Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Tito’s Bloodthirsty Unpunished Genocide

May 12, 2023 by inavukic 6 Comments

The month of May is one of the most poignant months for Croatians. Patriotic Croats, those who fought for independence during and since World War Two commemorate the victims of communist crimes, the multitudes of thousands brutally murdered at Bleiburg (Austria) in May 1945 and the hundreds of thousands murderously purged post WWII (Way of the Cross), while the communists and former communists celebrate what they call their liberation of Croatia in May 1945! The historical fact remains that Croatia was not liberated, it was forced to remain as part of Yugoslavia and the weapon used for that was genocide and mass murders of Croats who rejected communism.

8th of May 2023 the so-called antifascists in Croatia, communists actually, celebrated “their” liberation of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, on May 8^th 1945. Sickening accolades to murderous communists/partisans rang painfully in our ears because the historical facts point to absolutely nothing that can humanely be celebrated. The remains of brutal murder of innocent Croats by the partisans, including children, filled mass unmarked graves on the fields around the capital as well as its main cemetery Mirogoj. The fact is that archived boxes of death records in the cemetery contain names of people, men, women, and children whose date of death is recorded as 8^th May 1945. These registers of deaths speak of 8^th May 1945 as a very sad day for Zagreb, on which many innocent people murdered and suffered terribly. There are tens of mass graves around Zagreb, alone. All those deaths and massacres occurred on 8^th May 1945. Does this signify liberation! Not by a long shot. Partisans had orders: locate the people on the list they were given, take them within the hour and kill them! This pattern of killing is found in records of all cities, towns, and villages in Croatia from 8^th May 1945 onwards.

More than one thousand mass graves, many of which contain several thousand victims of communist crimes, have been unearthed in Croatia; more than 1800 when those unearthed in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are counted. Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito has been labelled by several credible academics and politicians across the world as among top ten mass murderers of 20^th century.

Zagreb was occupied, not liberated on 8^th May 1945. Occupied in every possible way by genocidal communist forces as directed by communist Yugoslavia leader Josip Broz Tito using Stalinist communist methods that murdered some 36 million innocent Russian lives. After which a murderous totalitarian dictatorship followed in Yugoslavia.

The fact is that Yugoslavia was the most unsuccessful European country of the 20th century. There is no country in Europe, which is in its seventy years of existence, from December 1918 to January 1992, twice created and twice disintegrated in the seas of blood of its citizens. The first Yugoslavia (two versions of Kingdoms headed by Serbian Monarchy) lasted less than 22, and the other (communist Yugoslavia) for less than 47 years – together they survived less than the average life expectancy of European citizens. All possible economic and political arrangements have been tried in Yugosavia so that it could be preserved. It was capitalist and socialist, monarchical and republican, genocidal and murderous, unitarist and federalist, pluralist and monistic, the king’s right-wing and the marshal’s left-wing dictatorship. She was in the West and the East, undecided and unaligned. Nothing helped. Yugoslavia fell in early 1990’s – rivers of blood just like during and post World War Two, but Croatia finally emerged free of the Yugoslav communist terror.

This genuine freedom though, is still being undermined and cut and disrespected. Instead of organising commemrations to victims of communist crimes during May 2023 the powers that rule Croatia celebrate false liberation! They are the participants in continued denial of justice to these victims! The occupation, not liberation, of Croatia in 1945 was initially physical, murders. Yugoslav/Partisan military forces killed many tens of thousands of Croatian, prisoners of war and civilians in Slovenia and Austria after the formal end of the war in 1945 and the slaughter continued for decades to come. This was not discussed in historiography and politics until the collapse of Yugoslavia in early 1990’s, partly because the state hid and erased the traces of its abominable crimes and because, through intimidation, it forced millions of inhabitants to remain silent – to live in a kind of schizophrenia in which they could not forget the past, and were not allowed to remember it. Then the communists turned to property, they sent innocent people to their deaths in order to steal their properties. The political occupation followed which was characterised by oppression, political prisoners, assasinations at home and in the diaspora of Croatian patriots and multitudes fleeing the country to the West in fear for their lives.

In June 2006 the Croatian Parliament adopted bz a large majority the DECLARATION ON THE CONDEMNATION OF CRIMES COMMITTED DURING THE TOTALITARIAN COMMUNIST REGIME IN CROATIA 1945-1990. Given today’s developments and those after that year in which former communists took more and more power in Croatia for whose independence they spilled not a single drop of blood, includes the following paragraphs:

„… 4. The fall of totalitarian communist orders (regimes) in Central and Eastern Europe was not in all cases, and not even in the case of the Republic of Croatia, accompanied by national and/or international investigations of the crimes committed by those regimes. In fact, the perpetrators of these crimes were not brought before the court of the international community, as was the case with the terrible crimes committed by National Socialism (Nazism).

5. As a consequence, there is a very low level of awareness among the public of former communist countries, including the Croatian public, about crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes…

6. The Croatian Parliament is convinced that people’s knowledge and awareness of historical events is one of the prerequisites to avoid similar crimes in the future. In fact, moral assessment and condemnation of committed crimes play an important role in the education of young generations. A clear attitude of the international and national communities towards the past can and must be a guideline for our future actions.

7. The Croatian Parliament believes that victims of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes who are still alive or their families deserve sympathy, understanding and recognition for their suffering…“ (Croatian National Gazette/Narodne Novine NN 76/06 od 10.07.2006)

And this very parliament continues to promote the communist murderers, continues to justify these abominable crimes, continues to degrade the victims of communist crimes they condemned. It is truly sickening! Even more so knowing that this is not even a bit penalised by the European Union of which Croatia is a member state and which condemned most strongly all totalitarian regimes including the communist.

There is absolutely no doubt that the communist system was the most criminal of all totalitarian ones; of the fascist one, of the National Socialism one. The numbers of victims testify to that, the manner of killings testify to that… Croatian government of today, its cronies and parties of interest, with their public displays about liberation of Croatia in May 1945, have the audacity to claim that Croatia was liberated by mass murderers (of its wn people). Communist Leader Josip Broz Tito is still revered by quite a few and so is the communist five-pointed red star on the Yugoslav flag that was smothered by the bloody fight for independence during 1990’s. Several hundreds of thousands of innocent Croats have died at Tito’s orders, but there has been no trial for the communist criminals who caused the suffering, according to some published court opinions in Croatia during the last decade it was the communist system, not the individual criminals, who murdered (e.g. the 2014 case of Josip Boljkovac)! Communist crimes and their perpetrators have not been prosecuted, not even posthumously! The push in Croatia to label cold blooded murder by communists as political murders appears to be yet another tool of injustice towards victims in Croatia. Tito has not been prosecuted posthumously, either! Every possible excuse under the sun has been used by the government to avoid prosecution of communist crimes in Croatia.

And so, this May 2023, Croatia stands as divided almost never before. It is an independent state, free from former Yugoslavia but the remnants of Yugoslavia are felt and visible at every turn. The independence achieved through the Homeland War of 1990’s appears as something not at all important to the government and majority in parliament. They are more occupied with keeping the communist Yugoslavia spirit and mind alive than with anything else. Sheer cruelty towards own nation!

The reality in Croatia shows that the most powerful state and social institutions in Croatia persistently avoid confronting and distancing themselves from the criminal communist past. Moreover, within the Croatian state and social institutions, the criminal paradigm of Yugoslav communism and its value system, symbols and personality cult are advocated more and more openly and vulgarly.

We count our blessings, though, in all those who will, starting 12 May 2023, be commemorating the hundreds of thousands Croatian victims of communist crimes at Bleiburg, Austria, and the Way of the Cross, across Croatia, at mass graves and pits. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bleiburg Massacre, communist crimes, Communist crimes in Croatia, Croatia, Josip Broz Tito, Macelj, transition from Communism, Way of the Cross

Changing Face of Croatia

May 7, 2023 by inavukic 7 Comments

On my last visit to Croatia the devastating earthquake in Zagreb in late March 2020, and dozens of smaller ones that followed, amidst extreme Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns that included public transport stoppage, saw me cut my visit short and leave Croatia and return to Australia. Then more devastating earthquakes in December 2020 in Petrinja, Sisak, Glina and surrounding towns, nearby Zagreb, left the country in utter despair from ruins left, homeless people by the thousands.

Three years on, the devastation caused by the earthquakes, despite ample solidarity funds offered by the European Union Solidarity Fund purses, to help finance the restoration of key infrastructure in the field of energy, water and wastewater, telecommunications, transport, health and education, not much until recently has been achieved in utilising those funds that in essence meant a lifeline for multitudes affected by the earthquakes. The word on the streets is that, incredulously, the Croatian government has, in the reality of lack of domestic labour, steered away from contracting the essential restoration building works to foreign companies. Indeed Croatia had continued seeing hundreds of thousands of work age people leave the country for a better life elsewhere. Some temporarily some permanently. Official statistics show some 450,000 have left Croatia in the past ten years, the bulk of working age, creating a demographic crisis for Croatia.

Furthermore, the EU Solidarity Funds are not designed to assist with the needed restoration of private homes and dwellings and the fact that most had had no insurance left people at the mercy of the poor national budget available for national disasters such as earthquakes. Nevertheless, recent legislative provisions address assistance to private residences damaged by the earthquakes. Owners or co-owners who are placed in containers or other forms of temporary accommodation will be supported at the expense of the state budget of the Republic of Croatia, as well as beneficiaries of the right to co-finance the rent, then owners or co-owners who are recipients of social welfare and persons with disabilities, in the status of veterans or other status according to a special law. The burning problem in the realisation of the latter financial supports lies in the fact that the state budget is inadequate to cover all needs in a timely manner.

Currently, Zagreb is akin to a lively building site. Earthquake damages on buildings and other infranstructures are being repaired on quite a large scale, as if racing against time. But then, general elections are due next year and the danger of losing the unused EU Solidarity Funds is real. The reluctance to engage foreign construction companies during the last couple of years has finally been replaced by import of foreign workers, many of whom are reportedly an unskilled labour force but as far as I can see, a hard-working labour force from China, India, Pakistan, Philippines, neighbouring countris like Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia etc.

This year, according to some estimates, up to 200,000 residence and work permits for foreigners could be issued in Croatia. More than 120,000 foreign workers have already been issued work permits and this is visible on construction sites, hospitality, waste management … As to solving the resulting homelessness from earthquakes devastation most affected families are still accommodated in converted shipping containers and mobile homes while others have moved temporarily to ancestral homes away from the devastated cities and towns.

There is almost no sector in Croatia that does not employ foreign workers. This affects all industries, not just construction. Croatian employers usually employ workers from the region. However, if they run out, they resort to those from distant countries particularly from the Far East. In the first three months of this year, the most foreign workers are from Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by Nepal, Philippines, Serbia, India, Kosovo and North Macedonia. According to reliable surces every fifth construction worker in Croatia is a foreigner and this is pparent upon visiting the many constructin sites.

Currently, as many as about 520 agencies are active in Croatia for mediating the import of labour. Construction workers, delivery workers, caterers, cooks, postmen. Some industries rely more and more on foreign labour. Agencies are often shut down, and new ones are opened. There are more and more bad experiences, so foreigners pay to come, and then the working conditions in many cases are reported to be not even close to what they expected. Increased attention from government agencies is afoot, attending to curbing possible exploitation of foreign workers.

„Foreign workers must not be exploited but accepted as equal members of the economic system. People who today exploit workers in the worst way should be removed from the market, punished the most severely and thus show that we are not a society that profits from other people’s pain, but a country of opportunities for everyone,” concluded Irena Weber, chief director of the Croatian Association of Employers/HUP, at a gathering last week and said that we should not call those who exploit other people’s pain employers because they are not.

„I call on state institutions to resolve this as a matter of urgency ,” she said.

Employment Minister Marin Piletic, who addressed the gathering immediately after Weber, did not give the impression that he had heard what the chief director of HUP had said. He pointed out that in Croatia, “124,000 foreigners, a population larger than the city of Osijek, have sought happiness in Croatia”, that no one could have even thought of this a few years ago, when the number of foreigners was measured in several thousand, and that Croatia must start thinking about the Strategy for importing foreign workers.

„The Ministry of Internal Affairs has taken responsibility for adopting a Strategy on immigration policy for the first time by the end of 2023, not only on the import of labour, but also on the attraction of foreign students and the return of Croatian emigration,” Minister Piletic continued, not referring to everyday examples of reported exploitation of foreign workers, the slave-owning treatment some are exposed to and the lukewarm or no reaction of the state that Piletic represented.

Haphazzard approach to key problems and questions for the country have evidently defined Croatian governments for the last 25 years, since the final end od war of Serb occupation of parts of Croatia in 1998. I have written about that several times as Croatia transitioned from communism in ways that stifled demcracy and the rule of law, more than applied it. Corruption at all level incuding judiciary. National stratgies that would go hand in hand with the War of Independence values – practically nonexistent.

The current government that has taken the reins for the country in 2016, and those before it, have shouted from the rooftops the calls for Croatian diaspora to return to Croatia. But alas, this has been a mere lip service for political points. No national strategy developed or followed to enable and support such a return from the diaspora. Small steps such as the establishment of the State Office for Croats Living Abroad has been a disaster and more a vessel of photo-opportunity for government ministers to put on a show of government’s „close” relationship to its diaspora (which is far from real) than real actions to enable a return. Most Croats that have returned from the diaspora have been left to their own devices and knowhow than helped by the government with view to easing their transition into their ancestral homeland.

At least, we now have a changing picture on the streets of Croatia with foreign workers that should reap benefits for Croatia in the field of earthquake disaster relief and pumping up the needed tourism workforce and a hope that the government will finally develop and adopt national strategies for the return of its Croat emigration. Suffice to say, Croatia’s demographic landscape is at crisis point and has been for at least a decade. Lots of talk in that period but little action to enable improvement of the demographics. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Changing Face of Croatia, Croatia, Croatia earthquakes, Croatian diaspora, Croatian ppulation, European Union Solidarity Fund, Foreign Workers in Croatia, Irena WEber, Marin Piletic, transitioning from communism

Croatia: Still Trapped In Communist 1945 Despite 1990’s Victorious War of Independence

April 29, 2023 by inavukic 14 Comments

Croatian patriot wearing “For Home Ready” (Za Dom Spremni) jacket. Photo: Pixsell

One thing about Croatia that is crystal clear is that former communists and those carrying their flag to this day cannot forgive the Croatian people for fighting for and defending their absolute right for self-determination and freedom from communist Yugoslavia. That fact was evident in 1945 and decades that followed, with communist purges and mass murders of Croatian patriots and that fact is evident today, with laws passed during communist Yugoslavia still remaining in force, many without changes that reflect the values of the 1990’s Homeland War, which established the independent Croatia during 1990’s.

Walk into the Croatian Parliament today, observe and listen. You will end up thinking that the terrible war of aggression against Croatia did not happen. That the War did not obligate the independent Croatia and its people with the task of distancing from communist Yugoslavia and the totalitarian regime to the full extent so that Croatia could prosper as a true democracy.

It’s quite tragic, really.

32 years after breaking away from communist Yugoslavia there are a lot of people in Croatia who are very patriotic, but there are also a lot of other people caught in the situation where they force upon this independent nation communist values. The latter, tragically for Croatia, have occupied most of the positions of power who disregard, even punish the values of the patriots. Something like what used to happen during the times when Croatia was a part of communist Yugoslavia. The latter will hide behind the so-called European values of which they obviously know little, or simply ignore and breach them hoping nobody is looking from the outside.

It’s impossible to escape the sense of widespread melancholy and disappointment that pervade across Croatia. It is also impossible to escape the sense of a dying nation where rivers of young are emigrating, where those remaining either live in hope that things will get better or seem content should the status quo remain because they, themselves are OK if they do not rock the boat or complain.

I’m finding the experience as surreal as the independent from communist Yugoslavia country that truly isn’t.

No package of “de-communisation” laws has been passed in the past thirty years since seceding from former Yugoslavia at great human life cost by the Croatian parliament. On the contrary, the left-leaning parliamentarians would like to make us believe that nostalgia for communist Yugoslavia defines the nation and that those wanting to uphold and nurture the values of the war of independence are in the minority. Banning of all totalitarian regimes’ symbols has not occurred. Indeed, the former communists and lovers of Yugoslavia, those that deserted the fight for independence and defence of Croatia against brutal Serb and Yugoslav Army aggression in 1990’s, appear bolder in their communist propaganda than ever. They continue behaving as if they and not the real victors – Croatian patriots – won the war of independence and created the independent state in whose parliament they now sit.

This political turmoil that is increasingly taking hold on the streets in Croatia can perhaps be best portrayed through a day of the sitting of Croatian parliament.

Instead of drawing up a new law that reflects the needs and obligations of independent Croatia the Croatian Parliament 21^st April 2023, in a rushed procedure, voted to amend the Law on Offences Against Public Order and Peace, which foresees a drastic increase in fines for the offences, up to the cruel and oppressive four thousand euros. The law thus amended was the law that was enacted in 1977, in communist Yugoslavia, that is biased and discriminatory against patriotic Croatian behaviour, that has not been adapted fully to reflect the values of Croatia’s independence or the values declared by the European Parliament and Commission regarding condemnation of all totalitarian regimes, including the communist one.

This law before the Croatian parliament last Friday as far as I can see has no definitions of the offences it seeks to punish severely and so, just like it happened during communist Yugoslavia any policeman, anybody that has the authority to arrest, take away the freedom of the individual, can decide what is and what is not an offence under the said law! This has also been complained against by some right-wing opposition members of parliament.

While the law itself does not define the offences, which fact in itself is of totalitarian rather than democratic nature, it’s infringements would come from applying offences of this category under other laws in Croatia. And so, given that the patriotic salute “Za Dom Spremni” (For Home Ready) has been banned by other legislation as hate speech or disturbing the peace, while the communist red star and slogans have not, the Croatian media has created the atmosphere where the Croatian patriotic slogans are the ones that will attract the largest fines under this new legislative amendment, perhaps even imprisonment.

One must conclude that communist sympathisers have on purpose excluded symbols from communist Yugoslavia as offences against public peace and simply kept those that relate to Croatian patriotism. The amendments to the law proposed by the current government and communist or left-leaning politicians are a brutal slap in the face to patriots and those who sacrificed their lives for Croatian independence.

It is yet to be seen whether such brutality will be tolerated or whether the newly enacted penalties under this law will be tolerated. They divide a nation even deeper than what it already is, evidently in the odious environment where many in power appear to subscribe to the destructive social and political currents where “the kettle calls the pot black” – every day!

The video of the 21 April 2023 sitting of the Croatian Parliament may be accessed via the following link:

Hot discussions, recriminations, insults … hurled from all sides of the House. The reason: unfinished and rushed requirement to vote on this day on Amendments to the Law on Offences Against Public Order and Peace. Such hurling of insults and dissatisfaction are not unusual or concerning in parliaments or congresses around the world, but they painfully stand out as such, heavily laced with depravity, in a country like Croatia that is supposed to be anti-communist and pro independence from any totalitarian communist regime.

Amidst the heated discussions and hurling of personal insults in the Croatian Parliament on Friday 21 April 2023, the Speaker of the Parliament, Gordan Jandrokovic had the gall to say:

” …So, I think that discussing this topic in this way is not useful because the citizens are watching us. If you really care about the history being revalued in an adequate way to condemn really all totalitarian regimes, the Ustasha regime as well as communist Yugoslavia. We can do it in a different way, not like this…” (at 3hr 57 min of the video at link above).

Hence, confirming that the amendments he and his HDZ government are pushing through parliament have nothing to do with Croatia that was created as independent among the 1990’s War of Independence. It aims to maintain 1945 status when the communist regime overthrew the Ustasha! Utterly unacceptable and disgusting in today’s world where there are no Ustashas apart from the manufactured ones existing in the communist propaganda mindset, and certainly, as the communists were rejected by the very victory of the bloody War of Independence.

Nino Raspudic said: „This is a very dangerous thing, an introduction to future totalitarianism and repression…if we are talking here about European values then it is clear that we must condemn all totalitarian regimes from the past (WWII) … Croatia had from 1945 had the rule of those who came by force … let’s be consistent in the condemnation of all totalitarian regimes…”

Zeljko Sacic said: “…this proposal for this Act is deeply, deeply in breach of the Constitution, is unlawful, it breaches the principles of rule of law, jeopardises our citizens legal safety. Why? Because in its Article 5 it states that anyone who in a public place displays or reproduces songs, compositions, texts, wears or displays symbols, pictures, drawings, disturbs public peace may be penalised with a fine from 700 to 4000 euro plus 30 days imprisonment… the thing is that this Act is extremely undefined, it is contradictory to the principles of law that tell us that there is no infringement if it is not defined by law (that seeks topenaliseoffences) … we need to first define what are those symbols, what are those pictures … like civilised European countries have…and then we can debate what exactly we can penalise… this way we are only undermining citizen’s legal safety …this way we are handing over to the police and the state attorney the penal procedure … do not agree to that.”

Ruzica Vukovac said: “ …the threat of draconic penalties to those who in their own way express patriotism, are, and nobody can dispute it, a relic from the past, relic of a society from which this nation has exited with a bloody fight against the aggressor. The people have exited from communism and one mindedness, but our leaders evidently have not. How could they when that war had nothing to do with them and they did not feel it on their skin. Our leaders today are from the shadows, they watched the outcome of the war and planned this what we have today. Occupied all positions of power and then, in a peaceful way, slowly destroy the national marrow of a nation of people. From today I will be coming to St Marks Square, to my workplace, with anxiety because it will not surprise me if someone’s move results in the erasure of the first white square on the coat of arms on the roof of St Mark’s church.”

Sandra Bencic said: “ …with this Act regardless of the raised fines the proper framework is not provided regarding the promotion of national socialism, Nazism and Ustasha …in this discussion in parliament we see that we still have political parties that hold that this is normal… advocating for and promotion fascism, national socialism and Ustasha as well as Chetniks we need to stop here and now … ask the government to amend the criminal acts law …to sanction the promotion of Ustasha ideology …”

Marko Milanovic Litre said: “…regretfully, we have not heard from Sndra Bencic a condemnation of the communist regime and the burden from the past we have from Yugoslavia which is today still felt by many families … we are not even going to hear about this from Bencinc because she promotes those ideas that were forced against Croats, but that is not important to her, only one side of the story…Colleague Bencic you should be ashamed for attacking here a general of the victorious army and you colleagues from HDZ think that is funny, you have not stood up to protest…you congratulate Bencic, I’m pleased to see that you have shown which values you promote…”

Marija Selak Raspudic said: “ In keeping with accentuation of European values I think that those among us who stand, the ones who would like to see Milka Planinc returned and whose PR professionals consider the murder of priests as good old times are truly the last people who could lecture anyone about the European values and the condemnation of totalitarian regimes’ deeds … our party MOST has condemned all totalitarian regimes.”

Clearly, independent from communist Yugoslavia Croatia is not independent. The Communist versus Ustasha battles continue as they did during World War Two as if Ustashas did not cease to exist as independence fighting force in 1945! As if 1990’s War of Independence did not occur in the 1990’s, with enormous costs to Croatia. Ideological battles – communist Yugoslavia versus independent and democratic Croatia – pervade the Croatian Parliament 32 years post secession from communist Yugoslavia! The Amendments to the Law of Offences Against Public Order and Peace were passed in parliamentary voting regardless of the protests from the opposition. What a tragedy for Croatian nation! Ina Vukic