Jure Galic Photo source: HRSvijet

According to HRSvijet portal “Nedjo from Ljubuski” is a controversial film by Svetlana Broz (Josip Broz Tito’s granddaughter) that has raised a great deal of dust in Ljubuski and the whole of Herzegovina.

The leading role in the film is dedicated to Nedjeljko Nedjo Galic (died 2010), an old communist from town of Ljubuski who has lived Tito’s version of “brotherhood and unity” all his life. Hence, in 1991, Nedjo placed himself on the side with those who wanted to “ban the Croatian flag, Croatian anthem and generally the existence of Croatian name”.

Today, twenty years later, Nedjo’s character appears in Ljubuski again, in the film by Svetlana Broz. This time via a pamphlet that attempts to point to Ljubuski Croatians for banishing the Bosniak minority. The pamphlet is sponsored by the Norwegian government where Broz and Galic had been living during recent years!

Ljubuski online portal asserts that Svetlana Broz is spreading ethnic hatred with the film. It states that the film was made with Social Democratic Party (SDP) black funds and that statements made in the film are filled with lies, and with malice portrays Croatians from Ljubuski in the darkest of lights all with the purpose of propagating the Bosnian politics of unity based on the failed Yugoslav “brotherhood and unity” without respecting constituent peoples.

As one would expect from such a suspect alliance of film and pamphlet financial backers, the film suppresses the fact that it was the same Nedjo Galic who was one of the leaders in the attempts (prepared by the Bosniak secret service AID) to raise rebellion by the Bosniaks that had the goal of toppling the legitimate authorities in Ljubuski.

The film attempt to consistently discredit the Croatians of Herzegovina because of their resistance against any Yugoslavia and Croatians there believe that the film is trying to portray a story of Bosniak victims in the 1990’s war as a screen for a completely different reason.

They feel that the film’s intention is to cause affairs and intrigues that would stop any further investigations into communist crimes in those areas.

During the past few years there have been mass graves discovered in the area and remains of 59 people murdered in February 1945 have been exhumed.

Now the late Nedjo Galic from this film is a relative of Jure Galic, still living, who was a communist and Secretary of the WWII area’s communist organisation which had the task of creating the list of local “enemies of the people” (i.e. those against communism), which “enemies” were then sent to their torturous death.

Sources report that in the relatively small Herzegovina the communists murdered 20,000 people!

Back to Broz’s film. The truth is that the Bosniak (Muslim) troops were disarmed during the 1990’s war in order to prevent further slaughter of Croatian people in the region. No lives were lost in this (which the film confirms) and eventually the Muslims were given the choice to either stay and live in peace with Croatians or go abroad. Majority chose to leave.

If the latter rings a bell in your mind – good!  It means that we all know the way the mind of the political army  for Greater Serbia works and worked.

The Serbs chose to leave Croatia at the end of Operation Storm (August 1995) and used that choice for their advantage by claiming that Croatians banished them from Krajina. Now, comes some Svetlana Broz and paints the Croatians from Ljubuski with the same colours as Serbs painted Croatians of Croatia! That is, that Croatians of Ljubuski banished Muslims from Ljubuski when in fact the Muslims left on their own accord.

The angering thing in this whole malicious exercise is that the Broz’s film was funded by the same political party line now in government in Croatia. As for Norwegian government sponsoring the film’s pamphlet one can sense yet another international streak in the resistance to the prosecution of communist crimes.

But, with enduring strength of Croatian people (and people of other countries) communist crimes will see justice. Perhaps, Ljubuski authorities should speed up their processes while Jure Galic is still alive, and other witnesses are still alive. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps.(Syd)