Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia: Roll Up Roll Up – Political Circus Still In Town

December 11, 2021 by inavukic 3 Comments

President Zoran Milanovic (L) Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (R)

The circus is still in town!

Its tapestry is tragic, widespread political despair and divisions.

Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen, open up your wallets and come and see the biggest show in town. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Grab a ringside seat while they last.

See the fearless Andrej Plenkovic and intrepid Zoran Milanovic high wire double act. Hold your breath as Andrej tries to keep his balance while Zoran vigorously shakes the wires and – vice versa. They both defy gravity, somehow keep their grip. How many days can they stay up on the wire? Will they fall and tumble to the ground? There is no safety net. Or is there? They are both very experienced at mudslinging, offloading own incompetence and biases to keep walking the wire of power.

Croatia has been in a political crisis ever since the former communists grabbed power in 2000. And the crisis is turning into a political circus unseen anywhere else and painful to watch. Prime Minister against the President, the President against the Prime Minister.

But there are times when one needs to step back and see that some things the President says are the things many in Croatia think but dare not say. The issue is here will the President follow his statements and ensure that changes needed are put in place or will all this talk be just another round of empty rhetoric that brings scores on the proverbial daily political points popularity chart.

Zoran Milanovic appears to be increasingly positioning himself as shooting from the hip, straight-talking man of the people and appears to have lost all caution in choosing words to highlight problems Croatian people are having both in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with regards to the 1990’s Homeland War and war of Serb aggression. He is certainly overshadowing the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic whose patriotic phrases, if they by some seeming accident roll off his tongue, are laboured and insincere. Milanovic has picked up on a significant anti-government mood in Croatia that has become highly politically inflammable and the feeling that anti-government mood with his daily comments and statements keep the media and the public wondering where all that will end. Whether President Milanovic will do a backflip on his current public appearances that in some aspects give overdue credence to the values of the Croatian Homeland War is yet to be seen. He has done backflips before.

There is a significant anti Covid-19 vaccination movement in Croatia and vaccination levels are relatively very low even in this fourth pandemic wave with thousands of new cases every day and dozens of deaths from or with Covid. Picking up on this “anti- vaxxer” movement Milanovic burrowed his way into the public heart, and often in seems that public has forgotten that Milanovic stands for every painful anti-Croat breath communist Yugoslavia has ever made. President Milanovic has for many weeks now been criticising the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing it of imposing repressive restrictions on the people, regardless of the fact that Croatia’s measures are in fact not among the strictest in the European Union. Milanovic has supported Covid-19 vaccinations but the fact that he is scathing various elements of Covid-19 measures such as wearing face masks for the vaccinated, the Certificates of Vaccination or Covid passes or the powers that the Civil Protection Board that brings the decisions related to Covid measures there is no doubt that vaccination levels are low because of the daily circus that goes on every day between the Prime Minister and the President.

Zoran Milanović, gave a statement to the media during this week and severely attacked Milorad Pupovac (One of Members of Croatian Parliament representing Serb Minority and leading activist in Croatia denying Serb aggression and genocide over Croats) and the representative of the Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina Sefik Dzaferovic for whom Milanovic said was a “UDBa activist from Zenica” (communist Yugoslavia Secret Services activist)…

Such an attack is both politically and morally justified for a great many Croatians in both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and it is high time someone so high on power ladder has brought it into the public arena.

“We hear in Parliament from Milorad Pupovac, Andrej Plekovic’s coalition partner (who was also my coalition partner five or six years ago) that the Croatian army committed ethnic cleansing at the beginning of the war and after the war. Things like that bother me. I was in Srb in 2008, I never saw Pupovac come to Bacin, where 70 elderly Croats were murdered in 1991, to Promin, where 40 people were killed in mid-1993… He is a man without any moral principles. He is like a jukebox, the more you insert five kuna coins, 25 kuna, the more you get.

But I see Sefik Dzaferovic, a sponsor of the mujahedin in Kakanj (Bosnia and Herzegovina), coming to Vukovar to provoke Serbs. He does not come out of reverence for Croats because he calls those same Croats and their country war criminals. That is the problem, and we will talk about it,” Milanovic said.

“Then Mr. Bakir Izetbegovic, who incited that UDBa operative from Zenica against me, called. There are always people who will shout at me, but people spit on Croatia. So then Bakir tells me that I should think a little more. I think and I have an attitude…

“No one will shut my mouth, not only me but not a single well-meaning man. I will always fight against manipulators and petty souls. The only thing they have in common is that they like to implant and parasitize, including the team from Sarajevo and Mr. Pupovac, who dishes out lessons on morality with everyone, but acts like a jukebox. The more you put in, the more you have. A man without any principles, moral and political “, said Milanović.

“I receive 80% of Croatian Serb vote, there are ten thousand of them, I have a right to say something about what bothers us…where are the war veterans now, to defend the people from Pupovac, where is the HDZ community of war veterans now … immoral people for whom the truth means nothing, who are corrupted because they have secured a job in government companies, who are paid for not working … and they easily walk over the insults that Croatia had committed ethnic cleansing, Knin was not ethnically cleansed, people fled from Knin and then 30% returned to Croatia…”he said, reiterating that Milorad Pupovac was playing dirty.

Incitement of chaos in Croatia has become a political circus and its main performers are the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and President Zoran Milanovic. While Kolinda Grabar-KItarovic was President of Croatia similar circus played out between the Prime Minister and President and Grabar-Kitarovic had often said in public that she has had no success in establishing a good working relationship with the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his government.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic keeps replying to some of President Milanovic statements, however his replies are an act of composure and seriousness one couldn’t metabolise even with huge blobs of the softest butter. He just does not seem sincere, and he has never pulled Milorad Pupovac over for his insulting threats and innuendoes against Croatian war veterans who defended Croatia from Serb aggression. Plenkovic has often said in public that the truth of Croatian Homeland War and its righteousness are not disputable but he keeps keeping close company in government coalition with the Serb minority that constantly criminalises that war, that constantly reeks of hatred for Croatian victory over Serb aggression in that war so, really, one cannot take Plenkovic as truly meaning his own words that the War truth is indisputable.

He has never acted on his words and defended that truth in front of the Serb aggressive lobby within his own parliament. What a travesty of justice towards own people and independence built on the foundations of that war!

This is a tragic reality for Croatia.

This time around though the difference is that this President, Zoran Milanovic, is not even complaining about the lack of good working relationship with the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. Milanovic appears focused on specific matters that may uplift values of the Homeland War, place Serb aggression where it belongs, do away with the cruel Serb-led equalisation of victim and aggressor, prop the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina to avoid the threat of being removed as one of three constitutional people and treated as an ethnic minority by the Bosniaks (Muslims).

Or – the political circus in Croatia may linger in town for quite some time. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrej PLenkovic, Bakir Izetbegovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Croats, ex-communist in Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Milorad Pupovac, Political circus, political crisis in Croatia, Sefik Dzaferovic, Ser Aggression. Croatian Homeland War, Zoran Milanovic

Croatia: Discord Between High Places Continues to Undermine Transitioning From Communist To Democratic Mindset

December 4, 2021 by inavukic 4 Comments

If one concluded from the political events that lead to developments of a cautious, unhappy and angry significantly sized pool of people in Croatia one could easily observe that the thrust of the government’s and the president’s policies include imposition of anarchy and the public’s rolling in discord as well as the continuation of corruption and injustice. Constructive suggestions to various matters are met with antagonism and disapproval as if people and government opposition are incapable o sound decisions and constructive proposals.

What a terrible, “knee-jerking” week it has been in Croatia again. Confusion, disappointments, anger, sarcasm…disgust! It is difficult to know who is at fault, for what seems to be a perpetual conflict between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Office of the President lasting several years. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was in constant conflict with the former President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (and she stemmed from the same political party as he/ HDZ) and is continuing the same with President Zoran Milanovic, who stems originally from SDP/ former League of Communists.

Given that both Plenkovic and Milanovic personally stem from the communist family stock that ruined the country, suffocating it by late 1980’s in astronomical rates and runaway inflation with “Hiroshima”-type of economic devastation largely due to corruption and theft, perhaps this is their way of ensuring that the Croatian people do not enjoy their deserved peace and order and prosperity? These days anything is possible in politics, and neither is clearly steering the country to the common goal of Homeland War values for which rivers of blood were spilled.

President Zoran Milanovic and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic continued with their vile squabbles, public rows, disagreements, and insults against each other on any theme that ruled the days of recent weeks. On the need for Covid-19 vaccination passes (the President is against them), on matters of defence and its Minister and the government’s purchase of used French Rafale fighter planes, on measures taken to control the spread of Covid-19 and its variants, or the measures or lack of them in the fight against corruption …

The HRT TV main news bulletin of Friday 3 December 2021 actually stated that “the system of the Croatian Public Attorney office is falling apart, which is evident when President Milanovic had said that HDZ will not punish the State Attorney Mrs Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek for her activities in trying to save the HDZ’s former Minister Gabrijela Zalac amidst serious allegations of fraud and misappropriation of EU funds (given to her ministry for purchase of computer software) and alleged bank thefts…” Suffice to say that the Croatian Parliament experienced this week an angry and loud lot in government opposition vying for the sacking of State Attorney Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek. The ruling party, HDZ, though, will not budge it seems and one of the Party’s Vice-Presidents Branko Bacic, a die-hard perpetual politician with morals and honesty reminiscent of morals of a lizard, whose expiry date has long passed for Croatian politics and progress from communism into democracy, appears as the worst offender in protecting that State Attorney in what seems to be a coverup of deep corruption of gigantic proportions when compared to the general public standard of living.

To clarify the issue here, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office EPPO has recently set up an office in Zagreb, Croatia – a body that will serve as watchdog over how EU funds granted to Croatia are spent. As I mentioned before in several my articles, in a former communist country where the “art” of thieving and corruption has been perfected such a body is essential and it may not be enough in tracking down and acting upon acts of corruption and fraud in Croatia. Almost on its first day running on Croatian soil EPPO caused on 11 November 2021 the arrest of Croatia’s former Minister for Regional Development and EU Funds, Gabrijela Zalac, pending investigations into founded suspicions of corruption in the form that includes syphoning off via fraudulently blowing up the cost of computer software needed to more than a million euros, which, it is claimed, went into private pockets. This saga continues and how it will end is anyone’s guess.

Former communists have a knack for dragging their feet when it comes to criminal processing of one of their own or of those that follow them. The government is refusing to even discuss the possibility that the State Attorney breached her duties if she protected the former government minister Zalac amidst solid allegations of fraud and corruption. It is becoming evident that the State Attorney, protected by the government operatives, will attempt any which way to tear down EPPO’s case for criminal proceedings against the former government minister Zalac. It is a pity that the parliamentary opposition has not got a sufficiently loud voice in this matter and a successful fight against corruption in Croatia still appears to be in people’s currently helpless hands rather than governments’. As corruption cases emerge more and more one wonders whether there will be a need in Croatia for “Storming of the Bastille” type of a scenario. Poverty is increasing, unemployment shocking (Covid pandemic not factoring into this equation) and intolerance towards the government grows sharper and louder. Confidence for investments from foreign countries spreads ever so bleak and miserably.

All this is happening while the United Nations expert publicly calls upon Croatia to clean its act and embark on a harder push for justice and better justice system. With former communists occupying both the Prime Ministership and the Presidentship it is, however, truly doubtful that either will make genuinely corrective steps to shape up Croatia’s justice system into a modern democracy where corruption is dealt with swiftly and mercilessly. The general perception is that all persons in powerful positions in Croatia are in each other’s pockets just as they were during the life of communist Yugoslavia. It would be a huge step in the transition from communism to democracy in Croatia if I were to be proven wrong in this.

“It is important that the Government gives an unequivocal sign to society and the international community, of its commitment towards a comprehensive and holistic transitional justice process aimed at addressing past abuses, preventing their recurrence and establishing the foundations of a peaceful and respectful society for all”, said Fabián Salvioli, a human rights expert, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, said in a 2 December 2021 statement at the end of a six-day official visit to Croatia.

While praising the “progress made after the conflict, and particularly during Croatia’s accession process to the European Union”, in prosecuting war criminals, searching for missing persons, and institutional reforms aimed at ensuring the rule of law, democracy and the promotion and protection of human rights, the UN expert observed however, that “progress appears to have stalled in the last seven years”.

The Special Rapporteur flagged rising concerns over “the prospects of effective social reconciliation, particularly as a result of mounting instances of hate speech, glorification of war crimes, and the relativisation of the decisions of the ICTY and national tribunals”.

While noting legislative measures adopted by the Government to curb the extremely worrying trend, Mr. Salvioli also pointed out that implementation was insufficient.

“I urge the relevant police, judicial, legislative and executive authorities to adopt all necessary measures to adequately respond to the raise in radicalisation and hatred expressed in certain sectors of society, to ensure that the steps taken so far towards reconciliation are not irremediably reverted”, he said.

Well, it would certainly seem that Mr Salvioli has a mind to belittle the actual truth as he criticises those who criticise the judgments delivered by the ICTY. He appears to tell us that whatever that International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague had said is the truth and nothing but the truth. That may be in some cases, but it is not so in all. And there is plenty of literature and writeups on that very issue to be had if one bothered to look.

Justice is certainly not seen as having been done in all cases processed by the ICTY and real justice depends on that “seeing”.

Mr Salvioli talks of radicalisation and hatred expressed in certain sectors of society! What else would a level-headed person expect from a country that had defended itself from a brutal Serb aggression to be brought to the place where it is today where the pro-aggression Serb minority form a part of the government and voice deplorable threats towards Croats, trying to cover up the crimes and aggression committed in Croatia. He recalled that “for a process of transition and reconciliation to be effective” it is vital to acknowledge the suffering and dignity of all victims.

Mr Salvioli and his peers should know that the Croatian people, victims of Serb aggression requiring defending own life and self-preservation, have not had a day of deserved peaceful existence to enjoy their victory over Serb aggression since the war ended completely in 1998. They have had to live their days poisoned by the politics designed to equate the victim with the aggressor. Mr Salvioli and his peers throughout the world need to assess that process and then come out in their efforts to teach nations lessons. If Mr Salvioli of the UN has not done that, and it seems he has not, then he can go and jump in the lake for all his words are worth. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andrej Plenković, Corruption in Croaia, Croatia, Croatian State attorney, EPPO, European Public Prosecutor Office, Fabián Salvioli, Gabrijela Zalac, ICTY Judgments, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Monitoring expenditure Euro Funds, Transitioning from Communism into Democracy, Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek, Zoran Milanovic

Croatia: In The Quandary Of Voting For A “Lesser of Two Evils”

December 28, 2019 by inavukic 24 Comments

Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (L) Zoran Milanovic (R)Photo: Pixsell

Voting is a matter of morality. It cannot be done without considering others as well as our own self. Voting often involves agonising moral trade-offs, agonising over the need to suppress one’s own political, ideological, economic ideals if one is to vote for one and not for the other. Decision to abstain from voting also is a moral matter that takes away the burden of complicity in the wrongdoing or wrong outcomes driven by the candidate we voted for because he/she is seen as a lesser evil than the other.

Hundreds of thousands of Croatia’s voters, who voted for Miroslav Skoro in the first round of Presidential elections, appear to be finding that if they vote in the second round they will need to vote for “a lesser of two evils”. The first round of Presidential election on 22 December has produced the result by which former and by many accounts ineffective Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic (Social Democrat, former communist, “left wing”) and Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (current “right wing” HDZ/Croatian Democratic Union backed incumbent whose work in her first mandate has bitterly disappointed multitudes and, hence, led to an unusually swift spiral rise [but not to the heights that would get him across the line] of her “right-wing” opponent Miroslav Skoro, who in his campaign asked HDZ voters to defect from HDZ and join him but, conspicuously, failed to ask the same of the Social Democrat Party/SDP members!) are set for an electoral duel on 5 January 2020, when the second and final round of these presidential elections are on. Those who are appalled by both the former communist left-wing echelons (backing Milanovic) and those appalled by the Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ right-wing echelons in government and who are backing Grabar Kitarovic are evidently now on edge to see which way Skoro voters will go on 5 January. In fact blatant calls for their vote are seeping through the media and political campaigns. Many of the so-called Skoro voters are now describing themselves, particularly in social media, as being placed in the situation of having to vote for a lesser of two evils and find themselves venting their agony and bitterness in public.

I guess, moral philosophy can help with the answers to problems of this kind. It can be permissible to vote for the lesser evil. But, without exception, if one does so, there is moral “small print” to follow. This, especially when it comes to how one acts afterwards towards those whom one’s vote has disregarded or who was judged as a bigger evil. No doubt, opting for the lesser evil leaves a moral residue. One can’t just make a choice and move on as if all is OK. It’s not OK. Morally one feels one has compromised oneself, and one’s real choice – one feels cheated and incomplete and, to a great extent morally and politically unclean. When voting for the lesser of two evils one feels the loss of power of conviction and heartfelt dedication.

“If Hitler were to invade Hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons.” — Winston Churchill. In Churchill’s estimation, Stalin was less evil than Hitler. Hence, the Allied Forces’ friendship with the Soviets: a marriage of convenience formed in Hell. Can it then be said that the Allied forces by the act of alliance with communist Stalin carry on their shoulders the heavy burden of the consequence of such alliance, which consequence saw the millions of victims of communist crimes denied the respect and acknowledgement they deserve?

A significant multitude of Croatian voters (over 400,000 voters at least, who voted for Skoro – and this in terms of the size of the Croatian electorate is a significant number) are now faced with the so-called lesser of two evils dilemma. Both Presidential candidates are evidently seen by them as lousy, in essence unacceptable and damaging to the Croatian national state and the values it fought for during the 1990’s Homeland War and, yet, they are made to feel that they are bound to vote in the January 2020 second round of elections; they’re frequently told that if they don’t vote they can’t complain! What a quandary to be in. On the other hand, the more politically adventurous (and perhaps brave) will say that free people get to complain whether they vote or not. After all, both the government and presidential offices are paid for largely from the taxpayer money and complaining can actually be quite cathartic, even clear the way for new political inroads, a third option as many in a two-party predominance would say.

Presidency is deeply personal, because the role is ubiquitous; the president is or is seen as he/she should be the leader, the father/the mother, the spiritual leader of a nation with a defined destiny. Hence, given the quandary Croatian voters find themselves in, while some will vote for what (who) they perceive as the lesser evil, I think that many will not turn out for voting on 5 January because the ballot paper does not include “None of the above” option (the preference they morally chose at the first round on 22 December).

As in many countries, in Croatia there is no legal duty to vote. One turns out to vote because one feels or knows that their vote does make a difference when a candidate for election actually represents that moral value, that national value and track record for which they themselves stand. But whether one is reasonable in choosing to vote for the lesser of the two evils, is not the same as being legally, duty-bound to vote.

In the Christian tradition and Western morality, it cannot really be said that “lesser of the two evils” is a moral doctrine, even if it does sound a lot like the doctrine (or principle) of double effect. The doctrine of double effect is often invoked to explain the permissibility of an action that causes a serious harm, such as the death of a human being, as a side effect of promoting some good end. According to the principle of double effect, sometimes it is permissible to cause a harm as a side effect (or “double effect”) of bringing about a good result even though it would not be permissible to cause such a harm as a means to bringing about the same good end. Even St Thomas Aquinas set forth the doctrine of double effect as permissible under the above “rules” so it is no wonder that Christians in Croatia may find themselves in a quandary as the one they are in at this stage of presidential elections run; some may feel that it is permissible to vote for a lesser of the two evils. Most, however, will find it an impossible task to see that any good is likely to come out from their vote for a lesser of the two evils. The candidates’ track record is their objective measuring stick, and it simply does not stack up to much.

And while I can’t speak for everyone, I know Christians are not exactly given the green light to “choose” any kind of evil. If one does choose it is entirely a burden upon their own personal morality.

Then one often comes across the worn-out argument that not voting constitutes a dereliction of one’s duty towards the common good. But experience tells us that common good is not always advanced by voting.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “catch-22” perhaps it can also be explained this way: Say the president of the country you belong to tells lies or defends both the good and the bad politics of the past. He or she says things that are demonstrably impossible to understand or believe. A lot.

Now say you’re an ethical person who does not tolerate lies or double standards well. All this lying is a problem. All the double standards are a problem. Control of the media is a problem for you – it reports the lies and the double standards and even attempts to provide some objective facts to back this up, make it look credible.

The more the media report the lies, the more the president lies. And if you didn’t report the lies, he/she would say his/her lies are true because nobody reported them as lies.

And so, observing the rhetoric, the calls for votes in the second round of voting, the calls to change one’s initial and first preference for a president when his/her candidate has not made it in the first round, the calls to switch loyalty because one or the other presidents will, if elected, be a disaster, the dilemma, the anger expressed by multitudes of Croatian voters in the past week one can conclude that the system and political undercurrents in Croatia have produced two undesirable candidates for great many, either of which will advance an ultra vires agenda in office. Can it then truly be said that anyone (who is dissatisfied with both candidates) has a moral duty to pick one of them? Ina Vukic