Interview with Tomislav Kuzmanovic, co-counsel for General Mladen Markac Part 1 – by Brian Gallagher : “We were expecting nothing but hoping for justice”.
Croatia, the War, and the Future
Ina Vukic - Croatia: people, politics, history, economy, transitioning from communism to democracy
Interview with Tomislav Kuzmanovic, co-counsel for General Mladen Markac Part 1 – by Brian Gallagher : “We were expecting nothing but hoping for justice”.
The place where you can get your: Colour Me Croatian
https://colourmecroatian.com
Welcome to my blog. Here I will bring to you a variety of topics covering the documented truth about that terrible war that Croatia had to endure during the period between 1991 and 1995 and about Croatian political history that shaped a wonderful nation of people.
Croatian people wanted independence for centuries, just as they had it until the twelfth century but fate was not on their side – others wanted their beautiful land. In late 1980′s the will to break free from Yugoslavia which suffocated freedom and self determination through harsh communist party rule finally bore the desired fruit.
In June 1991 Croatia declared its independence; soon after the aggressive war against Croatia broke out. The struggle of the Croatian people for self-determination was a just one. But I fear genuine justice has not been served as there have been, and there still exist, international covert and overt moves to equate victims with aggressors continue in attempts to change history. Truth often becomes obscured and lost and that is why I have chosen to write this blog, to concentrate on actual events and issues about Croatia – wishing it a bright and freedom-loving future.
It certainly was not easy to come out of the war that was fought on two fronts:
1. On the military front the world’s public has seen the indiscriminate bombardment of Croatian cities, towns and villages from land, sea and air; the destruction of civilian targets including homes, schools, hospitals, churches, factories and cultural monuments; the blockading and destruction of roads, bridges and ports; the blockading of power, water, food and medical supplies. What hasn’t been shown on our television sets is the forced clearing and evacuation of towns and villages, followed by looting, torture, rape and murder carried out by the Serbian forces, who were initially backed by the federal Yugoslav army that was largely constituted by Serb nationals; the transportation of multiple hundreds of innocent Croatian civilians from Croatia into concentration camps Serbia (Begejci, Stajicevo, Sremska Mitrovica… from October 1991, and later (1992) transferred into Serb-held camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Omarska, Keratern, Manjaca, Trnopolje).
2. The second front was the war of political propaganda centred on: misinformation about the rights of minorities in Croatia; portrayal of the Croatian people as Ustasha or Fascists; the representation of the Croatian defence forces as illegal paramilitary units; the representation of the Croatian and Slovenian republics as unreasonable secessionists who are unwilling to negotiate; a regurgitation of distorted facts about World War II.
Indeed Croatia had an absolute right to defend itself and this is often forgotten if not often denied it.
Ina has been a tireless volunteer on humanitarian aid and fundraising for victims of war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially war orphans. From1991 to beginning of 1994 she contributed in lobbying for international recognition of Croatian independence and Croatia’s rights in defending its territory and people from military aggression by Serbian forces. For this dedicated voluntary work Ina was awarded two Medals of Honour by the first president of the Republic of Croatia in 1995 (Commemorative Medal of the Homeland War and Order of the Croatian Trefoil).Ina has also written hundreds articles for newspapers in Australia and Croatia on the plight of Croatian people for freedom and self-determination, developing democracy in former communist countries. She holds two graduate and one post-graduate university degrees, specialising in behaviour, clinical and political psychology and management.
Blessed Alojzije (Aloysius) Stepinac Feast Day February 10
“When they take everything from you, you’ll be left with two hands; put them together in prayer and then you’ll be the strongest.” Blessed Aloysius Stepinac (1898 – 1960)
“They could not, nor will they ever be able to kill our passion and our need to live in human dignity, in peace with ourselves and with the free nations of Europe. We have carved out that right at our first democratic elections. For this right and for our sacred land we are even ready to die” – Dr Franjo Tudjman (1922-1999) ( Addressing the Croatian nation at the moment of the start of Serbian aggression against Croatia, 16 October 1991)
Thanks for publishing.
It’s time to win the peace. This doesn’t mean being a push over or a bully, but it does mean standing tall and firm with pride toward the future. It also means claiming our rights as a soveriegn and dignified nation. It also means ensuring justice for all…which means prosecuting those who were traitors…let’s start with Mesic.
Let’s do that, Sunman! High time!
We know Mesic is a traitor to our people and should be charged with treason. He is not the only one either.An interesting comment in the article,
(quote) I still don’t understand how the transcripts got into the hands of the OTP. No normal person would voluntarily produce these transcripts. Could you imagine President Bush or Obama or Prime Minister Blair volunteering internal discussions of planning of military operations to anyone? Whoever was responsible for this in Croatia should be prosecuted.
We as a people need to demand the answer to this question.There is no reason for this information to not be available to the people to know first hand who gave this information out to the ICTY prosecutors. It is obvious it came from an elected official in goverment and they should be exposed for the traitor they are and of course jail sentence is not good enough for me but they should be hanged in public.I know that is not possible but I am expressing my outrage that we continue to shelter the traitors of our people and this must stop.When we expose these traitors only then can we understand why our goverment has failed the people since our democracy was formed.I look towards part 2 .
Yes, Michael – Serbia would not, nor did furnish any of its documents and when Mesic came into power in Croatia all documents – confidential or not, state secret or not – were dished out, even foreigners, court officials allowed access to archives. This alone tells the world how evil and eager Mesic was for Franjo Tudjman and Croatian military leaders to be convicted by ICTY even if they had not committed any crime. But, at the end of the day God is great!
Since many of us are concerned about Bleiburg, why no one made attempt to extradite Milovan Djilas who publicly admitted in London, 1980 such a massive post war genocide. Maybe that is the main reason why hard core communists presented them selves as converted Hrvats.