Croatia: Barry Lituchy’s Fabrication Of History Or When Greater Serbia Lobby Gets Desperate

I once read that actions such as the denial of the Holocaust, and the use of racist strategies generally — against Jews, Muslims, Serbs, Croats, whomever — contain the foundation of the destruction and failure of those who practice them. I agree. Keeping that thought in mind and heart, I hope that Barry M. Lituchy’s Serbian propaganda will soon stumble upon its deserved demise.  It is impossible for me and, I guess, every human being who thrives on truth to keep quiet about blanket racist political strategies that seem to focus on the destroying of one person via vilifying a whole nation of people.  That is racist and that is how, one by one person, masses have been murdered and it strikes ones gasping for justice when encountered.

I turn here to a letter, that has just come to light, reportedly written to FIFA by Barry M Lituchy (an adjunct assistant professor of History at Medgar Evers College at City University of New York) in the matter of FIFA’s disciplinary considerations in Joe Simunic case and the “For Home” chant at the end of soccer match between Croatia and Iceland some months ago.

In that letter to FIFA, Barry M. Lituchy reportedly states:
“In the territory that today comprises Croatia, Croats actually comprised a minority of the population. The territory was populated by millions of Serbs, Jews and Romas. To create a Croatian homeland the Ustashe carried out the plundering of Serbian, Jewish and Roma property, mass arrests, imprisonment in concentration camps, and the mass murder of some one million people of Jewish, Serbian and Roma ethnicity as well as the forced conversion to Roman Catholicism of the remaining of Serbian and Jewish population…”

The fact that Barry M. Lituchy has been considered as a fabricator of evidence, or untruths is nothing new, but I feel profoundly sad that the President of Croatia, Ivo Josipovic, has not responded publicly regarding Barry M. Lituchy’s letter to FIFA in defence of the truth and the Croatian nation. While it’s a given that Josipovic cannot interfere in FIFA’s disciplinary process or its decisions regarding Joe Simunic, while it’s a given that Josipovic cannot deny the Holocaust, he can and should respond to Lituchy’s statement (since parts of it have been made available to the public) and demand, with forceful determination, that Lituchy publicly retracts parts of his statement that, for example, relate to the history of Croats and their historically established and rightful homeland; and he can publicly condemn Lituchy’s recklessly insidious and flippant handling of the actual numbers of those who perished in Croatia during Holocaust, he can publicly state that the Jewish community of Croatia, with its religious and cultural identity, had actually survived despite the horrors of WWII Holocaust… and so did the Serbian one!

When it comes to Barry M. Lituchy one can come across many references that suggest he is a supporter, if not a political operative, of the Greater Serbia sweep, which has been linked to genocidal undertakings, such as Srebrenica massacre of 1995 and aggression against Croatia in the 1990’s with all its brutal and genocidal force. He appeared as witness in the Slobodan Milosevic (Serbia’s leader during the above Greater Serbia expansionist cruelties ) and regarding that, Judith Armatta (Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic)  says:

“A blatant example of fabricated evidence was produced by Barry Lituchy…”
It’s more than reasonable to say that Greater Serbia lobby, which evidently includes Lituchy, has in Joe Simunic’s FIFA case found a yet another extraordinary avenue for its racist vilification. After having experienced a demise and political condemnation in the Hague (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia/ ICTY) the Greater Serbian lobby has snatched the truth from a process that is supposed to be just and served FIFA with blatant lies. It is so disappointing that a world sports organisation, FIFA, has allowed itself to enter into such political scenarios. It’s a terrible disappointment that FIFA takes Barry M. Lituchy’s statement as a matter of fact when in truth the numbers (which Lituchy presents as facts) of those who perished in the Holocaust in Croatia have been disputed over and over again, worldwide; when in truth the recorded history of Croats on that territory speaks volumes.

It is a soothing thought that Joe Simunic’s appeal against FIFA’s disciplinary measure will now have the opportunity to set the record straight on two fronts: that Barry M. Lituchy wrote lies and unsubstantiated claims to FIFA and that Croats have been the ethnic majority on the territory of today’s Croatia since at least the 9th Century AD. And perhaps, who knows, someone out there just might find it necessary to review Barry M Lituchy’s tenure as an assistant professor?  Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)