Stjepan Mesic, former president of Croatia
Photo: Ivana Ivanovic/Pixsell
“The Finnish defendants are suspected to have participated in promising or giving of bribes through intermediaries in exchange for actions of the president of the Republic of Croatia and the general manager of a Croatian state-owned company, who were considered to have leverage in the procurement procedure of the vehicles,” says in the press/news release by Finland’s office of the State Prosecutor dated 28 June 2013.
“The suspects are alleged to have promised and partly paid out bribes amounting to 5 % of the selling price of the AMV-vehicles. In 2005 Patria Vehicles Oy offered AMV-vehicles to the Republic of Croatia at a price exceeding 350 million euro. In 2007 an agreement for purchase of a limited number of vehicles was concluded between Patria Vehicles Oy and the Republic of Croatia, Patria’s share of the deal being more than 50 million euro”.
The president of the Republic of Croatia this Finnish press release refers to in none other than Stjepan Mesic, who was in office between 2000 and 2010, who was the main driver of the political onslaught against dr Franjo Tudjman that commenced in 1992 through Mesic’s political demise as Speaker in Croatian Parliament in 1994 to his perpetual and obsessive campaigns of lies or half-truths against Tudjman publicly and as witness for the ICTY prosecution that would evidently give Carla del Ponte (former ICTY chief prosecutor) the wings she needed to hunt down Croatian war-time leadership (including the already deceased Tudjman) and Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac alleging joint criminal enterprise against the Serb population in Croatia during early to mid-1990’s. In 2012 the ICTY Appeal Chamber acquitted the Croatian Generals, and so too Franjo Tudjman and the Croatian wartime leadership of joint criminal enterprise and concluded that there was no forceful deportation of Serbs from Croatia. But, damage had already been done to Tudjman’s reputation and the reputation of the whole defence efforts Croatia was forced to embark upon as a result of brutal aggression by Croatian Serb and Serb led Yugoslav army forces.
Suspicions against Stjepan Mesic in the realms of bribery, corruption, theft, and improper financial dealings … have lingered throughout all this time – for almost twenty years and he has managed to evade any serious action against him or in relation to many public allegations of corrupt or improper conduct in Croatia. This frankly does not surprise me at all, even if it does distress me profoundly as a citizen and human being.
This week the Zagreb based weekly Globus published an article in which it confirmed that it was able to receive confirmation from Finland’s chief state prosecutor, Juka Rappe, and Chief Inspector of the National Bureau of Investigations Kaj Erik Bjorkqvist, that the former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and former Djuro Djakovic company director Bartol Jerkovic are suspected of taking bribes from a Finnish company (Patria). It is alleged that a broker was used to negotiate and receive bribes from Patria in order for Patria to win the tender for the supply of armoured military vehicles to Croatia in 2007.
The Finnish state prosecutor was quoted in Globus as saying that Finnish judicial bodies will not take any legal action against the Croatian citizens, and that this was instead the duty of the Croatian State Prosecutor’s Office, i.e., Prosecutor Mladen Bajic.
According to daily.tportal.hr former president Stjepan Mesic said on Wednesday that the intelligence underworld was behind media reports saying that he was going to be considered a suspect in the Patria corruption case and that the purpose of such reports was to create chaos.
“This is a game by the Globus weekly and the intelligence underworld and it suits someone that I should no longer be considered a political factor. Even though I can no longer run in elections, it obviously bothers someone that I express my opinion. This is how they intend to shut me up. This is politically motivated,” Mesic told the media.
Well, well – excuse me Mr Mesic but that is a whole lot of a cock and bull spin! You spin a fanciful and unbelievable story here that is obviously a lie! Croatian media – Globus – did nothing more than follow up on the actual news/press release by the Finnish Office of the State Prosecutor.
“As far as the deal with Patria is concerned there was no need for any bribe because Patria’s bid was the most favourable,” Mesic said in daily.tportal.hr article.
Well, well – excuse me Mr Mesic but that gives neither assurance nor proof that the tender process was not tampered with, i.e. certain prospective tenderer given information they should not have had. In a country riddled with corruption as Croatia was particularly during the years of Mesic’s presidency which include the current (some already proven) monumental corruption cases before the courts against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader/ a close political mate of Mesic, fixing a winner in a government tender process is something even a child would justifiably suspect.
While there has been no comment from Croatia’s Office of the State Prosecutor in relation to these new developments and direct allegations of corruption of the highest of orders against Stjepan Mesic one holds an expectation that the matter will be dealt with most strenuously. This is not the first time clear allegations of corruption, as well as war profiteering, against Mesic have surfaced in the Croatian media and elsewhere. There have been matters of suspect personal property and assets dealings, matters of missing funds from the diaspora and cheques carried by Mesic for humanitarian aid gone missing or inappropriately handled, to name two. Mesic had always slipped out of any serious investigations into allegations of corruption like some political Houdini – always coming up with excuses and (un)believable stories as well as personal attacks against those who “dared” to voice their seemingly well-founded suspicions, in order to confuse the issues at hand and re-direct attention elsewhere. I guess his latest “intelligence underworld” rant is more of the same Houdini-type attempt at trying to elude pursuit of justice – at least in media and public circles. Let’s hope his latest cock and bull story about the media’s motives and an intelligence underworld doesn’t scare the State Prosecution from pursuing these most serious of allegations. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)
RELATED POST:
Corruption investigators knocking on Croatia’s former president’s – Stjepan Mesic – door!
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Fingers crossed they’ve finally got him
Been holding fingers crossed for a long time, Jure!
They need to throw him in Remetinac!!!
Indeed Didi – or some other similar space with iron bars and keys thrown away – this is hoping that there will be prosecution
Thank you for posting this Ina!As many of us worked to support our generals and to protect our countries reputation and it’s people from Mesic we also need to continue to put extreme pressure on the prosecuting office to go after investigations into allegations against Mesic for his role in any corruption.I for one will never rest until this******* is in jail for life if found guilty. My intent is to destroy his legacy as president( which isn’t even worthy of history) as he has attempted to do to our people and generals.
Yes Michael he did a great deal of damage to Croatia’s Homeland war reputation, much of the damage was based on lies and hatred I truly believe and my belief is based on the know.
Again, this and the German pressure on Perkovic demonstrate why joining the EU was the best long-term strategy for Croatia. The EU is a giant bureaucracy, but it is ruled by the rule of law. Primitive Yugoslav Communist lawlessness and power abuse / nepotism is not allowed.
Milanovic, Pusic & Co. hoped to be able to sit on two fences – get in the EU and get access to funds and continue maintaining their oliagarchial cleptocratic idiocracy while continuing to push their neo-Yugoslav “region” jihad and the UK’s long-term interests in the region.
Not going to happen.
Germany (read: the EU) is going to help push the rats out of power, as they have totally discredited themselves and their slavishly pro-Belgrade, UK paranoid neoimperialist interest defending, detrimental-to-Croatia foreign and domestic policy is a threat to the continent and it is being slowly neutralized.
Far, far, far larger things in play behind the scenes.
They ate the EU bait and are now slowly being reeled in to die of asphyxiation in the open air.
This is great. Ivkosic’s article in Vecernji List today on Stevan was spot on, and absolutely hilarious.
Can you name one historic fact in which Germany has worked in the interest of Croatia and it’s people,I do get your hate for Mesic but don’t really get where you find all that German love for Croatia.
Amir:
Germany along with the Vatican pushing and rushing Croatia’s independence recognition.
Germany turning a blind eye to Croatian arms purchases in Eastern Germany.
Germany lobbying for Croatia diplomatically the duration of the war.
Germany back handing the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands for trying to block Croatia’s EU entry to protect greater Serbian interests.
Germany forcing lustration and beginning to surgically remove the Yugoslav Communist tumors from Croatian political, media and economic life by pushing Perkovic’s extradition to Germany, and a trial, with the guilty verdict meaning the end of every career in SDP, HDZ and Croatia who were KPH/KPJ members as the party leadership had the final OK in the UDBa murders, with a conviction, SDP is a criminal party as it is the legal successor to KPH, and all former KPH/KPJ members are subject to lustration as per EU laws and the Declaration on Totalitarian States and Regimes.
Much more but those are the first few that come to mind.
Anti-fascism is fascism 21st century
Great article on Mesic and his lies today: http://www.fizzit.net/vijesti-i-politika/komentari-i-kolumne/4643-mesic.
Mesic was a KOSovac: Bivši načelnik Kontraobavještajne službe Jugoslavije general Aleksandar Vasiljević u jednom intervjuu i svojem svjedočenju pred Haškim sudom u veljači 2003. godine, predsjednika Mesića označio kao suradnika KOS-a Jugoslavije i to u vrijeme kada se je Mesić nalazio na najvišim dužnostima u ime HDZ-a, nakon 1990. godine.
Vasiljević je u svojstvu svjedoka, pred sada pokojnim sucem Richardom Mayem, na procesu Slobodanu Miloševiću izjavio slijedeće:
“Kasnije smo ipak uspeli da uspostavimo odnos sa Mesićem kojeg smo čak jednim delom pridobili za ideju saradnje sa Armijom. Sa Mesićem sam kao glavni čovek KOS-a imao dvadesetak sastanaka na kojima smo razmenili informacije i podatke jer smo mislili da možemo da sprečimo sukobe i ekstremizam. Mnogo smo upravo od Mesića doznali o ustrojavanju paravojnih jedinica u Hrvatskoj, naoružavanju HDZ-ovaca. Mesić nam je poslužio kao HDZ-ovski insajder i informator. Mnogo su nam koristile tih dana informacije i podaci koje sam dobijao od Mesića. U jednom našem razgovoru Mesić je rekao kako bi tolerisao hapšenja svih funkcionara MUP-a i obrane iz Hrvatske osim Špegelja i Boljkovca. Inzistirao je na njihovoj zaštiti. Složili smo se oko toga. Razmena informacija i podataka s Mesićem ipak nam je bila mnogo važnija i nismo hteli da ugrozimo te kanale. Mesić je dao u tajnosti zeleno svetlo za akciju Štit i hapšenja.
Translation of therealamericro comment: Mesic was a KOSovac (Counterintelligence service), the former head of Yugoslav Counterintelligence general Aleksandar Vasiljevic said in an interview and in his testimony at the Hague in February 2003, and marked president Mesic as a collaborator of Yugoslavia’s KOS even at the time when Mesic held one of the highest positions in the name of HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) after 1990.
As a witness before the late judge Richard May, in the case against Slobodan Milosevic, Vasiljevic stated the following:
“Later we managed to achieve relations with Mesic whom we managed to win over, in part, for the idea of collaborating with the Army. As the KOS head man I held about twenty meetings with Mesic at which we exchanged information and details because we thought that we could prevent the conflict and extremism. We actually found out a great deal from Mesic about the formation of paramilitary forces in Croatia, arming of HDZ. Mesic served us as a HDZ insider and informant. The information and details we received from Mesic during those days meant a great deal to us. During one of our conversations Mesic said how he would tolerate the arrest of all functionaries of MUP (ministry of internal affairs) and of Croatia’s defence except Spegelj and Boljkovac. He insisted on their protection. We agreed on that. The exchange of information and details with Mesic was, after all, more important to us and we did not want to jeopardise those channels. In secrecy Mesic gave the green light for the operation Shield and for the arrests.”
(Note/comment by Ina Vukic: Communist Yugoslavia Belgrade led/KOS operation Shield had as its aims registering and preventing the import of arms into Croatia/late 1990/ by then they had labelled Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman as an extremist and dangerous element)
REPLY: Thanks therealamericro for feedback and link to article regarding Mesic. It is high time Mesic is called to account for the lies he told and tells the public.
Well my friend Aleksandar Vasiljevic said bunch a about Tudman too but i guess you would say he was talking non-sense ,How is Mesic going to be Udbas ,Kosovac or anything of that nature when we all know he is the most responsible for break up of YU,Wasn’t him who lobbied for a no vote on JNA attacking Croatia Wasn’t he a president and you didn’t have that info.How is Spegelj going to be a member of the above mentioned groups when they used him ,secretly taped him etc,Can you imagine a kos,udba member saying We need to attack military bases of the JNA and we have to do it without mercy.Did he run to Austria because of Tudman or Udba.
Could you please do us the deserved courtesy of quoting what Vasiljevic said about Tudjman and where, please Amir, otherwise your comment is not worth the effort it took to write it
Well i thought you are familiar with dude since you found him to be credible.He was a head of KOS and Major General and Croatia has accused and issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes,Now i don’t know what has happened to it but do find it too weird and pretty much shameless to bring him as a witness vs a Croat,I mean it sounds as you work for UDBA and KOS too,besides he was a witness at Milosevic’s trial and youtube and internet are flooded with him and his opinion,the truth or spin.
In response to Amir Pilipovic,
If you study your history you will find that the person most directly responsible for the breakup of the communist totalitarian state of Yugoslavia was in fact Slobodan Milosevic supported by his Greater Serbian/Yugoslav cohorts. It is an amusing irony that through Slobo’s actions he set in motion events which led to the creation of an independant Croatian state and the destruction of Yugoslavia.
Having defeated the Yugo/Serbian forces on the battlefied Croatia now faces another struggle, to free itself from the venal and nepotistic grip of the old Yugo political elite (HDZ/SDP etc), the very same group who were until recently suppressing and murdering Croatian patriots both in Croatia and abroad.
Mesic, Josipovic, Milanovic, Perkovic et al have done nothing but damage and undermine the fledgling Croatian state and it would not suprise me in the least if they were ex UDBA or KOS members. I can only hope that a third party which truely has Croatia’s and Croatian’s interestes at heart will soon rise to sweep away the corrupt and criminal elements now in power and govern in the interest of the Croatian people.
Therealcro, You have to get your facts straight for ones,This is the well known fact,Germany was arming Bosniaks and Croats have been taking half of it or 20,30 per cent since all the shipments had to go through Croatia,Germany cares less about who runs Croatia and what political situation it is in,It’s well known fact too that Croatia was buying weapons from Hungary and most of it came from there,The country that helped you the most is Iran,Its also well known fact that Germans don’t use Eastern-Europian made weapons.If Perkovic didn’t do a crime or ordered one in Germany they would never ask about him and on the end they are after 22 people and the problem is that you have cherry picked Perkovic and made it sound as Germans are doing everything to get him,You know as everybody else that He isn’t even on top 100 priorities of Merkel nor she cares about you Perkovic and Croats nor for anybody on Balkans .Why would she when we all are doing what they tell us.
Actually Amir, the country that helped Croatia the most in terms of arms was the Ukraine, followed by Russia. Germany could only allow the weapons purchases of E Germany’s arsenal (all Eastern Bloc equipment as it was the spearhead / frontline of the Eastern Bloc) during the chaos of reunification at the peak of fighting in 1991.
After 1991 and EC (read: UK, Dutch, “French,” and Swedish whining and crying), Germany had to be discrete but the massive assistance did its work.
FYI all of the best “goodies” (S-300 and S-400 MRLS’s, MiGs, helicopters, artillery) Croatia purchased were purchased from the Ukraine and ironically Yeltsin’s Russia (so much for Serbian-R-U-ssian “brotherhood”).
Germany’s lobbying for Croatia was and remains unmatched, and their prosecution of Perkovic will be the end of the KPH-KPJ-UDBa-KOS hydra of corruption, nepotism, incompetence, and governmental, academia and media disproportionate power.
The end result will be the legal criminalization of SDP, and the criminalization of a good 40 to 50 percent of HDZ members who were part of the criminal party SDP is the legal successor to.
Danke Deutchland Dos!
And until you provide a cite from and primary source of your Vasiljevic assertions, you remain nothing more than a bag of hot air.
trolling, trolling is in fashion therealamericro – thanks on your help and on providing precise sources of your information.