Nest Of Hate Speech in Croatia – “Croslavia”

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“If there was a university degree for greed, you cunts would all get first class honours,” said in the Australian Parliament in 1985 The Hon. Paul Keating, Treasurer (who became Australian Prime Minister in late 1991), after backbenchers had complained about having to substantiate, for tax purposes, their electoral allowances. Translating that greed into greed for power and control Keating’s quote could well be placed with today’s Croatian government.

“Enough with deception and reckless trampling on human values without responsibility.” Wrote on his Facebook profile 22-year old Danijel Bezuk from Kutina near Zagreb some 20 minutes before he marched up to the Croatian Government building at St Mark’s Square on Monday 12 October 2020, holding a shotgun and firing from it towards the building, wounding a policeman guarding the government offices, walking away and then fatally shooting himself in the nearby Jabukovac/Tuskanac.

Andrej Plenkovic’s, Croatia’s Prime Minister’s first response to the shooting was that of seemingly utter surprise and saying “we must ask ourselves where does this radicalisation come from?” Suggesting, in no uncertain terms, that this young shooter, that people at large, have no reason to despair, to enter into acts of desperation by shooting at the government building. Then, within hours, Plenkovic announces that the government will do all in its power to locate “the nest of hate speech” from where influence for acts such as young Bezuk’s comes from. Of course, all the while pointing at the parliamentary right wing or Patriotic opposition and in particular the leader of the dr Miroslav Skoro Patriotic Movement (Domovinski Pokret) and its evidently much respected by the public outspoken government critic Member of Parliament Karolina Vidovic Kristo. At the same time Plenkovic lets out his fears that he himself may have been the intended target of young Bezuk’s shooting. Then veterans’ Minister Tomo Medved together with police Minister Davor Bozinovic get on the lynch bandwagon which would see to it that the government investigates, scrolls through social media etc, to look at even the slightest possibility of anything anybody said in public that could have influenced young Bezuk to commit such a crime… The government seems to be using the proverbial fine-tooth comb to run through social media, print media, portals, past public gatherings etc to find what they call “hate speech” that influences or encourages such “radicalism”!  

It is clear that what the government is really looking for is not hate speech but protests against the governments and presidents who have since year 2000 brought Croatia to a life of desperation for multitudes of citizens. But they are set to call protests hate speech regardless of the fact that just about all protests and all criticisms of the government and the presidents have been about lack of democratising Croatia, lack of decommunising Croatia, lack of actions in ridding Croatia of crippling corruption and nepotism, protection of family unit, protection against the Instanbul Convention, etc. In short, it has been the governments themselves that have stopped transition from communism into full democracy in Croatia since year 2000 or since the Independence War fully ended in 1998.

It would seem that Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic is staring in the face of the fate minority governments face (his government only got just under 17% of votes when the entire voter body is counted) and refuses to accept the fact that he is leading the government of a country where the majority of people are against the government or have not bothered to even vote in July of this year, which amounts to widespread disillusionment anyway.

Since year 2000, across Croatia, we have witnessed waves of protests against governments that were and are well-padded with former Yugoslav communists and rebel Serbs who attacked Croatia in 1990 when it wanted out of communist Yugoalavia. We have witnessed Presidents of Croatia, since year 2000 i.e., since Franjo Tudjman’s death, criminalising Croatia’s efforts in defending its people and nation during the brutal Serb/Yugoslav aggression in the 1990’s, even standing behind the politically trumped-up UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charges of joined criminal enterprise against Croatian generals, instead of insisting on their innocence, which innocence was later proven by the ICTY Appeal Tribunal (2012). We have seen since year 2000 corruption and nepotism thrive to the point where hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of young people have left Croatia to seek a better life elsewhere. We have seen since year 2000 an increasing boldness on the streets of Croatia in celebrating the murderous and oppressive Yugoslav communism and trampling over Croatia’s Independence War veterans and their rights and dignity. We have seen since year 2000 an intolerable process of equating the Croatian victim and Serb aggressor from that war.

The list of misfortunes and tragedies that have enveloped the Croatian nation since its glorious victory over communist oppression and corruption could go on but for the purposes of this article the above should suffice, I believe.

Frequently, however, the Croatians protesting against the enduring communist mindset that rules Croatia are being misrepresented and belittled, insulted and often ignored in the news media and protesters dubbed fascists or Ustashas or Nazis. The fact that the Yugoslav communist regime has been declared just as criminal as the Nazi one by the European Parliament about a year ago means nothing to the mainstream media that carries a candle for the communist apparatchiks ruling the country.

What is more worrying still, both the government and the mainstream media, by ignoring the messages written by young Bezuk, by labelling healthy and fact-based criticisms of the government’s incompetence as fascism are actually attacking freedom of speech rather than acknowledging it, exercising it, in orde to call for institutional reform so that living in Croatia the way it was envisaged in 1990 and 1991 when Croatia cut its ties with communist Yugoslavia could come to fruition for most people. Institutional reform as dictated by events occurring among the people is the political action of the very kind freedom of speech aims at protecting. Not in Croatia, though.

Its government has during the past week in particular by its reactions to the Bezuk shooting demonstrated that Croatia is in fact Croslavia, as retired general and former member of Croatian Parliament Zeljko Glasnovic has been saying and dubbing Croatia’s stubborn resistance to radical changes needed to exit from communism, for several years now. But he too, is ignored by mainstream media just like multitudes of others who desire and work for Croatia to become a functional democracy.

The notion of freedom of speech is being co-opted by the Croatian government with dominant ex-communist or current pro-communist groups, and distort it to serve their interests, and use it to silence those who are oppressed or marginalised, such as those who actually put their lives on the line during Croatian Homeland War as well as those who dare to criticise the government loudly. All too often, when people depict others as threats to freedom of speech, threats to peace and security, threats to radicalisation, what they really mean is, “Shut up!” and “If you don’t shut up, we will silence you!” Sound familiar, anyone? If not, just roll back to the times of communist Yugoslavia with more than a million Croats escaping from oppression or from not being able to feed the family; hundreds of thousands of Croats purged, mass murdered or imprisoned for political reasons; corruption and large-scale theft of public goods…

Yes, the Croatian Homeland War is not ended yet as many will tell you. The military aggression has stopped but still continues the combat to oust communism and its mind set. The same enemy of independent Croatia exists today as it did in 1990 only today the issue is tragically deeper. The war veterans who fought on war fronts to defend Croatia during the Homeland War have since year 2000 been made redundant or retired while those that spent not a single day defending Croatian people’s lives from Serb aggression, or did not want an independent Croatia at all, or were on the rebel Serb murderers side during the war, have become the internal enemy of Croatian independence and full democracy.

And still, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic has the gall to blame the parliamentary patriotic opposition, or individual politicians or academics or political activists for Bezuk’s shooting at the government building on Monday 12th October. He has the gall of labelling clear and needed protest against the government as radicalism. The shooting is indeed a crime under criminal law and must be treated as such but as far as radicalism goes that was the oath and promise Croatian War of independence gave to Croatian people.

In his speeches at the May 1990 inauguration of Croatian Parliament and in October 1991 when that parliament voted to cut legal ties and secede from communist Yugoslavia, President dr. Franjo Tudjman said: “…our most important task for our new democracy is to introduce and implement radical measures for socio-political changes…”! It is more than clear that majority of Croatian people have had enough from their governments and presidents since year 2000 and that any radicalism perceived as such by Andrej Plenkovic’s government is not radicalism but an old promise being finally delivered or being attempted for delivery to the 94% of voters who voted in 1991 in favour of secession from communist Yugoslavia.

And so, it appears to me that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic need not look any further for a nest of hate speech that may have influenced young Bezuk to shoot at the government building – Plenkovic is sitting in that nest. It’s a nest of hate speech against Croatian independence, hate speech against Croatian national identity, hate speech against the glorious values for which a terrible war of defence was fought in 1990’s. Surely, the lot that governs, the lot that spread the government’s propaganda in mainstream media, the lot that supports them, must have done a risk assessment at some point in time and concluded that there will come a time when people will rise against the government that brings no needed changes, implements no needed changes to root out corruption and nepotism, to root out political stacking among public servants and administration, to root out political party associated power at all levels of society. Given the government acts surprised by the shooting on Monday and points the finger of blame against everybody else but itself, it does seem that the lot that governs hasn’t done any such risk assessment, or, they have always had weapons to suppress dissent up their sleeves, such as dictatorship and punishing dissent. Many signs are surfacing for 2021 to be a year of numerous and large protests against the government as the political platform it currently pursues with the degrading of the values of the Homeland War is palpably a political time bomb. Ina Vukic

Persecuting Journalist In Croatia For Exposing Serb Orthodox Priests Glorifying Chetnik Murderers

Marko Juric Host: Z1TV "Mark's Square" Program Photo: Screenshot Z1 TV Croatia January 2016

Marko Juric
Host: Z1TV “Mark’s Square” Program
Photo: Screenshot Z1 TV Croatia January 2016

 

No judge, no jury – Croatia’s e-media (electronic media regulatory body in Croatia) has decided last week to temporarily shut down the broadcasting of Z1 TV programs as its draconian and utterly communist Yugoslavia-style response to opinion or comment expressed by TV program “Markov Trg” (Mark’s Square) host Marko Juric and an utterly ugly and hateful lynch against Juric was thus unleashed in public without any regard to justice or justification and indeed the right to “fair comment”, which – by the way – is and has been a solid rock for journalists to hold onto in defense of their opinions or comments throughout developed democracies of the Western world. Regretfully, Croatian democracy or democratic thought and deed have a long way to go before it can safely be said that Croatian citizens are truly safe from terrorist communist whips.

Specifically, the episode of Mark’s Square TV program, “Gvozdansko Versus Floral Square”, hosted by Marko Juric, included video material in which the current leaders/priests of Sebrian Orthodox Church in Zagreb Croatia along with their Serbian Orthdox Church officials sing Chetnik songs and praise the war criminal Momcilo Djujic. For those who may not be aware the Serb rebels in Croatia and the Serbs who attacked Croatia in 1991 (and later Bosnia and Herzegovina), slaughtering Croats and other non-Serbs, ethnically cleansing of them a third of Croatian territory – called themselves “Chetniks” as meaning Serbian royalist WWII Chetnik fighters; Momcilo Djujic was a Serb Orthodox Church priest who appointed himself a Chetnik during WWII and led the slaughter of some 2,000 innocent Croats in the Dalmatian region, he was also instrumental in perpetuating the Chetnik ideals throughout the Serb-aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Hercegovina in the early 1990’s despite his advanced age.

 

Just before the last minute of the said TV program Marko Juric ended it, commenting: “…and another message to dear people of Zagreb, to all of you who stroll across the Floral Square, be careful, as nearby there stands a church in which, to paraphrase a Serbian Minister – Chetnik Vicars keep court. Hence, my dear Zagrebians, when you stroll along the Floral Square, especially mothers with children, take care so that one of those Vicars doesn’t run out of the church and, in his best slaughtering manner, executes his bloody feast on our most beautiful square in Zagreb, which perhaps should be marked with a plaque: “Beware – Sharp Chetnik Nearby.”

Left Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitanate for Zagreb (and Ljubljana) Porfirije singing songs praising Serb Chetnik murderers January 2016, Photo: Screenshot Youtube 26 January 2016

Left Serbian Orthodox Church
Metropolitanate for Zagreb (and Ljubljana) Porfirije
singing songs praising Serb Chetnik murderers
January 2016, Photo: Screenshot Youtube 26 January 2016

When one considers the video material in which the Zagreb’s Serb Orthodox Church priests/leaders sing praises to murderers and war criminals, having in mind the fact that Croatia’s Homeland War, in which the Serbs were the aggressors, wounds have still not healed…one can only conclude that Marko Juric’s comment was more a fair comment and a fair opinion and not hate speech as Croatia’s communist league are branding it.
But regardless of what Marko Juric’s comment was, how it is branded, one would think that the measures of closing a television program/station for even a day would be a decision that only a court could make after all evidence is tested! After all, people’s livelihoods and freedoms are at stake. Criminal sanctions have been brought against Z1 TV by e-media regulatory body without even seeing a criminal court, let alone having the benefit of due process!

Protest in Zagreb Croatia 26 January 2016 in support of Marko Juric & Z1 TV Calling for sacking of head of e-media Photo: Facebook

Protest in Zagreb Croatia 26 January 2016
in support of Marko Juric & Z1 TV
Calling for sacking of head of e-media
Photo: Facebook

I am utterly guttered with disappointment that the Croatian authorities have not stepped in with appropriate steps to stop such practices. It’s true that this unfortunate and utterly unjust measure to shut the TV station down occurred during the days when the old “communist” government was on its way out in Croatia and the new one coming in last week, but this move by the e-media demonstrates clearly that public institutions are very much saturated with politics and need swift stripping down… If Croatia’s relevant laws or regulations permit a government agency such as e-media to shut down a public media outlet overnight, on basis of opinions about opinions expressed by journalists, without testing those opinions in a court of justice, then Croatia had during the mandate of the former communist-prone government of Zoran Milanovic slipped further back into the dark ages when the same people were your accuser, your judge, your jury and your executioner! Very disturbing, indeed.

Protest for freedom of speech for support of journalist  Marko Juric and Z1TV is "bigger than Ben Hur" on 26 January 2016 Zagreb Croatia Way to go! Photo: Boris Kovacev/CroPix

Protest for freedom of speech
for support of journalist
Marko Juric and Z1TV is
“bigger than Ben Hur” on
26 January 2016 Zagreb Croatia
Way to go!
Photo: Boris Kovacev/CroPix

It goes without saying: generally laws against inciting hatred should be universal and prohibit all incitements to hatred – not just some. And so, how come the doors of that Serb Orthodox church in Zagreb still remain open despite the fact that their priests and leaders incite hatred – incite or glorify murder of Croats through songs they sing at festive official receptions, soirées, etc.!
Singling out sides like the Croatian e-media has in this case creates resentment among people who are not protected by laws of hate speech or incitement to hatred – in this case it seems Croatians are not protected from Serb Orthodox priests singing praise to Chetniks who murdered many thousands innocent Croats through history but especially painful murders are the most recent ones from 1990’s, which is bad for community cohesion, to say the least. Everyone should be equal before the law, in which case all incitements of hatred should be an offense, however, fair comments must not be confused as hate speech and where politics drive agendas fair comments will often be presented as hate speech and the government instruments should be there to prevent this.
Under the condition of clearly marking hate speech there are sound arguments to justify a prohibition on inciting hatred as it is deemed to be a method of protecting people and creating a social atmosphere where subjects of hatred have redress against their tormentors. Another argument for protection against hate speech is that hatred is the gateway to discrimination, harassment and violence. It is without a doubt the psychological foundation for serious, harmful criminal acts. On these grounds, laws against inciting hatred are ethically justified and have practical benefits as long as they do not tolerate “trigger happy” individuals who take the law into their own hands such as the heads of e-media in Croatia have these past days.

Many thousands line the streets of Zagreb calling for sacking of heads of e-medija Croatia 16 January 2016 Photo: Facebook

Many thousands line the streets of Zagreb
calling for sacking of heads of e-medija Croatia
16 January 2016
Photo: Facebook

The downside of incitement to hatred prohibitions (laws), of course, is that they seriously risk infringing freedom of speech. Who decides what constitutes hatred? Where do you draw the line between legitimate robust criticism and satire, and illegitimate, criminal incitement of hatred? It isn’t simple and straightforward anywhere except, it seems, in Croatia (and other former communist Yugoslavia countries) where lustration has not been implemented and die-hard communists still hold important positions from which they can do as they please. The move to shut down Z1 TV for what Marko Juric said, out of his duty as a public journalist, in order to show the public the hatred still being spread through the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia is a terrible betrayal of Croatian people and justice. The heads of e-media in Croatia should be sacked forthwith! The head of Mirjana Rakic, head of e-medija, must roll!  Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

 

Court Judge Slams The Leadership Of Croatia

 

Judge Ivan Turudic Photo: Darko Jelinek

Judge Ivan Turudic
Photo: Darko Jelinek

On Sunday 10 August 2014 the Croatian newspaper and media portal Vecernji List published a lengthy interview with Judge Ivan Turudic, president of Zagreb County Court, in which Turudic, in response to the interview questions, replied with strong criticisms against the leaders of the government, the country’s presidency, the leader of a Serb party in Croatia…

Among other things Turudic said in his interview that Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) vice-president Milorad Pupovac was ethnically biased and called upon him to explain what he knows about the fate of medical doctor Ivan Sreter, who was taken by Serbs in Pakrac in 1991; that Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, whom he called a Bolshevik and monarch, “is floating on wastelands of his own ignorance and arrogance” and that no one attacks the judiciary more than the Prime Minister. As for President Ivo Josipovic, Turudic said he should reconsider his decision to keep Sasa Perkovic as his advisor on national security (Sasa Perkovic is the son of Josip Perkovic currently being tried in Germany in relation to murder committed in 1980’s under the former Yugoslavia communist crimes category/directives and it was Croatian leadership Turudic speaks of that strongly fought against the extradition of Josip Perkovic to Germany some months back). Turudic admitted to being in good relations with Tomislav Karamarko, the president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and said that HDZ was a party that played a crucial role in the creation of the Croatian state. Furthermore, it could be concluded from the interview that Turudic believes that UDBA (Secret Police of communist Yugoslavia) is still “strongly powerful” in Croatia.

Subsequently, in an interview with Novi List daily, President Josipovic said that it was incompatible with good democratic principles and separation of powers for judges to be politically active and that a judge with political ambitions should leave the judiciary and enter the political arena.

Had he been consistent in his statements, had he protected the principle of separation of powers, I would trust him today,” Turudic said, adding that Josipovic could have reacted when the judiciary was exposed “to horrible attacks from the executive authority.”

If he is objecting to my saying something about (the military operation) Storm, I, unlike him, am a defender and have the right to comment because the day of Croatian veterans is my day and no one can take that right away from me,” Turudic said, adding that he was embittered by Croatian Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day having turned into “a holiday of three presidents, rather than of war veterans.”

 

Leaving aside the utterly improper and deplorable circumstances where a government or politicians (as in Croatia) evidently go on the attack of the judiciary and thereby erode the public’s trust in the judiciary, one thing that is important here is that Turudic has spoken out on issues that are strongly present with similar sentiments among the Croatian public on the daily basis – in media, in citizens action groups, in cafes, in homes… Turudic seems to me in this case no different in his opinions to many other citizens of Croatia who are concerned with the way the country is governed and when it comes to a case where a court judge speaks out on issues important to the nation then it’s to be expected that we will not find a consensus anywhere in the world about whether judges should speak out about matters pressing the nation they themselves are a part of. The crucial thing here would seem to be that if a court judge speaks out he/she does so without compromising the impartiality of the role he/she plays as a court judge. Judges are usually accorded a measure of respect, and weight is given to what they have to say in cases they pass judgment on, upon the faith of an understanding by the community that to be judicial is to be impartial. Judges, as citizens, have a right of free speech, and there may be circumstances in which they have a duty to speak out against what they regard as injustice, regardless of whether that injustice involves the whole nation or an individual citizen. If Turudic has said the things he did in the said newspaper interview from a court bench, during a hearing of a case, then he would be seen as deploying judicial authority in support of a political cause and in that case there would be risks of undermining the foundation upon which such authority rests. He did not say those things in a court of law – he said them dressed in his “civilian” clothes, seemingly on annual leave, during an interview for a newspaper. Had Turudic stood on a “soapbox” in a public park and gave an unsolicited speech in which he said similar things then I might have something else to say about it, and that something else would be critical of such behaviour.

On 4 July 1988, the Basic Principles on Independence of the Judiciary were adopted by the 7th United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and include:
Freedom of Expression and Association
8. In accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, members of the judiciary are like other citizens, entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly, provided, however, that in exercising such rights, judges shall always conduct themselves in such a manner as to preserve the dignity of their office and the impartiality and independence of the judiciary”.

The Croatian law regarding the judiciary, the courts, contains these very elements but it also stipulates that judges cannot be members of political parties “nor engage in political activities”. Such codes of conduct of judges are similar in all democracies. From reading up on various reactions in Croatia to the said Judge Turudic interview (those for and those against) one gets the feeling that, for whatever reason (but obviously political point scoring in some cases) many of those reacting to it seem to confuse, perhaps intentionally, the difference between “political activity” and “opinion about political activity of politicians”, which was what Turudic seems to have been doing. As a private citizen with rights to opinions, Turudic, as anyone else, should enjoy the right of expressing his personal opinions without those being attributed to his role as an officer of the judiciary.

It’s a shame that Croatia has a president who classifies a citizen’s opinion about politician’s activities as political activity in itself!

And indeed, it’s difficult to see that Turudic has by way of his answers to a journalist’s questions placed at risk the dignity of his office as a judge and Croatian judiciary just as, for example, the UK’s top judge Lord David Neuberger, the Supreme Court President, did not when in March of 2013 he attacked UK Government on legal aid cuts, secret courts and human rights threats

Judging by what president Ivo Josipovic has said on the matter of Turudic’s interview it’s difficult not to conclude that it is the president himself who has placed the label of “political activity” upon an expression of opinion about political activity of those in power and government close to his own political leanings (left). This constitutes an unfair attack and it has all the hallmarks of communist ways whereby attacking the critics one diverts the attention from the real issues, from real concerns.  The Croatian public is yet to hear whether the Supreme Court President, Branko Hrvatin (currently on annual leave), will find it necessary to comment on Turudic’s interview and if sanctions against Turudic as an officer of the judiciary will follow. This, I see, will be a telling test as to how far Croatian democracy has moved forward in separating professional and private roles of its citizens in order to allow democracy to flourish. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

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