Jure Galic Photo source: HRSvijet
According to HRSvijet portal “Nedjo from Ljubuski” is a controversial film by Svetlana Broz (Josip Broz Tito’s granddaughter) that has raised a great deal of dust in Ljubuski and the whole of Herzegovina.
The leading role in the film is dedicated to Nedjeljko Nedjo Galic (died 2010), an old communist from town of Ljubuski who has lived Tito’s version of “brotherhood and unity” all his life. Hence, in 1991, Nedjo placed himself on the side with those who wanted to “ban the Croatian flag, Croatian anthem and generally the existence of Croatian name”.
Today, twenty years later, Nedjo’s character appears in Ljubuski again, in the film by Svetlana Broz. This time via a pamphlet that attempts to point to Ljubuski Croatians for banishing the Bosniak minority. The pamphlet is sponsored by the Norwegian government where Broz and Galic had been living during recent years!
Ljubuski online portal asserts that Svetlana Broz is spreading ethnic hatred with the film. It states that the film was made with Social Democratic Party (SDP) black funds and that statements made in the film are filled with lies, and with malice portrays Croatians from Ljubuski in the darkest of lights all with the purpose of propagating the Bosnian politics of unity based on the failed Yugoslav “brotherhood and unity” without respecting constituent peoples.
As one would expect from such a suspect alliance of film and pamphlet financial backers, the film suppresses the fact that it was the same Nedjo Galic who was one of the leaders in the attempts (prepared by the Bosniak secret service AID) to raise rebellion by the Bosniaks that had the goal of toppling the legitimate authorities in Ljubuski.
The film attempt to consistently discredit the Croatians of Herzegovina because of their resistance against any Yugoslavia and Croatians there believe that the film is trying to portray a story of Bosniak victims in the 1990’s war as a screen for a completely different reason.
They feel that the film’s intention is to cause affairs and intrigues that would stop any further investigations into communist crimes in those areas.
During the past few years there have been mass graves discovered in the area and remains of 59 people murdered in February 1945 have been exhumed.
Now the late Nedjo Galic from this film is a relative of Jure Galic, still living, who was a communist and Secretary of the WWII area’s communist organisation which had the task of creating the list of local “enemies of the people” (i.e. those against communism), which “enemies” were then sent to their torturous death.
Sources report that in the relatively small Herzegovina the communists murdered 20,000 people!
Back to Broz’s film. The truth is that the Bosniak (Muslim) troops were disarmed during the 1990’s war in order to prevent further slaughter of Croatian people in the region. No lives were lost in this (which the film confirms) and eventually the Muslims were given the choice to either stay and live in peace with Croatians or go abroad. Majority chose to leave.
If the latter rings a bell in your mind – good! It means that we all know the way the mind of the political army for Greater Serbia works and worked.
The Serbs chose to leave Croatia at the end of Operation Storm (August 1995) and used that choice for their advantage by claiming that Croatians banished them from Krajina. Now, comes some Svetlana Broz and paints the Croatians from Ljubuski with the same colours as Serbs painted Croatians of Croatia! That is, that Croatians of Ljubuski banished Muslims from Ljubuski when in fact the Muslims left on their own accord.
The angering thing in this whole malicious exercise is that the Broz’s film was funded by the same political party line now in government in Croatia. As for Norwegian government sponsoring the film’s pamphlet one can sense yet another international streak in the resistance to the prosecution of communist crimes.
But, with enduring strength of Croatian people (and people of other countries) communist crimes will see justice. Perhaps, Ljubuski authorities should speed up their processes while Jure Galic is still alive, and other witnesses are still alive. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps.(Syd)
RSS - Posts
Oh please,we all know how things went down in Herzegovina,just pretending that nothing happen to people and citizens living there in 90,and trying to shift the light to any moments in past Yugoslavia-wont fly anymore!!
Instead congratulating this man for saving people and lives we are now playing political game or better yet making it look like_’OH THEY DID NOT HAVE NOTHING TO RUN FROM IN THE FIRST PLACE”-that story can be sold only to those who never lived in any of these areas,country or this continent-for everyone else there are people that lived trough it,there are those who forced people out of their homes,and those ashamed of it and now pretending they didn’t!!
You must be off this planet or never in Herzegovina during those times to think otherwise!
Man,some people and “writers”-look at yourself in the miror and do a bit of a research!!
Actually, the article is based on research. Former Yugoslavia will “fly” for many years to come I expect, especially until those still living who perpetrated crimes under its banner are brought to justice.
Thanks for this well-researched article. We quoted parts of it in our own article that was published today:
http://www.unzensuriert.at/content/009414-Titos-Enkelin-drehte-anti-kroatischen-Film
Thank you
Long live…”zivjela” in Croatian language Ina Vukic!! Croatian’s in our beautiful Croatia, as well as, Croatian’s around the world, should be extremely proud of Ina Vukic……I know I am, after reading this article. We need (and needed far more before the establishment of a fully indepandent “Croatian-state” = “Republika Hrvatska”– before the whole world was honored and recognized) more Croatian’s like Ina Vukic to proclaim and defend our own freedom, liberty, justice, and self-determination from the past oppressions/oppressors. I am proud of her work and glad she was honored the Medals of Honour.
Thank you Kathy for your comment
Thanks a ton for this – love the info and agree with your perspective. However many others will not, so thanks for speaking up. Nice blog, well done!
Wait, are you saying no people were killed during the 90-ies in Herzegovina by croats? Are you saying all the people that fled did so just because the heck of it, because they took it as an adventure leaving their homes and homeland to explore the world and go into the uncertainty? There were no lifethreatening situations left behind? Are you for real?! It was a WAR, don’t make it into a teaparty Where some chose to leave early! I can’t believe how surreal your approach to what this movie is about is, almost like “Damn her, how dares she promote people being people!” Whatever her intentions with this movie was, I have read “Good people in an evil time”, I recommend it to everyone, because if nothing else I salute Svetlana Broz for speaking up with stories about people managing to stay just that, human beings who could see past peoples religion and ethnicity and give them a helping hand in such cruel times Where it was so easy to choose becoming monsters. She looks for the good in people that comes from something beyond ethnicity. You can of course choose being the victim, because that is obviously what you are doing, portraying that muslims pretended to be the victims, when in reality you were the real victims, croatians of Herzegovina who gave muslims the freedom of choice, be killed or get out ( oops I mean what you said, they left because they were bored. That’s what happens to people in war).
No Maydayforfashion, no one is saying that no people were killed by Croats in that war, any deaths that were not casualties of war been rightly so processed by the courts, i.e. criminals charged etc. Croatia took on hundreds of thousands of refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina etc. This post concentrates on failures to process Communist crimes, on coverups, and Josip Broz Tito, Svetlana’s grandfather was at the helm of massive communist crimes during and past WWII. Of course, members of all ethnic groups subscribed to the Communist hoards that went on killing sprees of innocent people and they/their crimes must be prosecuted. What is important is that all crimes, regardless of who committed them must be brought to justice in one way or another.
Well that I can of course completely agree on, but this post also states Svetlana as almost a criminal for portraying this mans story. That I don’t agree on. I have read quite a bit about her, and even talked to several people that have met her and gotten to know her on several levels. I think her intention is to portray that some ideas of her grandfather as us being able to pass beyond our ethnicity have managed to survive in some people, Even in the darkest days of Bosnian/former Yugoslavian history. I don’t think her intention in any way is to prohibit any criminal charges or investigation against previous communist, and I would imagine that she would not agree with this either. Upon writing her book “good people in an evil time” just as she had finished her research someone broke into her apartment and ruined all her papers. Not a coinsidence. She was devoted to these peoples stories and did it all over again, to which I salute her for. I don’t think she should be judged for what her grandfather did, she is keen to keep some of his spirit alive, but I think she is putting this well to use in looking into the psychology, how some people manage to stay away from the doings of a herd when they see something as wrong. I don’t think she would ever stand in the way of justice being served for all the killings during communism, just as she is supporting the trials against all the war crimes and criminals during the war in the 90s. No matter what side they were on. That is why I don’t see the point of portraying her as someone who is a nobody who is wrong in her portraying of this history. Her brother is the leader of a communist party in Serbia, but even he sees the wrong doings of his/their grandfather, and has no problem admitting it. Svetlana has done her research, to completely reject this story in this way seems defensive.
Svetlana chose to do a story of a person (Nedjo Galic) who actually fought fiercely against the democratic will of the majority of the Croatian people in Bosnia & Herzegovina (Ljubuski area) to secede from communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s. As a journalist she’s entitled to do that, but also, others are entitled to analyse and comment and criticise it as they see fit. The film lacks proper, unbiased, balance and as such it is more open to criticism and political analysis. She’s entitled to look into the psychology but so are those who analyse her film and possible motives behind it. Svetlana may be supporting the trials of alleged war criminals regardless of their ethnicity and certainly no fair person could do otherwise; that is the way lawful democracy works and citizens must accept the fact that if someone is suspected of a crime (on basis of some evidence, that needs to be proven in court) they must face a trial. She and her brother may, as you say, privately be condemning WWII and post-WWII communist crimes but I certainly haven’t encountered any public or otherwise move by them to champion the cause of prosecuting them publicly and they’re in a good position to make positive footprints in that. Thank you on your comments.
Ina,
in your post of October 20, 2012 at 9:51 pm you refer to “Tito being at the helm of massive communist crimes during WWII.” I hope you will forgive me for having paraphrased slightly.
I was wondering if you would elaborate on specifically what crimes committed during (emphasis on during i.e. pre Axis withdrawal and Allied advance) the Second World War it is that your are referring to or perhaps you could recommended a peer reviewed journal article that discusses the crimes to which you allude.
With thanks,
A student of Second World War Balkan History – MA War Studies
Acuriousresearcher – there is quite a bit on Communist Crimes out there but I will attend to narrowing down some in near future. Many are in Croatian language though. Croatian victimology website also has material in their publications etc
Thanks on you comment and the issue of Communist crimes is not going away anytime soon – they must be dealt with.
The only thing I can say about the article and the comments is: Thank God For NATO. Without NATO intervention, it seemed there could have been the same ingredients there that started World War I. My neighbor, a refugee from Serbia, had great difficulty getting his children to the US after they had decided to return to Serbia in the 90’s. I will never forget what he said to me during this time. “Freedom not for everyone”.
If we forget our history, it tends to repeat it’s self. Many people copulated to mass murder during and after WWII out of fear. The Nazis committed mass murder all over Europe. Can we forget the population of a whole town in Italy that was murdered because of a link to the resistance. The communists had their “purges” and imprisonment of political opponents that dare disagree with them as well as mass murders against people in Poland and the Ukraine and other territories involved in the Nazi invasions in operation Barbarossa. I have friends in the middle east that are taught in school that these atrocities were all made up.
The truth is the truth. However, it seems like every source has a political bias. In a region that has so much inborn hate for their neighbors, it is difficult to spawn a free unbiased press let alone investigations by governments who have special interests in the outcome.
My Grandmother, Francis Broz lived in Tuhelj (my fathers birthplace) Croatia during Austrian rule. Her accounts of living conditions were so repressive, that she and her husband left and immigrated to the US in 1912. My grandfather was a Serb and even back then, the Serbs hated the Croats.
In the 1990,s war, I believe that many people migrated between the countries because they found it impossible to live there based on their ancestry. You can say they left on their own if you want, but, it was because they did not feel safe in their homes based on the political climate. With no stable governments to protect life in property, I don’t think they had much of a choice.
AND THY TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE. and will also open old wounds.
Keep up the good work Ina…