Ivo Josipovic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Mentality Change Equals Croatian National State

April 27, 2019 by inavukic 4 Comments

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, President of the Republic of Croatia

26 April 2019 (last leg of Grabar-Kitarovic Presidential mandate):

Addressing a special session of Karlovac County Assembly on County Day on Friday, Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic said that the most significant measure at the moment needs to be “reforming our mentality,” in order to make the Croatians think and work faster, more resolutely and in a better organised manner. She acknowledged with praise Prime Minister the Andrej Plenkovic’s cabinet for reducing taxes and administration levies, however, she claimed that the “most significant reform we need to implement is to reform our mentality,” so that at all levels, we can think and work more resolutely, faster and in a more organised manner.

1 July 2015 (first leg of Grabar-Kitarovic presidential mandate):

“The key for solutions and for coming out from this economic crisis is in increase of jobs but also in change of mentality, strengthening of accountability and political courage,” said Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic at the inaugural meeting of her presidential committee for economic affairs in Croatia, “that is what I want to see in Croatia – economic growth, opening of new jobs, increase of employment, creation of new values and new products, export, fiscal discipline and productivity in public administration. We need to change in order to come out of this situation we are in. Solutions exist, it’s just that we must have enough political courage and accountability in order to implement them.”

The Constitution of the Republic of Croatia in the last point within the Historic Foundations section says the following:

“At the historic turning-point marked by the rejection of the communist system and changes in the international order in Europe, the Croatian nation reaffirmed, in the first democratic elections (1990), by its freely expressed will, its millennial statehood and its resolution to establish the Republic of Croatia as a sovereign state.”

About the need for mentality change

Bravo President Grabar-Kitarovic for reiterating the need to change mentality in Croatia but it’s a clear as a sunny day that Croatia’s government and presidential forces have not rejected the communist system (mentality), rejection of which is fortified in the country’s Constitution. With a heavy dose of bitterness I can understand why, after the Homeland War ended and all Croatian Serb-occupied territory liberated (1998), communist presidents Stjepan Mesic and Ivo Josipovic never bothered to even accentuate to the people of Croatia that a change in mentality was needed in order for Croatia to move ahead; in order to rid it of communist mentality. I say communist mentality even if Grabar-Kitarovic did not define it as such because neither she nor anyone else needs to spell this one out.

And now we have the case of four years wasted since the President had stated the obvious – that Croatia needs a change in mentality – also! President Grabar-Kitarovic is still, after four years, telling Croatian people they need a mentality change or reform. I guess when one doesn’t really seem to care about what one says, just as long as it sounds good for political grandstanding, one is not likely to roll ones sleeves up and do something about it. Her repeated expressions of need to change mentality are evidently mechanical – a parroting exercise.

It is a fact that former communist countries have since 1989 (since the fall of Berlin Wall) been going through a painful metamorphosis on a confusing path toward acceptance of the individual responsibilities freedom brings and of acceptance of democratic values. Croatia is no different except for the fact that nothing has been officially done to drive a mentality change. Individual politicians and academics have been constantly addressing the problem of enormous barriers to progress that communist mindset or mentality represent in Croatia. So it’s not as if Grabar-Kitarovic would have been without allies were she truly mindful enough of tackling mentality change.

It is time for change – now!

The debilitating impact of the communist moral and psychological legacy on the socioeconomic transition into democracy means that even after three decades (almost) of formal independence as a sovereign state, Croatia is still struggling to find its way forward. The fact that former highly positioned communist operatives still hold the fort of key socio-economic and political structures has been and is a source of painful discontent and disappointment; a source of apathy that continues to see dismally low voter turnout at elections and a source of staggering brain drain from the country. It is a source, I believe, that drives the much present call for togetherness and unity of all Croatian patriotic political parties these days of election campaigns for the European Parliament. The sad part is that only very, very few of those calling for such unity mention the need to affirm a Croatian national state; a state of Croatian people (with minorities respected). This line of action would among other benefits, return to the forefront the intentions and plights within the massive and united movement all those years ago of late nineteen eighties and early nineties when almost 94% of voters in Croatia voted at a referendum to rid themselves of communist Yugoslavia.

The communist Yugoslavia regime succeeded in penetrating very deeply into many people’s minds and influenced their way of working, doing business and the sphere of public administration. Corruption, bribery, political pressure, nepotism, theft of public property, reliance on borrowed money to pay wages…all were the hallmarks of the communist mindset and mentality. These echoes of the communist Yugoslavia period are still alarmingly evident in Croatia and while the task of getting rid of them, or mellowing them down to insignificance or non-intrusive level, appears difficult, it is definitely not a Sisyphean one! We have seen that in other former communist countries of Europe, where communist regime’s practices were and are taken head on.

The Croatian governments’ inability to coordinate efforts and prioritise challenges of transitioning from communism resulted in failure to implement judicial and pragmatic economic reforms had further exacerbated many social problems. This political chaos supported wild privatisation, so that the major state-owned companies passed into the hands of well-connected apparatchiks, who continued turning the gaps in institutional and legislative control to their own advantage from the start. The wave of privatisations in the 1990s turned post-Yugoslavia Croatia into a society largely run by new-tycoons, where newly emerged elite with enormous wealth and often decisive control over public policy transformed their economic power into political influence to preserve their dominance; to preserve communist mentality. The roots of nepotism and corruption that existed in communist Yugoslavia are alive and kicking in Croatia.

Promotion of Croatian national identity was considered practically a criminal act in communist Yugoslavia, and Croats living abroad who identified themselves as Croats were hunted down one way or another. All the Yugoslav republics were subject to domination by communist bureaucrats, who were sent far and wide to preserve the Josip Broz Tito’s dictatorship even to remote outskirts of the Western World where Croatian nationals who rejected communism had settled, where the communist Secret Police UDBa assassinated scores. Party control became brutal after WWII, and hundreds of thousands Croatians murdered in communist purges. The fear factor contributed vastly and intentionally to the development of unique national behaviour, which in turn influenced ideology and the operations of various organisations and social institutions. Massive corruption, deeply rooted in the public consciousness, has interfered with post-Yugoslavia economic and political systems in Croatia. Without a change in mentality, the very corruption fuelled by political elites, including those holding the judiciary, will be the bullet that will destroy the Croatian peoples’ dream (a human right) for self-determination.

The theory of behavioural economics suggests that national self-awareness is an important pre-requisite for economic decision-making. Western principles, when forcefully applied to the dominant communist (anti-capitalist) mentality, look like expensive make-up on the wrinkled face of reality. Socio-cultural factors that determine successful transformation (from communist mentality) include individualism vs. collectivism and power distance. The former is self-explanatory as to any healthy thriving of economic development; competition and individual responsibility are at the forefront of thriving economies. In societies with a large power distance, professionals are not consulted but are instructed by the power centres; Croatia still suffers much from this communist regime’s ailment because of which some “elites” think they know everything but will still pretend to seek professional advice.

Today, calling oneself a Croatian patriot (usually meaning the one who was and is against communism) or uttering the age-long greeting “For Home Ready” (Za Dom Spremni) exposes one to being branded as fascist or neo-Nazi, and criminally prosecuted or fined for that greeting! Today, wearing or displaying the communist Yugoslavia red five-pointed star, or Yugoslav flag, does not brand one as anything, nor is it punishable by law! Communism and communist mentality is alive and kicking in Croatia.

Yes, Madam President, political courage is needed and you and most of Croatia’s government cabinet members do not have it! And, courage cannot be learned!

All Croatia needs now is for those who have demonstrated political courage by loudly and continuously advocating for changes from the communist mindset to get voted into government. All Croatians need now is to assert their national right that was asserted through the bloody and brutal Homeland War of Serb aggression; to assert their Croatian national state and measure the extent and values of State sovereignty through it. After all, it was the Croatian people by vast majority who voted to secede from communist Yugoslavia, who fought and lost thousands of lives for it and they have earned the right to finish the task of decommunisation. After all, rejection of communisim is embedded in the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia.

Decommunisation is the only agent that will bring the mentality change President Grabar-Kitarovic is talking about, albeit unconvincingly as to her determination and courage to implement the processes and socio-political structures needed for it. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrej Plenković, communist mentality, Croatia, Croatian national state, decommunisation, Ivo Josipovic, Josip Broz Tito, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Stjepan Mesic, transitioning from communism

Croatia: Morals Of Lizards And Other Communist Depravities

January 11, 2017 by inavukic 31 Comments

Cover Page
“Hrvatski Tjednik”/ Croatian Weekly
featuring article on
leading communists in Croatia still
terrorising the nation daily
Photo courtesy: Ivica Marijacic, Hrvatski Tjednik

It is axiomatic that politics is the art of the possible, and moral considerations in government will reflect the ideology harboured by those who govern and those who wield power. As profusely as Croatia had bled in its Homeland War during 1990’s as it sought to secede from communist Yugoslavia and build freedom and democracy modeled on the developed democracies of the “Western” world, 25 years on the morals of lizards and other communist depravities are still adversely present in almost every pore of public administration, practices and governance at state and local levels, holding thorough progress to a fully functioning democracy hostage. Momentum to face and deal with this “moral-ethical and state administration crisis” General Zeljko Glasnovic, member of Croatian parliament for the diaspora, has been warning about for some time now, is gaining notable force in Croatia as well as in the diaspora.

General Zeljko Glasnovic
Member of Croatian Parliament for th diaspora
Photo: dnevno.hr

From whatever vantage point one looks, it is unmistakable that there is a moral crisis on the public level in Croatia, which percolates there from personal moral deficiencies in communist resistance to progression away from communist regime and its ideals. There has been a palpable breakdown of the traditional Christian morality across the society that rests on human dignity, freedom and justice modern independent Croatia started its journey with at the beginning of 1990’s and held that morality close to heart all throughout the bloody war. Undoubtedly, the communist heritage that pervades the public administration and all its avenues and mainstream media is the culprit for this crisis. Ugly faces of this crisis can be encountered every day, whether through persisting corruption or new discoveries of it, through tangled red tapes for almost anything one needs done via a public office, through utterly inadequate actions and reactions of government to critical events or through media lynches of anyone and everyone not seen to belong in one way or another to the communist, antifascist, liberal echelons.

With so much focus on government, political figures and people in high positions, journalists following the path of communist resistance to freedom and democracy in Croatia the next obvious question is which ones should be targeted for the removal from position part of lustration process, if politicians championing the cause for it gather enough support and ability to start clearing out the crisis, that is. As it happens, the Croatian Weekly (Hrvatski Tjednik) has last week published a rather good list to aim at, for starters. To aim at either lustrating people from positions of power and if not possible, to neutralise or at least significantly diminish their impact on society.

The article refers to the people on the list as “50 stateless (apatrides) people who terrorise 4.3 million Croats on a daily basis as they mourn the loss of Yugoslavia”.

“As if in a surreal historical story they shed their tears over their dead Yugoslav past, trying to revive her. They do not base on facts or evidence their convictions that are expressly hostile towards Croatia, but on that which attracts them, on hereditary hatreds or, simply, on the deviations of their own political minds. Their Yugo-nostalgia is a legitimate thing, but the problem starts when they align themselves on the side of good, and the rest of us on the side of evil ramming into us a guilt complex because of their overrun ideals and failed lives.”

The list of those that, as Croatian Weekly writes, terrorise Croatia on a daily basis includes:

Stjepan Mesic – former President of Croatia, “die-hard communist led the pack in trying to rehabilitate the criminal communist Yugoslavia, calling all Croats who were against communism – fascists. He idolised the Yugoslav satrap Josip Broz Tito, kept justifying countless and massive communist crimes against Croats, he praised the Serbian myths regarding Croats as genocidal people, he regularly vilifies Croatia for fascism, Ustashe, he attacks the Church, the veterans…”

Ivo Josipovic, former President of Croatia, “a member of the communist caste that attained all its social privileges on the back of the tragedy of the Croatian people. He will be remembered by his vilification of Croatia in Israeli parliament, by the lies he told about Croatia in Bosnia and Herzegovina parliament, by his betrayal in providing Croatia’s secret and classified documents to Serbian ambassador, by his equating of Serb war crimes in Vukovar to individual crimes in Croatia …” the list goes on for him also.

Milorad Pupovac, member of Croatian parliament representing Serb minority and president of NGO Serb National Council in Croatia. To this day Pupovac has not gotten over the failure of the politics he advocated for the Serb ethnic minority in Croatia to achieve the status of a constitution ethnic group in Croatia as opposed to being a minority, which it really is. “He advocates amnesty for Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic and Serbia for the aggression against Croatia, systematically tries to keep Croatia sitting on the bench of the accused by imposing and imputing fascism against her while, at the same time, organises Chetnik gatherings at Srb, advocates for political and cultural Yugoslavianism, goes to Serbia visiting notorious Chetniks for instructions, ignores Croatian laws and holidays, imposes himself as an arbiter who decides between good and evil, fascism and democracy, does not even try to hide his hatred for Croatia and her symbols...”

Vesna Pusic, former foreign minister of Croatia who “more often than not left the impression she was acting as minister of Yugoslavia and not Croatia. Misspent taxpayers money including giving significant funds to her brother’s NGO and this in particular evidences how low morals have fell in Croatia for the parliamentary committee on the matter did not assess this action as conflict of interest…”

Zoran Pusic (Vesna Pusic’s brother). ” Seeks and receives significant funds from state budget for his work via NGO in which he openly promotes Yugo-communist ideology, rehabilitates Josip Broz Tito, justifies his mass murders, does not hesitate in demonising lies and contempt towards Croatians…”

Dragan Markovina, president of New Left party (active member of which is Zoran Pusic), “whose key goal is battle against clericalisation of the Croatian society and against Ustashism. So far his expressed hatred for Croatia has been stronger than that coming out of any Yugonostalgics. It’s unlikely that any other country in the world would tolerate such an enemy to itself…”

Tvrtko Jakovina, history professor at university in Zagreb – loud “apologist for Yugoslavia, its historiography, its crimes and Josip Broz Tito…he is an embarrassment to Croatian people and to the history profession, which he has reduced to defending a failed totalitarian and bloody ideology...”

Hrvoje Hribar, mediocre film director of Yugo-communist genre, who was instrumental in the scandal last year where significant funds from Croatia were channeled to Danish film directors for the making of “15 minutes – the massacre in Dvor” film, which attributed to the Croatian Army the crimes committed by others.

Slavko Goldstein, a publicist who tries to pass himself off as a historian. “Does not shy away from supporting and spreading the worst of lies against Croatia including the number of people killed in Jasenovac camp during WWII, without any evidence to support the bulk of his claims. Goldstein is a Yugoslav pamphlet designer who has not identified himself with the Croatian state and who defends the lies proliferated by Greater Serbia to the last drop of his blood…”

Drago Pilsel, journalist and the crudest, rudest anti-Croatian and pro-communist activist one could probably imagine. Intolerant and crude and insulting to unspeakable lows.

The list goes on – Vesna Terselic from Documenta NGO and New Left party, whose Documenta received government funds with view to researching facts of crimes against Croatian people but she undertook to take the direction of trying to equate the aggressor (Serbia) with the victim (Croatia) in the 1990’s war, and, of course, has not done a thing about communist crimes except perhaps trying to justify them. There’s also in mention on the list of communists terrorising Croats every day people like Social Democrat Nenad Stazic, actor Rade Serbedzija, theatre director Oliver Frljic, Nada Rauker – a most extreme leftist keeping the fires burning for lies that fascism is being revived in Croatia, Tvrtko Jakovina and Hrvoje Klasic, Yugo-nostalgic historians that demonise every step and every expression of independent Croatian state, Mate Kapovic, linguist.

The depraved work in justifying communist crimes, to the extreme of fabricating lies and insulting the very essence of Croatian independence earned through a bloody war demonstrates the apparent depletion of human morality in these and other Yugo-communists terrorizing a nation that wants to get ahead, finally away from communist claws. In this breath I would not categorise the morality of these people into human morality, it’s a morality of lizards and lizards don’t have much of that at all; the morality they do possess always tries to ensure their own survival even if they need to camouflage themselves, sting, or run to come back behind ones back… Even when they slightly change their political stance, even when they try to adapt to the independent Croatia without communism, the morality of lizards in these Yugo-communists always goes against the grain of decency towards what Croatia should stand for as a modern nation: a nation that has dealt justly with its criminal communist past and its victims of communist crimes and a modern nation whose everyday life is weaved with gratitude to those who defended her from the Serb aggressor. There can never be adequate words to describe the reverence held for those that will succeed in chasing these lizards into their dark holes without a return ticket. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Dragan Markovina, Drago Pilsel, Hrvatski Tjednik, Ivo Josipovic, lustration, Milorad Pupovac, morals of lizards, Slavko Goldstein, Stjepan Mesic, transitioning from communism, Vesna Pusic, Vesna Terselic, Zeljko Glasnovic, Zoran Pusic

Croatia: Communist Crimes – Two Criminals Down Many Yet To Fall

August 7, 2016 by inavukic 32 Comments

Zdravko Mustac (L) Josip Perkovic (R)
Sentenced to life imprisonment
in relation to communist crimes of complicity in murder
of Croatian dissident
Stjepan Djurekovic

Croatia’s former Social Democrat (formerly known as League of Communists) government led by Zoran Milanovic as PM, as well as president Ivo Josipovic, had tried their utmost to avoid the extradition to Germany of former communist Yugoslavia secret police/UDBA operators, Josip Perkovic and Zdravko Mustac. They even passed a law in July 2013 (known as Lex Perkovic) three days before Croatia joined the EU, that prevented the extradition of Croatian citizens to other countries for crimes committed before 2002, hence ensuring no crime committed under the sheet of communist purges during the time of former Yugoslavia would be brought before the court regardless of the fact that in a civilised world murder has no statute of limitations. After Croatia’s courts had in 2014 ruled that Perkovic and Mustac could be extradited to Germany, extradition soon followed and the former head of Yugoslavia’s secret service, Zdravko Mustac, and a one-time subordinate, Josip Perkovic faced trial over accusations regarding the 1983 killing of a Croatian dissident in Bavaria, Stjepan Djurekovic for the first time in Munich in October 2014.
The German court in Munich had Wednesday 3 August 2016 found guilty of complicity in murder and sentenced the two former top Yugoslavian spies (spy chief Zdravko Mustac, 74, and ex-agent Josip Perkovic, 71) to life imprisonment for the 1983 murder of the Croatian national Stjepan Djurekovic, who was opposed to Yugoslav communist regime, in the then West Germany.

Stjepan Djurekovic

“The court finds that the accused Zdravko M. had asked the accused Josip P. to plan and prepare for the murder of Stjepan Djurekovic,” the court said in a statement, Deutsche Welle reports. The state prosecution had in its final words last week turned the crime of assisting in murder into participating or complicity in murder with intent, which carries a life sentence under German laws.

Djurekovic was one of 22 Croatians murdered on orders from Belgrade (Serbia/Yugoslav capital) in Germany between 1970 and 1989. Most of those cases remain untried. This time around, prosecutors successfully argued that the spies had sought to silence Djurekovic who had information about alleged illegal business dealings by the son of a leading Yugoslav politician. Djurekovic was killed (shot and bludgeoned with a meat clever) in a garage that was used as a print office in the Bavarian town of Wolfratshausen. He was shot multiple times and hit with a cleaver by three still unidentified people.

“The prime motive was to kill a regime critic, a separatist,” Manfred Dauster, the presiding judge, told the court on Wednesday. “Djurekovic

Judge Manfred Dauster

was to be muzzled – politically, but also physically.”

The finding was based on the fact that at the time, 1983, Zdravko Mustac was the chief of the Croatian arm of Yugoslav State Security Service

(more commonly known as State Security Administration/UDBA) while Josip Perkovic was in the position of head of Zagreb UDBA Section II (in charge of the department dealing with Croatian émigrés abroad) and was the immediate superior of the spy Krunoslav Prates (convicted 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment for participating the murder of Stjepan Djurekovic) – Judge Manfred Dauster explained.

The defense had sought acquittal, citing a lack of evidence. Attorneys for Perkovic and Mustac plan to appeal the verdict to Germany’s federal high court. Should the sentences stick, Perkovic and Mustac could apply to serve them back home and if appeal does not succeed and life sentence stays then in Croatia that would translate to 40 years prison.
A reaction to this finding by Zoran Milanovic, leader of Social Democrats who is running as PM hopeful in the coming September elections, included “I am shocked by that court judgment … if it’s true (they committed those crimes) then they have received the most lenient of sentences … I regret this decision was not made in Croatia.”

What a repulsive, odious, low-life of a politician.

It was he, Zoran Milanovic, who headed to moves in 2013 in refusing to act on EU arrest warrants, who headed the government that introduced the law against extradition in 2013, it was he, Zoran Milanovic, who fought tooth and nail not to help the trial against Perkovic and Mustac get off the ground in Germany or anywhere else for that matter. It was, it is he, Zoran Milanovic, who leads all blockades against the processing of communist crimes.

Up until now, the need, the will and the ways to process and punish the horrific crimes committed for and on behalf of the communist regime of former Yugoslavia (including Croatia) had not truly or substantially found their effective expression. Many attempts have been sabotaged and alleged perpetrators and accomplices protected by those who call themselves antifascists (former communists, nostalgics for Yugoslavia). Those who pursued justice for victims of communist crimes were and still are branded fascists, revisionists, Nazis, Ustashas… To demonstrate the depravity of former communists’ sense of justice one can only revisit the 2014 trial against late Josip Boljkovac (friend of former president Stjepan Mesic, who is currently trying to resurrect himself into politics by being included on Social Democrats’ election ticket) relating to the murder in 1945 after WWII had ended of 21 innocent people where the Croatian court found that Josip Boljkovac was not really to blame (even if there were strong indications of his complicity in some body of evidence before the court) for their murder (or bear any responsibility) but that the real culprit was the communists system. How a system without people can murder people is only clear to former communists, it seems.

Many say the past should be left behind and we should all work towards the future but that stance in itself is cruel and unjust. It is a stance, without doubt, taken by those who have a great deal to lose and to admit. The only way to a better future is, in fact, to confront the past and punish all crimes against human life committed. The judgment brought down by the German court last week against Perkovic and Mustac puts names to the communist crimes perpetrated and this surely must serve as motivation and assistance in efforts to process as many communist crimes as possible. While national reconciliation is necessary, it would be a gross mistake to believe that collective amnesia and impunity will do any good. It will not because crime does not pay, in the end truth will out.

Seen as an absolute nightmare for 45 years after WWII by majority of Croatian émigrés, especially, and by most of those in Croatia in the HDZ/Croatian Democratic Union who were the driving force in the 1990’s creation of the modern independent state of Croatia, the baleful UDBA (communist secret service) managed to sneak through the recent war of Croatia’s secession (1991 – 1995) and survived the regime change/secession from Yugoslavia. It rallied behind the first president of Croatia Franjo Tudjman, in order to avoid “lustration”, with most of its senior executives becoming cogs in the new machinery of the new Croatian state, when they should have been lustrated or taken away from those positions. Ministries, the Parliament, media, big business, administrations, diplomacy — rare are public fields where these former “agents/suradnici” (aka “snitches”) don’t hold major positions. I guess such a mix was unavoidable in the beginnings, at times of war, but not for a moment longer.
If at last lustration does not occur in Croatia and new governments continue to be run by non-repentant old communists and their younger “liberal” offspring, the reticence or blatant refusal to pursue prosecution of communist crimes is bound to continue and the price to be paid is surely to be a form of eternal political unrest and intolerance.

Born in 1946 as part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Yugoslav communist secret service, the UDBA, was conceived as a counter-intelligence agency and a political police, the latter being by far its most important task. The UDBA consisted of four major sectors (“internal enemy,” “hostile emigration,” “foreign espionage,” “high tech espionage”). It employed hundreds of agents, analysts, and agents (“suradnici”), as well as thousands of snitches, i.e. informants (“informatori”). Founded as a dense conspiratorial network, it operated in various regional centres in ex- Yugoslavia, being active in all towns and villages in each constituent ex-Yugoslav republic. Unlike the traditional modus operandi of many other communist countries, local UDBA centres in ex-Yugoslavia enjoyed a large degree of autonomy with each local centre supervising the agents in its respective area. However, the 2nd Section was also in charge of hiring its own quota of undercover agents abroad.
The operatives of the 2nd Section were generally groomed for their prime targets: infiltration of Yugoslav and especially Croat émigrés abroad. As regards the Croatian emigration, the UDBA carried out at least 68 to 69 homicides, 5 abductions whose victims were later executed, 23 attempted murders (with several cases of severely injured victims), 4 abductions whose victims survived and 2 attempted kidnappings.
The 2nd Section in charge of émigrés, whom UDBA labelled as “hostile emigrants”, was particularly violent, as it didn’t hesitate to resort to “offensive” or “special” operations, i.e., assassinations. By bribing and manipulating common criminals (threatening them, or promising them impunity), by fabricating false documents and exerting the most infamous blackmails, it induced naive citizens in ex-Yugoslavia into suicidal plots, or framed them with offences they had never committed. In short, the 2nd Section run by Josip Perkovic – was quite simply an organised communist crime agency.

Efficient in its criminal plots, the UDBA did succeed in undermining the emigrants’ reputation by defaming them as “terrorists” in their host countries. For example, a famous case took place in Australia where, as a result of UDBA media manipulation, six young Croats (the “Croatian Six”) landed behind the bars for 15 years (see Hamish McDonald, “Framed: the untold story about the Croatian Six”, The Sydney Morning Herald of February 11th, 2012).

Robert Zagajski
In pursuit of truth about
his father’s death

Today, the malodorous UDBA ghosts and other Yugoslavian cloak and dagger circles are still haunting Croatia (and other former Yugoslav states, although, to a seemingly lesser degree Serbia, which was the heart of communist crimes plots operations). Twenty-five years after Croatia’s independence scores of former UDBA hit men of the former Yugoslav regime have not yet been properly and absolutely held to account, nor have they ever atoned for their crimes. There are also several hundreds of mass graves and pits across Croatia filled with bones and remains of innocent victims of communist crimes, for which no one has yet been held responsible, not even the communist regime by name. As to murders committed by UDBA agents and operatives such as the one for which the court in Germany has prescribed a life sentence the hopes for justice burn loud. Robert Zagajski, for instance, was 17 when his father was killed on the orders of the Yugoslav secret service in 1983 – the judgment against Perkovic and Mustac has given him the greatest hope so far that his father Djuro’s brutal death will cease to be an enigma and that someone will be made to answer for it. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)