by the ICTY against four Croatian journalists are a stake aimed at the heart of the country’s democracy. The four journalists—Ivica Marijacic, Markica Rebic, Domagoj Margetic and Stjepan Seselj—have been indicted for the alleged crime of “contempt of the tribunal” for publishing the identity and statements of protected witnesses in the Blaskic case. They face a possible punishment of a 100,000 Euro fine and seven years in prison.
This situation would be comical if it were not so tragic and serious. These indictments would be thrown out of any Western courtroom, especially an American one. The Hague Tribunal’s prosecutor’s office is seeking to justify these outrageous indictments by claiming that the witnesses’ statements were given in a “non-public,” secret proceeding. Hence, by publishing those statements these four journalists supposedly violated the witnesses’ protection rights guaranteed by the tribunal.
This is nonsense. It is the responsibility of the tribunal, and not that of the Croatian or international media, to make sure that secret witness testimony is not leaked to the public. The prosecutor’s office is trying to pass off blame to others for its failure to provide adequate protection for witnesses.
More importantly, this is a clear-cut case of freedom of the press and the public’s right to information trumping any claims the tribunal may have about witness protection. It is the role of journalists in a free society to hold public officials accountable for their actions, and to reveal sensitive, even privileged information in order to inform the public. The public’s right to be informed, along with the rights of journalists to publish their reporting free of any censorship is at the core of an open, free press. (The sole exception is the publication of deliberately slanderous material bereft of any factual basis. This is definitely not the case in this matter, as everyone agrees the witnesses’ testimony did take place. The only issue is whether they should have been made public.)
If I had received information from a reliable source about secret witness testimony at the ICTY for one of my columns in The Washington Times, I certainly would have published it. Yet the tribunal would never dare to indict me for supposed “contempt of the tribunal” because it knows the firestorm of opposition it would create in the American media. It would be seen for what it is: a crude attempt to silence a journalist.
Carla Del Ponte is essentially claiming that the institutional prerogatives of the ICTY are more important than the rights of all Croatians to free expression and freedom of the press. These indictments are an assault on the fundamental pillars of a liberal democracy. Once the sacred principles of freedom of the press and freedom of speech are violated, then all the other basic rights and freedoms central to a democracy simply wither away. In short, Del Ponte is now expressing her outright contempt for Croatia’s democratic institutions.
This is why Croatians of all political stripes—right, left and center—should come together and denounce these indictments as unacceptable intrusions upon the country’s basic liberties. If these journalists are convicted, what is to stop Del Ponte’s office from indicting others in the media for “contempt of the tribunal?”
Del Ponte is seeking to determine what can and cannot be published in the Croatian press. Her goal is to silence any opposition to the ICTY within Croatia. It is no accident that all four journalists have been leading critics of Del Ponte. In particular, Mr. Marijacic and his first-rank magazine, Hrvatski List, have emerged as a leading intellectual force in defense of Croatia’s national sovereignty and the Homeland War. For this he is now paying a steep price. But Mr. Marijacic and his brave band of patriots will be vindicated in the end.
These indictments may prove to be Del Ponte’s Afghanistan; the point of imperial overreach that will lead to the collapse of the entire rotten structure known as the ICTY.
During the next few weeks the fate of John Bolton, who is President George Bush’s nominee to be the next American ambassador to the United Nations, will be decided. If he is approved by the U.S. Senate, which I suspect he will, then Del Ponte’s position as chief prosecutor is in serious trouble. Mr. Bolton has made no secret of his dislike for the ICTY, and especially for Del Ponte’s dismal performance as chief prosecutor.
Previously, Mr. Bolton’s harsh criticisms of Del Ponte have been downplayed by the Balkanists in the State Department’s Foreign Service bureaucracy, many of whom are rabidly pro-ICTY and anti-Croatia. As undersecretary of state for arms control, he lacked the power to rein in Del Ponte and her fellow zealots at the tribunal. This time, however, he will have the authority to take action. If confirmed, Mr. Bolton will be overseeing America’s diplomacy toward the United Nations—including U.N.-sponsored tribunals like the ICTY.
When he finds out about this latest outrage, he will almost certainly demand that Washington withdraw its support for Del Ponte and the ICTY. She has given Mr. Bolton the diplomatic rope he needs to finally hang her. He now needs to finish her off—once and for all.
- Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a historian and regular contributor to the Commentary pages of The Washington Times. He is currently writing a book, “Fatal Embrace: The Croat-Serb Conflict in the 20th Century.”

NN: Istina i pravda/ Pogled iz Washingtona

Optuznice su noz u srce demokraciji!

Pod) Cilj Carle Del Ponte je usutkati u Hrvatskoj svaku oporbu Haskom sudu. Nije slucajno sto su sva cetvorica novinara njezini glavni kriticari. Posebno su gospodin Marijacic i njegov prvorazredni tjednik Hrvatski list izrasli u vodecu duhovnu snagu u obrani hrvatskog nacionalnog suvereniteta i Domovinskog rata. On sada za ovo placa visoku cijenu. Ali na kraju ce i on i njegova hrabra domoljubna momcad dobiti punu zadovoljstinu

Pise: Jeffrey T. Kuhner


Nedavne optuznice Haskog suda protiv cetvorice hrvatskih novinara noz su u srce njezinoj demokraciji. Njih cetvorica – Ivica Marijacic, Markica Rebic, Domagoj Margetic i Stjepan ©eselj – optuzeni su za navodni zlocin ‘nepostivanja suda’, odnosno objavljivanje identiteta i izjava zasticenih svjedoka u ‘slucaju Blaskic’. Prijeti im moguca kazna globom od 100.000 eura i sedam godina zatvora.

Ova bi situacija bila komicna da nije ozbiljna i tragicna. Svaki sud na Zapadu, osobito u SAD-u, takve bi optuznice odbacio. Ali tuziteljstvo Haskog suda pokusava opravdati ove skandalozne optuznice tvrdnjom kako su izjave svjedoka dane u ‘nejavnom’, dakle tajnom postupku. Time su cetvorica novinara navodno prekrsila prava svjedoka na zastitu koju im Sud jamci.

Ovo je besmislica. Odgovornost je Suda, a ne hrvatskih i stranih medija, osigurati da tajno svjedocenje ne procuri u javnost. Tuziteljstvo, dakle, pokusava prebaciti na druge svoj neuspjeh da na pravi nacin zastiti svjedoke. I, sto je jos vaznije, ovo je jasan slucaj obrane slobode tiska i prava javnosti na informacije koji potire svako moguce pravo Suda u odnosu na zastitu svjedoka.

Uloga novinara u slobodnom drustvu je nadzor javnih duznosnika i njihova djela, pa i otkrivanje osjetljivih, cak i ekskluzivnih informacija vaznih za obavjestavanje javnosti. Njezino pravo na informaciju, uz novinarsko pravo na objavljivanje svojih izvjesca mimo svake cenzure, srz je otvorenoga i slobodnoga tiska.
(Jedini izuzetak je objavljivanje namjernih kleveta, bez ikakve cinjenicne osnove. To bez sumnje nije slucaj u ovoj stvari jer postoji opca suglasnost kako je svjedocenja doista i bilo. Jedino je pitanje jesu li trebala biti objavljena).

Medj) I ja bih to objavio, ali mene ne bi smjela optuziti

Da sam, recimo, ja dobio obavijest iz pouzdana izvora o tajnom svjedocenju u Haagu za moju kolumnu u Washingon Timesu, zasigurno bih je bio objavio, ali se Sud nikad ne bi usudio optuziti me zbog navodnog ‘nepostivanja suda’ jer zna kakvu bi buru prosvjeda to stvorilo u americkim medijima. Smatralo bi se to onim sto jest: grubim pokusajem usutkavanja novinara.

Carla Del Ponte u osnovi tvrdi kako su institucionalne ovlasti Haskog suda vaznije od prava svih Hrvata na slobodu izrazavanja i tiska. Ove su optuznice nasrtaj na same temelje liberalne demokracije. Krsenjem svetih nacela slobode tiska i govora gaze se i sva temeljna demokratska prava i slobode. Ukratko, Carla Del Ponte ovim izrazava izravno nepostivanje hrvatskih demokratskih ustanova.

Stoga bi Hrvati svih politickih nagnuca – desnice, ljevice ili centra - trebali zajednicki prokazati ove optuznice kao neprihvatljivo krsenje temeljnih sloboda ove zemlje. Ako ovi novinari budu osudjeni, sto ce sprijeciti hasko tuziteljstvo da optuzi i druge novinare zbog ‘nepostivanja suda’?

Carla Del Ponte pokusava naredjivati sto se smije, a sto ne smije objavljivati u hrvatskome tisku. Njezin je cilj usutkati u Hrvatskoj svaku oporbu Haskom sudu. Nije slucajno sto su sva cetvorica novinara njezini glavni kriticari. Posebno su gospodin Marijacic i njegov prvorazredni tjednik Hrvatski list izrasli u vodecu duhovnu snagu u obrani hrvatskog nacionalnog suvereniteta i Domovinskog rata. On sada za ovo placa visoku cijenu. Ali na kraju ce i on i njegova hrabra domoljubna momcad dobiti punu zadovoljstinu.

Medj) Bolton ce dokrajciti Carlu Del Ponte

Mozda se, naime, pokaze kako je ovo tuziteljicin ‘Afganistan’– trenutak imperijalne nadmenosti koji ce dovesti do propasti citavog ovog ‘grijeha struktura’ imenom Haski sud.

Tijekom narednih nekoliko tjedana odlucit ce se i o sudbini Johna Boltona, kandidata predsjednika Georgea Busha za sljedeceg americkog veleposlanika u UN-u. Ako ga potvrdi Senat SAD-a, kao sto vjerujem da hoce, onda je polozaj Carle Del Ponte, kao glavne tuziteljice, ozbiljno uzdrman. Gospodin Bolton ne taji svoju odbojnost prema Haskom sudu, a navlastito za njezin bijedni ucinak kao glavne tuziteljice.

Ranije su Boltonove ostre kritike Carle Del Ponte ublazavali ‘balkanisti’ iz vanjskopoliticke birokracije americkog State Departmenta, medju kojima je mnogo haskih zagovornika i hrvatskih protivnika. Kao drzavni podtajnik za nadzor naoruzanja on nije imao ovlasti zauzdati Carlu Del Ponte i njezine fanatike u Haagu, ali sada ce ih dobiti. Ako, dakle, bude potvrdjen, Bolton ce upravljati americkom diplomacijom u UN-u, pa tako i prema UN-ovom Haskom sudu.
Kada, pak, sazna za ovaj najnoviji skandal, gotovo sigurno ce zatraziti da Washington uskrati potporu Carli Del Ponte i Haskom sudu. Ona je Boltonu pruzila diplomatsko uze koje mu je trebalo. Sada je samo treba dokrajciti – i to za vijeke vjekova!


- Jeffrey T. Kuhner je povjesnicar i stalni komentator Washington Timesa. Trenutno pise knjigu ‘Fatalni stisak: hrvatsko-srpski sukob u 20. stoljecu’.

Croatia and the EU Gotcha

How about that, my letter will be published in Ireland!!

Amazing!
Hilda

From: Brian Mulcahy < irishnews@donegal.net >
To: hmfgsf@juno.com
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005
Subject: Re: Croatia and the EU/Gotch

Excellent reply Hilda. Will appear in a short while on letters page under
title 'Economist':
http://www.cascarino.homestead.com/hf2.hml

Regards,
Brian.

From: hmfgsf@juno.com
To: letters@economist.com
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005
Subject: Croatia and the EU/Gotcha

Dear Editor:

Regarding your two articles of March 12, "Croatia and the EU,- "A General
Problem" and "Gotcha":

The sheer idea of Gen. Gotovina being accused of "command responsibility"
for his actions during the liberation of Croatia in 1995 even though he
never gave any commands for deliberate destruction or the killing of some
150 civilians, or for the "ethnic cleansing", when it is clearly
documented that most of the Serb population left on orders of their own
leadership before the arrival of the Croatian army, is simply ludicrous.
Especially when comparing it to the massacres and killing of tens of
thousands of civilians directly ordered by the Serb commanders Gen Mladic
and their civilian leader Karadzic in Bosnia, as occurred among other
places in Srebrenica and the shelling of Sarajevo for three years. It is
an outrage that such comparisons could be even made. One can only surmise
that it is the wish of the ICTY Prosecutor and some Western politicians
to pursue their policy of "all equally guilty" - the aggressor and the
victim, while deliberately ignoring that Croatia never set a foot on Serb
soil while everyone who followed the events of 1991-1995 would know what
aggression was perpetrated against Croatia by the Serbs - from Serbia
proper with the Yugoslav army and from within Croatia by the Serb
minority and paramilitary.

While Croatia has extradited all but this one fugitive, who most likely
is not in Croatia, Serbia has still a number of the most important
indicted war criminals walking the streets in Belgrade or hidden by the
Serb army, including Mladic and Karadzic. Considering the case of
Bosnian Croat General Blaskic, who was falsely accused and because of it
recently released having served years in prison, it should not surprise
anyone that general Gotovina refuses to give himself up. He cannot be
blind to the injustice and trumped up charges of a politicized Court.


Sincerely,

Hilda M. Foley
National Federation of Croatian Americans
13272 Orange Knoll
Santa Ana, CA 92705
 

Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina
19121 Wildwood Avenue
Lansing, Illinois 60438
(708) 895-5531; cuv@netzero.com

April 20, 2005

Honorable Elton Gallegly, Chairman
Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats
Committee on International Relations
U.S. House of Representatives - Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Gallegly,

On behalf of the Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina* thank you for the hearing “Bosnia-Herzegovina: Unfinished Business” held
on April 6, 2005 under your chairmanship. We are pleased that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has not entirely vanished from US foreign
policy concerns.

Please permit me to make several points regarding the testimonies given at the hearing and a few of my own observations pertaining to the
“unfinished business” in the country that is dear to our members and friends.

Regional vs. Individual EU Integration
In his testimony, Mr. Ivan Vejvoda appears to be arguing for regional, rather than individual, integration into existing Euro-Atlantic
institutions. He portrays Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and Macedonia as “as communicating vessels” that should
not be disjoined. It is understandable that Mr. Vejvoda, as a former senior adviser to a Serbian government, should advocate a speedy
integration of Serbia and Montenegro into the EU, but the Committee hearing should not be used to argue explicitly or implicitly that
Croatia’s present candidacy for membership in the EU should be delayed until all other states “in the region” fulfill the EU’s admission
requirements.
Mr. Vejvoda also argues Bosnian Serbs’ recognition that a crime was committed in Srebrenica has “historic significance.” But
the Serbs and Serbia have not fully acknowledged their role in provoking and sustaining the violence that accompanied the dissolution of
Yugoslavia, and the recent victory of Vojislav Seselj’s party suggests that many Serbs have not yet had a “historic” change of heart
regarding their national agenda. Recognition of the Srebrenica massacre and Serb cooperation with the ICTY is encouraging, but it is also
limited, and there are strong indications that Serbs in RS and in Serbia would like to preserve the Republika Srpska, regardless of the cost
to the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Return of Refugees
With regard to the return of refugees and displaced persons, Dr. Gerard Toal’s numbers are based on official Sarajevo calculations, and so they should be treated with caution. The reality seems to be less encouraging than these numbers suggest. For example, data collected by
the Catholic Church indicates that 2,680,000 refugees and displaced persons had left their homes, 59.6% of the total pre-war population and 600,000 more than indicated in the data used by Dr. Toal. UN observers and local officials also appear to have exaggerated the number of people who have returned to their homes. Their data is based on the assumption that all refugees and displaced persons who claimed their pre-war property have returned with their families. But many refugees and displaced persons have tried to protect their property by registering as returnees, even though they continue to live outside the country. Most of those who have returned are older people; the younger ones have been moving to foreign countries. According to Oslobodjenje, roughly one million Bosnian citizens have applied for foreign citizenship, and various surveys conclude that roughly 50 percent of those between 18 and 35 years of age would leave the country if they had the chance to do so. (See Bishops Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Commission “Justitia et pax”. Report on
the State of Human rights in Bosnia & Herzegovina in the Year 2004.)
Data regarding the return of Catholics, who are overwhelmingly Croats by nationality, are discouraging. Before the war, there were some 850,000 Croats/Catholics on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina; in 2004, there were only 465,000. The return of Croats to
the Republika Srpska is resisted by all Serb-dominated institutions, including the Serbian Orthodox church. Consequently, of 220,000 Croats/Catholics who lived on the territory of the Republika Srpska prior to 1991, fewer than 12,000 remain today.
The international actors in the country are doing virtually nothing about this appalling situation; they are not even willing to recognize that this acute problem for the survival of Croats in the Republika Srpska exists. Although Dr. Toal praises the accomplishments
of the High Representative, in reality the HR has been a passive witness to the continuation of ethnic cleansing of Croatians by Serbs, but using “peaceful” means.

Constituent Peoples vs Citizens
Dr. Toal correctly underscored the apparent dichotomy between the rights of the “constituent peoples” and “citizens” in the Bosnian constitution, that is, national rights of the three peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) versus the rights of citizens as individuals. To some,
this dichotomy appears irreconcilable, and they argue for the disappearance of the three national constituencies as a necessary step to securing the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.
Many Bosniaks and other forces inside Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as influential groups and individuals outside the country, would like a unitary state. Even the name “Herzegovina” is seen
as an obstacle to creation of a unified “Bosnian” nation-state. Some well-known experts on the region in this country have even called for a resuscitation of the discredited Titoist concept of “brotherhood and unity!” But the imposition of a Bosnian national identity failed during the Habsburg period, just as efforts to impose an artificial feeling of
“brotherhood and unity” did under the Tito regime, with disastrous results for the inhabitants of Bosnia-Herzegovina. These failed efforts at social engineering should caution us against experimenting with people as if they were lab animals or abstract constructs. The reality is that
there are three nationalities living in a Bosnian state, and only one sees it in its interest to impose a “Bosnian” nationality on everyone and organize Bosnia-Herzegovina as a “unitary” state. To force Croats and Serbs to trade their national identities for a Bosnian identity that is
associated with the Bosniak community, is as dangerous for the country’s future as the separatism supported by radical nationalists.

But there are forces in the country and outside who believe that disintegration is the only solution to the Bosnian riddle. Serbian and Croatian nationalists are usually lumped together as equally opposed to the existence of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but this is not the case.
There are fundamental differences between Croat and Serb national aspirations in Bosnia. Croatia is moving to consolidate democracy within its current borders and is in the process of joining the EU; it has no interest in supporting separatist forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
However, the ghost of a Greater Serbia is very much alive, and this should disturb all observers of the region. The Chetnik movement, an instrument of violent Serbian expansionism since the beginning of the last century, was recently
officially rehabilitated by the Serbian parliament. A “government in exile” has also been formed in Serbia by the former officials of the “Serbian Krajina” in Croatia to support the creation of a Serbian state there. About a week ago, newly drafted military recruits in the
Republika Srpska refused to swear allegiance to Bosnia; instead they insisted on pledging their allegiance to “their own Serb state.” Even
more ominously, the largest political party in Serbia openly champions a continued struggle for a Serb state that would include all of Bosnia-Herzegovina and two-thirds of Croatia. All major Serb political parties and institutions (in the RS and in Serbia) are
determined to protect the existence of the RS, regardless of the fact that the entity was created through aggression by the Yugoslav Army
and Serbian paramilitary forces and the brutal ethnic cleansing of its non-Serb inhabitants. For those who support the Republika Srpska, it is a crucial foothold for the future “unification of all the Serbs.”Although Croatian nationalism is often equated to Serbian nationalism by many in Bosnia and abroad, its nature and goals are quite distinct. There is no doubt that some Croatians would be happy to see Bosnia-Herzegovina disintegrate, but they are not the majority. In 1992, Croatians voted overwhelmingly for an independent Bosnian state, and throughout the war, neither the Croatian political establishment as a whole nor any significant Croatian institution, including the Catholic Church, in Croatia or in Bosnia-Herzegovina advocated the breakup of the country. Today, there is neither significant movement nor is there a major party among Croatians in Bosnia-Herzegovina that support its disintegration. Indeed, polls
suggest that a majority of people in the Republic of Croatia would reject annexation of any areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina, even by peaceful  means. Those who worry that “Croat extreme nationalists” are a latent danger to the unity of Bosnia-Herzegovina need not do so. Not even the most nationalist of Croatian parties, the Party
of Right, ever advocated the disintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Indeed, its militia, the HOS, fought alongside the Bosnian army and was recognized by Sarajevo’s government as a legitimate military unit defending the country. Those who view HDZ, the ruling party in Croatia and the leading party among Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a nationalist party ignore its continued efforts to take Croatia into the EU and its practical efforts to cooperate with
the government in Sarajevo. The HDZ is concerned to protect Croatia’s national interests, but it is not an extremist nor a chauvinist
organization. At present, there is neither clear consensus among Croat political parties nor Croat and Catholic institutions in Bosnia-Herzegovina regarding possible constitutional changes in the post-Dayton period. However, a variety of recent publications clearly
attest that, regardless of their apparent disunity, Croats do stand for the existence of the country in its present-day borders, for the
dismantling of the RS and the Croat-Muslim Federation, which only reason for existence is as a counterweight to the RS, and for a constitution that would guarantee them both full national equality and individual rights. For its Croats, the crucial question is not whether
Bosnia-Herzegovina should exist; that is a given. The crucial question is what kind of state it will be. Unfortunately, the Croatian position is often misrepresented or misunderstood by those favoring a unitary state, and Bosnia’s Croats are presented as dangerous separatists. But those who do not support a unitary state are not Bosnia’s enemies. It is rather those who insist on a unitarist point of view, which has already twice been tried and failed disastrously, who are now compromising Bosnia’s future.

More on Nationalism and Individualism
The opponents of organizing Bosnia-Herzegovina as a “constituency of peoples” fall into three main groups. The first is primarily comprised  of observers from abroad who are anxious to “de-construct” the national identities of Croats, Serbs, and Muslims, assuming that severing
them from their roots will make them “pure citizens” who will embrace and support individual freedoms, progress, and an imaginary “native Bosnian cosmopolitanism.” Their goal is to maximize individual happiness by guaranteeing human rights and removing the causes of ethnic
tension and strife, but by doing so they deprive people of their historic and national identities. They treat Bosnia-Herzegovina as a laboratory for an experiment of social engineering that, as noted above, has already failed on a larger scale, and there is no reason to assume
that a Bosnian identity would be any more successful than a Yugoslav identity. Ironically, the promoters of this approach are at the same time ardent advocates of pluralism and diversity, conditions they deny to the inhabitants of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The second group of opponents appear to be guided by realism, practicality, and geopolitics. For them, the country’s complicated situation has to be simplified either by remaking it into a unitary state or by accepting the two existing entities, one of which is Serbian, the other a hybrid Bosniak-Croatian construct in which Croatians are a distinct minority, whose insistence on remaining who they are in their own homeland is often portrayed as unreasonable and even extreme.The third group are comprised largely of Bosniaks and seem to be inspired by their own nationalist beliefs. They employ a fashionable, politically correct terminology, but they are essentially arguing to a unitary state in which they would act as custodians of its
integrity. But Bosnia-Herzegovina is a multi-national country, and there are constitutional systems throughout Europe that can serve as models of how to resolve the issue of ethos and the citizen. Cosmopolitanism does not have a monopoly on individualism and citizenship, and multinational states have robust civil societies. Nationality  and individualism, collective rights and individual rights should not be set at odds; they should be harmonized, as they have been in a number  of European countries. What is needed in Bosnia-Herzegovina is not forced de-nationalization, but the acceptance of everyone and every community for what they are. We should be searching for a viable constitutional model in which the law will be equally and justly applied to  all groups and individuals rather than condemning those who feel themselves to belong to a national group. The task is not as complicated as
many make it to be, if we are willing to approach it honestly, with an open mind and in a spirit of fairness.

Dayton Revisited
Some see the Dayton accords as a straitjacket imposed at a time of a horrific crisis that could have, and should have, been stopped in 1991, at the onset of the aggressive Serbian occupation of much of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dayton stopped the killing, but by
dividing the country and imposing a plethora of contradictory constitutional provisions that created an abnormal and unsustainable situation. The Dayton straitjacket has to be untied and removed; crucial constitutional questions must be renegotiated in a rational and well-intentioned
manner if Bosnia-Herzegovina and its people are to have a semblance of normal life.
Unfortunately, many members of the international community and thousands of “experts” have built careers by turning Bosnia-Herzegovina into a laboratory in which they seek to construct a new for the sake of the people but without its three original peoples.
The officials who were entrusted by the international community to guide the post-war reconstruction of B&H have use their unchecked power arbitrarily and
selectively. They intervene at will in everything, including criminal indictments and court decisions. Instead of dealing with corruption and
cronyism in a timely and decisive manner, they manipulate them for political ends. They have squandered a tremendous amount of foreign
aid, because they are not held responsible for their actions. Their behavior recalls the behavior of Europeans who undertook to “civilize” the
rest of the world in the nineteenth century, and Bosnia seems more a protectorate than a true state.
The indigenous political elites stand somewhere between the unproclaimed protectorate and the people, especially in the
Federation. Although their government positions have been legitimized by several elections since 1995, they depend on the will of the High
Representative, rather than on the approval of those who elected them. They are coerced, exploited, and occasionally discarded by foreign
officials; they are a ruling class that lives not for the people, but of the people.
The first step toward normalization is to scrap the existing constitutional system and begin to build a new one built on firm
foundations, so that people can start looking to a better future. People are tired of being pushed around by the international bureaucrats and
local elites. They long for security, both for themselves and their property; they ask a chance to work and provide for themselves and their
families, to feel free in their homes and in their country, to be who they are and what they are. Common people need to be once more to be
able to hope.

U.S. Role
Although the “case of Bosnia-Herzegovina” is being handed over to the Europeans, the US should be involved in bringing about a rational
and just solution to the challenges there. The US helped to end the war by negotiating the Dayton Agreement. Now, ten years after, it is the
time to make a few new and brave moves to revise the Agreement and help the three peoples in the country and all of its citizens find a
constitution that will insure freedom and security for all, make a viable state, and put it on the road into the EU in the not-too-distant future.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ante Cuvalo, Professor of History
President, The Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina

*The Alliance of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1994 by American Croats from Bosnia and Herzegovina. From its
inception, the Alliance has been an active promoter of freedom, peace, and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 

THE INITIATIVE OF JOURNALISTS FOR THE LIBERTY OF MEDIA AND NONPOLITICAL CROATIAN JOURNALIST SOCIETY

Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 5:47 PM
Subject: ICTY court in Haag and media freedom - Open Letter

OPEN LETTER TO THE MANAGEMENT OF JOURNALIST SOCIETY AND TO THE CROATIAN PUBLIC ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF THE LIBERTY OF MEDIA

The statement made by the vice-president of the Croatian Journalist Society Zdenko Duka about the indictments against three Croatian journalists, Ivica Marijacic, Domagoj Margetic and Stjepan Seselj being appropriate, and his ²arbitrating² that these journalists should be brought to answer in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), because they have violated the ²Statute of ICTY², are juxtaposed to the existence and the fundamental principals of the journalist guild association. The shameful act of the Journalist Society Management is unprecedented in journalism in general.
At the time when our colleagues are threatened by draconian, long-term imprisonments and penalties, it is logical to expect that the Croatian Journalist Society would offer them professional and fellow-like support, regardless of the fact whether these journalists are members of the Society or not.
Through this act the Croatian Journalist Society has lost the ability to be a legitimate association defending the journalist profession, and it has ranged itself into the political elitist group subjecting thus the journalistic profession to its communist-colored ideological commitments. We call the management of the Croatian Journalist Society to withdraw its original statement and act according to the principals for which they got the mandate chosen by the majority of Society members, and these are – protection of all journalists and liberty of media. If not, we will demand unconditional withdrawal of the management of the Croatian Journalist Society.
Zagreb, 1st May, 2005
 

THE INITIATIVE OF JOURNALISTS FOR THE LIBERTY OF MEDIA AND NONPOLITICAL CROATIAN JOURNALIST SOCIETY
 

For the initiative:
Davor Ivankovic, Tomislav Drzic, Diana Rexhepi
Zagreb, Croatia

 ...and to the elected Miss I wish a lot success in further beauty

                                 "Ustani bane,-

                                 hitno je!"

Zvonimir Drvar:

Planet Zemlja,-Svemirska Ludnica,najgluplji Planet u najglupljoj Galaksiji?! * Planet Earth,-The Madhouse of the Universe,the dummiest Planet in the dummiest Galaxy?!  * La planeta tierra,el manicĂłnio,hospital mental del universo,el mas stupido de los planetas en la galaxia mas estupida?!  *  Der Planet Erde,-Irrenhaus des Weltalls,am dumesten Planet in am dummesten Galaxie?!

Gdje progres i civilizacija prođu,-tu trava ne raste.*  Whereever Progress crosses over the grass won’t crop up anymore.*  Donde el progreso paso,el pasto no crece. *  Wo der Fortschritt hintritt,wächst kein Gras mehr.  *  La dove il progresso e la civiltagrave,sono passati,-non cresce piugrave,l'erba.

BliĹžnjega je zabranjeno jedino jesti...  *  The nearers? It’s banned only to eat them. *  Al projimo es strictamente prohibido solamente comer.  *  Es ist verboten,den Nächsten nur zu essen...

Tako su blesavi,da im se s puta sklanjaju i pruĹžna,ĹĄinska vozila.  *  He is so stupid,that the vehicles on the rails move away from him.  *  La gente estĂĄ tan estupida que inclusive los medios de locomocion con las vias los escivan.  (El hombre es tan estĂşpido que incluso esquiva los trenes de ferrocariles.) *  Er ist so dumm,dass ihm sogar Schienenfahrzeuge aus dem Weg gehen.  *  É cosi grave, sciocco,che quando passa gli fanno posto anche i veicoli sulle rotaie.

        Najbolji dokaz da je muĹĄkarac gluplji od Ĺžene,jest to ĹĄto se Ĺženi.  *  The best proof that a man is duller than a woman is that he gets married.  *  El ejemplo mas claro de que macho es mas estupido que la mujer,es el hecho que se casa.  *  Die beste Bewis dafĂźr,daß der Mann dĂźmmer ist als die Frau ist der,daß er heiratet.  *  La miglior prova che l’uomo sia piĂş stupido della donna,ĂŠ che il fatto che si sposa.

Nije istina da je čovjek postao od majmuna.Od dva. *  Of

course,it’s not true that man became from a monkey.From two.  *  No es cierto que el hombre desciende del mono.De dos.  *  NatĂźrlich, es ist nicht Wahr daß der Mensch vom Affe geworden. Vom zwei. *  Non ĂŠ vero che l’uomo provenga dalla scimmia.Da due scimmie.

        Na prve krĹĄćane,-lavove,a na preostale,-inkasatore.  *  Against first christians,-lions,against remaining,-collectors of accounts,bills collectors,tax-collectors,...  *  An die erste Christen,-die LĂśwen,an Ăźberbleibenden,-die Steuerneinziehers.  *  A los primeros cristianos,-los leones,a todos los demas,-los incasadores.

*  Contro gli primi cristiani,-gli leoni,contro gli sopravanzi,-esattori,collectori,tassattori,percettori,...

Pazite da vam (eventualno) poĹĄtenje ne prijeđe u naviku! * 

Be careful that (eventual) honesty doesn’t grow into your habit!  *  Tengan mucho cuidado que su eventual honestidad nos se le pase en cronico.  *  Achtung! (Eventuell) Ehrlichkeit kann zur Gewohnkeit werden!  *  Far attenzione que (eventuale) onesta` ne ha preso l'abitudine.

Normalizacija odnosa:Nakon privremenog zastoja,stanari,

susjedi su se opet počeli svadjati,vrijeđati i tući.  *  Normalisation of communication:After a temporary interruption,tenants, neighbours started again to quarrel,insult,beat,strike,trash, batter,belabour,whip,cudgel,kick,pummel,...*  La normalizacion de las relaciones:Des pues de un breve lapso de tranquilidad,los vecino en pezar nuovamente a pelear,ofenderse mutuamente hasta llegaron ala pelea verdadera. *  Normalisierung der Verhältnisse: Nach eine kurzen Unterbrechung begannen die Mieter wieder zu streiten.

"...a izabranoj Miss,Ĺželim puno uspjeha u daljnjoj ljepoti."  *  "...and to the elected Miss I wish a lot success in further beauty." *  "...und zu auswählende Miss' wir wĂźnschen ihr viel Erfolg in weitere SchĂśnheit." *  "...e a la Miss eletta noi desideramo molti successi in bellezza futura."  * "...y a la Miss elegida le deseamos mucha suerte en la belleza futura."  *

       Prekinuo je s njome sve odnose,osim seksualnih. *  He

discontinued every kind of relationship with her,except the sexual. * Rompio todas las relaciones con ella menos los sexuales.  *  Er abbrechte alle Verhandlungen mit ihr außer sexue'll.  *  Lui sospe`ndo,rĂłmpero tutti le relazioni con ella all' infuori di sessuali.

Susjedi su u zadnje vrijeme prema meni jako ljubezni. Nekog vraga mi spremaju! *  My neighbour has been very nice to me in last few days.Who knows what the hell he’s preparing to me?! *  Ultimamente mi vecino estĂĄ muy amable;estarĂĄ preparĂĄndome alguna macana. *  Mein Nachbar ist in letzter Zeit so nett zu mir.Der will etwas!  *  I vicini di casa sono molto cordiali con me nell'ultimo periodo.Mi staranno preparando qualcosa.

Dok ostali pisci prate ĹĄto se događa,ja paĹžljivo pratim ĹĄto se  NE  događa... *  While the other writers follow what happens,I carefully watch what does not happen...  *  Während die Ăźbrigen Schriftstellers folgen was geschehet,ich folge was geht da NICHT vor!  * Mientras los demas escritores observan lo que estĂĄ succediendo yo observo atentamente lo que NO estĂĄ succediendo...  * Mentre restante scrittori suguirano que successe,io attentamente considero lo que NO successe.

        Ratove ne uzrokuju oni,koji nemaju niti za kruh,nego kreature,koje se tuku za kolače i torte.  *  The wars do not create the people which have not even for a bread,but creatures who beat,strike,thrash,batter,belabour,whip,kick for layer-cakes,pastries,sweet courses,... *  Las guerras no empiecan los que no tienen ni para el pan,si no las creaturas,que se pelean por las tortas y los dulces.  *  Le guerre no cominciano quegli chi sono sprovvisti anzi per un tozzo di pane,ma le creature quale se zuffano per ciambelloni e torte.

        Inače bivĹĄa članica "Hitlerjugenda" Helga,kasnije Lenjinka Staljinović-Marksović,-preĹĄla u demokratsku stranku i sada se,bez obzira na ogromne stečene imovine,doduĹĄe za vrhunsku plaću, izvanredne prihode i mirovinu,u Europskoj uniji i Ujedinjenim nacijama zauzima da u neku od svjetskih institucija plasira,"ugura" svoju kćer,pa i za globalizaciju.  *  La ex partidaria de "Juventud Hitleriana" Helga,despues llamada Lenjinca Staljinović-Marksović,apasado al partido democratico y ahora,no importa la cantidad de los bienes adquiridos,por casualidad cobrando el su elao mas alto,en la Union Europea y Naciones Unidas ahora se adeclarado la partidaria de la globalizacion.

 Ako tako nastavi,-i domaće jabuke će biti prisiljene jesti uvozno voće.  *  If so go on,-even native,home-made apples will be forced to eat imported fruit.  *  Si seguinos asi,asta la mansana nuestras de beran comer importadas.  *  Wenn aber so fortfĂźhrt,die heimische Apfels will einen Zwang ausĂźben die Einfuhrobst zu fressen.  *  Si continua cosi,le frutte dome`stice devono forzate mangiare le frutte importate.

Kako god ga bacili,on se dočekao na leđa.  *  No matter how they throw him,he would always fall on his back. *  No importa como lo echen;Él caerĂĄ siempre sobre la espalda.  *  Wie und wohin man ihn warf,immer fiel er auf die Nase (den RĂźcken)  *  Inqualsiasi modo lo buttano,cade sempre sulle spalle.

BaĹĄnajpliće rupe će se uvijek i svagdje drĹžati najozbiljnije i pretvarati se da su najdublje-zamiĹĄljene.  *  Just,precisely the most shallow holes will always,ever behaviour serious,grave,earnest and pretend like they are extremely deep in thoughts. *  Que casualidad,los agujeros a penas visibles se portĂĄran como si fueran creadas para profundidad mas grande. *  Proprio superficialitissime bugiga`ttole spacciarsi per,quasi che sono immersissime nei pensieri.

        IZBORI

        Uvijek nove bebe ali izgleda da se pelene nikada ne mijenjaju.

        RATNE PRIČE

        Poslije svih ratova,oni,koji nisu u ratu učestvovali,osnivaju dugoročno najokrutnije,inkasator-bojne,kamatarske pukovnije, ovrhovoditeljske divizije.

        Ako je njihovo svekoliko djelovanje 99% loĹĄe,a 1% dobro,

političari kaĹžu:učinak je dijelom loĹĄ,a dijelom dobar.

        Ako vas bilo koji činovničić "uhvati na zub" vi si točno

moĹžete,sa svim svojim pravima i dokumentima,rit obrisat.

        U Ĺživotu sve se mijenja,osim inkasatora,inkasatori su vječni.

        Svakog milenija jedno te isto!

       I besmrtnici moraju proći pogrebne formalnosti. *  The immortals have also to go through the funeral formalities.  *  Hasta los immortales tienen que pasar por las formalidades del entierro.  *  Auch die Unsterblichen mĂźssen die Begräbnisformalitäten durclaufen.   *  Pure gli immoriali devono passare per la formalitĂĄ funebri.   

Omladino,mladeĹži,tinejdĹžeri cijeloga Planeta!Jednoga dana će čitav ovaj kretenski svijet biti vaĹĄ!  *  Juventad de todo el globo! AlgĂşn dĂ­a todo este mundo cretino serĂĄ suyo!  *  Jugend dieses ganzen Planeten!Eines schĂśnen Tages wird diese ganze blĂśdsinnige Welt Dir GehĂśren!

Snovi nam se ispunjavaju.RuĹžni.  * Our dreames realized.The ugly ones.  * Unsere Traumen sind in ErfĂźllung gegangen.Abscheu'liche.  *  Nostri sogni sono realizzati.Tutti.Brutti.

“Jasam Bog,doĹĄao sam ponovo među ljude!â€? “Dobro,dobro, sjedi,tamo,u kut,i nemoj smetati.â€?

Prolazimo kroz Ĺživot kao sapunčići na toboganu.

Kad neki političar ili diplomat u tren oka dobije nogom u dupe,to se stilizira ovako:â€?Posjet je bio kratak ali sadrĹžajanâ€?.  *  When some politician or diplomat,visiting some state,in a jiffy "gets a leg in arse",official,diplomatic announcement is:"The visit was short but substantial". * Wann ein Poli'tiker oder Diploma't also im Augenblick der Fuß in Arsch kriegt,offiziell Bericht ist:"Der Besuch war kurz aber inhaltsreich."  *  Cuando un politico o diplomata de golpe recibe una patada en el traste esto,en el diario dice asi:"La entrevista fuĂŠ breve pero muy efectiva." * Quando un politico o diplomatico in un batter d'occhio riceve la gamba in deretano,vince un calcio in mappamondo,questo si deve stilizzare cosi:"La visita era corta me piena di senso."

      Nas muzu,-odozgo!   * They exhaust us from above...  *  Nos ordeĂąan desde arriba! *  Wir werden gemolken,- von oben! *  Ci muggono,-da sopra! (Noi siamo mungerati,-da sopra!)

         Svi mi,izgleda,proizvodimo čekiće,kojima nas zatim odozgo lupaju po glavama.   * It seems,-we all produce hammers and then with them they from above,from the top beat,knock,batter rap,strike,snap,thump,bang us in aour heads.  *  Mir scheint,wir alle produzieren Hämmer,mit denen man uns dann von oben auf den Kopf schlägt.  *  Parece que noi tutti siamo solamente per fabbricare gli martelli,mazzuoli per lei,con quali in seguito lei batterano sulle nostre teste.

        Majmuni su manji.  * The monkeys are smaller.  * Los monos son mas pequeĂąos *  Die Affen sind kleiner.  *  Le scimmie sono piĂş piccole.

       Svaki početak je teĹžak,ali ovaj bi mogao biti čak prelagan:

kako bi mogao početi Posljednji Sud:na ovom blesavom planetu bi mogao početi jednostavno,čak banalno:vlasnici mačke,na susjede,zbog njihovog psa,bacili atomsku bombu.

Europa:Glupača koja je otkrila Ameriku.  *  Europe:A silly goose which discovered America. *  Europa: Der Idiot,der Amerika entdeckt hat. * Europa:La estĂşpida,la que descubriĂł AmĂŠrica.  *  Europa:Una stupida che ha scoperto l’America. 

        Stanje na planetu:Već su potpuno razočarani i jednodnevni pilići.

OtiĹĄao je zalupivĹĄi prozorom...* He went,and shut window behind him.  *  Aquel se fue estrellando la ventana...  * Er ging und schlug das Fenster hinter sich zu. *  Se n'egrave,andato sbattendo la finestra.

...............................................................................

 Gornji tekst je informativni segment iz nove neobjavljene knjige:

        PRELUDIJ PO MERIDIJANIMA I PARALELAMA

        ( AKUPUNKTURA PLANETA )

        ( EKSKLUZIVNO ZA PAMETNE )

        Budući da  knjiga ima 170 stranica (A-4) prezentirao sam vam tek mali dio.

Knjiga je sinkrono prevedena na engleski,ĹĄpanjolski,njemački i talijanski.

        Hrvatske i "regionalne" teme ravnopravne su općeljudskim. Naslov toga bloka,zajednički nazivnik,moĹže biti,recimo: 

                                 "Ustani bane,-

                                 hitno je!"

Objavljene knjige:  

ZA GIMNASTIKU GLAVE 

    EKSKLUZIVNO ZA PAMETNE 

ATOMSKA BOMBA NA RAĹ˝NJU 

ROMAN NAD ROMANIMA 

Planet zemlja - Svemirska ludnica

PEPELJUGA 

nasmijane misli 

PLANET ZEMLJA,-NAJGLUPLJI PLANET U NAJGLUPLJOJ GALAKSIJI ?! (ROMAN O SVEMU) ( ! )

                                             -o-

Zvonimir Drvar*:Najkraći mogući segment Curriculuma vitae:

Studiji:Povijest i povijest umjetnosti (Filozofski fakultet) zatim Akademija za kazaliĹĄte,film i TV (odsjek reĹžija,Gavella). Urednik, dramaturg i redatelj na HRT (Radio).Bezbroj objavljenih radova (u cca 120 redakcija!).Vlastiti,individualni časopis "Humor". Devet objavljenih knjiga,u  nakladama i do 15.000 (čak i u ona vremena kad su najveće naklade bile 5.000 primjeraka) (Hrvatska ima 4,5 miliona stanovnika,ĹĄto bi za zemlju,recimo,od 45 miliona bio ekvivalent 150.000 primjeraka).Stotinjak recenzija.Desetak nagrada (recimo,Gustav Krklec, zatim Ranko Marinković (svojevremena preporuka za članstvo u DruĹĄtvu hrvatskih knjiĹževnika,jedne od najstarijih takvih asocijacija u Europi) ili Nobelovac Ivo Andrić (svojevremeno predsjednik Ĺžirija nagrade "Oslobođenje",Sarajevo) ili,pravome piscu najvrjednije,a pravome uredniku,nakladniku, poslovnome čovjeku,čitatelju dragocjena informacija,-autor je dobio viĹĄe tisuća (!) pisama čitatelja,...

Podaci o autoru:u antologiji humora u hrvatskoj knjiĹževnosti: "Od doseljenja Hrvata ..."(Zagreb 1975.) u "Hrvatskom biografskom leksikonu" (Leksikografski zavod "Miroslav KrleĹža",Zagreb 1993.) u "Leksikonu članova DruĹĄtva hrvatskih knjiĹževnika" ("Riječ",Vinkovci 1999.) zatim u "Antologiji hrvatskoga humora" (2002.) u "Hrvatskom aforističkom zborniku",kao prilozi uz suradnju "O autoru" u većini od 120 redakcija...

                                             -o-

        Autor je nedavno dobio poziv od Bertelsmanna (Verlagsgruppe Random House) najvećeg izdavača na planetu.Najveći imaju smisao za humor,satiru.Naravno da bih bio sretan naći hrvatsko uredniĹĄtvo novina i časopisa,hrvatskoga izdavača.

Sehr geehrter Herr Drvar,

vielen Dank fĂźr Ihre E-Mail und Ihr Interesse am Hause Bertelsmann.

Wenn Sie ein Manuskript einreichen mÜchten,schicken Sie bitte nur ein ExposÊ,eine Inhaltsangabe oder ein repräsentatives Kapitel Ihrer Arbeit in Papierform (Kopie!)

Ich hoffe, Ihnen damit geholfen zu haben und verbleibe

mit freundlichen Grüßen

Sonja Heine
Unternehmenskommunikation
Bertelsmann AG   

Zvonimir Drvar

Schrottova 9

10 000 Zagreb

Hrvatska 

tel.:385-01-46 83 123

e-mail: zvonimir.drvar@zg.htnet.hr

Croatian Antifascist Movement in Istria

How the Yugoslav Communists Suppressed the Croatian Antifascist Movement in Istria

Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 3:38 PM
Subject: Re: Miller & Istria

I wanted to respond to Rudi Arapovic's comments to give one an idea of what I meant by pointing out the positive.

Unfortunately, WWII history in Croatia has been and to a great extent continues to be ideologized and remains an issue of political contention till today. The Communists basically take and took all credit for the anti-Nazi and anti-Fascist struggle in Croatia.

An excellent example is what occurred in Istria in Sept 1943 when Italy capitulated. The Communist Party of Croatia (KPH) had sent some representatives to Istria in an attempt to build support for the Partisan movement. However, in mid-1943 there were only 25 KPH members in all of Istria and there were no organized Partisan units whatsoever. There were also several dozen sympathizers. Ethnic Italian communists at the time did not support the Partisans or the KPH - they viewed the movement as overly nationalist and believed that communists should be working on a revolution in the cities rather than in the countryside.

Despite the literal handful of KPH members in Istria, within several days of Italy's capitulation, the Croatian people in Istria, in a mass uprising that I do not believe can be compared to anything else in Europe, took over the entire peninsula - only Pula, Trieste and the eastern portion of Rijeka remained outside of their control.

The KPH members themselves recognized at the time in contemporary documents that this uprising caught them by complete surprise and got away from their control. Using a Leninist phrase, they admitted that they found themselves in the "tail" of the movement.

On Sept 13 members of the District National Liberation Committee for Istria issued the so-called Pazin Declaration (Pazinska odluka) where they declared the union of Istria with its homeland, Croatia (YU was not mentioned at all). People such as Berto Crnja and Dusan Diminic write in their memoirs of the nationalist euphoria which enveloped Istria at the time. They note that Croatian flags (not YU flags) were found everywhere. Diminic writes that he and a collegue went to visit one prominent priest (Zvonko Brumnic) who was so delighted that he invited them into his home where he played Lijepa nasa on his piano. Diminic or Crnja (can't remember which off hand) note that people in Pazin wrote graffiti on locomotives which said Zivili Nasi Domobrani, the writers noting that this showed that the people in Istria remained more or less unaware of the political differences which divided Croats in Croatia proper.

Later in September a meeting of Communists and prominent non-Communist Croats from Istria met in Pazin and constituted themselves as the Provincial National Liberation Committee of Istria. Significantly, four Croatian priests were among the delegates - one of them was Josip Pavlisic, who currently is the retired Archbishop of Rijeka!

At the meeting a number of resolutions were adopted including repealing all Italian fascist laws, calling for the removal from Istria of Italians sent to colonize Istria after 1918 and calling for the re-introduction of Croatian (not "Serbo-Croatian") in all churches in Istria.

The three weeks of freedom and euphoria came to an end in early October when Germans launched an offensive in Istria. The newly constituted Partisan units in Istria were destroyed and an estimated 5,000 people were killed in Istria by the Germans in the next several months alone. German repressive activities continued throughout the rest of the war - in May 1944, for ex., the Germans executed over 250 people in the village of Lipa (near the border with Slovenia at Rupa). Another massacre occurred in Tinjan in western Istria where about 80 people were executed in one day. Hundreds of Croat Istrians were taken to concentration camps in Germany as well as the so-called Risseria camp in Trieste (the only one in Italy that had a crematoria). I encourage anyone driving thru the interior of Istria to take a couple of moments to look at the local "Partisan" monuments - most of the people listed were killed in 1943 or '44. More importantly, in light of the small number of KPH members in Istria at the time, there is little doubt that those listed were non-Communist civilians.

During the last 2 years of the war the KPH gained its bearings in Istria and began to impose its ideological views. The support that probably all Croats in Istria gave to the anti-fascist movement began to dissipate in the face of Communist stupidity. An example of this was the relations between the KPH and Croatian priests in Istria which took a 180 degree turn as the KPH began to attack a number of prominent priests (such as Bozo Milanovic). The ultimate end of the war saw the now Yugoslav Army enter Istria in late April 1945.

My point in this story is that what occurred in Istria in Sept 1943 (and indeed what probably occurred in Split at the same time) was not a Communist led uprising but a popular revolt against a regime which engaged in the open ethnic elimination of Croats and all things Croatian (e.g., the Italians removed the Ninski statue when they came to Split in '43; the well-known ban on the use of Croatian names and language in Istria since the mid-1920s, etc.). That the Communists were able to take over the leadership of the revolt is due to the fact that there were no other organized political parties or organizations in Istria as a result of the fascist regime's policies (the NDH attempted to send emissaries to Istria but their attempts were thwarted by the Germans who put Istria and the Kvarner under their direct control). They could only be opposed by the Church and as noted above the initial alliance forged with local priests came to a quick end.

We should not allow the Communists to claim this truly remarkable story as something of their own doing - it wasn't. It was the doing of those Croatian patriots who remained in Istria throughout Italian rule and surreptitiously kept alive among the local people the desire to join their motherland and to destroy fascism at the same time.

John Kraljic