Croatian Homeland War – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Political Heads’ Pursuits As In “All Quiet on the Western Front”

July 9, 2023 by inavukic 5 Comments

President Zoran Milanovic (L), Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (R) (Portrait photos: Pixsell)

The much-lauded German adaptation of the classic war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque, clinched the Academy Award for best international feature film in March of this year with its timely anti-militarist message as far as current war in Ukraine is concerned but also as far as the destiny of war veterans of the Croatian Homeland War of the 1990’s is concerned. Remarque’s novel, published in 1929, paints a portrait of a generation that leaves school for the front and ends up perishing in World War I from 1914 to 1918. Come 2023 in Croatia. With the relentless intolerance and increasingly aggravated brawls between Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the country’s President Zoran Milanovic the above Oscar-winning movie is eerily topical – their evident pursuit of nerve-pulling populism digs a grave, deeper and deeper, for the heroes that fought for Croatia’s independence and secession from communist Yugoslavia! Here and there, each will throw around some symbolic gesture or phrase in respect and crucial for freedom of the 1990’s Homeland War but, in reality and essence, their intentions and efforts rest in erasing it and resurrecting former communist Yugoslavia, even though they may, falsely, label it antifascist. Constant conflicts intrusively played out in the public arena, fortunately verbal, but no less exhausting and ominous, mark almost the entire period of overlapping mandates of the two leaders of Croatian politics, President of the Republic Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The recently delivered President Milanovic’s speech to the nation and the reaction of Prime Minister Plenkovic suggest that this conflict will certainly last until the summer of 2024, and probably until the beginning of 2025; the entire mega elections year approaching. Whether it will continue after that period largely depends on whether the two, the Head of State and the Government, by their own will, and especially by the will of the voters, retain the positions they hold based on the election results.

Given that, in their positions, neither appears politically threatened by anyone – neither is anyone currently profiled as a potential presidential candidate, nor does the diluted and, therefore, weak opposition offer a more serious prime ministerial candidate and program nor does any palpable fraction within the ruling HDZ party. In short, it suits both men to counter each other – it keeps them both on the frontlines of conversation in all homes and around all coffee shop tables! While I have written before about the alarming political crisis in Croatia that has its roots in both the Office of the President and the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, the sickening lack of collaboration and extreme intolerance, as far as the public eye can see and the Croatian nation pulse can feel, between the country’s President Zoran Milanovic and its Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic continues. This cancerous situation, metaphorically speaking, is evidently purely political and perhaps agreed upon behind the curtain or under the table to the dire detriment for the country and its citizens who spilled rivers of blood during the 1990’s for its independence. Each blames the other, each expects an apology from the other, and neither gives “a farthing” for their duty as the elected leaders of state to communicate effectively on important matters of the state.

Among other things, in his speech to the nation on June 6, 2023, President Milanovic said the following: “since the Croatian Constitution – to which I swore an oath – obliges me to take care of regular and coordinated activities, as well as the stability of the state government, I decided to warn the Croatian public to the serious threat to the constitutional-legal and democratic order that the Government of Andrej Plenkovic is preparing. Yesterday I was informed that the Government, in defiance of the Constitution, intends to place the Military Security Intelligence Agency under the direct management of the Ministry of Defence. Instead of following the constitutional procedure for appointing the director of the Military Security Intelligence Agency and contrary to the established democratic practice, the Government prepared an unconstitutional solution according to which the temporary head of the Agency would be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Defence. I want to be clear: it is Andrej Plenkovic’s political attack on the constitutional order and democracy, which returns Croatia to the era when the intelligence services were under the direct control of the ruling party.”

On June 7, 2023, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic referred publicly to the above-mentioned statements of the President of the Republic, saying that due to the form of the address, he first asked himself whether a war or a new epidemic had broken out, whether there had been a major earthquake, a huge flood, a fire, a terrible accident in Croatia, and that the Government had not heard about it. It appears that Plenkovic may in fact be the one to blame for the appalling and non-existent communication between the Prime Minister and President (Plenkovic had that streak or evident arrogance when Kolinda Gabar Kitarovic was President, for she complained in public about it and her helplessness in establishing a working relationship with Prime Minster Plenkovic ) that forced President Milanovic, faced with Plenkovic’s repeated rejection to meet with Milanovic, in making a speech, a cry, to the nation about it (?). “Then I wondered if maybe it wasn’t a holiday? When it’s not Christmas, it’s not even New Year’s, and it’s not National Day either. Nothing of what is usual for the form of address by reading from a meter in a few minutes,” Plenkovic said, commenting the (to him) extremely unusual form of address by President Milanovic. “He (Milanovic) assumed that this way of addressing avoided the risk of eliminating the presence of some journalists from certain newsrooms or the risk of answering possible questions….”! How arrogant of Prime Minister Plenkovic. Not only does he seem to adorn himself as a mind-reader but attempts to denigrate the very important facility of a President’s Address to the Nation. Reminding that cooperation cannot continue as if none of this had happened, Prime Minister Plenkovic said that communication between institutions can be done in numerous ways. It can be done directly, he added, but there are prerequisites for that – cultural, normal, and cooperative communication at the level of what is appropriate for behaviour in the public political space. Since there is no such thing, then there are no direct contacts, he said. Communication can be in written form, as well as through associates, and that communication, he asserted, exists. Prime Minister Plenkovic asserted publicly that there is no constitutional crisis, but there is a “false thesis of the President of the Republic who pretends to be the head of the opposition“. President Milanovic had on 6 June invited the Prime Minister Plenkovic to an urgent meeting at which they could seek to agree on a candidate for the new director of VSOA/Military Security Intelligence Agency and the next day Plenkovic stated that such a meeting will not take place until Milanovic apologises! Given that he, yet again, expressly rejected what the president asked of him, Prime Minister Plenkvic obviously blames the conflict exclusively on the President, his messages and behaviour, and apparently, he does not even need cooperation with him because this type of conflict with this type of opponent it fits him personally, not Croatia, perfectly in the political and other collateral senses.

Today, their verbal conflict is, in fact, a real political war, a Cold War, which has recently gained a very violent extension, eagerly fanned by the media and other actors that stand at a decent distance, except in protocol situations, in which the poles of this conflict pretend that they do not exist with each other, in the same space or country. Even the blind can see that a major shift upwards in the numbers of eligible voters actually voting in 2024 elections is the only tool that will rid Croatia of this political vermin at the head of Government and Office of the President. The Cold War between them has translated into a real war (by stealth ?) that is attacking Croatia’s demography and chasing rivers of young people out, bankrupting the economy, concealing horrific and widespread corruption, belittling the independence-bearer, the Homeland War…The anger and disappointment on the streets is almost paralysing and I hope that such a “paralysis” will fixate the masses into strong and successful action for change for the better, if not lustration! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: All Quiet On The Western Front, Andrej Plenovic, cold war, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, Impasse between roatia's President and Prime Minister, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, political war, transitioning from communism, Zoran Milanovic

Croatia: Resurrecting Communism Cunningly Dressed Up As Antifascism

June 25, 2023 by inavukic 6 Comments

For three months now I have been in Croatia, after a three-year pause due to pandemic circumstances that prevented travel out of Australia for the most part out of that period. These three years have culminated in a reality where, in Croatia, one cannot but notice the alarming atmosphere, both cultural and political, where it’s impossible not to feel that the governing and other powers, which are of communist breed, are trying to erase the 1990’s Homeland War as the foundation of today’s independent Croatia. State funded cultural events and political ones most often try and resurrect as freedom-bearers World War Two communist partisans (who murdered and massacred hundreds of thousands of Croatian freedom-fighters and Croat civilians who rejected communism and Yugoslavia) while totally in that process ignoring the fact that the 1990’s War of defence against the Yugoslav Army and Serb aggression was gloriously victorious. These communists of Yugoslavia have “christened” themselves, undeservedly, as antifascists. The latter undoubtedly so to avoid prosecution for communist crimes and genocide (during and post WWII) against the Croatian people predominately based on political beliefs. Croatian Homeland War was victorious and sealed Croatia’s independence and secession from communist Yugoslavia and yet, compared to cultural events such as publications funded by the state such as art exhibitions, motion pictures or movies, daily or weekly press, television, etc. that promote the communist era disturbingly outnumber those that promote the Homeland War! Funding for those that promote the Homeland War and Croatian truth are mainly and overwhelmingly left to the generosity of private charitable donors and to personal sacrifices of those who stand behind such efforts as are portraying the Homeland War as the true and only fighting determinant of today’s independent Croatia. It is a fact that former communists of Yugoslavia on the main did not want this independent Croatia and did not fight for it but rather deserted the cruel and bloody 1990’s battlefields and, hence, in there may lie the motive to accentuate the World War Two battlefield and undermine the 1990’s Homeland War one?

The former communists of Yugoslavia have perfected their abominable political trade in Croatia, giving life to something that never was: Croatian WWII independence fighters labelled as fascists and Nazis! And the Croatian tax-payer money unwittingly, without having any control over it, pays for this! The European Union and its Commission, who have long ago condemned all totalitarian regimes, including the communist one, tolerate this and permit symbols and values of communism, dressed up as some antifascism, to tear the Croatian nation apart!

All in all, this is a terrible state for a country forged in the bloody war to be in. It is a boiling breeding ground of restless discontent and a ground from which sprout urges to justify in one way or another that the defence from the brutal communist rulers and Serbs was just and chosen by 94% of voters in April/May 1991! It is undoubtedly the result of the past twenty-three-year campaign to equate the victim and the aggressor from the Homeland War and the Serb lobby being well-oiled by Croatian tax-payer funds!

It is yet to be seen whether Croatia and its political landscape is creating the nation-wide dissent that occurred among freedom-loving Croatian people during communist Yugoslavia totalitarian regime.

We are in the month of June, and it is apt here, in line with dissent from and against communist oppression and political engineering and what it can generate among freedom-loving people to remember June 1972. On 20.06.1972 the Croatian patriotic paramilitary group called “Mountain fox” (Ambroz Andric, Adolf Andric, Pavao Vegar, Ilija Glavas, Djuro Horvat, Vejsil Keskic, Viktor Kancijanic [Kocijancic], Petar Bakula, Ludvig Pavlovic, Mirko Vlasnovic, Ilija Lovric, Filip Beslic, Stipe Ljubas, Vlado Miletic. Vinko Knez, Ivan Prlic, Nikola Antunac, Vilim Ersek, Vidak Buntic) entered the territory of communist Yugoslavia with the aim of raising a rebellion and overthrowing the constitutional and legal order of that time. The group is known as the Bugojno Group or the Phoenix Group and was organised by the Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood (HRB), a secret organisation, which was founded in 1961 in Australia, and which operated in Europe and the USA. The main goal of the HRB was the liberation of Croatia from Yugoslavia, and the idea arose after the brutal suppression of the Croatian Spring in 1971 within Yugoslavia by which political activities sought to achieve greater autonomy for Croatia within the oppressive communist Yugoslav regime, when the HRB concluded that a favourable climate had been created in Croatia for the initiation of an armed uprising. After a short preparation, HRB organised manpower, weapons and financial support to send the initial group, which had the task of starting an uprising in the areas of southern Croatia, Lika and Herzegovina. Most of the fighters and money came from Australia, while the military equipment was procured in Germany. Short final preparations were made in the camp at Garanas in Austria, along the Austrian-Yugoslav border, and Yugoslavia was entered in the area of Dravograd in Slovenia. However, after only five days, the group clashed with the Yugoslav militia, and then with the Yugoslav People’s Army and the Territorial Defence. Against the Group of 19 men were more than 30,000 members of these Yugoslav police and military formations who set out destroying the Group, to finally succeed in this on July 24, with the help of informers and the UDBA/Yugoslav Secret Services. Ten members of the group lost their lives during the conflict in different places in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and eight were captured and executed without trial by shooting near Sarajevo. The only survivor was the youngest member of the group, Ludvig Pavlovic, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and later died (killed) as a Croatian defender in the 1990’s Homeland War.

Looking into the mirror from today’s perspective of increasing civil as well as government opposition dissent from the Croatian political, pro-communist Yugoslavia landscape, both in intensity and number, those who know that the revolution is a process, not an event, see the reflection of an image which tells us that Bugojno is only one event in a revolutionary process, therefore only a part of the Croatian revolution for freedom and independence. From this point of view, and from the point of view of the victorious 1990’s Homeland War, the value of the Bugojno Group of 1972 cannot be written about either as a complete success or as a complete failure, but it can be seen as a humanly costly result of communist oppression and repression. Its value is highest from the vantage of courage and determination for freedom that communist oppression had generated on individual and group bases.

All manner of corruption in Croatia remains a serious and widespread problem and is repeatedly raised as a frustrating obstacle to economic and democracy development. Given that corruption became the prevalent means of survival and advancement in communist Yugoslavia society it was not viewed as such then. Those anti-democracy traits have survived even the Homeland War! The government has taken various actions, including highly publicised purges of corrupt officials and heads of public companies, but these so far fail to convince either domestic or international critics of the government’s sincerity. As during the communist Yugoslavia regime, the power remains “behind the counter” and not with the client or consumers of public services; this often translates into practices of seeking connections “behind the counter” or paying bribes to officials for everything and anything – from accessing reputable medical practitioner in the public health system, receiving the right information as to the process for citizenship applications and necessary documentation, to avoiding paying traffic infringements. Relevant laws and regulations are still exposed to interpretations of different officials standing behind the public service counters!

Also, under enormous pressure and scrutiny are outspoken critics of the government from employers, the academic and intellectual communities in receipt of government funds.

This, coupled with the alarming push to wipe out the values of the 1990’s War of Independence, also known as the Homeland War, paints a bleak picture especially for those who sacrificed their life and limb for independence and democracy and for those holding the Homeland War as the carrier wall and foundation for today’s Croatia. 2024 is a mega election year for Croatia for all levels of government and power and unless the bulk of eligible voters wake up from a twenty-year sleep, which created the breeding ground for the rise of communist mental set in the corridors of power and nostalgia for communist Yugoslavia, anything can be expected – even a kind of a focused revolution that would target lustration from power the former communists and their descendants who protect them and their criminal deeds of the past. Croatia is sliding fast into an authoritarian rule heavily laced with former communist Yugoslavia values and helped by electoral engineering. The wakeup call to voters to save the independent Croatia created through the 1990’s war is becoming louder and louder. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bugojno Group, Communism masked as antifascism, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Croatia war of independence, Croatian Homeland War, Phenix Group, Resurrecting communism, transition from Communism

Schengen Zone and Euro For Croatia

January 14, 2023 by inavukic 13 Comments

It is done! As anticipated in my article dated 5 November 2022 it’s a double windfall or double whammy, depending on your vantage point on the matter! The start of this year brought very big changes for Croatia. To pro-European Union political elites and to quite a few Croat ones the entry into the single currency among 20 other countries and the entry into free travel, no borders zone among 27 other countries are considered a major landmark in Croatia’s modern history. For others it is taken with a pinch of salt and lots of distrust.

Certainly, at the time of Dr Franjo Tudjman’s speech at the inauguration of Croatian Parliament 30 May 1990 the European Commission (EC) was very young within the so-called European Community, EU as we know it was to be founded later, and the euro not even on the horizon of the EC but Tudjman had put Europeanisation of independent Croatia as one of Croatia’s major goals in its planned exit from communist Yugoslavia. What a paralysing tragedy for Croats who fought for independence from communism to know that the European Union Parliament had over a decade ago condemned all totalitarian regimes, including communism, and the Croatian governments since his death in late 1999 not only have not in effect condemned communism but in practice glorify it more and more including its mass murderer Josip Broz Tito!

Schengen Zone and the Euro – a perfect match??

January 1, 2023, marked Croatia’s shedding of its kuna currency and the shedding of its sovereign borders in favour of the euro and Schengen Zone. Some say this is a great thing for Croatia, some say it spells a catastrophe for self-determination and a thousand-year proud identity. It is, however, most disappointing that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic did not in any way, shape or form express the country’s gratitude to all (not just HDZ Party ones) Croatian Homeland War veterans and activists who fought for Croatia in 1990’s, its exit from communist Yugoslavia, its self-determination, paving the way for its European existence with blood, sweat and tears. Andrej Plenkovic’s government continues its coalition with the Serb political minority that was either through direct family lines or political allegiance part of the aggression against Croatia in 1990’s; his government almost does not even acknowledge the part of Serb minority in Croatia that fought shoulder to shoulder with Croats to defend Croatia amidst the brutal Serb and Yugoslav Army aggression.

Asked recently about the implications of open borders with Croatia’s neighbours, Plenkovic said: “People are really thrilled that there are no more border controls on the crossings between Croatia and Slovenia; between Croatia and Hungary. Seventy-three border crossings are now police-free and customs-free. That means people going freely to the west or to the north of Europe. It means less costs, and more tourists coming to Croatia. 82 percent of overnight tourist stays in Croatia are made by people who come from the Schengen area. So this is going to be a huge economic benefit for us.”

Prime Minister Plenkovic and all his government ministers scandalously omitted to mention the rivers of Croatian blood sacrificed by all not just members of his political Party HDZ and the unprecedented harnessing of the Croatian patriotic diaspora in achieving the goal of Europeanisation of Croatia that was so critical from the start of Croatian independence movement from communist Yugoslavia in 1989/1990.

Plenkovic said: “We have no reason to be afraid to say that we are from the HDZ Party, we should be proud, satisfied and happy. Being a member of HDZ means being part of the politics of the party of direction, leadership, achievements, those who made the greatest contribution to an independent, free and internationally recognised Croatia, those who made an immeasurable contribution to the defence against Great Serbian aggression in the Homeland War, those who made a huge contribution the development of Croatian institutions, those who have contributed to the development of democracy, the improvement of the economy, Croatia’s membership in NATO, the European Union, the euro area, the Schengen area…”. Plenkovic did not say that his HDZ Party of today is a mere shadow of what it was when Croats fought for independence, when Croats needed to defend their bare lives from Serb aggression. Independence was a national matter then and Schengen and euro are now – they are not political party matters because they encompass all Croats.

Most activists and fighters have left the Party during the past three decades mostly out of disappointment with the Party’s growing pro-communist Yugoslavia mindset. But hey, 2024 is an election year and Plenkovic is not likely to say anything that would reduce the Party’s chances for re-election.

They omitted to quote relevant parts of Dr Franjo Tudjman’s, First President of modern Croatia, speech at the 30 May 1990, inauguration of Croatian Parliament that afterwards suffered terrible consequences of the genocidal Serb aggression. Franjo Tudjman among many other things said: “… allow me to endeavour and put forward, in the briefest of points, some of the most urgent and immediate tasks that stand before the new democratic government of Croatia…Inclusion into Europe and Europeanisation of Croatia. Simultaneous with democratic transformation we need to undertake all necessary steps for Croatia to be included into the European Union as soon as possible. For centuries, Croatia has been a constituent part of the Western European (Mediterranean and Central-European) culture. Even when it did not have a full political state subject status, Croatia was inseparably connected to the Western European civilisation. The contribution to European life several centuries ago as well as through later history by Croatian Latinists bears loud witness to that fact. The return to that cultural tradition must be multilayered. In European integration Croatia must secure its independence and faster progress…”.

Judging from all said from the Croatian government side during the past two weeks regarding the matter of entry into Schengen and adopting the euro one finds it difficult to avoid the ominous and painful feeling that Prime Minister Plenkovic is peddling the idea that his government, his HDZ Party, are singlehandedly responsible for and should be accredited with Croatia’s entry into the Schengen Zone and the adoption of the euro. Yet, he himself and most of his government ministers had avoided fighting to defend Croatia from Serb aggression, avoided fighting to realise the Croatian dream Franjo Tudjman was voicing in parliament on 30 May 1990, most likely covertly if not overtly vying for communist Yugoslavia to survive the 94% Croatian vote to secede, to leave Yugoslavia and turn freely towards Europe as sovereign country. One finds it difficult also to avoid the feeling that this is so to enable further pandering to the 1990’s rebel Serb associates in his government’s coalition, who fought against such a path for Croatia and killed and ethnically cleansed Croats mercilessly in the effort to try and stop Croatian independence.

Travel the Schengen Zone – carefree

All said above the fact remains that being within the Schengen Zone and being a citizen of Croatia, even with dual citizenship, the gates within the zone are wide open, care free, and easy – for travel to or from any of its country members, to live and work. Third country nationals, carrying a non-Schengen country passport, who have not needed a visa to enter Schengen countries will be able to stay for 90 days and for longer stays visas are required. Border and customs checks will be removed at the borders between Croatia and other Schengen member states for people crossing the borders by road, rail or water. Checks at internal air borders will be lifted from 26 March due to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) summer/winter schedule. That is a good thing especially for younger generations as it gives them more opportunities to succeed in life.

With the euro, economy in Croatia has no immediate fix

As for economic advantages of Schengen Zone Plenkovic is talking about for Croatia the jury is likely to be out for quite some time in delivering a verdict. Only days into the euro Croatia is faced with unjustified price rises in food, petrol and energy. So much so that the government is setting up a price watchdog with plan to implement sanctions against all those who increase prices of goods and services, disrespecting relevant legislation. Croatian production, for instance, would need to significantly increased in order to benefit from possible easy cross-border trade (the old fashioned export concept). For the time being Croatia’s production of goods has no capacity to benefit from easy cross-border trade because it hasn’t got much to trade with; its agriculture, fishing etc have been severely curbed by European Union quotas since it became member of the EU in 2013. Contrary to what the government is saying it seems that planting into the national mind that Croatia will become rich because it is in Schengen will certainly not become a reality. A country does not become a wealthy country just because it keeps company with rich countries within Schengen! Much needs to change in Croatia’s labour market and productivity before Croatia sees real advantages of this new big market it is a part of; nepotism and corruption must go, at least to high degrees, if Croatia will succeed in this field.

While favouring being a part of the Schengen Zone Croatians have and are exhibiting mixed sentiments towards adopting the euro. According to last year’s European Commission survey only 55 percent of Croatians are in favour of the euro, while others fear a potentially increased cost of living; 80% in fact thought price hikes that will accompany the use of euro in Croatia would put a stress on living that will be difficult to bear.

„We tasked the State Inspectorate, the Tax and Customs Administration to monitor prices on the ground. The goal is to identify those who unjustifiably raised prices. Fines are foreseen for that…Part of businesses have unjustifiably raised the prices. If we observe a further violation of the Government’s regulations, we have a number of mechanisms, from the return of prices to levels prior to introducing the euro to the cancellation of subsidies. I would like to remind you about the subsidised prices of energy for economic entities and more than 1 billion Croatian kuna in subsidies. All competent services receive a large number of complaints from citizens, who we invite to continue sending their complaints about unjustified price increases. We continuously strive to reduce the inflation rate, it is important to avoid irresponsible price increases, which directly reduce purchase power and citizens’ living standard. Businessmen’s responsibility and social solidarity are elements that cannot be bypassed,“ said Croatia’s Prime Minister Plenkovic Friday 13 January in response to the price hikes and chaos occurring.

More than 30 percent of shops and service providers in Croatia have raised prices unjustifiably, some up to 43 percent in the lead up to and transition into euro. This gives a most concerning picture as to how poorer the life of ordinary Croats and pensioners may become. Quite soon! Ina Vukic