anti-Croatian propaganda – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Rebuttal to Seb Starcevic’s Rant Claiming Croatian Celebration of Fascism in Australia

September 14, 2019 by inavukic 21 Comments

Seb Starcevic’s article is an example that evidences the fact that we still do not live in a post-truth world and never have. On the contrary, we live in a pre-truth world where truth is yet to arrive.

Seb Starcevic’s article “In Australia, some Croats openly celebrate fascism,” published on Balkaninsight portal on 10^th September 2019 presents to the public a point on the continuum of vicious Serb anti-Croat propaganda, often weaved with tangents of malicious historical lies and allegations of some sort of terrorism and fascism being alive and kicking within the Australian Croatian community. Apart from the evidently calculated intention to inflict damage to the reputation of the Croatian people in Australia, even though he uses the phrase “some Australian Croats”, it does seem that the article was also written in order to throw the truth-seeking scent off the current historical research in Croatia that has the capacity of debunking the Serb-led propaganda about WWII Jasenovac camp in Croatia. Sonja Biserko a Serbian campaigner for human rights, the founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia stated in recent years that the Serbian history is based on lies and myths and so it is of no surprise that the maintenance of such history has been transported into Australia by those of Serb extraction.

Starcevic opens his article saying that in Sydney’s western suburbs a Croatian club flies two flags: Australian and the flag of the WWII Independent State of Croatia/NDH. Contrary to innuendo in Starcevic’s article suggesting some criminal activity he attempts to associate with this flag, Australian law does not prohibit the NDH flag on its soil and it is not unlawful to fly similar flags of legitimate historical states or states who fought for independence but did not succeed in their fight. Starcevic would perhaps like the public to think that by flying the NDH flag some sort of soft fascism, if not fully blown fascism in practice is at the core of it! Nothing could be further from the truth. While in his article Starcevic calls WWII Croatia a Nazi puppet state he omits to say that Serbia was one also and that WWII flag of Serbia is also raised at some Serbian clubs and Chetnik organisations in the diaspora (and that flag represents Milan Nedic’s and Serb Chetnik’s fight against communists in collaboration with the Nazis, responsible for the first Jew-free country in WWII Europe). The important thing about the NDH flag raised at the club Starcevic writes about is that it is the flag that represents Croatia’s struggle for independence and, given the horrific times of the 20^th century that struggle occurred in, one can with regret say that there were crimes committed by members on all sides, but the truth is also that majority of members of the independence movements did not commit crimes. And that is a historical fact.

Then, in a malicious attempt to paint the Australian Croats as terrorists, his article goes into telling the public about Dr Kristy Campion’s historical terrorism research that also delves into Croatian Ustasha activities in Australia in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. He conveniently omits to also refer to modern day facts as found after the release to the public of relevant Commonwealth of Australia Archives a few years back that are said to have revealed a collaboration between secret services – parts of Australian ASIO and Yugoslav (read Serb) UDBA – which can be associated with the framing of Croatian immigrants for planning terrorist activities. Starcevic further omits to mention that in Campion’s bibliography there is a significant reference to “Alleged Croatian Terrorist Organisation” and NOT “Croatian Terrorist Organisation” (PDF). It would seem too much to expect that Starcevic would even consider the truth or a possible truth about Australian Croats given that such truth shows up his writings as nothing more than blatant hate speech.

After referring to a former Croatian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor as having said that no one should dismiss the crimes of the WWII Ustashe regime Starcevic goes on to say: “…But that didn’t stop Australia’s Croatian community from hosting an assortment of far-right figures in 2018, including journalist Igor Vukic and Croatian politician Zeljko Glasnovic, who have downplayed the crimes of the Ustasa regime. In a speaking tour called ‘Croatia Uncensored’, Vukic, Glasnovic and others visited Croatian clubs around Australia to discuss a variety of controversial topics, including the ‘the myth and lies of Jasenovac’, a concentration camp established by the Ustasa in WWII. The number of those who perished in the camp is regularly disputed by right-wing politicians and commentators in Croatia.” The fact is that the claimed and estimated numbers of those perished in Jasenovac range from the ludicrous and physically impossible 1 million, to some 40,000, and these numbers do not come from right-wing politicians so why wouldn’t the right-wing politicians, or any politician for that matter, go about disputing the numbers! In fact, and for the truth’s sake, it is desirable to dispute them and delve into research to come to the truth.

While Starcevic omits to corroborate with verifiable references his generalised claims that Vukic, Glasnovic etc “have downplayed the crimes of Ustasa,” one would expect from a journalist making such claims to provide in the same article some evidence or corroboration for his claims that during the “Croatia Uncensored” speaking tour in Australia there was “downplaying of the crimes of the Ustasha regime” as well as to the claim that research into Jasenovac camp constitutes a controversial topic! Since when do attempts to find the truth through historical research constitute a controversy? Or are we dealing here with possible fear in Starcevic and those like him that Serb propaganda will eventually be proven a lie, scientifically and factually?

How deplorable it is for a journalist to write about two historical researchers (Kristy Campion and Igor Vukic) in the same article and in that same article label one of the researchers (the one who researched Croatian Ustashe of late 1960’s and 1970’s/Campion) with credibility and the other (researching historical documentation and archives on WWII Jasenovac) as being controversial! It would seem that Starcevic would ignore the integrity of fact-based historical research on WWII Croatia if it bit him on the back side.

From Left: Zeljko Glasnovic, Josip Jurcevic, Tom Sunic, Igor Vukic
Croatia Uncensored tour 2018

Furthermore, as one of the organisers of the 2018 “Croatia Uncensored” talking tour in Australia I can confirm that the tour was organised in order to raise Croatian public discussion on existing barriers in Croatia preventing the development of a fully functional democracy and to give support to the various scientific historical research endeavours, such as Vukic’s, that aim to present verifiable historical facts on the victims of Jasenvac camp. If Vukic is to be called by derogatory names and insulted as Starcevic does in his article, for attempting to break the myth and lies about Jasenovac then that name-calling talks about Starcevic more than what it does about Vukic. Vukic’s research (and research of others on the same issue) is particularly relevant given the rampant and wild estimates of victims that allegedly perished in WWII Jasenovac camp at the hands of Ustashe that keep the world ill-informed and Croats generally vilified. The historical fact in pursuits of the truth is that Jasenovac remained open until 1953 and that it was used for post-WWII communist purges. Surely to reach a post-truth existence one needs to confirm by documentary and testimonial research what was what! It is a fact that research into Jasenovac camp has been alarmingly non-existent, scarce or inadequate during the decades of communist Yugoslavia regime. Why would anyone want to stop or thwart any research into history – regardless of the outcome of such research!?

Starcevic goes further in his attempt to vilify Australian Croatians by saying that several clubs pay tribute to convicted war criminals such as Slobodan Praljak and Dario Kordic but fails miserably to tell his readers that the conviction in the Hague rested upon some political support or “chain of command responsibility” and no evidence was presented to the court that, for instance, Kordic ever ordered any killings. Hearsay evidence and political constructs reportedly played a significant part in court judgments and Praljak committed suicide in the Hague courtroom as judgment against him was pronounced – maintaining his innocence of crimes the court had convicted him of. Given that fact, and given the professionally reported political weight weaved into the very indictments and judgments that saw these two Croats convicted of war crimes in the Hague, who personally committed no crimes, one would think that if someone decides to hail as heroes these two men then that someone is not guided by some Croatian nationalistic creed but by the very perceptions that justifiably enter a human mind upon such occasions and circumstances. The democracy we live in cherishes personal opinions as a given right but frowns upon opinions designed to vilify entire communities as Starcevic appears to be doing.

Starcevic says further in his article: “In recent years, this rhetoric has escalated to anti-Serb vandalism and death threats. In 2016, a Serbian Orthodox church in Geelong was vandalised with the Ustasa logo, swastikas and fascist slogans such as ‘the only good Serb is a dead Serb’…” For the first time, ever, through this article written by Starcevic the Australian Croats are associated with the said vandalism! Unless Seb Starcevic knows the facts as to who the perpetrator/s of this criminal vandalism was/were but failed to publish the details in his article, then only one conclusion is possible: Seb Starcevic is on the bandwagon of the propaganda whose only aim is to vilify Croats; to spread hatred and hate speech. That is absolutely unacceptable and utterly un-Australian! Besides, how can anyone tell that it may not have been an Australian Serb who committed that vandalism on the Orthodox church in Geelong? Why write about this act of vandalism in this article about Australian Croats? Certainly, to my knowledge, no one had been arrested for or charged with that crime, Croat or otherwise. The idea that it could have been a Serb who vandalised the church with Ustasha logo is not far-fetched when we know that the Australian Serb Vitomir Misimovic infiltrated in the 1970’s the Australian Croatian community pretending to be a Croat named Vico Virkez only to frame and falsify his court testimony against the so-called Croatian Six for terrorism. We know that those Croats were convicted of attempted terrorism, we know they served jail sentences for it, but we also now know that they were framed by no other than Australian Serbs, Yugoslav (Serb) Secret Police UDBA.

Starcevic’s viciously malicious intent to vilify Croats through innuendo is also palpable in the following paragraph of his said article: “On Tuesday, a Sydney resident named Ivan – who is Croatian – tweeted about seeing a man on a train with an Ustasa tattoo on his leg. Ivan told BIRN the man looked to be in his early twenties and was wearing shorts that exposed the Ustasa logo on the back of one of his calves,” writes Starcevic. Well Mr Starcevic can you or BIRN please ask that “Sydney resident Ivan” whether the man on the train with Ustasa tattoo on his leg is actually of Croatian extraction! Guess what Mr Starcevic – Prince Harry wore a Swastika on his sleeve in public only a few years ago! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-Croatian propaganda, Australian Croats, Australian Serbs, Croatia, hate speech, Igor Vukic, Jasenovac, Seb Starcevic, Serbia, World War Two Croatia, World War Two Serbia, Zeljko Glasnovic

Psychological Operations And Information Warfare Against Croatia and Croats – Part V

April 30, 2014 by inavukic 13 Comments

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Guest Post
By Ante Horvat

The former Yugoslav regime elements and their children spearheaded subversive activities against the facts, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Croats from the 1990s, through to today.

While overtly Yugoslav nationalist in their rhetoric, still to today expending taxpayer resources celebrating the Communist “liberation” and 1945 Partisan (private property) “liberators” of Croatia, they were the first to declare any opponents of their sham anti-war agenda as “nationalist,” “primitive nationalists,” etc. – blaming “nationalists” on “both sides” for the war, and not the marriage of greater Serbian fascism and retrograde Yugoslav Communist Titoism and the detailed Serbian General Officers plan for aggression, beginning with the reorganization of Territorial Defense in the mid 1980s, through to the ‘Yogurt Revolution,’ trampling of the SFRY Constitution, quasi-legal attempt at Kosovizing Croatia and the rest of then Yugoslavia, and of course the Rampart (RAM) Plan, with the explicit order to target civilians to demoralize ‘enemies,’ and overtly stated goal of creating a Greater Serbia at the expense of most of Croatia and the whole of B&H, with access to Croatia’s coastline.

Among the more vocal propagandists in the front of the charge was none other than Croatia’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs, and unofficial Shadow Foreign Minister of Serbia, Vesna Pusic, sister of UJDI (Association for Yugoslav Democratic Initiative) co-founder and current GOLJP head (Citizens Committee for Human Rights), Zoran Pusic.

Vesna Pusic helped form Erasmus Gilda in 1993, a declaratively pro-European organization, along with Slavko Goldstein, and other post-1990 self-styled “human rights” activists (the systematic violations of human rights before 1990 was apparently not a problem to them as they were silent and remain silent about them) and disinformation luminaries who all just happened to be against Yugoslavia joining the European Community prior to the first free elections in 1990, because the EC was a free market economy.

Along with the previously mentioned outlets like Arkazin, Feral Tribune and others regurgitating Belgrade’s propaganda on a weekly basis, Erasmus gatherings, published articles and their eventual failed magazine that generous USAID funds could not save, touted the line and gave the anti-fact agenda political legitimacy as they included many academics who rose to prominence within Tito’s Yugoslavia.

Here was yet another case of foreign aid subsidizing another controlled opposition – who foreign governments would openly put into power in 2000, and again in 2011.

The main propaganda agendas of these foreign-subsidized controlled opposition fronts, and foreign-financed controlled opposition political actors, as well as Belgrade’s propaganda, was during the war and remains the following, in no particular order:

Push the “all sides are guilty” and “civil war” lie to spin Serbia’s aggression and the moral responsibility of the Western powers that overtly and tacitly supported Serbia’s aggression diplomatically and through domestic media filters and planted stories;

Equate Croatia’s defensive war effort with Serbia’s offensive aggression;

Equate Croatia’s defense of B&H in 1992 and the HVO’s defense of B&H Croats in the face of Serbian and later Muslim aggression with Serbia’s aggression against Croatia;

Push the Karadjordjevo fable and “Tudman divided B&H” myth;

Criminalize any and all symbols of Croatian statehood (the Kuna currency, Croatia’s Grb, etc.) by tying them to the Independent State of Croatia (WWII NDH);

Look for “Ustashe,” if you can’t find them, make them up;

Blow any Croatian backlash or isolated criminal act during wartime out of proportion and tie it to the highest levels of power while entirely ignoring the top-down, bottom-up systematic war crimes by the YPA/Yugoslav Peoples Army and VRSK/Army of Serbian Republic of Krajina (see the Zec family politicization since 1991, with the recent street naming ruse);

Lobby for “Krajina” political legitimacy at Western embassies and in Western capitals while domestically attack the government for being weak for not defeating “Krajina” while simultaneously claiming the “Krajina” is too strong to fall and Serbia will get involved if Croatia operationally engages it, implication being that it is better to leave it alone and recognize it;

Criminalize the Homeland War, all Generals, and all Veterans, with phrases like “turbo-Generals,” “Oluja/Storm was ethnic cleansing, “fake veterans,” “drunk veterans,” “gambling veterans,” etc. – anything to do with the Homeland War, the men who led it or the men who fought in it must be all negative, all the time with qualifiers regarding “our crimes” at any opportunity, all under the banner of “de-Tudmanization”;

Sack competent wartime and intelligence commanders whenever possible;

Collaborate with UK, US and other foreign intelligence agencies in maligning not just General Ante Gotovina and all associates, but the Homeland War itself and actively wage information warfare against it;

Legitimize ICTY political prosecutions and show trials of Croats from Croatia and B&H and applaud all politically-charged, logical acrobatic convictions based off of cherry-picked misquotes out of context, evidence suppression, and constructing events entirely out of chronological order;

Stay silent on Momcilo Perisic, Franko Simatovic and Jovica Stanisic’s acquittals, as well as no ICTY convictions of any Army of B&H commanders for the systematic war crimes and gunpoint ethnic cleansing of Croats in Central Bosnia and North Herzegovina between October 1992 and the1994 Split Agreement;

Paint Franjo Tudjman as a warmonger and authoritarian; compare to Ante Pavelic and Adolf Hitler when possible;

Push anything and everything Serbian in social and cultural spheres, no matter how low-brow (Baja Mali Knindza, Ceca, Cajke, how to be a Sponzorusa program on RTL, etc.);

Rehabilitate the cult of Tito and Communist Partisan “liberation” and infallibility myth at every corner, with if not daily then weekly stories referencing the “glories” of Tito and the Partisans, and make sure to have a weekly Yugonostalgia session on HRT by airing second rate, low-budget Yugoslav Communist political cinema;

Continually push WWII debates as if it was ongoing to cover up for failed policies and collapsing economy and no actual long-term political or economic strategy;

Frame all political and economic discourse about independent Croatia, especially the Homeland War, in a negative context while simultaneously framing any discussions about Tito’s Yugoslavia in a positive, at a minimum, neutral context;

Demand Croatia “come to terms with its crimes” of the 1990s while savagely denouncing any suggestion of the same in regards to the Communists’ crimes during and after WWII, or that the Serbian community in Croatia do the same in regards to both the 1990s, WWII, and the first Yugoslavia;

Ridicule the very idea of lustration laws being passed; label it “nationalist” to nip it in the bud;

Do everything possible to drive a wedge between Croatia’s diaspora and the Homeland;

Demand that Croatia abide by every single UN, EU, or ICTY demand, no matter how idiotic or how much of a double-standard, especially when they negatively affect Croatia’s sovereignty, national interests, and national security while simultaneously using all means available in defending the CCP (KPH/Communist Party of Croatia) and UDBa Octopus (Yugoslav Secret Police) at the expense of diplomatic relations with Germany and the EU;

Criminalize the very thought of Herceg Bosna or any Croatian legal or political equality, economic freedom, local self rule, or even following the Dayton Agreement as was agreed upon, and always support Sarajevo’s line, or remain silent on the burning Croat question;

Push a pro-London, anti-Berlin and anti-Vienna policy – sign a strategic partnership with the one state that comes in second to Serbia only in terms of damaging Croatia politically and diplomatically (UK) once foreign subsidies and foreign subsidized (and facilitated in foreign media) propaganda bring you to power;

Ignore Central Europe, never speak of the Visegrad Four (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), and speak only of the “region” to Croatia’s south, not to its north, northeast or west – never even entertain the idea of making the Visegrad Four the Visegrad five, and never demand Serbia meet the same criteria and extra criteria Croatia had to fulfill for EU entry;

Accept money from anyone, including those “capitalist pig” governments who were supposed to submit to the superiority of Yugoslav Socialist Self-Management;

Denounce, decry and try to legally bar the right of Croatia’s Diaspora and Croats in Herceg Bosna to vote while not demanding the same for Croatian citizens of Serbian origin in RS (Serbian Republic) and Serbia, who do not pay Croatian taxes – organize bus transport for them to vote in Croatia;

Thwart any meaningful investment with bizarre regulations, a monstrous tax code, bureaucracy, and torpedo any business investment, including sweet-heart deals, at the strategic and state level through incompetence if they conflict with Anglo-American business or geopolitical interests (see the Qatar debacle).

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About the author: Ante Horvat was born in the USA in 1970′s. He has recently moved to live permanently in Croatia and although spending most of his life in the USA he had made several temporary residence visits to Croatia during that time. His education and professional development in history and international relations also spans across the two continents. He is an active observer of and participant in the development of democracy in Croatia since the early 1990’s and its correlation with the developed Western democracies.

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Part VI – The next installment will look the new and subtle English-language information warfare against Croatia, subsidized by allies no less.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ante Gotovina, anti-Croatian propaganda, Bleiburg, Brent Scowcroft, C. Michael McAdams, Chetniks, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, Croatian Six, Davor Domazet Loso, de-Tudjmanization, Dusko Cizmic Marovic, Edward Snowden, Elisabeth Hellenbroich, Erasmus Gilda, F. William Enghdal, Five Eyes, Franjo Tudjman, gatekeeping, General Lewis MacKenzie, George Soros, Glenn Greenwald, Godot, GOLJP, Greater Serbia, Herceg-Bosna, ICTY, Ilija Garasanin, Independent State of Croatia, information warfare, Ivan Cermak, Ivo Goldstein, Ivo Josipovic, James Baker III, Jasenovac, Jerry Blaskovich, Josip Broz Tito, Karadjordjevic, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Lawrence Eagleburger, Luka Misetic, lustration, Mark Burdman, Miroslav Tudjman, Mladen Markac, Nationalism, NDH, Open Society Institute, OSI, Paolo Raimondi, Philip J. Cohen, PROMIS, psychological operations, Renaud de la Brosse, SANU, SANU Memorandum II, Scott Thompson, Serbia, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, SFRY, Slavko Goldstein, Stjepan Mesic, Subversive Activities, UDBA, United Kingdom, United Nations, USAID, Ustasha, Ustashe, Vesna Pusic, Yugoslav secret police, Zarko Pohovski, Zoran Pusic

Psychological Operations and Information Warfare Against Croatia and Croats – Part IV

April 8, 2014 by inavukic 26 Comments

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Guest Post
By Ante Horvat

Foreign Intelligence Agencies, Capabilities, and Croatia

The revelations last year by Edward Snowden – and the brave reporting by Glenn Greenwald and his colleagues at The Intercept, as well as in quality independent blogs such as Washingtonsblog.com – shine a bright light on just how massive, invasive, many times in most countries, blatantly unconstitutional, and illegal surveillance has become in the world today with borderline psychotic government obsessions to control internet discourse on politics and geopolitics.

Information management is power, as management equates to control.

While the internet was not what it is today in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, signals intelligence was a key component of intelligence for all states – the pervasiveness of Internet usage has only exponentially increased its usefulness to further these goals.

Yugoslavia, which broke with Stalin earning it a false reputation as some moderate Communist regime and not a police state, due to Cold War realities managed to receive many perks.

One of those is UDBa crimes not being touched with a ten foot pole by Western governments unless the murderers were too sloppy.

Or, as was the case with the Croatian Six, a Western intelligence agency and national police would collude with UDBa to frame law-abiding citizens of Croatian descent for trumped up, UDBa planned and planted “terrorism” charges. In the case of Chicago’s Bozic family, UDBa’s attempted murder of Mrs. Bozic after she told her husband’s would be UDBa assassins that came knocking on her home door that he had left early for work that day, the Cold War perks for Yugoslavia led to a total gag on the investigation after 24 hours with no valid explanation, no further investigation, nor justice, to date.

Yet, even with the repressive domestic police state apparatus, and an aggressive foreign intelligence apparatus targeting dissenters in the West for murder, Yugoslavia was of many nations to be sold the intelligence and law enforcement Google before Google – PROMIS software.

The controversial software – which tracked cases in legal systems, but also intelligence operatives, assets, intelligence targets, and built matrices of relationships between everything in the system if there was any connection – was sold by the US to over 80 nations in the 1980s after being stolen from Inslaw Inc..

It is known that the sold pirated versions – which made it to over 80 countries – had exploits to allow for information extraction.

Which means that the U.S. – and its Five Eyes allies – potentially almost certainly had back door access to all of the not just judicial files, but also intelligence agencies’ files which in the case of Yugoslavia and other nations in the Eastern Bloc, including repressive secret police agent lists, informants and snitches, and the names and dossiers of all civilians under surveillance, which in Croatia’s case, was one third of its population.

This opens several questions.

The first is that with the fall of Tito’s Yugoslavia, why haven’t Western governments, other than Germany, aggressively called for UDBa operatives who engaged in state sponsored terrorism, to be held accountable, as well as for insisting that European states that were under Communism, to push through vigorous lustration laws such as in Germany upon reunification and Poland after it regained true independence?

The second is why, after 1990, this information which the U.S. and more than likely other Five Eyes have on the inner-workings, employee lists, informant and snitch lists, and innocent victims’ dossier lists, have not been shared with Croatia’s (or other Central, Eastern and South Eastern) European post-Communist states?

Could it be that all of those former regime elements, who were loyal to Yugoslavia and their own power within it and who were also trained operatives, were recruited by foreign governments for subversive activities?

All signs point to yes.

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http://inavukic.com/2014/04/02/psychological-operations-and-information-warfare-against-croatia-and-croats-part-ii/

http://inavukic.com/2014/03/30/psychological-operations-and-information-warfare-against-croatia-and-croats-part-i/