Communist Yugoslavia – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Yet Another New Mass Grave of Communist Crimes Victims Discovered

October 15, 2023 by inavukic 7 Comments

Covering up or largely ignoring communist crimes, that were above all – horrendous, is an assault on truth.

Pits and mass graves such as Jazovka in the Zumberak Mountains area (and there are more than 1400 so far discovered in Croatia since its secession from communist Yugoslavia) filled with skeletal remains, rusted wiring they were bound together with when dumped into the pits alive or dying from bullets or knife wounds and rotting attire of thousands of communist Yugoslavia crimes’ victims, like so many other places where the partisans executed their crimes, was erased from history until the fall of the communist regime soon after Berlin Wall fall in 1989.

Jazovka pit is the symbol and definition of communist partisan brutality and crimes against patriotic Croats, those who wanted nothing to do with any form of Yugoslavia, just independence. On 15 May 1945, a week after the end of World War II, communist partisans took numerous wounded Croatian soldiers who fought for and independent Croatia from Zagreb’s hospitals and brought them to the psychiatric hospital in Vrapce on the outskirts of the Zagreb, an institution then run by the Sisters of Charity. Once there, all the prisoners were strangled or butchered in the basement of the hospital. After killing them, the partisans loaded the corpses into trucks and transported them to Jazovka and other mass graves. Three nuns, Sisters Geralda Jakob, Konstantina Mesar and Lipharda Horvat, witnessed the massacre. The communists saw the sisters and decided to murder them so that there would be no witnesses to the horrific crime. The three nuns, along with many others, were thrown into the Jazovka pit.

Until 1989, under the communist Yugoslavia regime, mass graves and pits filled with victims of communist crimes were kept as buried secrets and nobody apart from communist party operatives and the perpetrators of those crimes knew anything about these massacres of Croatian people. In fact, it could be called genocide against a political will for freedom and independence. In 1989 Jazovka mass grave was rediscovered by a speleologist, Mladen Kuka, but the exhumation of the victims’ remains would not take place until July 2020, when the Croatian Veterans Ministry began work and determined that there were at least 814 skeletons at a depth of about 40 metres. The first victims were Croatian soldiers captured in January 1943 and executed by the partisans. In 1945, the partisans used the pit for victims from Zagreb hospitals: wounded prisoners, civilians, doctors, nurses, and Catholic nuns. Most were dead when they were thrown into the pit, but others were thrown in alive to die in terrible agony.

The officials of Gospic, a town in the mountainous and sparsely populated region of Lika in Croatia, announced late last week that the third phase of exhumation of the newly discovered remains of people killed in the Second World War at the Gospic cemetery officially ended on Friday 13 October 2023, and a total of 253 victims of partisan-communist crimes have been found there. This is the date that overlaps with the day of the victims of nearby Siroka Kula, brutally killed by Serb rebels on the ethnic cleansing spree on October 13, 1991 in the midst of Yugoslav Army and Serb aggression against Croatia as it pursued exit from communism and independence.

The mass grave at Ovcara, Vukovar, is also one of the most tragic reminders of the sufferings of the Croatian Homeland War when 200 wounded persons from Vukovar Hospital were taken away by Serbs and executed near the estate of VUPIK (Vukovar Agricultural Industrial Complex) at Ovcara. The first public insights into the occurrences near Ovcara were provided in October 1992 in the article published in Vjesnik entitled “The Wounded were Taken Away Through the Rear Exit” on the basis of the testimony of a survivor, later a prisoner who was exchanged in Nemetin in 1992. Similarities in the manner and cruelty of crimes committed by Yugoslav communists after WWII and Serbs during the 1990’s War are enormous, and I believe not coincidental at all – both hated Croats for asserting their independence and freedom.

The 253 newly found victim of communist crimes in the area of Gospic will, reportedly, be buried in a common grave, i.e. the ossuary where the other exhumed remains of communist partisan crimes were buried before. In agreement with the Ministry of Croatian Veterans, if time permits we will continue the exhumations in Ličko Osik and Musaluk this year, otherwise exhumations are already planned for April and May next year in the area of Gospic and Lika-Senj County, stated the Gospic Town officials last week. And these exhumed finds are one small stone in the mosaic of the Croatian demographic breakdown that is currently happening throughout Croatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, we send the message: “May it never happen again!”

Considering the size and complexity of the Gospic mass graves location, test excavations and exhumations were carried out in several phases of work, which were preceded by an extensive investigation of the location. Thus, a series of field surveys and aerial photographs of the location were carried out, as well as test excavations at several likely locations – along the cemetery fence, on the east side of the road and inside the playground, which confirmed the findings of human remains.

The first phase of test excavations and exhumations was carried out from October 18 to November 5, 2021, when the remains of 84 victims were exhumed. During the second phase of test excavations and exhumation, from June 27 to July 21, 2022, the remains of 69 victims were exhumed. The third and final phase was preceded by the raising of a 678m² asphalt layer of the road, and from September 20 to October 13, 2023, the remains of at least 100 more victims were exhumed. In total, in all phases, the remains of at least 253 victims were exhumed.

As expected, in the surrounds of the government heavily laced with protecting the former communists and Serb aggressor against Croatia, almost nothing of this awful find in Gospic was recorded by Croatia’s government-controlled mainstream media. Lack of memory, or worse, selective memory, is increasingly common in Europe and in Croatia it has been force-fed to people for decades – since Croatia’s independence from communist Yugoslavia in 1991. It is sometimes enforced by memory laws that determine which victim deserves to be remembered and which to be forgotten. In Croatia no law has been passed to condemn the communist crimes, the symbols of communism. Communist butchery of patriotic Croats still awaits legislative, government and public condemnation.

These remains found in Gospic are victims, like hundreds of thousands of other Croats, of Yugoslav communist-partisan crimes, so we thank God for small mercies by which the bodies of people killed brutally, without court proceedings, human rights or justice, will be buried with dignity after almost 70 years.

The injustices of communism were not limited to mass murder alone. Even those who survived the communist deadly purges still were subjected to severe repression, including violations of freedom, of speech, freedom of religion, loss of property rights, and the criminalisation of ordinary economic activity. No previous tyranny sought such complete control over nearly every aspect of people’s lives as communism did.

Although the communists promised a utopian society in which the working class would enjoy unprecedented prosperity, in reality, they engendered massive poverty. Wherever communist and non-communist states existed in close proximity, it was the communists who used walls, shutting of borders, and the threat of death to keep their people from fleeing to societies with greater opportunities. Many fled nevertheless and they and their descendants are still a threat to the remnants of communist ideology still breathing in Croatia; some holding the reins of power, unfortunately.

The vast power necessary to establish and maintain the communist system after World War Two in Yugoslavia attracted quite a number of unscrupulous people, including many self-seekers who prioritised their own interests over those of the cause. But it is striking that the biggest communist atrocities were not exclusively perpetrated by corrupt party bosses, but by true believers like Josip Broz Tito. Precisely because he was a true believer in communism and socialism, he was willing to do whatever it might take to make his utopian dreams a reality. Ordering mass murders or tortures in political prisons was Tito’s modus operandi. In the end Tito made it to the top ten list of biggest murderers of own people of the twentieth century. Tito created a regime where many people tried to do as little work as possible at their official jobs, where possible reserving their real efforts for black market activity and corruption. As the old Yugoslav saying goes, workers developed the attitude that “no one can pay me as little as I can work!” No wonder that by 1989 the inflation in former Yugoslavia had escalated to about 1100%, shop shelves empty of most products, bead or petrol lines as long as eye could see…

Only with truth can a decent and, above all, a nation with a future be built. The better and the more we learn the painful lessons of the history of communist Yugoslavia, the more likely it is that we can avoid any repetition of its horrors. Hence, the recently discovered victims of communist crimes in Gospic are vital for Croatia’s future and its well-being. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: communist crimes, communist purges, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Gospic, Jazovka, Josip Broz Tito, mass graves

Recognition and Justice Still Missing For Courageous Freedom Fighting During Cold War Era – Double Standards In Treating Freedom Fighters Prevail As Seen Through World’s Characterisation of Croatia’s Zvonko Busic and South Africa’s Nelson Mandela’s Activism

September 3, 2023 by inavukic 15 Comments

Zvonko Busic/ Photo: Facebook, Ivica Ursić

Friday 1st September 2023 marked the tenth anniversary of Zvonko Busic’s death in Croatia. It can be said with certainty that watching former communists of Yugoslavia or their indoctrinated offspring creep into and take over the government of independent Croatia that fought fiercely and lost lives for its independence from communist Yugoslavia he took his own life in despair. Certainly, Zvonko Busic dedicated his whole adult life to freedom of Croatia from communism and Yugoslavia, for freedom, democracy, and human rights. Charged with air piracy, kidnapping, second degree murder, convicted by Brooklyn court, New York, in 1977 of hijacking a plane and planting explosives that, through members of New York Police Department’s reportedly reckless disregard for Busic’s instructions as to how to safely defuse the explosives, killed one policeman (Brian Murray) and injured three others, he served 32 years in an American prison and paroled in 2008 for good behaviour whence he returned to Croatia. Freedom fight activities and events in which he participated or led and was convicted of and sentenced for were all political activist pursuits for freedom of Croatia from communist oppression during the Cold War years were practically the only activities bar military coups that spoke the loudest towards achieving changes to governments. Certainly, there was no internet or social media to spread the message widely as post-Cold War years have brought.

Zvonko Busic and his colleagues formed a remarkable group of men (Zvonko Busic, Frane Pesut, Petar Matanic and Mark Vlasic; the latter three released from prison served for related convictions in 1988) and one woman (Julienne Eden Busic, Zvonko Busic’s American spouse, released from prison for related convictions in 1989) who championed the fight for Croatian independence (from communist Yugoslavia) on the international stage during the Cold War era when freedom activism often had to resort to bold actions that would attract the world’s attention. Hence, on September 10, 1976, Zvonko Busic and his group hijacked TWA Flight 355 flying from New York to Chicago with about 80 passengers and crew members on board. According to Busic’s group’s publicised by the media statements at the time they wanted to draw attention to Croatia’s bid for independence from communist-led Yugoslavia. Soon after the plane took off from New York’s La Guardia Airport, Zvonko Busic sent word to the pilot that he had planted bombs aboard the plane and another in a locker at New York’s Grand Central railway station. Zvonko Busic also provided instructions as to how that bomb must be defused to avoid explosion, but New York Police Officer Brian J. Murray, disregarded those instructions and, sadly, was killed and three others were seriously injured as they tried to defuse the device from the locker, which they had taken to a demolition range in the Bronx. The hijackers also said another bomb would go off “somewhere in the United States” unless a statement (they prepared) about Croatian independence was published and appeared on front pages and prominently in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The International Herald Tribune.

The hijackers instructed the pilots of the Boeing 727 to fly to Montreal, then London and Paris. At one refuelling stop in Gander, Newfoundland, they released 35 passengers that were by then deemed hostages. The plane eventually landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, where authorities slashed the jet’s tyres. When the hijackers confirmed that their statements had been printed by the newspapers, they surrendered.

“I did not do this act out of adventuristic or terroristic impulses,” Zvonko Busic told the court in New York before receiving his sentence. “It was simply the scream of a disenfranchised and persecuted man. If I had ever imagined that anyone could have been hurt,” he added, “I would never, even if it had cost me anonymous death at Yugoslav hands, embarked on that flight.”

From left to right: Zvonko Busic, Marko Vlasic, Petar Matanic, Frane Pesut and Julienne Busic after arrest at Paris Airport. There are detectives behind them. Photo: The New York Times, September 13, 1976. | Photo: New York Times/archive

Every time many ponder upon or remember Zvonko Busic and his fellow activists for freedom of Croatia from brutal and oppressive communist Yugoslavia regime and how their courageous activities for Croatian freedom on the world’s scene in essence contributed to the eventual international recognition of Croatian independence in late 1991/1992 they cannot but taste the bitter injustice served upon their heroism by the very country for whose freedom they fought and by the world. That is undoubtedly, in my mind, because Croatian hard-won freedom from communism has gradually been marred by continued and persistent communist activism. One cannot but compare Zvonko Busic’s activities for freedom from communism to those of Nelson Mandela, for instance, for freedom from white rule in South Africa during 1960’s and conclude that it was Mandela’s and not Busic’s actions that were truly terrorist – Mandela’s eventually resulted in thousands of deaths. Mandela had strong ties to communism, an ideology responsible for more death and destruction over the last century than any other political movement; over 100 million murdered in fact. One cannot but wonder in distress whether Mandela’s association with communist ideology secured him a hero’s welcome on the world stage upon his release from prison to which he was sentenced for grave terrorist activities in South Africa and Busic’s absolute rejection and disdain for communism made him virtually “a marked man” for life and his actions stamped with terrorism even if they were merely brave freedom pursuits with no intended casualties and only one accidental. In December 2013, at the time of his death, the world honoured Nelson Mandela as one of the greatest heroes of our time. US President Barrack Obama even called him “the last great liberator of the 20th century!” Yet amidst all of this praise for a man who helped bring down the white government in South Africa, almost nobody mentioned his activities before becoming South Africa’s post-apartheid president in 1994.

Nelson Mandela headed up a truly terrorist organisation during 1960’s that was responsible for thousands of deaths. In 1961, Mandela was the founder of Umkhonto we Siswe (”Spear of the People”), ANC’s (African National Congress) terrorist arm, and never during all the time he was in prison did he condemn that organisation’s acts of indiscriminate terrorism against civilians.

Catapulted, undoubtedly by the left political plethora of lobbyists, onto the world’s platform from the dungeons of dangerous terrorists as a hero of freedom fighting throughout his life, Mandela nevertheless had a habit of saying that he was “not a saint,” as TIME Magazine noted in his 2013 obituary. Perhaps more surprisingly from today’s perspective, many people around the world felt the same way. In fact, Mandela remained on U.S. terrorist watch lists until 2008.

Decades had passed since “violence” was a means to an end during the Cold War years, the end being freedom from oppression and cruelty of governments or regimes and the “free world” became increasingly attuned to the injustice being perpetrated in South Africa and yet the case is not the same for the injustice perpetrated against Croats by communist Yugoslavia. The Croatian history about freedom from communist regime of Yugoslavia and the many freedom fighters it has seen during the Cold War years in particular, must address the courage of those such as Zvonko Busic and his collaborators for freedom and democracy (whose freedom-fighting activities continue as subjects for many world’s leading mainstream media outlets), otherwise there will be no political reconciliation for true justice anywhere in the world – double standards will continue poisoning the righteousness of self-determination of a nation for freedom from fear and oppression. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: cold war, communist lobby, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Croatian independence fight, Double standards i treating freedom fighters, Frane Pesut, freedom fighting, Julienne Busic, Julienne Eden Busic, Marko Vlasic, Nelson Mandela, Zvonko Busic

The Pollution of Croatian Language With The Serbian and Its Extinction Was Part of Communist Yugoslavia Agenda

August 27, 2023 by inavukic 8 Comments

A rather large number of people have messaged me during the past week about my last article regarding the newly proposed Croatian Language Act in Croatia and most asked the question regarding the usage of the Serbian language words mixed with Croatian ones.

Former Yugoslavia had instilled as its official language the “hybrid” language called Serbo-Croatian (with Cyrillic writing) or Croatian-Serbian (with Latin writing). In this language Serbian and Croatian language words and expressions could be mixed and, hence, cross-contamination of these languages occurred to the point where the Western World thought that there was no, or only minute, difference between the Serbian and the Croatian languages. Between 1945 and late 1960’s the official se of Serbo-Croatian language had crept in where the Serbian language increasingly swallowed the Croatian, threatening extinction of the Croatian language, which had led to concern for the Croatian language to such a high point that in 1967 a group of Croatian linguists, dissatisfied with the recently published dictionaries and spelling rules in which, in accordance with the Novi Sad agreement from Serbia, the language was called Serbo-Croatian/Croatian-Serbian ( and – admittedly very gradually – an effort was made to achieve that Croats speak a language that will only be a local variant of the Serbian language), went on to compose and proclaim a Declaration on the name and position of the Croatian literary language (within Yugoslavia). The 1967 Declaration included the following wording:

And so it was, when I graduated from the University of Zagreb and started my first job in a public school in Croatia that integrated children with special needs, I was given a choice to use either the Croatian or the Serbian, but not a mixture of the two, in my official capacity as an Educational Psychologist and Pedagogue!

“1) Establish clear and unambiguous equality of the four literary languages: Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian, and Macedonian by constitutional regulation. For this purpose, the wording of the SFRY Constitution, Article 131, should read as follows: ‘Federal laws and other general acts of federal bodies are published in the authentic text in the four literary languages of the people of Yugoslavia: Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Macedonian. In official business, the bodies of the federation must adhere to the principle of equality of all languages of the people of Yugoslavia.’ Adequate wording should ensure the rights of national languages in Yugoslavia. The current constitutional provision on the ‘Serbo-Croatian or Croatian-Serbian language’ with its impreciseness enables these two comparative names to be understood in practice as synonyms, and not as a basis for the equality of both Croatian and Serbian literary languages, equally among themselves, as well as in relation to the languages of other Yugoslav nations. Such ambiguity enables the Serbian literary language to impose itself as a single language for Serbs and Croats by the force of reality. That the reality is really like that is proven by numerous examples, among them the most recent Conclusions of the Fifth Assembly of the Union of Composers of Yugoslavia. These conclusions were published side by side in the Serbian, Slovenian and Macedonian versions as if there was no Croatian literary language at all or as if it were identical to the Serbian literary language. The undersigned institutions and organisations believe that in such cases the Croatian people are not represented and are placed in an unequal position. Such a practice cannot in any case be justified by the otherwise undisputed scientific fact that the Croatian and Serbian literary languages have a common linguistic basis.

2) In accordance with the above requirements and explanations, it is necessary to ensure the consistent use of the Croatian literary language in schools, journalism, public and political life, on radio and television whenever the Croatian population is involved, and that officials, teachers, and public workers, regardless of where they came from, they officially use the literary language of the environment in which they operate. We submit this Declaration to the Parliament of the Republic of SRH/ Socialist Republic of Croatia, the Federal Assembly of the SFRY/ Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia and our entire public, so that during the preparation of changes to the Constitution, the stated principles will be unambiguously formulated and, accordingly, their full application in our social life will be ensured.”

Much of the community at large in Croatia continued to speak the so-called Serbo-Croatian/ Croatian-Serbian and particularly so because communist party officials where Serbian language prevailed were in the majority, school and company directors were appointed by the communist party, Yugoslav Army officials holding posts were mainly of Serb nationality.

If for the purposes of this article we exclude the World War Two period within which the Ustashe took power as they proclaimed n 10 April 1941 the independence of Croatia from any Yugoslavia and insisted on the official usage of pure Croatian language, in the realm of Serbian linguistic pressures, it needs to be pointed out that during the 20^th century, from the end of the First World War, Croatia was forced to belong to all forms of Yugoslavia, firstly to the Kingdom headed by Serb Monarchy and then to the communist form of Yugoslavia and both were authoritarian and dictatorial, the latter totalitarian also. The authoritarian ideologies and their implementation merged into everyday living in Croatia: Serbian hegemony, Serbian monarchist absolutism, Belgrade-centred communism (and socialism). Serb-led Kingdom of Yugoslavia and communist Yugoslavia used language as their political tool, wielding supremacy of the Serbian one over all others that existed within Yugoslavia. This can be characterised as linguistic violence.

As 94% of Croatian voters voted in May 1991 for independence of Croatia from Yugoslavia it was the time again in Croatia’s history, that alertness to the need of only the Croatian language as official language grew high. Not only would Croatia be liberated from communist Yugoslavia pressures but also its language – that was the ideal. Croatian language words and expressions lost or forgotten during decades of Serbian language pressures in communist Yugoslavia began surfacing in ordinary everyday conversations, in the media and in political speeches and public appearances. It felt like a rebirth of a most beautiful language to most Croats. Dictionaries of Differences between Croatian and Serbian language words were published and became almost bestsellers in many Croatian community circles both in Croatia and in the diaspora.

After President Franjo Tudjman’s death in December 1999 the former Yugoslav communist party members and operatives took power and, hence, the importance of the Croatian language as the standard official language became a non-importance. Increasingly Serbian language words and expressions crept back into the public domain almost to the same level as before 1967 when the Declaration about Croatian literary language was made and insisted upon within communist Yugoslavia. From year 2000 linguistic violence in Croatia had been at an alarming rise, causing distress in many Croatian citizens. This linguistic violence had been permitted to continue for the past two decades without sanctions or comments of corrective nature from officials.

Thousands of words in the vocabulary that were used in the public space of Croatia were not part of the standard Croatian language, and they testify that the Croatian speakers in the past times of the former Yugoslavia thus represent grabbing words from the pool that was part of the standard Serbian language, and less from other languages from the neighbourhood and other world languages. For example, Italian, Hungarian, English, Turkish, German, etc.

A good number of linguists in the Croatian-Serbian language area (not in Croatia!) during the Yugoslav era claimed that Turkisms were in principle part of the standard common Croatian-Serbian language, and that Germanisms were not, which was wrong – the layered Croatian history was not considered nor was the history of the Croatian language. Thus, the policy of communist Yugoslavia exerted pressure related to the history of the Second World War for its own benefit, not Croatia’s.

And so, for example’s sake, I will list here some words of Serbian language vocabulary I personally noticed, with distress I might add, being used in various Croatian Parliament discussions during April, May, June and first half of July 2023 when I was there and watched on television or internet Croatian Parliament live. Suffice to say I personally was shocked at the volume of Serbian language used there with ease and practically no sanctions or corrections. It took my mind back to the times of former Yugoslavia and the pollution of the Croatian language with foreign words but particularly with the words from the Serbian language. This begged the question: was Croatia not successful in its victory over Yugoslav and Serb aggression to gain independence from Yugoslavia? Of course it was! It must, therefore, insist on its own identity as a nation, which includes the official language. Hence, I became one of many to strongly support the current proposal for a new Croatian Language Act that would introduce standards for official language in all public institutions in Croatia including the parliament.

The list of words or expressions from the Serbian language currently used frequently in Croatian official public places includes the following – set out in the fashion where the Serbian version is put first, then Croatian, then its meaning in the English language (without synonyms):

Da li – Je li, Jel – Is it, Instovremeno – Istodobno – At the same time, Porodica – Obitelj – Family, Hiljada – Tisuća – Thousand, Štampa – Tisak – Print/Press, Neophodno – Potrebno – Essential, All months of the year have different nemes in Croatian language from those of Serbian, Muzika – Glazba – Music, Pimena – Dopisi, podnesci – Written Correspondence, Podudaran – Sukladan – Compatible, Pogibija – Stradanje – Suffering, Pojasniti – Objasniti – Explain, Poklon – Dar – Gift, Pokoljenje – Naraštaj – Generation, Pokretan – Pomičan – Ambulant, Oolovni – Trošen – Used, Poništenje – Ukinuće – Abrogation, Prilog – Privitak – Attachment, Glasati – Glasovati – Vote, Pažnja – Pozornost – Attention, Povrjeđen – Ranjen – Wounded, Prema – Po, Spram – To, According to, Momentalno – Trenutačno – Momentarily, Pretežno – Većinom – Mostly, Prethodni – Prijašnji – Previous, Prigoda – Prilika – Circumstance, Prisustvo – Nazočnost – Attendance, Čas – Trenutak – Moment, Avion – Zrakoplov – Aeroplane, Aerodrom – Zračna luka – Airport, Advokat – Odvjetnik – Lawyer, Gvožđe – Željezo – Iron (as in metal), Material – Tvorivo, Gradivo – Matter, Pelcovanje – Cijepljenje – Vaccination, Podesiti – Prilagoditi – Adapt, Pošto – Jer – As, Because, Pristanište – Luka – Port, Prosto – Jednostavno – Simple, Priroda – Narav – Nature, Dopadati se – Sviđati se – Likeable, Maternji – Materinski – Motherly, Gotovo – Skoro – Almost, Ručak – Objed – Lunch, Saučešće – Sućut – Condolence, Strava – Užas – Horror, Suština – Srž – Core, Širom – Diljem – Throughout, Tačka – Točka – Full Stop, Tokom – Tijekom – During, Učestvovati – Sudjelovati – Participate, Ukoliko – Ako – Unless, Upečatljiv – Znakovit – Distinct, Upozorenje – Upozorba – Warning, Utanačiti – Dogovoriti – Agree, Settle, Vrtiti – Okretati – Spin, Zastava – Barjak, Stijeg – Flag, Zavjera – Urota – Conspiracy, Zucnuti – Pisnuti – Utter, Bauljati – Teturati – Stager, Bespotreban – Suvišan, Nepotreban – Surplus, Unnecessary, Čulo – Osjetilo – Sense, Sensory organ, Čuven – Glasovit – Renowned, Ćutati – Šutjeti – Be Silent, …

The result over the decades of the pollution of the Croatian language in Croatia particularly with the vocabulary and expressions of the Serbian language ones has made the need for an official language in Croatia to be legislated for. That language to be the Croatian one. The continued usage in many public places of the hybrid language that the invented Serbo-Croatian one was, leaves many people in Croatia at a loss and confused and certainly does nothing to cement the victory of the Homeland War in the 1990’s into a Croatian identity. Throughout the past decades when the internet became widely available even the so-called online dictionaries of the Croatian language fail miserably; the Croatian language equivalents of many words are simply not there, but Serbian are! The frequently used by many Google translations cannot be trusted as, more often than not, these are also in line with the extinct and politically concocted Serbo-Croatian/ Croatian-Serbian language. I trust that in line with the passing of the Croatian Language Act during the coming months a much-increased compilation and publication of Dictionaries of Differences between Serbian and Croatian vocabulary will see the light of day, just as they did during 1990’s when Croatia strongly pursued its self-determination, independence, and identity. Ina Vukic