Freedom-fighting, whether personal or for people as a nation, as an ethnic group …, has to my convictions always been the noblest of pursuits a person can follow and act upon in life. Only the bravest take the fight to the most revered and yet most difficult of levels. During the past week I came across an article on the late Zvonko Busic whose name has been known the many households across the world. He and his associates did everything they could, at their personal peril, in the circumstances of inaccessibility to mainstream media during the 1970’s to make known to the world of the horrors Croats in Croatia were living under the boot of the communist Yugoslavia regime. I have translated this article into English for you from Narod.hr portal and trust it will enlighten you further about the long-standing, exhausting, painful Croatian plight for freedom.   Ina Vukic

On this day (Janury 23) in 1946, in Gorica (Herzegovina), one of the greatest fighters for the freedom of the Croatian people during 1970’s onwards, prisoner and martyr Zvonko Busic-Taik, was born. He dedicated his whole life to that struggle, which is why he spent 32 years in prison.

Zvonko Busic considered former Yugoslavia to be a country that keeps Croats in the double chains of death – communism and Greater Serbia. (As facts of history would have it, so did 93.24% of Croatian voters at the Independence Referendum of May 1991.)

Plane hijacking!

On September 10, 1976, a group of Croatian patriots, consisting of Zvonko and Julienne Busic, Petar Matanic, Frane Pesut and Slobodan Vlasic, hijacked a passenger plane (TWA) Boeing 727. The intention of this group of Croatian dissidents was to drop leaflets over London and Paris from the plane. The leaflets were titled “Call to fight against Serbian hegemony”. The world had to be informed about the horrors that was occurring in Yugoslavia for over 30 years.

The group didn’t have any weapons on the plane, and one bomb was left in a subway station locker in New York (Grand Central Terminal). Informational material describing the terrible state of human and national rights of Croats in Yugoslavia was also left there as well as about persecution and numerous murders of political and other opponents of the Yugoslav regime. The purpose of this was to make this news appear on the front pages of the world’s largest media. Indeed, that did happen. At last the numerous murders, tortures, surveillance and persecution of every Croatian, anti-communist thought or consciousness in the sinister dungeon of nations – Yugoslavia – were finally revealed to the world.

However, during the attempt to defuse that bomb (in New York), American police officer Brian Murray was killed.

The meaning of the kidnapping

“Their action of hijacking the plane had only one goal, and that is to show the world the truth about the situation in Yugoslavia. The terror being perpetrated against Croats, including the murders of about a hundred political emigrants. The hijacking of the plane was intended to get the Declaration that speaks of the Croatian truth published in all major world newspapers. It was no terrorism,” Tihomir Dujmovic said, adding that no weapons were used in the kidnapping. Kidnapped passengers appeared in the courtroom as witnesses in favour of Zvonko and Julienne, which is the first and only such case. “During the kidnapping, they explained the Croatian story to the passengers, assured them that everything would be fine and that it was not terrorism. The idea was to drop leaflets from planes over New York, Chicago, Paris and London. That happened and it was a great defeat for Yugoslavia. The plan was to drop leaflets over Zagreb and Split. However, then the Yugoslav leadership headed by Tito said that if the plane entered Yugoslav airspace, they would shoot it down. That’s why that plane landed in Paris. Zvonko then received information that the media had published their Declaration on Croatia’s position. Then the kidnapping stopped immediately.

An inexplicable case

Zvonko Busic had no intention of killing anyone, and we know that the intention of terrorists is primarily to kill. There is no idea of murder here. Busic explained to the New York police three times what was in the improvised explosive device (and how to detonate it safely). Interestingly, the pressure-cooker pot with the device fell on the floor several times and did not explode because it was not even designed to explode. The police removed that device from the locker and took it to a detonation site 35 kilometres away. Four hours later, after everything (the police went about dismantling the device rather than detonating it), there was an explosion under conditions that are completely inexplicable. It turned out that the procedure was violated, that there was no protective clothing. That unfortunate policeman died unfortunately by accident because he went there uninvited. Zvonko carried him in his soul all his life, and later he founded a foundation for the education of his children. Everything he received from Croatian immigrants he passed on to that Foundation,” said Tihomir Dujmovic, the author of the book “Who Killed Zvonko Busic”, during the presentation of the book.

Judgment

In the verdict, the judge emphasises: Busic is not a terrorist and a criminal.

When pronouncing the verdict on Zvonko Busic, the judge stated on the record that Mr. Busic “is not a terrorist nor a criminal”. His actions, though misguided, were motivated by noble ideals. On that occasion, the judge stated that the injury to other persons was completely unintentional. He requested that Busic be released on parole after serving a ten-year sentence.

The pressures of Yugoslav diplomacy were visible at the trial when District Judge John Bartels in New York sentenced Zvonko and Julienne Busic to life imprisonment. Also, multi-year prison terms for the rest of the group.

According to the statements of White House employees at the time, the Yugoslav government exerted strong and successful pressure on the US Department of State to deal harshly with Zvonko Busic and his group.

Nonetheless, the wife of the deceased policeman believed that the truth was different. She initiated legal proceedings against the relevant police authorities. All this because of the great negligence they showed, and she condemned their willingness to shift all the blame to Busic, while portraying her husband as a victim of “terrorists”.

The Croatian state had been asking for the release of Zvonko Busic for years

Ever since the declaration of independence in 1991, the Republic of Croatia, with the plebiscite support of the Croatian people, had been trying to obtain the release of its most famous freedom-fighter and transfer him to his homeland. Our country, Croaia, met all the legal requirements that the American side requested, but the transfer of Busic to Croatia did not happen.

After a series of pressures from the Croatian authorities and protests by the Croatian public in front of the American embassy, at the session of December 13, 2002, the Croatian Parliament adopted a Resolution on the transfer of Zvonko Busic to Croatia, which was then submitted to the Council of Europe.

Zvonko Busic returned to Croatia on July 24, 2008, and was welcomed at Zagreb Airport as a hero and freedom-fighter. Busic was welcomed at the airport by politicians Drazen Budisa and Anto Kovacevic, singer Marko Perkovic Thompson and several hundred citizens. A few days later, Busic was given a big welcome in Imotski and his native Gorica in neighbouring Herzegovina.

Since his return to Croatia, he lived in the village of Rovanjska, in the municipality of Jasenice.

Poignant text on the tombstone of a patriot

On September 1, 2013, Busic committed suicide by shooting himself with a gun. He left two farewell letters to the Croatian people, whom he loved from the deepest depths of his noble and strong Herzegovinian heart. In them, he states that “he could no longer live in Plato’s cave” and that “it was easier for him to dream of a free Croatia than to endure the Croatian reality”.

“For those who fell in the fight for the homeland, never say that they are dead. They are heroes and they will always be alive for us. In the future, when you enjoy the blessings and beauty of the Croatian homeland and freedom, few will remember how much sweat, tears and blood was shed for your freedom. So …, stop, remember, and say a short prayer for those good patriots who suffered and died so that Croatia would live. My personal fate was such that I had to experience the realisation of my dreams of freedom in prison. Goodbye friends ,.. take care of our homeland Croatia” – says the inscription on the tombstone of the giant of the Croatian struggle for freedom, Zvonko Busic.

The love of Zvonko and Julienne

Zvonka was adorned with immense love for his country and his people, who moaned in pain under the Great Serbian and communist boot in Yugoslavia. It was this ideal, this faith, this hope Zvonko carried inside of him that attracted the heart of the young American Julienne Schultz.

From that affection was born an incredible and unique story about the love of a husband and wife and love for the homeland and the people.

To frequent questions about how, as an American, she was so involved in freedom and the fight for Croatia, she would answer: “Loving my husband, I loved everything he loved.” Zvonko Busic loved Croatia immeasurably, and Julienne also grew to love Croatia as her homeland.

Julienne Busic faithfully waited for the love of her life, an idealist and hero of the Croatian struggle for freedom from the communist dictatorship, for 32 long years.