Aleksandar Stankovic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: New Fact-finding Research Into WWII Jasenovac Camp Absolutely Essential

(R) Ivo Goldstein (L) Aleksandar Stankovic
Photo: Screenshot

Lies loom large over some historian’s craft. Whether some accounts of history are outright lies or details which have not been proven with evidence presented as fact – they are all lies. And yet, to our dismay, deception hasn’t really figured as a category of historical analysis.

Attempts at new fact-finding research into historical events particularly those dealing with the Holocaust or WWII have been labelled “historical revisionism” with negative or undesirable connotations. This of course has been done on purpose, in Croatia by former Yugoslav communists, to thwart any possible revelation of truth, which does not agree with the myth about the WWII Independent State of Croatia they’ve been peddling since 1945. While doing that, they managed to keep horrendous communist crimes relatively hidden but definitely un-prosecuted and un-condemned.

The term historical revisionism refers to and identifies the re-interpretation of the historical record and, therefore, any investigation that leads to the finding of new facts that are not on record is simply not historical revisionism in that sense. It is correction of mistakes or misrepresentations found in historical records.

When you have a former Yugoslav communist and today’s Yugoslav communist sympathiser (who hangs on his office wall the portrait of Josip Broz Tito, former Yugoslavia’s leader and one classed among top ten mass murderers in history of the world) as a historian, as Ivo Goldstein is in Croatia, you get a deadly formula fighting against the surfacing historical truth.

On Sunday 17 June Ivo Goldstein appeared on a Croatian TV show “Sunday at 2” (Nedjeljom u 2) and the topic was WWII Jasenovac camp. While much of the show referred to a new book on Jasenovac Goldstein is reportedly preparing to publish later this year, one does not need to dig deep to find the real motive behind this TV show’s agenda. Generally it’s the increased efforts into scientific research into the WWII Jasenovac camp, both about its factual nature and numbers of victims (about which the communist Yugoslavia together with Serbian propagandist armada have perpetuated the myth of more than 700,000 victims even though 1960’s research had come up with some 83,000) that get the communist blood pumping. Specifically, the recently published book in Croatia “Jasenovac – Work Camp” by Igor Vukic, which brings forth new facts uncovered through research that seriously shake the very ground the communist myth built its historical deception about Croatia and Croats during WWII, has got the communist sympathisers, including Aleksandar Stankovic, “Sunday at 2” anchor, running for agendas that would keep the communist myth about Jasenovac camp afloat.

And so, Ivo Goldstein tells the TV audience that “the whole story of Ustashas, Bleiburg (mass communist crimes against Croats May 1945), and historical revisionism that flourishes around us has been imposed upon Croatia and Croatian society in order to deal with it, so that somewhere around the corner a backward, closed, conservative and anti-immigration ideology and its implementation politics could be promoted.”

“It is a conflict between two Croatias – one is open, the other is closed, one is the ones that hates and the other is the one that wants communication,” Goldstein said, adding, “the public is bombarded with a series of lies”. Of course, he wasn’t referring to communist lies, which he himself has been peddling for quite some time. He kept pontificating about today’s historical revisionism associated with the WWII Ustasha regime in Croatia.

Since Goldstein considers himself to be a scientist, a historian, it is utterly telling of his unprofessional biases when he gave neither credence nor credibility to any new fact-finding research into WWII events or Jasenovac. In fact, he was adamant that new research and digging of grave sites around Jasenovac would not result into any new findings regarding the victims, because, he claims that the 1960’s research had found yellowish soil there that reminded of ash from burned bones! In fact, he called those who today dispute the historically recorded volume of suffering at WWII Jasenovac camp – stinkers!

While he said the 700,000 victims of WWII Jasenovac was a myth orchestrated and promoted by Serbs his efforts in no way go towards breaking that myth, a true and credible historian in that field of science should. When asked whether his new book will bring anything new he said no, nothing except psychological profiling of “Ustasha criminals” at WWII Jasenovac camp!

As I said at the beginning of this article: lies loom large over some historian’s craft.

In desperate attempts to maintain the communist myth about WWII Jasenovac camp, in a desperate attempt to mar and damage in people’s minds, at least, any new research findings that go towards breaking that myth, Goldstein is now steering into psychological profiling of people (Ustashas) who were at Jasenovac camp more than 70 years ago and are long dead and so are those who might have known them!

It is a scientific and practical fact that psychological profiling is still an inexact method of portraying perpetrators of crimes, even now. But the term has been used to amplify and give added credibility to criminal investigations. Goldstein is most likely quite aware that by using those catchwords – “psychological profiling” – the public will take notice even more than what they would if presented with bare numbers or facts. One could go even further and say that by introducing the concept of psychological profiling into historical accounts of events, that may lack necessary evidential material for profiling, it makes any lies contained in those psychological profiles even more palpable to those who choose to believe the lies in the first instance. This is simply because the idea of “psychological profiling” has caught on among the general (voting in elections) public especially since “The Silence of the Lambs” movie and TV shows like “The Profiler”. But in reality there’s more to a criminal than just his/her actions that go into his/her psychological profile.

Ivo Goldstein is not satisfied with just keeping the communist myth about Jasenovac camp unchallenged when it comes to the number of victims, he is now entering into a new domain, psychological profiling, with only one obvious intent: to keep the myth alive by building into it his concoctions of individual profiles of people who are long dead and for whom there is little if any living corroboration about the character and possible mind of that individual!

Lying, fraud and deception were a particular qualification of those who wrote the “official” history of WWII Croatia, concentrating their efforts into making the Jasenovac camp as the worst Holocaust ground in Europe. Their followers such as Aleksandar Stankovic and Ivo Goldstein deserve every bit of contempt one can muster.

Shadows from the past do hover over contemporary Croatia but not for the agenda Goldstein claims – to Ustashise Croatia. They hover because historical truth does not exist; it has been concealed, manipulated and filled with half-truths and misinformation to suit the communist agenda. For that reason, research into the facts of Jasenovac camp is absolutely essential and Goldstein’s psychological profiling can be dumped into the same trash-bin as his books and publications so far have been by all who seek and demand the truth. Ina Vukic

Croatia: Stjepan Mesic – Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire! But, Not When Tito In Hell Is Concerned!

“Tito is in Hell” – Stjepan Mesic, 1992

When children know or think someone is telling lies they shout: “Liar, liar, pants on fire”. I’m not a child, I’m a well informed adult and, indeed, was present when in 1992 Croatia’s former president Stjepan Mesic visited Australia in his capacity as one of the leaders of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), and in his speeches he, in no uncertain terms praised the WWII pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia as well as WWII pro-Communist Partisans, placing them on equal footing as victors for Croatian state. Now Mesic is denying this even though irrefutable evidence exists.

I shout: Liar, liar, pants on fire!

When one of these speeches appeared on Youtube some seven years ago, Mesic first said it was a political stunt by his opponents, that the film was doctored, that he never said those things … when truth struck and the authenticity of the speech video was confirmed, Mesic as president of Croatia actually appeared on a televised address to the nation saying that he had to talk like that because Croats in the diaspora were all fired-up on fascism (Ustashism)!

Furthermore he said that the 30-second video was taken out of context and that he could not remember if he made such a speech, or where, that he does not know if the video is authentic!

This history has repeated itself last Sunday, which suggests that the man is not to be trusted with what he says is the truth.

Mesic appeared on Croatian TV last Sunday 6 October on the On Sunday at Two program. The TV interview by Aleksandar Stankovic was particularly organised around the issue of bribes for armoured military vehicles deal with Finland’s Patria about which I wrote in my previous post.

At 43.46 minute of this HRT TV interview Mesic was asked: “How could it have happened to you to praise the Independent State of Croatia (NDH)?

Mesic replied: “I never praised NDH”

Stankovic: “Well OK, you said that it was an expression of historical aspirations …”

Mesic: “I did not say …”

Stankovic: “Well OK, you said over there at the assembly in Australia…”

Mesic: “Never… no aspirations, you have falsified that a little but probably because you are not informed.”

Stankovic: “Well, I’m not uniformed … the speech from 1992 exists…”

Mesic: “Well, the speech exists and you find it and then we can…”

Stankovic: “We have spoken about that before, you do not need to deny it now, I remember you told me in the program that your theory was that Croatia was being created then and then one said what one didn’t mean …”

Mesic: “No, no, I said that what I thought but I would now perhaps reformulate but also say that what I thought, that is what did I say, I said that Croats won twice, the first time the Kingdom of Yugoslavia disappeared because we were all against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ustashes did not topple Kingdom of Yugoslavia, it disappeared by the will of the occupying forces but it was of benefit to us because Yugoslavia disappeared, and the real victory we won was with the NOB (National Liberation Movement) victory in 1945 when we came on the side of victory and were on the side of victory … that is what I said”.

So, Mr Aleksandar Stankovic and the world’s public, since Mesic asked for the speech to be found I have made the effort in finding it – for truth’s sake!

Here is what Mesic actually said in 1992 (and I personally remember he said the same on a number of occasions and in the video below there’s a glimpse of me in the background at the end of the video, so it is authentic 100%): “Those who are older remember that in 1971 Tito, who created Yugoslavia, which was not Croatian but Croatian only in that Croats lived in it but did not rule in it, said that river Sava will flow upstream before Croatia will have its army, and now if he hears me from Hell I must tell him that as far as we are concerned Sava can flow even sideways but Croatia has its army and its state. We have created a state after 900 years, but during those 900 years Croats did not stand still, they were always determined for the Croatian thing and Croatian state. Even in the Second World War Croats were victorious twice and we must tell that to everyone, to our friends and to our enemies. Croats were victorious when in 1941 on 10th of April they declared the Croatian state. Because Croats did not declare that state because they were fascists, but because they had a natural and historical right to their state. But the results of WWII are known and it’s also known that Croats won for the second time in that war because they found themselves at the table together with the Allies and to those who consider that Croats were on the other side, who want to win over those Allies and muddy the Croatian deed, we must tell them that Croats were for a Croatian state, and Croats did not fight for the white or the red flag but for the red-white-blue flag”.

The point of this is not just what Mesic said but also how he attempts to discredit the truth and make up stories as he goes; even attack those who put out the truth if that truth goes against him! It transpires from all this that the man was never to be fully trusted and his stories and spins should be put aside and the Croatian office of state prosecutor must seriously investigate the allegations against Mesic that suggest he may have been involved in serious corruption in the Patria case of armoured military vehicle supply from Finland.

I, for one, am disgusted at the reality that Croatian taxpayers and deficient government budget keep funding Mesic’s office as former president, with all the trappings that cost millions every year and yet Mesic has the hide to lie like this to the very people out of whose taxes his office is funded! I guess corrupt practices and political underground that keep the so-called antifascists or communists like Mesic afloat in the public arena are strong in Croatia.

Mesic who places himself at the helm of antifascist movement in Croatia says that Josip Broz Tito went to Hell after he died.

Therefore, as I see it, he subscribes to the ideals of those he himself considers went to Hell after they died! Will he now may say that the above video from 1992 when he said Tito was in Hell is also a falsehood! What will his antifascist association say when they hear what he said about their celebrated Tito? Will he also now say that he had to speak like that in the diaspora because the diaspora did not like Tito? Well, let him try – he will not succeed because there were multitudes of persons in his audience then who came from the so-called “Yugoslav” (as opposed to Croatian) clubs in the diaspora. They were all there because Franjo Tudjman managed to reconcile both sides of Croatian WWII politics into one single aim: independent and democratic state of Croatia. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)