former Yugoslavia – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Sabre-Rattling in Bosnia and Herzegovina

August 5, 2022 by inavukic 3 Comments

_{July 2022, Protesters gather outside the Office of the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: David I. Klein)}

For a couple of years now a political crisis looming in Bosnia and Herzegovina has escalated during the past two months towards a crisis worse than the one during the 1992-1995 war that saw 100,000 people killed, that saw genocide committed by Serb aggressor, that saw Bosnian Muslims import Islamic Mujahideen forces in the process of slaughtering Bosnian Croats as if their slaughter by the Serbs was not enough. The Croat population in Bosnia and Herzegovina has reduced drastically since 1995 and is now threatened to become an ethnic minority in cantons or areas across the country instead of remaining one of three Constitutional peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina nationally. The Electoral laws have permitted Muslims to elect Croat representatives and, contrary to Serb and Muslim population Croats have for years been denied the exclusive right to elect their own representatives into the parliament and other assemblies that carry on the governing within the country.

Christian Schmidt, the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina overseeing implementation of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended the devastating war, said on several occasions in the past few months that leaders of the country’s Bosnian Serb-dominated entity (Republika Srpska/ Serbian Republic) have systematically challenged Dayton Agreement provisions and intensified their activities aimed at usurping powers granted to the federal government. While the Dayton Accords successfully ended the massacres, this arrangement currently exacerbates problems in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Namely, the creation of the ‘Republika Srpska’ and the tripartite presidency essentially rewarded Bosnian Serb leaders of the Bosnian War with unimpeachable influence over the new Bosnian state. The clear ethnic divisions inherent in Bosnia’s two entities as well as its ethnically segregated presidencies enables its leaders to pit their ethnic groups against each other for political gain and Croats being in lesser numbers in the Federation are systematically being oppressed and quashed by Bosniak/Muslim powers.

_{High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, German diplomat Christian Schmidt, Schmidt is the eighth international administrator in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the 1992-1995 war. EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR}

The U.S.-brokered Dayton peace agreement (1995) established two separate entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina — one run by Bosnia’s Serbs (Republika Srpaska) and another – Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – dominated by the Bosniaks (Muslims) but also consisting of Croats where both Muslims and Croats were to have equal status and power. The two entities are bound together by joint central institutions, and all-important decisions must be backed by both. But when Muslims elect Croat representatives to the parliament and assemblies the issue has been that such representatives have not fully acted in the interests of Croats.

Schmidt said in his May 2022 report to the U.N. Security Council that the actions by the Bosnian Serb entity, known as Republika Srpska, “not only erode the fundamentals of the agreement, but directly threaten to undo more than 25 years of progress in building up Bosnia and Herzegovina as a state firmly on the path towards European Union integration.”

In July 2021, the UN Security Council rejected a resolution put forward by Russia, which has close ties to the Bosnian Serbs, and Moscow’s ally China that would have stripped the powers of the international High Representative immediately and eliminated the position entirely in one year.

The High Representative’s powers have come under criticism from Bosnian Serbs for not offering the possibility of appealing his decisions, which have immediate effect. The Office of the High Representative has dismissed dozens of officials, including judges, civil servants, and members of parliament, since its inception, and overturned other actions.

Schmidt said Republika Srpska’s government and National Assembly have sought to chip away at state institutions by creating parallel bodies in the Bosnian Serb entity. At the same time, he said, representatives from Republika Srpska elected or appointed to the National Assembly and state institutions either don’t participate in decision-making or block decisions not in the interests of Bosnian Serbs.

“This has the effect of impeding the state’s ability to function and exercise its constitutional responsibilities,” Schmidt said.

He pointed to “non-existent” legislative output, stalled reforms required to advance toward EU membership, international agreements on hold, and the failure to adopt a state-level budget for the second year in a row.

On April 16, 2022, Schmidt suspended a law adopted by Republika Srpska that would have enabled the Bosnian Serbs to take over state-owned property on their territory, calling it unconstitutional. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said in an interview that action by Schmidt couldn’t stop the law from taking effect.

Another contentious issue has been the lack of agreement between Bosniaks and Croats in the federation on electoral reforms, which Schmidt said has prompted Croat parties to cast doubt on the holding of the 2022 general elections (due 2^nd October, that decide the makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency, national, entity and cantonal governments), including by withholding financing for the elections.

Bosnian Croats have for years now claimed debilitating discrimination and demanded that the voting system be changed to make sure that Bosnian Croats alone choose Croat representatives. Bosniak officials have denied the claims and talks on the election reform have been stuck and shape the critical stage of the political crisis currently stifling the country.

Schmidt insists the 2022 general elections will be held in October under the same rules as in 2018, even though at that time calls for electoral laws changes were loud with many believing that the election results were illegal because the electoral laws were not changed to exclusively enable the Croats to vote for their own representatives.

UN Human Rights Chief, Michelle Bachelet, recently called for Bosnian politicians to “turn the page on rhetoric and policies of division,” and instead, “focus on promoting the rights of everyone across the country, and to build an inclusive and democratic future, based on equality of all citizens.” For this to happen, the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina need to stop being politically rewarded for stirring ethnic strife OR permit equal rights and equal representation in governments of all three Constitutional peoples as designed by the Dayton Agreement. The desire for power (especially Bosniak and Serb) has led Bosnian leaders to lean towards divisive, sectarian politics that allow them to deflect from their own failures. Creating a more inclusive political system that addresses and respects ethnic differences without being solely defined by them would perhaps be an answer.

Christian Schmidt is adamant to impose measures for the re-functioning of Bosnia’s Federation (FBiH) entity, which include Electoral law changes and changes to the Federation Constitution. The changes to the Constitution, for example, mean that Bosnia’s constituent nations under Dayton Agreement – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs – if their numbers in any Federation entity canton are less than 3 per cent, will no longer have representatives in the House of Peoples of the Federation parliament. This possibility has created uproars on all sides as it seriously weakens the strength of a constitutional people on national level. The political atmosphere of intolerance and sabre-rattling in Bosnia and Herzegovina is seriously escalating, while Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic are also at loggerheads regarding the best approach that would see Bosnian Croats receive their due powers and rights and avoid a terrible destiny of being reduced to an ethnic minority in the country or obsolete as far as governing of the country is concerned.

In his Press Release of 28 July 2022, Christian Schmidt said that irresponsible rhetoric in Bosnia and Herzegovina must stop: “Warmongering and inflammatory statements, such as this one by Mr. (Bekir) Izetbegovic, are dangerous and hark back to the tragic conflict in the 1990s. They spread fear amongst all citizens, add to tensions, and in no way contribute to the promotion of cooperation, stability, and reconciliation in the country. Mr. Izetbegovic, together with all political leaders, should work on finding ways to keep the youngest and the brightest in the country instead of advocating for robots to replace them,” said the High Representative.

Considering the legislative and constitutional changes Schmidt looks to impose in Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said this week: “We hope that the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, will take steps that will ensure at least minimal equality for Croats after the elections on 2 October.” From where I am standing it is deeply concerning that Plenkovic talks of “minimal equality”, thus planting the idea that he would be happy with crumbs for Bosnian Croats rather than an equal slice of the power bread loaf. Quite scandalous and cowardly really. Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic has been quite clear and stronger in expressing his views. “Across (the border) they are threatening war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They threaten war. Sefik Dzaferovic (Muslim member of Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency), who was a Mujahideen hostess in 1993, the man was in the committee for welcoming Mujahideen in the security unit in Zenica, now he and his boss are threatening war, drones. That’s a bigger topic for me than anything else. They are trying to beat up the Croatian people there… What is going on in Bosnia and Herzegovina is raging and threatening and politically endangering a nation of people. The issue of national security is not Ukraine, but Bosnia and Herzegovina. The language of hatred and intolerance is rampant in the streets of Sarajevo. The High Representative is being threatened, he can blame himself for that, because he is amending the Election Law and the Federation Constitution, which does not give Croats anything, but even that is considered a bit too much. He panics under the pressure of the Mahallas and Kasabs, the pub, the street or the Berlin police …,” Milanovic told the media during this week.

Bosnian Croats appear almost as an endangered species in that political environment with inadequate voices and inadequate propping supports from outside, from official Croatia. Bosnian Croats want to ensure that only Croats can vote for the Croat presidency by creating their own electoral district, to ensure that Bosniaks/Muslims cannot use loopholes in the existing electoral law that allow them to vote for Croat representatives as they have been doing and thus endangering Croat interests and rights. On the other hand, if public claims threaded through the media that Christian Schmidt is aiming to Islamise Bosnia and Herzegovina surface with substance then it will be clear that Croats are to be more disadvantaged than ever regardless Schmidt’s new proposed legislative changes that aim to provide freedom of all Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens to return to their homes where they had lived before the 1990’s war without fear or impediment. As 2^nd October draws near this sabre rattling that’s been happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina will either die down or increase in intensity to perhaps a new armed conflict with alarming consequences beyond the country’s borders. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2022 General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs, Christian Schmidt, Crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dayton Peace Agreement, Ethnic dividions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ethnic divisions, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, former Yugoslavia, General Elections 2022 Bosnia an herzegovina, High Representative, Mujahideen, Republika Srpska, Serbian Republic

Croatia – Leadership Antagonism Feeding Non-Assertion of Hard-Won Independence From Yugoslavia

May 27, 2022 by inavukic 5 Comments

_{Zoran Milanovic, President of Croatia (L), Andrej Plekovic, Prime Minister of Croatia (R)}

It is an incredible and angering preposterousness that Serbia is still acting towards Croatia as if Croatia had never become an independent state, as if it never seceded from Yugoslavia, as if the Homeland War of Serbian aggression against Croatia had never occurred (and if it did both sides were equally aggressors and equally victims!). What is equally absurd and preposterous is that Croatia is allowing this with no sanctions except cheap words and rhetoric! In persecuting Croats Serbia is using its own laws and sometimes the laws of former Yugoslavia to keep a perpetual train of indictments for alleged war crimes against Croats, allegedly committed on Croatian soil, while the brutal Serb aggression and onslaught ensued on Croatian soil, for perhaps no other reason than to press on with the obscene idea of equating the aggressor with the victim and Serbia denying its own aggression. In 2020, the Zagreb County State’s Attorney’s Office filed an indictment against six former members of the former Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army JNA Air Force for rocketing the Banski Dvori (Croatia’s Government Building at the time its President Franjo Tudjman was inside) in October 1991 and so Serbia is now filing indictments against Croats for the same period of war of aggression event.

Croatia is not responding in a manner other independent states, whose independence arose from successful defence from brutal aggression, would respond. Countries that cherish their hard-won independence would at least make strong steps in diplomatic relations terms. It is utterly unacceptable that, in the least, Serbia’s Ambassador to Croatia has not been sent packing back to Serbia as Croatia’s first-hand response to the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Office having on 19 May 2022 indicted four retired Croatian Air Force officers: Vladimir Mikac from Ptuj, Zdenko Radulj from Osijek, Zeljko Jelenic from Pula and Danijel Borovic from Varazdin on suspicion of committing war crimes against civilians. prosecutors, ordered the rocketing of a column of refugees on Petrovacka cesta near Bosanski Petrovac and in Svodna near Novi Grad on August 7 and 8, 1995. The indictment was filed on March 31 but was returned to prosecutors on May 6 for further processing. In the mentioned event, 13 people were killed, six of them children, and 24 people were injured. According to the indictment, the prosecution proposes that the accused be tried in absentia.

According to Croatian media sources, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic stated on 20 May 2022 that at a short meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Davos, he expressed dissatisfaction with the Serbian indictment against Croatian pilots.

“We pointed out that the law, by which Serbia has been expanding its jurisdiction to the territories of other countries for years, is unacceptable to us and that such a move for Croatia is certainly a signal of a step back in our relations, not a step forward,” Plenkovic told reporters in Davos. Well, Plenkovic does rather good lip service but when it comes down to what is convincing and what Croatian people deserve, he fails miserably. He as Prime Minister must demonstrate that Serbia’s actions regarding these indictments are not acceptable by imposing strict diplomatic measures, at least. Most commonly used in free and democratic countries are official protests with Ambassadors or sending Ambassadors back to their countries until matters resolved.

“These indictments have occurred despite our years-long attempts to convince them not to play with fire and that it will cost them. I cannot be more polite; I hope they are listening to me. Leave that alone. Otherwise, they should not be surprised by reactions by right-wing lawmakers in the Parliament. The problem is that the majority of people in Croatia think like that,” President Zoran Milanovic told reporters on Tuesday 24 May 2022. President Zoran Milanovic repeated on Wednesday 26 May 2022 that Serbia should watch its actions and that he was only asking for “a fair relationship” between the two countries, adding that Croatia could have indicted Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic but made a political decision not to do it.

Fierce lip-service from both the Prime Minister and President of Croatia! No decisive actions on diplomatic levels, at least, to demonstrate they mean what they say!

Croatia has been in a political quagmire for quite a while and to make decisive steps against Serbia in this case, to protect the dignity and righteousness of Croatia’s victory against Serb aggressor, for freedom and independence, both the Prime Minister and the President must be at least on professional talking terms if such terms do not come naturally. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic have not seen eye to eye on anything for quite some time and have publicly displayed intolerance towards each other as well as disturbing antagonism. But, unlike Milanovic, Plenkovic appears more interested in serving Croatia’s Serb minority than national Croatian interests even though majority of that Serb minority formed a significant part of Serb aggression against Croatian secession from communist Yugoslavia in the 1990’s! This fact would appear to be a major factor in the current political impasse and crisis Croatia is suffering currently.

It is unbelievable and cruel to the victims of Serb aggression that Croatian state policy without notable and decisive protest and action evidently permits Serbia, the aggressor, and the defeated side of the Homeland War to prosecute members of the victorious side of the war in which Serbia was the aggressor. This, of course, is not the first time this has happened with the announced indictments against four Croatian pilots who are allegedly responsible for the attack on Serb civilians after the “Storm” military operation that liberated significant parts of Croatian territory from Serb occupation in August 1995. Many would rightly so say that official Croatia permits such odious aberrations because its official heads and politicians in power since year 2000 have remained mental communists, are nostalgic of communist Yugoslavia. They are not wrong as Croatia has yet to put its official foot down at Serbia’s depraved attempts to deny its responsibilities for aggression, ethnic cleansing on non-Serbs, mass murders, genocide, destruction across Croatia.

Not only Serbia’s laws that have extended their legal jurisdiction beyond the borders of the Serbian state are of grave concern, but also the treacherousness for Croatia of the behaviour of leading Croatian politicians, which was especially evident during the persecution of Croatian generals directed by The Hague tribunal. The former President Stjepan Mesic, who testified against his country (Croatia) at The Hague tribunal, led the evil pack that attempted to criminalise Croatia’s defence against Serb aggression and yet suffered no consequences for it in Croatia! All the Prime Ministers of Croatia including the current Andrej Plenkovic have made no positive moves to turn this tragedy around and putting Croatia’s victory over Serbia’s aggression first.

The excuse of allowing the process of reconciliation with the aggressor (Serbs) has given way the emergence of many insufferable injustices against Croatians and Croatian war veterans.

Perhaps giving amnesty against indictments for war crimes to many Serbs who committed war crimes in Croatia during the Homeland War as part of negotiations for peaceful reintegration of occupied areas of Croatia’s Danube region in 1998 has given Serbs the courage to act upon their pathological idea that they had a right to commit crimes in Croatia?

On 15^th January 1998 Croatia achieved, without a single shot fired, the liberation from Serb occupation of its Danube region which two-year process is known as the Peaceful Reintegration of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Srijem.

It was the Erdut Agreement, which was signed on 12 November 1995, that enabled the peaceful restoration of Croatian sovereignty over the Croatian Danube region which was under the control of Serb paramilitaries and rebels since the launch of the Great Serbian aggression against that part of Croatia in 1991.

The Erdut Agreement on Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem was signed on 12 November 1995 in Erdut and Zagreb by the then-presidential chief-of-staff, Hrvoje Sarinic, the head of the Serb negotiating team, Milan Milanovic, and by the then US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, and UN mediator Thorvald Stoltenberg as witnesses. The treaty marked the beginning of the UN’s two-year transitional administration in the area during which Croatia restored its sovereignty over the temporarily occupied parts of Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties, which enabled reconstruction in the area ravaged in the Great Serbian aggression on Croatia and the return of refugees.

The Erdut agreement was reached by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic at a peace conference in Dayton, Ohio. The 14-point document provided for a two-year transitional period under UN supervision, a transitional administration, formation of a multi-national police force, local elections, and demilitarisation 30 days after the deployment of international peacekeepers. Seven provisions of the agreement dealt with human rights, refugee return, and property restitution or compensation…

Reintegration of Croatia’s Danube region was achieved without a single bullet being fired but, more than two decades on, it is evident that not all bullets are of fire but that there are many made of political obscenities. Croatia has still to assert the values of its own War of Independence and it is unlikely to do that any time soon with the current make up of government and leadership. Without decisive actions to that effect the political climate may, hopefully, develop into a strong push to change the current oblivion among its leaders towards what Serb aggression did to Croatian people. A great deal of work is still needed to achieve the democracy in Croatia that its first President, Franjo Tudjman, announced in his speech on 30 May 1990 at the inaugural session of the Croatian Parliament. Perhaps with all his strengths and courage even he may have never imagined that ridding Croatia of communist Yugoslavia would be so very harsh and difficult despite the fact that 94% of Croatia’s voters voted to secede! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Aleksandar Vucic, Andrej PLenkovic, assertion of independence values, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Croatian war of independence, equating victim with aggressor, Erdut Agreement, ethnic cleansing, former Yugoslavia, Franjo Tudjman, liberation of Croatiab from Serb occupation, political antagonism, Serbia, transitioning from communism to democracy, war crimes, Zoran Milanovic

Interview With General Zeljko Glasnovic

June 2, 2019 by inavukic 45 Comments

General Zeljko Glasnovic
Independent Member of Croatian Parliament for the Croatian Diaspora

Interview by Dario Holenda/Fenix Magazin

(Translated to English by Ina Vukic, with permission from Fenix Magazine)

“For positive and effective change in Croatia’s public administration – nationally conscious people are needed, not lizards that change colours as needed and whose mental set has remained on the other side of the Berlin Wall”

General, 28 years have passed since the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Croatia and the collapse of the Communist regime. Is Croatia today a free and democratic country?

Croatia has not yet emerged from a single-party system. Croatia and Slovenia are the only post-communist countries in the EU that have not implemented a lustration law. Croatia continues to be a deep-seated UDBa state (UDBa/Communist Yugoslavia Secret Police) in which the old communist elites have taken over not only the political but also the cultural space. The mainstream media permanently blocks this truth. That failed experiment was based on the abolition of state, of private property, of faith (mostly Christian) and what is most destructive – on the abolition of the family. Wherever this single-party system ruled, it left behind a terrible legacy of economic and ecological destruction. More than 30% of the global population today still lives under communist regimes. Since the Bolshevik Revolution that “red plague” is responsible for the death of at least 110 million souls. The true image of Bolshevik Satanism is hidden within those statistics. Out of these 110 million victims, 102 million were members of ones own people. A further 100 million people were tortured and imprisoned. Snitching has become a virtue in those regimes. Although the crimes of socialist nationalism are well known, the largest criminal organisation in history – the communist international – has never been brought before the International Court of Justice for class genocide, aristocide (killing of social and intellectual elites), violent seizures of property and systemic memoricide (deletion of collective memory of nations). That is why everyone has heard about Auschwitz today, but no one can name any of the death camps in Cambodia during Pol Pot’s rule, during which one-third of that country’s population was annihilated. More than 100 camps were in operation in the Soviet Union until the fall of the Berlin Wall. More than 18 million prisoners passed through that network of camps known as the Gulags. An averagely informed person cannot name any of those torture places in which people died from cold, undernourishment and exploitation to death. Did you know that the largest communist camp of forced labour was established in Romania after 1945. About 300,000 Romanians were killed by the communist terror in that country.

The first Croatian President, Dr. Franjo Tuđman, based his policy on the idea of reconciliation. Did reconciliation give results?

Unfortunately not! Without truth and justice reconciliation is impossible and remains an illusion. The (Josip) Perkovic – (Zdravko) Mustac case confirms that the old structures to this day prevent the discovery of the historical truth. Croatians outside the Homeland must be aware of the fact that UDBa informers had infiltrated all their patriotic organisations. In the former system, snitching had become a virtue and a proof of criminal single-party dictatorship. It further destroyed the moral-ethical code of people in SFRY. Communism can be described as the “terror of every one against everybody at any time” and you can see yourself that this country is just a continuation of the UDBa communist caliphate. The same mindset, the same cadres and their heirs are in all the levels of Croatian society. Partisan disease and Kozara hysteria belong to non-curable pathology. One dies twice from this mental illness, spiritual death and physical death. It would only mention that in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus commanded his apostles to “cast out demons.” The Croatian social elite suffers from owning and taking possession of entire legions of unclean spirits that still oppress us through various non-governmental organisations, media and individuals in public life. We have countless examples like the anal alpinist Danijel Majic and the rectal climber Drago Pilsel who would make gaming dice out of their mother’s joints just to earn a Kuna or a Euro. If they don’t convert such Judas will be buried in Loncar’s field as their not so famous predecessor. Such characters, i.e. CULTURAL MARXISM, are the greatest threat to Christian Europe.

Was it necessary to implement lustration in Croatia and when was the best time for it?

It’s never too late for lustration! The optimal moment for the implementation of personnel lustration was in March 1994, when the former UDBA structures tried to execute a coup d’etat in the Croatian Parliament. Tudjman made a mistake when he thought these people could change. It is an anthropological problem because the mindset of the Yugozomboids is of a pathological nature. Tuđman was the product of the same system. He set up (Josip) Manolic as secretary, who de facto led the personnel policy. He put (Josip) Boljkovac to run the Ministry of Internal Affairs and (Josip) Perkovic to manage the secret services. Lustration is based on three levels:

Facing the historical truth
Opening all archives and returning archive material from Belgrade
Personnel lustration

We must be aware that the dossiers on present judges, faculty professors, politicians and others are still in Belgrade. The UDBA also infiltrated all religious communities. Individuals with dossiers are living in fear of being exposed because UDBA agents who have kept them connected are blackmailing them today and, with that, pose a threat to national security.

There has been talk in the past that Tuđman created 200 wealthy families that would rule Croatia. Many citizens today are dissatisfied with conversion and privatisation. How do you think the process of transition from the planned economy and state ownership to the free market, private property and capitalism should have looked like?

The cause and solution of privatisation is at the source! The whole product and failed social experiment, called the SFRY, came to a total collapse during the eighties. At that time, only two countries had a higher hyperinflation, namely Brazil and Zimbabwe. Privatisation did not begin in 1990. Red executives knew best the value of state-owned companies in the open market. Those who led the SFRY to bankruptcy continued the practice after 1990. Croatia today suffers the consequences of this plunder that has been carried out since 1945 through the abomination known as confiscation and nationalisation. Today, only 5% of land registers are properly registered, and the cadastre is the same one as the one from the Austro-Hungarian times. Despite possible war damages from the nineties, Croatia, in accordance with the international succession treaty, is paying almost 33% of the debt of former Yugoslavia, which amounted to about 20 billion US Dollars before the breakup of the state. It is important to note that Serbia, led by Slobodan Milosevic, in May 1990 usurped $ 5 billion that belonged to all republics. Milosevic also exchanged another $ 5 billion of Russia’s and Iraq’s debt for gas and oil. The SFRY tragedy lies in the fact that all the money that has been received from German compensation, loans from the West, and emigrants’ money were frittered away through corruption, robbery and catastrophic management. The solutions for this problem are retroactive laws, investigations of asset sources and mobile courts that will enforce the law on the ground. In some countries, hands are cut of for theft. In Croatia, every second parliamentary deputy would raise an arm stump when it was time to vote because the hands would no longer there. If naked thieves were pasted with tar and feathers and paraded from Ban Jelacic Square to the Upper Town, through a crowd of people armed with canes and spoiled vegetables, there would be much less Sanaders and Vidosevics. In Croatia, the question of what happened to the property that belonged to SKH (League of Communists of Croatia), SKOJ (League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia), Unions, SUBNOR (League of United Fighters of The People’s Liberation War) and other socialist organisations was never put when national ownership was transferred into state ownership.

Who rules today over Croatia?

Former SKH (League of Communists of Croatia) and CKJ (Central Committee of Yugoslavia) personnel and their descendants, who have entered into an alliance with careerists, rectal climbers, cultural Marxists and covert neoliberals reign over Croatia. This Trojan horse, under the guise of multiculturalism, humanism and cosmopolitanism advocates mass emigration, disrupts European identity, and carries out the brainwashing with political correctness as its excuse. Croatia is specific in that up to 30% of the population is programmed from childhood to hate the Croatian state pathologically because they started in Yugoslavia. In the former communist countries, Bolshevik Satanism was imposed externally, while in Croatia unfortunately the same domestic product sprung from within. Those cadres have replaced one doctrine for the other. They have traversed the path from Marx to the backside (gender ideology).

In your speeches in the Parliament, you often mention the Croatian emigration. Croatian emigrants have played an important role in the independence of Croatia. On the other hand, we know that a large number of our people left the former state due to political persecution. Why has no significant return to democratic Croatia been recorded?

A systematic sabotage program has been implemented against the Croatian diaspora! The remains of socialist bureaucracy, inefficient public administration and ubiquitous corruption are just symptoms of deliberate and organised sabotage that prevents the return of Croatian emigration. The old Yugo-structures fear the knowledge, money power, and above all, the patriotism that Croatians living outside of Croatia possess. While other countries like Israel have integrated their diaspora into its legal and economic order Croats outside the homeland must fly for hours to even vote when elections are on. Without the contribution of the Croatian diaspora, the outcome of the Homeland War would have been questionable. Croatian emigration not only armed Croatian forces (HV & HVO) but gave six Croatian generals plus a host of other soldiers. Today, a minimum of 16.5 billion kunas per year comes to Croatia via bank accounts. But, surely, just as much comes through direct visits to Croatia, which cash flow is not recorded through the European Central Bank or Croatian National Bank. A new citizenship law is being drafted, which should go to the parliamentary procedure by October 2019. I know it’s late but better late than never.

Why are there no significant investments into the Croatian economy by Croatian emigrants?

Every investment seeks economic and political stability, but above all legal safety. Legal and military doctrines cannot be mixed. We cannot expect people from the former system to change their mindset and the way of doing business when that’s mostly based on thievery. Let’s remember one of the mantras of the failed self-managing anarchy: “If we can not do otherwise we will be honest” or “Bribe into car boot long live Tito.” This was not bad either: “We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us”. Every investor who has made his capital in a real economy somewhere in the world, in the first steps of establishing his company in Croatia, will notice that Croatia is far from Real economy.

Do you have a plan that would encourage the migrants to return and invest?

Yes, coup d’etat to save people – a little joke, our biggest problems are internal, not external! First, we must create an efficient system and professionalise staff in public administration. For that, nationally conscious people are needed, not lizards that change colours as needed and whose mental set has remained on the other side of the Berlin Wall. Another precondition is the reform of the legal system and speedy implementation of the law. That’s where there is a big problem because majority of staff in Croatian institutions come from the former system. If you’re inclined to respecting the legislation you must first respect the legislator. It’s difficult to have respect for a judge who sentenced someone to two years in prison just because that someone told jokes about a locksmith’s assistant (Tito) or about Milka Planinc.

Croatia is an EU member. Are you satisfied with the status of Croatia in the EU and what is your view of the future of the EU?

The Ministry of Regional Development and European Funds has announced that since the entry into the EU in 2013, Croatia is about HRK 14.5 billion in the plus, and we have already mentioned that more than double of that sum arrives from the Croatian Emigration direction. As you know, every foreign investor expects more than he invested after the investment, and the Croatian emigration invests money without such expectations and thus de facto contributes to the Croatian budget. It is precisely in this statistic that a total failure of Croatian economic policy is seen. It is also obvious that Croatia is actively implementing Brussels legislative regulations and ignores resolutions, such as Resolution 1481, which advocates decommunisation (lustration). After all, the EU is primarily a financial union that is now in the middle of a trade war between China and the United States. The next global financial crisis can shake the foundation of the EU more than the current BREXIT. With the exit of Great Britain from EU, Germany takes on the highest proportion of costs for incoming migrants, let us not forget that the German economy is based on car industry – what if the car industry known to us today undergoes restructuring and change? And we see that the German government itself is undermining its largest industrial branch so that by force and with the help of neoliberal structures and parties (Greens, Social Democratic Party SPD, Christian Democratic Union CDU, Friday for Future, mainstream media and the like) it attempts the impossible – overnight swap internal combustion car engines with battery run cars. Due to BREXIT, some countries will also lose a large part of incentives for agriculture, including Romania and Bulgaria. Most of the burden will be borne by Germany. How long can Germany resist this pressure from uncontrolled imports of unregistered migrants on the one hand and the economic burden through the EU on the other? Only Turkey receives 3.5 billion euros a year for the management of refugees, whom it uses as a lever to enforce diplomatic pressure upon the EU. The EU can survive as a financial union but if it interferes with the internal politics of a member state or attempts to impose its ideology and worldview – it will not survive as a loose federation of unequal states. I ask you what are the universal values that Brussels imposes upon us in the form of gender ideology, false multiculturalism and cultural Marxism? You can answer this question, yourself.

The Andrej Plenkovic government is advocating for EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, ie Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). How do you look upon this plan for further expansion?

We are far from EU enlargement! When it comes to Serbia, we must first resolve border issues, war compensation and above all the return of our missing. True catharsis also requires the protection of the Croatian minority in Vojvodina and Serbia. Today, we pay tens of thousands of pensions to those who had occupied Croatia and committed aggression against the Croatian people. Has anyone asked what is the pension of an average Croat in Subotica? How many Croats are there in the Belgrade Assembly? It is necessary to seek reciprocity (equalisation) when it comes to minority rights. Croatia must be fully engaged to protect the constitutional rights of the Croatian people in BiH. I have repeatedly said that without the four HVO (Croatian Defence Council) operational zones there would be neither Federation of BIH nor Croatian state within the present borders, as we know them today. Croatia is today in a plus 100m euros when it comes to trading of goods between Croats of Herceg Bosna and the Croatian homeland – as the song by Mark Perkovic Thompson says “One soul, and two of us”. All is said in that sentence.

The Croatian people in BiH are constituent, but we see Bosniaks electing political representatives of the Croatian people. How to solve this problem?

After all that our brothers in BiH went through, it is shameful that they are still victims of political engineering supported by the international community. (Zeljko)Komsic is a personification of political perversion. He was and remains mentally – a Yugoslav. A mere amendment to the electoral law will not ensure the survival of Croats in BiH. A layered plan and program that involves lobbying on a geostrategic level, the development of macroeconomic policies and the stimulation of Croatian cultural institutions is needed. All of the above is hampered by political instability, corruption and lack of functional institutions at all levels. We cannot predict what will happen in the near future, but it is important that Croats do not sell their land and resolve property-legal relations. Over the next 10 years, water and fertile land will become the most important strategic resource. We need to understand that BiH is on the windy side of geopolitical interests that often diverge from the Croatian ones. To solve the problem of BiH, Solomon’s wisdom and unlimited financial resources are needed.

Do you think that Croatia should have stronger ties to the Visegrad group?

From the cultural perspective our place is in Central Europe with Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia etc. and even Italy is trying to join the Visegrad group and even if it is geographically far away from Central Europa, our place is definitely not on the Balkan gorges with the Cincaric tribes where renaissance lights never broke through. We have another trump card in this group; in comparison to other countries in the Visegrad group our geostrategic position is more favourable when it comes to energy and trade policy. We have to use it as a sovereign state. I would also emphasise that the peoples of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland share common values about the family, God, sovereignty and opposition to immigration, and that they can interpret Europe from a “common dictionary”. There is a great potential for cooperation between the Visegrad Group countries, particularly in the traffic sector. Visegrad group countries represent a market that brings together 64 million people. They represent a great potential for the Croatian economy. Croatia’s geopolitical position, as a link between South East Europe and the Adriatic, makes Croatia attractive to these countries and I stress out that even three European corridors pass through Croatia. The total trade of Croatia and the Visegrad group countries last year amounted to 3.6 billion euros or 12 percent of Croatia’s total foreign trade. Croatia exported to Visegrad group countries – Hungary, Slovakia, Czech and Poland, 917 million euros worth of goods and services and imported 2.7 billion euros worth of goods from these countries. From 1993 to the end of 2015, investors from these countries invested EUR 2.7 billion in Croatia, which is 9 percent of total foreign direct investment in Croatia, while at the same time Croatia invested EUR 204 million in those countries. As a significant link to the V4 group, tourism was highlighted, pointing out that 17% of the total number of tourists visiting Croatia came from Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Croatia as the most recent member of the EU can learn much from the states of the Visegrad Group on the use of money from EU funds and that, apart from large infrastructure projects, there is a great interest of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs for cooperation. We must not ignore all the above, but we must strengthen cooperation at all levels.

Do you think our tourism this year will be more successful than last year’s?

We do not have a crystal ball to predict the future, but all the indications point to the fact that the competitive countries have been doing much more in the field of marketing, promotion and different deals than Croatia. The tourist season this year will not be as successful as in a couple of previous seasons. In fact, the past season has already shown a decline when Turkey initiated its state intervention measures for tourism by subsidising whole arrangements by up to 50%, which caused the prices to fall. Given that this information was fairly accessible, the Minister for tourism and his associates must have known it and should have responded adequately to it. This year the situation is even worse since Turkey, panicking for inflation, has decided upon an ambitious move to subsidise flights to Antalya, which will affect a range of tourists visiting their most famous seaside resort. Croatians in the diaspora (mostly in Germany) watch television spots from Turkey, Greece, Spain and other tourist communities on all television, cinema and video platforms in the break between movie blockbusters, starting with New Year’s Eve. Why? These countries analysed the German market and found that German tourists with school age children had to decide upon their annual leave days in advance and so they adjusted their marketing campaigns to this target group. Croatia has opted for a shorter promotional period, but even in that narrower manoeuvring space it is in a subordinate position – the ambitious video ‘Croatia Full Of Life’ is broadcast after promotional videos of its direct competition, with less frequency. It is as if someone wants one of the last Croatian economic branches that brings fresh capital into the economic system to be brought to its knees for the long haul? Such an outdated system is threatened with a collapse. Croatia has in such a way lost even the little amount of global competitiveness it had, and the systems fall like card towers – in the end, not even fifty tiers will help our pension system, and every worker will find happiness in some other more stable and less corrupt surroundings. Another important question is how such investments are worthwhile for the Turks? The city of Antalya consists of greenhouses that in over 40% of the city’s surface are used for growing all types of food, thus finding the shortest path to the end consumer – in this case a satisfied guest sunbathing on its beaches. There is no imported garbage from the EU, no customs duty, and the Turkish peasant lives and prospers from his own job – employs his fellow countrymen who are no longer dependent upon the state, and the state in turn invests a huge freed-up budget for the promotion of Turkish tourism. Another reason why, in a wider economic calculation, it pays off for Turkey to subsidise entire arrangements and flights. The German Croat engages in tourism in Croatia and is struggling with the mystery why a large part of the market with 85 million people in Germany rushes to Turkey. He finds the answer in the aforementioned subsidies and now he is interested in where the profitability of Erdogan’s (non) profitable move is. He decides upon the best option to choose – a personally checked out, and a two-week luxury package with the All Inclusive tag for 1800 euros. The route includes – a train from Stuttgart to Düsseldorf, a return flight from Düsseldorf to Turkey, day-long possibility for consumption of local domestic food, beverages including freshly squeezed juices, unlimited alcohol consumption, exclusive daily events in the festival crowd with accompanying content, sports offer (gym, sauna, horseback riding, spinning, Aqua-Gym, aerobics at various locations, archery, yoga, boxing, tennis, beach volleyball, soccer…) etc. and all that in one tourist resort . The luggage was a handheld handbag for hygiene – everything else including a large bag for his return was purchased in Turkey at a cheaper price and superior product quality. In the end he spent an additional 1900 euros. Maybe it looks a lot for Croatian opportunities, but for the German, for the above amount, he got three suits, a leather and season jacket, several pairs of jeans, shorts and t-shirts, underwear, socks, suitcase… Practically the attire for all the seasons. With a “Made In Turkey” label. These are only two reasons why and how Erdogan can give out such subsidies. Long-term thinking, smart state intervention and strategic closure of the economic circle within our own economic system to our “experts” seem like unthinkable science fiction.

How do you look upon the situation when a part of the Croatian youth listens to the so-called Turbofolk?

All our evils came from the east, from Mongolia to the Turbofolk. This noise pollution throws us back to the gorges of the Balkans. Turbofolk is the music of what Trabant Warburg was to the car industry. I personally, and many others, when hearing that nasty screaming, would rather pull on an AK-47. If you want to interrogate prisoners of war, just play a Mile Kitic, and all the secrets of their armed forces will immediately pour out. I do not know why young people in puberty subject themselves to this masochism but the combination of Turbofolk and alcohol leads to a state of active psychosis. You do not need cocaine or ecstasy to become a living legend in your own mind and to your own self. The young drunken fool becomes an old drunken fool.

Can you describe to us your arrival in ‘91 from the diaspora to defend the Croatian Homeland, it will be interesting for everyone and especially young people to hear something privately personal about one of our heroes.

My brother and I were born in Zagreb, our family has been in Zagreb since 1928. My grandfather had finished classical grammar school and was always politically engaged. After WWII all our property was taken away for political reasons. Our grandfather got 10 years in prison in Zenica and after leaving the prison he was given 5 years of civil rights denial, which meant he could not work or build, with him, the whole family was excluded from social life. My father fled in 1954 because the authorities wanted to conscript him into the Yugoslav Army, which was definitely not his army and that was when my twin brother and I were 6 months old. He graduated from the Music Academy in Rome. Grandfather managed to flee in his third attempt in 1958 and after two years in a refugee camp in Italy he arrived in Canada. He brought us over in 1962. I worked with the Court Justice in Canada. After a trip, I and my friend, who was with me in the Canadian Army, joined the Foreign Legion for a bet. Having completed the training and after the return of our unit from the Gulf War in April 1991 the war in Slovenia began. I knew what would happen because the tyrannies do not improve but, unfortunately, are torn down with the force of arms. I came to Croatia in the second month after returning to France and joined the ZNG (Bojna Zrinski) (Croatian National Guard/Zrinski battalion). I was on the Lika battlefield and the southern battlefield until the international recognition of the Republic of Croatia, I spent the rest of my military career in BiH, literally from the first to the last bullet. In our family there was a very pronounced affiliation to Croatian identity and the Croatian people. In Canada, a cross, the verses of the Croatian hymn and the image of a consistent charge by Nikola Zrinski against the enemy conqueror hung on the walls. After our mother’s death, we found her letter addressed to my brother and me in which she emphasised that she was proud of us for continuing in the tradition of our family in defending Croatia’s Homeland and for participating in the centuries-old dream of the Croatian people, which is the creation of the Croatian Homeland. People live in the world of false perception in which porn pessimists prevail in mainstream media; they hold people in political and historical darkness so that we get a distorted picture of the present. Living has never been better or longer in human history, but sadly, man is now reduced to the level of an animal in which everything is evaluated on the basis of materialism. The West has lost the moral compass and today it is in a spiritual and moral crisis. If I have learned anything in life, it is to never give up on life’s struggle no matter how hard that struggle may be. Unfortunately, children suffering from terminal illness have more moral courage and spirituality than most people who go through life complaining about their destiny, like not having the newest intelligent cell phone that intelligently captures and binds them. I would like to leave a message for the young people to keep to their family and to the Homeland if they are in a position to do so, because they will always find strength in them in moments of sadness and suffering.