Josip Manolic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

New lies about Tudjman announce new aggression against Croatia

dr Franjo Tudjman addresses the United Nations General Assembly 22 May 1992

By Dr. Slobodan Lang – 14 December 2012
(Translated by Ina Vukic)

On the 2nd of June of this year I went to Medjugorje and kneeled beside the visionary Mirjana, as she was receiving a message from Our Lady. I prayed for the freedom of Generals Gotovina and Markac. On the Day of Assumption of Virgin Mary, together with Mario Filipi, the war veterans and the young (led by Filip Kustro and Matea Kemenji), we crossed 25 kilometers to Aljmas. From day to day, during the past month, we prayed for the freedom of the Generals across Croatia. And it happened. It does not matter how much the lawyers and the Judges, how much the prayers and the truth contributed to this freedom. The indictment against Croatia, against defenders, against the politics of independence and against President Tudjman was rejected.

Only in Serbia and among some Serbs in Croatia was the astonishment greater than among Croatians across the world and Croatians in Croatia.

Despite everything, the reaction in Serbia came as a surprise. The reaction in Serbia was based on some incomprehensible expectation that the world considers the Serbs to be better than any other Balkan nationality. That the aggression, the occupation, the intent to change sovereign borders, ethnic persecutions and genocide over the Albanians, the Bosniacs and the Croatians are forgotten, and that the only victims of that time were the Serbs from Croatia, who were incited into rebellion by their leaders into chasing Croatians from their homes, into attack against Bihac, the danger of another genocide and finally into taking the very Serbs out of Croatia, leaving and abandoning some 10,000 of their own elderly, whom we saved in the Action «Let’s Save Life».

With the politics of their own leadership, the Serbian people (according to God equal to all other people) have in the past been led into crime and today, into the nonexistent world of North Korea and other totalitarian states of time past. It’s for the benefit of the Serbian people that they realise the truth and to join the other nations of the world as equals. This goes for some Serb leaders in Croatia, as well. They could begin by recanting the three undemocratic, automatic representatives in the Parliament which they gained through the corruption on Ivo Sanader. The rest of the Serbs could begin by publicly rejecting the lies about hundreds of thousands of victims in Jasenovac, because of which thousands of true victims could not be stated for decades, Yad Vashem deceived and Bogdan Bogdanovic (author of the Jasenovac statue) gifted to me his drawing upon which he wrote «Doctor, forgive me».

Authorities were caught by surprise. They did not expect freedom for the Generals, and I do not know whether they wanted it. All Croatian politics since year 2000 were led to hand the Generals over, neglect of their families and unwilling legal defence. They expected convictions against the Generals, against Operation Storm, against President Tudjman, against the whole of Croatian defence …

In Croatia, people were immesurably joyous and organised celebrations, bestowing upon the Generals certificates of honorary citizens, held Masses and celebrated in any which way they could.

After the Generals were freed and criminal enterprise rejected by the world court, the first one who managed to find his way out was President Josipovic – he invited all the Croatian Generals to his office. The former President attacked the current President for receiving the Generals who had defended and liberated Croatia from Serb aggression (whose president was this), who prevented genocide over other people and who were pronounced innocent by the international court. He also attacked the church and the faithful for praying for the truth and justice. He attacked the prayer.

Zoran Pusic, from the quasi civil, quasi organisation for human rights, in the Spring of this year, after the ICTY Trial Chamber’s judgment, assessed «disappointment of Croatian public with the severe punishment imposed upon the Generals was due to the fact that the media had spread false hopes that the Generals could get a mild sentence.» Just before the final judgment he stated that there was no doubt that a criminal enterprise existed. After the final judgment (the acquittal of the Generals) he remains quiet and does not show himself in public. He still hasn’t tendered his resignation from the position he has held for more than twenty years, President of the Civic Committee for Human Rights and there has been no other member who has ever spoken for that organisation, perhaps Pusic is its only member and is in conflict of family interests. Sister and brother, rule and accuse.

….

Confusion regarding the Hague judgment lasted only a few days. Initially there were attempts to push the opinion that the judgment meant that now is the time to pursue Croatian crimes. That appeared pale and inadequately convincing. Reactions from Serbia, Pupovac (Milorad) and Mesic (Stjepan) crossed the borders of good taste. «Human Rights» organisations went silent – except Helsinky committee from Belgrade whose president Sonja Biserko calmly repeated that Serbia must accept what it had done.

Already, after a few days, they recognise that further aggression against Croatia requires internal division among Croatian people, the Catholic church, the war veterans and President Tudjman. Always and again – a new attack against President Franjo Tudjman.

Currently there’s one of the dirtiest scenarios ever being carried out.

Tudjman’s guilt is being transferred from acquitted guilt for “Operation Storm” crimes against Serbs and liberation of Croatia in 1995, to guilt for a bad Croatian defence in 1991 and the then torture of Vukovar commander Mile Dedakovic – Hawk.

In order to show Dedakovic’s current health state the Croatian television broadcasts ethically impermissible images of the patient and abuses human suffering, for which they accuse President Tudjman through usage of 20 years old film footage. Guided by NKVD (Peoples’ Commissariat for Internal Affairs) oder No. 00447 from 1937 Tudjman is instantly proclaimed guilty for Dedakovic’s current illness and suffering.

According to this Mile Dedakovic’s current health state cannot be blamed on the current President Ivo Josipovic, who is also the commander of the army, who does not follow up on the health of war veterans or their commanders or on the minister for war veterans Fred Matic, whose job in the government is to do that or on the minister for health Rajko Ostojic, who announced the politics of health nor can the doctors who should care for Dedakovic’s health be blamed …

In their public presentations the official media don’t call upon Josip Manolic, don’t state the members of the committee that produced the report, don’t state the names of those who tortured Dedakovic, don’t state the names of the doctors who treated him then, and don’t state the names of those who care for his health today and who are the only ones qualified to assess Dedakovic’s medical status now, before and for the future.

The goal of this shameful media action is not at all to help Mile Dedakovic-Hawk nor to help any other Croatian war veteran. The goal is to once again attack with lies and blacken President Franjo Tudjman in front of Croatian war veterans and the nation.

More than 20 years ago I contacted Dedakovic in Vinkovci, beginning of October 1991, and then in Zagreb.

As an adviser, on 28th February 1996, I sent the following to President Franjo Tudjman: “Dear President, I maintain constant contact with Mile Dedakovic – Hawk, trying to relieve the wounds as much as possible. I believe that in the coming period it would be useful for him to assist with the return to Vukovar. He has expressed that he wants to meet with you and I believe that such a meeting would solve all the differences. I await your decision.”

After that, today’s Academic, Ivica Kostovic, met with Dedakovic and he can inform about everything that was agreed upon.

Finally, and for all who wish to accept, I’ll conclude with my own life’s disposition which I have gained through numerous mistakes, painful experiences, learning, dangers and time spent within the Croatian nation.

I had worked together with President Franjo Tudjman for six years during the years of defending and creating Croatia. I have been alone with him, on travels with him, corresponded with him, at meetings with him, at assemblies, in his company … 1000 times. I got to know him well and I know President Franjo Tudjman as a man. Every man has his weaknesses and makes mistakes, so too Tudjman, everyone and I. Nevertheless, I emphasise that in public life I have never met a man who has more successfully connected the good and the vitality than President Franjo Tudjman. I am convinced that without him we would not have succeeded in creating or defending Croatia.

The crimes of Jasenovac, Bleiburg, the judgment against Aloysius Stepinac, the crimes of Goli Otok, the crimes after the Croatian Spring, the aggression against Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina … are always followed by the aggression of media lies, concealment, partial and twisted truth.

Vukovarans, veterans of the 204th, Branko Borkovic Hawk, detainees of Serb concentration camps, Danijel Rehak – do you accuse Franjo Tudjman?

All of you who think that the Croatian future must be based on faith in God, love for one’s own family and nation, with the respect of all people and good neighbourly relations with all countries – consider!

Consider the truth, consider your attitudes and have the strength to defend and represent them.
If you won’t defend Tudjman. Who will?
If you won’t defend the Generals, who will?
If you won’t defend Croatia, who will?
If you won’t defend anybody, who will defend you?
If you won’t believe in Christ, how will you believe in yourself.

Dr Slobodan Lang Photo: Pixsell

About dr. Slobodan Lang. Born to Jewish family 8 October 1945 in Zagreb, Croatia. Physician, author, writer, politician and former personal adviser to the first Croatian President dr. Franjo Tudjman. His paternal grandfather Ignjat was the president of the Jewish community in Vinkovci (Croatia) and his grandmother Terezija was a housewife. In 1941 Catholic priest Hijacint Bošković, distinguished Dubrovnik and Croatian Dominican, was engaged in an extraordinary attempt to rescue the Langs from Nazi persecution. Bošković traveled from Dubrovnik to Vinkovci with a special permit that allowed him to relocate the Langs to Dubrovnik. Langs grandfather refused to leave, saying that he “was the president of Jews in peace and he will stay one in the war”. Both of his grandparents were killed in the concentration camp during the Holocaust. He graduated at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine and is a specialist in social medicine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slobodan_Lang)

Politicising Communist crimes: inveterate canker

Members of Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia 1945 - Tito in the middle

Two months after the Constitutional Court terminated the investigation of war crimes allegedly perpetrated by Josip Boljkovac in 1945 the Croatian State Prosecutor in Zagreb has January 27 re-opened the case.

The new investigation is to be carried out under the new criminal investigations procedures for the same case as when Boljkovac, 92, was originally arrested and detained for investigations in November 2011. Criminal allegations against Boljkovac impute that he, as one of the chiefs of the Karlovac regional Unit for the protection of people (OZNA), after the liberation of Duga Resa, was responsible for the killing of 21 civilians whom the communists charged with collaborating with the occupying Nazi Germany forces. The murdered civilians were found buried in mass graves in Kozjaca and Duga Resa.

This time around, Boljkovac had not been detained. His defence attorney Anto Nobilo stated that Boljkovac does not mind the re-opening of the investigation because his name has been associated with a number of crimes in the past and he wishes final clarification of the case.

For clarification purposes, the new criminal investigation procedure has restrictions on detaining persons over 90 years of age for the duration of investigations, while the old had no such restrictions.

As a reminder, the same defence attorney, stated to Croatian TV end of November, when Boljkovac was released from investigative detention, that he knew who the murderer of those civilians was – a comrade Mico!

On January 28, Boljkovac’s defence attorney Anto Nobilo, revealed the name of comrade Mico. He revealed the old communist Savo Zlatic as the person he regards to be responsible for the execution of 21 civilians in Duga Resa in 1945, and not Boljkovac. Nobilo said he had tracked Zlatic down from examining Croatian state archives pertaining to the case.

Croatian online news portal Nacional, having published the above Nobilo’s revelation enters into cynical criticism against Tomislav Karamarko, the former Minister of internal affairs who activated the November 2011 arrest of Boljkovac, for not being interested in state historical archives. Karamarko reportedly acted on evidence before him which pointed to suspicions of war crimes against Boljkovac.

How alarmingly irresponsible of a news portal to suggest that police work should rely solely on analysing historical jottings and documents (some of which can easily be construed as false representations for the purposes of hiding the truth) when it comes to gathering grounds for an arrest and detention of a suspected criminal.

It’ll be interesting to see what the current, renewed investigation against Boljkovac comes up with. Should Nobilo’s conclusions from studying historical archives come up trumps above the evidence/statements made about Boljkovac’s activities in 1945 given in recent years by living persons, then who knows which dead antifascist comrade will spring out from historical archives in the announced investigations against Josip Manolic and Rade Bulat, for alleged communist crimes.

The burden of inadequately and politically addressed communist crimes is an inveterate canker, deeply rooted influence that keeps many nations of Europe (and the rest of the world) fretful for justice. And this megashame for human kind can only be attributed to the political games played around the globe which drive the (deplorable) view that not all equally atrocious crimes deserve equal justice.

Declarations condemning communist crimes have been on agendas of most European Union member countries as well as the non-member ones. Croatian parliament condemned communist crimes in June 2006.

In 2010 the European Commission rejected calls from Eastern Europe to introduce a so-called double genocide law that would criminalise the denial of crimes perpetrated by communist regimes, in the same way many EU countries ban the denial of the Holocaust.

“There is no consensus on it. The different member states have wildly differing approaches,” EU justice spokesman Matthew Newman told the Guardian. He said the commission takes the issue “very seriously”, but: “At this stage, the conditions to make a legislative proposal have not been met. The commission will continue to keep this matter under review.”

Efraim Zuroff, the Nazi-hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Israel office, described in December 2010 the effort by the Eastern European countries as a “false symmetry”.

“We have no problem with a day of commemoration for communist crimes, and indeed, something should be done, but the Holocaust was a unique tragedy in history,” he said.

“For all the terrible crimes of the USSR, you can’t compare the people who built Auschwitz with the people who liberated it. Nazi Germany would probably not have been defeated if it weren’t for Russia”

Mr Zuroff had in November 2011 commented in similar ways when Josip Boljkovac was first arrested in Croatia. “Part of that campaign is to, without foundation, equalise the crimes of Nazis – or ustasche in Croatia – with the crimes committed by communists,” he said.

So, Mr Zuroff has no problems with commemorating (recognising) communist crimes but he has major issues with punishing them. The fact that Russians liberated Auschwitz did not give them the right to build their own Gulags and extermination camps where millions of innocent people were murdered. The same can be said for all other countries affected by communist crimes.

This political game of who is more, who is less deserving of punishment for atrocious crimes Mr Zuroff appears to be fervently and shamelessly subscribed to makes no sense and inflames bad and corrupting emotions.

One thing is sure: both the Nazi and the Communist systems aimed to kill and killed millions, tens of millions people and nothing anyone says can change this fact.

According to the Victims of Communism website there have been more than 100 million victims of Communism worldwide since 1917.

Millions of innocent people perished under each of these systems and yet, under political influence only the victims of the Nazi system have deserved justice. This is plain wrong.

“For Croatia, 1945 marked the imposition of Communist rule and return to Yugoslavia. Shielded by their fight against Nazi Germany, Communists used the Second World War to get rid of domestic political competition as well. Tens of thousands fell victim to Communist crimes after WWII. After liberating Croatia from Nazis and establishing the new state of Yugoslavia, Communists went after the anti-Communist Croatian army units who had retreated to Austria and surrendered to British troops. Britain, however, turned 340.000 soldiers and civilian refugees over to Yugoslav authorities who, according to different estimates, murdered 50.000–200.000 of them. Terror continued after Communists had secured power and by 1953, some 116.000 people had been repressed, including 26.947 killed. Although the terror later subdued, Croatia had tens of thousands political prisoners during 1948–88.”

Roger Cohen, in his 2005 article for New York Times said:

“Indeed, in terms of sheer numbers, Communism’s claim to have been more murderous than Nazism is persuasive: it lasted longer and its reach was greater”… “it remains striking that Nazism was judged at Nuremberg, whereas the crimes of Communism have never come before an international tribunal. The resulting gray areas provide space for Russia to dig in, proclaim its great achievements, and dismiss the pain its victory inflicted” … “the dirty laundry of Communism has not yet been hung out in the sun. The search for truth remains a work in progress.”

Steven W. Leckner, in his January 2012 article “Nazism and Communism: Whose Crimes Were Worse?” writes: “It is impossible to declare one ideology as worse than the other and more important to make sure that nobody, be they Holocaust revisionists or members of the Russian Government, attempt to portray them as anything less than legacies of the worse kinds of terror known to mankind”.

The same can be said for the Communist crimes committed in Croatia during and after WWII. Regardless of the fact that Croatia’s former president Stjepan Mesic, the president of the Serbian National Council in Croatia Milorad Pupovac and others have expressed similar views to Zuroff’s on the matter of pursuing justice for victims of Communist crimes, Croatia’s government and opposition should continue in the path commenced with Boljkovac, Manolic and Bulat.

If some call this historical revisionism so be it. After all, some truths of history have been tarnished, important parts left out or skewed by political forces and a revision that surfaces the truth is welcome.

Properly processing (without political burdens) suspected communist crimes is the only way that the people will place their trust in justice. With that they will have an opportunity to build a strong future, untouched by mistrust that lack of punishment and pursuits against Communist crimes create. Ina Vukic, Prof.(Zgb);B.A.,M.A.Ps.(Zgb)