Korcula – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Victims Of Communism On Island Of Korcula Croatia

February 3, 2016 by inavukic 34 Comments

If you’re not with us then you are against us, and, therefore, you must be liquidated – that was the motto Yugoslav communist Partisans lived by during and after WWII.

“I did not even dare write about all the horrendous torment victims of Partisans on Korcula endured – Partisans in the village of Zrnovo were particularly cruel,” reports the Croatian Cultural Council (Hrvatsko Kulturno Vijece) portal as Franko Burmas having said.

The launching in Zagreb on Friday 29 January 2016 of Franko Burmas’ new book “Victims of communism on Korcula – searching for truth“, published by the Croatian Victimology Society and Biblioteca Documenta Croatica, brought back with live disquiet the horror stories I remember hearing throughout my childhood. The imagery of merciless brutality created by those stories in which hundreds upon hundreds of individuals from the relatively sparsely populated island who did not subscribe to Josip Broz Tito’s communist plans perished – murdered or thrown into pits alive – hit me with deep distress.

Franko Burmas (left) Zvonimir Separovic (right) Zagreb, Croatia 29 January 2016 Photo credit: www.news.korcula.net

Franko Burmas (left)
Zvonimir Separovic (right)
Zagreb, Croatia 29 January 2016
Photo credit: http://www.news.korcula.net

Narod.hr reports that Zvonimir Separovic, president of Croatian Victimology Society, Rade Kastorpil, president of Croatian matica in Blato/Korcula and the author himself, Franko Burmas, spoke extensively about the book, which serves as a testament of evidence of the brutality of Communist crimes on the Island of Korcula. It was just as well that an entertainment segment was included with this launch – thus making the revelation of this ugly truth of WWII and Post-WWII Island of Korcula bearable. The doyenne of the Croatian National Opera, Dubravka Separovic Musovic, accompanied by Eva Kirchmayer-Bilic on the piano offered a most welcome moment at this launch of evidence of crimes no person should ever be faced with, let alone endure.

But sadly, the world still lags far behind in condemning communist crimes than where it is and has been for decades with view to the crimes of the Holocaust. It is books like this one written by Franko Burmas that hold a candle for a brighter future where all crimes regardless of which political persuasion they hide behind are equally condemned and equally smothered with outrage and unforgiving wrath.

” Victims of communism on Korcula – searching for truth” by Franko Burmas is a witness to communist Partisan crimes committed during and after WWII on the Island of Korcula. Numerous pits in the ground and locations where executions of innocent people occurred – e.g. Vranina, Sibal’s feet, Paklenica, Butina, St Luke’s cemetery in Town of Korcula, St Cross cemetery in Blato on Korcula … all give witness to the “hatred and killing, trampling upon freedom, to the terrifying and unbelievable crimes, to the times when people did not know what awaits them tomorrow, where they are going, what to do,” says Franko Oreb in his Foreword to the book.

Section inside Butina Pit,
post-WWII communist crimes mass grave
on Island of Korcula –
Butina Pit mass grave
Photo taken October 2012

Franko Oreb says further in his Foreword that the truth of which this book speaks is horrific and painful and that it constitutes evidence of the terrible crimes committed by the communist regime in which people were swiftly punished, imprisoned, abused and murdered guided only by their suspicions, without bothering to provide for court trials or proof of guilt. It happened often that their death was not revealed and so even the official government office “Register of Deaths” did not include their names.

Oreb says that the book reveals a perfidious and a repressive face of government authorities connected to well-organised network of political and Party structures with the goal of keeping that regime alive and their status within it. The regime of those times successfully hid its crimes for a very long time causing a public veil of silence to cover them so that much dust and forgetting fell over the victims.

Old town Korcula, Croatia

The book itself is also a kind of Korcula’s martyrdom record in which the names of the victims of WWII and Post-WWII period Korcula are written and recorded. It’s a record of 85 grim and ghastly murders, some persons among them were from Dubrovnik brought to Korcula by Partisans as prisoners and liquidated there. Franko Burmas is a university trained and graduated lawyer with many years of experience and collection of data, including interviews with some people directly associated with the events, which have formed the foundations and factual body of his book. There were priests and intellectuals among the mass murder victims against whom the communist regime operators directed terrible lies and defamation saying they were enemies of the nation. And yet, all they did in life was dedicate their lives to the service of their people, to defending the faith, morality and the national sanctities. A list of more than several hundred of liquidated victims, thrown into pits, needs to be added to the ones named in the book as communist left no trace of names or the number of people they threw into pits such as Butina.

Blato, Island of Korcula, Croatia
August 16 2012
funeral for earthly remains
of communist crimes victims 1943
(including brother of dr Zvonimir Separovic)
Photo: Ika/HRSvijet

Alena Fazinic asserted: “searching for the truth brought the books author to conclude that liquidations were really an ingrained part of the communists managers’ system (who later to become authority holders – from those at the country’s top to those in the small communities such as Korcula) – if you are not with us you are against us, our enemy, and, therefore, you must be liquidated.”

That is how the communists of Yugoslavia kept people in fear and that means obedience and submission.

Franko Burmas’ book also points to the fact that after WWII the communist practice continued: through fear, persecution, imprisonment, torture, even by murder stop every attempt at freedom of thought and living. Burmas has documented his book well, with many photographs and documents and is to be congratulated for joining those heroes of today who have no fear in speaking out about the crimes of former Yugoslav communists. Now, all Croatia truly needs is a proper and just condemnation of these crimes and lustration from its important social points and public and justice administration all those who are or were associated with the operatives of communist Yugoslavia. Croatia needs names not just a reference to the system and the more names of those criminals brought out into the public the better for the murderous system did not exist on its own – individual people kept it going. And the most awful truth of this trail of horrid communist crimes is that “Korcula” from this book was replicated multitudes of thousands of time throughout Croatia of the former Yugoslavia, but also the other states there. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Zgb)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Alena Fazinic, Blato, Butina Pit, communist crimes, Communist Yugoslavia, Croatia, Dubravka Separovic Musovic, Eva Kirchmayer-Bilic, Franko Burmas, Franko Oreb, Josip Broz Tito, Korcula, Paklenica Pit, Partisans, Rade Kastropil, Victims of communism on Korcula - searching for truth, World War II, Zrnovo, Zvonimir Separovic

Croatian Knowhow Vital Role In Saving Venice

November 22, 2015 by inavukic 23 Comments

Steel barriers/floodgates
ready for shipment from
Croatia to Venice Italy
Photo: Brodosplit

Italian city of Venice is under serious threat due to the rise in sea level and sinking of land at an alarming rate. The MOSE project will protect the Venetian Lagoon from being submerged by the Adriatic Sea and protect the famous city of Venice and the neighbouring areas from flooding. MOSE, the Italian word for Moses, is an acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, which means Experimental Electromechanical Module. The name aptly alludes to the story of Moses parting the Red Sea.

Steel Floodgates to save
Venice Italy
Photo: water-technology.net/ adapted inavukic.com

After being successful at its tender to undertake the building of steel barriers/gates that are an important part of the very complex MOSE project, Brodosplit from the city of Split (Split Shipbuilding company) is well on the target and course to complete the building of 41 steel barriers worth 50 million Euro, reports the daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija. 2 barriers have been completed and are ready for delivery while 19 are in various stages of completion.
“The buyer requests high precision in the making of the steel gates and long-term anticorrosion protection. Very limited tolerances, the highest quality class and the amount of accompanying documentation make this Project much more demanding in technical-technological sense than what shipbuilding is. Brodosplit will deliver gates with dimensions 27-30 x 20 meters, 4.5-5 meters height and with weight of 300 tons.

Brodosplit Croatia
Split Shipbuilding Company Yard

Project is an integrated protection system consisting of a number of mobile gates that are capable of closing off Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when the tide exceeds established level (110 cm) up to maximal three meters. These are mouths of Treporti, Malamocco, Chioggia and San Nicolo. For construction of steel gates for sea Mouth of San Nicolo, the tender is currently open and Brodosplit submitted its proposal.

A set-up of 78 gates designed as special reservoirs filled with air or water, is foreseen. They will lay at sea bottom when filled with water, and rise towards the surface to close the Lagoon entrances when filled with air. After air is released, they will get filled with water again and lie at the sea bottom. During these several hours, Venetian Lagoon would be closed and ships could not enter it freely.

Steel barrier for Venice, Italy
Ready at Brodosplit Croatia
Photo: brodosplit

Brodosplit is extremely proud of this Project, just as whole Croatia, because it will remain forever registered on the list of countries that participated in one of the biggest construction projects in Italian history with overall value of more than 7 billion euro and thus contributed to saving Venice from big problems caused by tide.

This project proves that Brodosplit is capable to build not only ships, but very complex and demanding steel constructions and that it can compete with majority of world shipyards with its knowledge and experience,” states on the Brodosplit/ Split Shipbuilding Co, website.

Landsat image Venice

Landsat image Venice
depicting MOSE project

The natural-colour Landsat images above show some of the MOSE engineering efforts that are visible above the water line near the Lido Inlet. The top image was acquired on June 20, 2000, by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper+ on Landsat 7. The second image, from the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8, was collected on September 4, 2013. In 2013, a curved breakwater stands just south of the inlet’s south jetty. On the lagoon side of the Lido Inlet, a new manmade island appears; it houses the buildings and plants that operate the gates, which are underwater in two arrays on either side of the island. On the north side of the inlet, a manmade harbour for small vessels includes a small lock system that allows boats to pass from the lagoon to the sea when the gates are raised.

Since the beginning of MOSE construction, five million cubic meters of sediment have been excavated from areas adjacent to the lagoon’s three inlets. The $8.8 billion dollar project has encountered some scientific, environmental, and political objections about disrupting the natural water exchange between the lagoon and Adriatic.
The Lido Inlet gates were successfully tested on October 12, 2013, and operators aim to have the MOSE system fully functional by 2016. Certainly, all indications are that Croatia’s Split Shipbuilding Company “Brodosplit” is keeping its role in the project to save Venice up-to-date and on time, having signed the contract to construct the steel floodgates with the Italian company Costruzioni Mose Arsenale, COMAR, in January 2015.
After international tender, Consortium Venezia Nuova decided that Brodosplit was the best tenderer among the strong competition and it was officially selected as builder of steel gates for the two mouths. Total project that will be executed by Brodosplit includes over 12,000t of built-in steel.

“Under threat of sea level rise, endangered architecture and numerous floods at Piazza San Marco and surrounding streets, Venice could become the dying relic. However, with Brodosplit in action there is a realistic and definite chance that this gem of culture in the Adriatic would be preserved for the centuries to come, “ Tomislav Debeljak, Brodosplit Chief Executive Officer, pointed out.
Well done, Brodosplit!

Korcula Croatia
House where Marco Polo Was Born

Croatia’s participation in saving Venice also has historically-emotional significance as several parts of the Dalmatian coast had once and for number of decades been taken over by the Republic of Venice (696 – 1797) where on the Island of Korcula, in 1254, Marco Polo was born to parents who were Venetian merchants living in the old town of Korcula for several of Marco’s early childhood years. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Brodosplit, Croatia news, Croatia to build floodgates that will save Venice, Croatian news, floodgates of Venice, Island of Korcula, Korcula, Marco Polo, saving Venice from Flooding, Split Shipbuilding Croatia, Venice, Venice MOSE project

Croatia: Bridge over troubled water

September 28, 2012 by inavukic 16 Comments

Peljesac Bridge Photo:BBC.co.uk

Connecting Croatian territory into a continuous body of land has become addled by political rumdumm from all sides (Croatian and Bosnian and Herzegovinian). The issue of Peljesac Bridge that would provide for the uninterrupted access to all Croatian districts and land, border issue, hots up as Croatia’s imminent entry into the European Union draws nearer to July 1, 2013.

As things stand now, persons wanting to travel by car from northern part of Croatia into Dubrovnik, Peljesac Peninsula, the islands of Mljet, Vis, Lastovo, Korcula etc must enter Bosnia and Herzegovina and 5 kilometers later re-enter Croatia. And vice versa!

Membership of the EU, which is supposed to lead to membership of the EU’s Schengen area of borderless travel, requires stricter checks at the border and having Croatia broken into two as is now will mean greater disruption of trade and tourism. Bosnia’s problems with organised crime and people-smuggling mean that those tougher checks cannot be relaxed or overlooked.

The idea to build Peljesac Bridge arose among Croatians in 1997 and rejected in the same year. In 1998 the idea for the bridge gained support. In 2000 the bridge was added to the spatial plan for the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. The building works on the bridge commenced in November 2005, under Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ government. Then came concerns by eco-activists that building the bridge may cause damage to sea life in the Bay of Mali Ston (which flourishes with Oyster & Mussels farming). These concerns proved unfounded, and then came new opposition to building the bridge on economic grounds. I.e., that the bridge would cost too much money; that an undersea tunnel would cost less; that some new deal could perhaps be made with Bosnia and Herzegovina…that if the bridge was going to be built it would need to be at least 55 meters high to allow for biggest ships – as nearby seaside Bosnia & Herzegovina town of Neum might want to build an industrial port one day!

Between 2007 and 2008 tenders were called by Croatian government for the building of the bridge. Works on access terrain to future bridge started from both sides in Autumn 2008 under the Croatian Democratic Union government, with 2015 nominated as the year of completion.

In late 2011 when Social Democrat/SDP led government took over in Croatia they terminated the building contract already in progress worth about 259 Million EURO. Early 2012 Zoran Milanovic led government said that ferrying people across the Bay would be less expensive. That fell into the wastebasket as a terrible idea and one that still does not join all Croatian territory. Then the SDP led government came up with the idea that a road corridor through Bosnia and Herzegovina would perhaps be better. In the meantime Tomislav Karamarko, leader of HDZ opposition, insisted that Peljesac Bridge must be build. That coincided with EU coming into the party – suggesting EU funds could perhaps be used to build the bridge, and certainly 200,000 EURO have been put aside last month for a feasibility study (even though a feasibility study exists from before) for the bridge.

But this rumdumm ain’t over yet, and one cannot avoid the impression that someone out there doesn’t want to see the Croatian territory uninterrupted.

Along come new complications in the past few weeks. Bosnia and Herzegovina are disputing the border around the area where the bridge is to be built. I.e., a document purporting to represent an agreement between dr Franjo Tudjman (President of Croatia) and Alija Izetbegovic (Bosniak member of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Presidency) in 1999. This is a border agreement with which Croatia reportedly transfers to Bosnia and Herzegovina the tip of the Klek peninsula and two tiny islets Mali and Veliki Skoj near the proposed Peljesac bridge site. The Milanovic government decided recently to pass the agreement for ratification in Parliament, thus causing fiery disputes in Croatia’s public domain, which grew into delicate attacks between President Ivo Josipovic and the government, stirring the spirits among experts too. The document is reportedly ratified by the lower chamber of Bosnia’s parliament and whether it will be ratified in the Croatian parliament is yet to be seen. There are new calls against possible swift ratification, including comments by Tomislav Karamarko, leader of HDZ opposition, that late President Tudjman was very ill at the time in 1999 and may not have been fully informed or aware of implications of the so-called agreement.

The political plot thickens around Peljesac Bridge and southern Croatian beauties such as Dubrovnik and Korcula, with significant population and tourism industry remain cut off from the bulk of their homeland.

While according to international law Croatia has the right to connect its territory by building a bridge, Bosnia and Herzegovina also has a right to a free access to the sea, but the madness in this is that some think that if Peljesac bridge were to be built it might need to be over 75 meters high in order to cater for the possibility (wishful thinking) that one day the largest of passenger cruisers might just pay a visit to Neum; others say that Bosnia and Herzegovina might want to build a commercial harbour in Neum which means one needs to provide for tall industrial cranes, up to 75 meters or so!

Bosnia, headed by foreign minister Zlatko Lagumdzija, says the bridge threatens its access to open seas and would prefer a closed road corridor in the hinterland above Neum.

Well, there seems to be at least one sober person in this madness: klix.ba portal reports that Neum’s mayor Zivko Matusko welcomes Peljesac bridge and does not want his municipality split in two by the corridor Croatia’s SDP led government still hasn’t put to rest. Matusko urges the parties to sit down, reach an agreement and stop trading with territory. He rejected a possibility of building a cargo port in Neum, saying that the town’s strategy was to develop tourism and the terrain and sea depth around Neum are simply not suited for large commercial port. He said that a maritime port could only be in the nearby Croatian town of Ploce.

With all the idiocy Lagumdzija swivels around about big ships and cranes filling little Neum’s foreshores in some distant future the Croatian government seems to have forgotten that a great proportion of its population lives in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and deserve, have a right to, uninterrupted access to the rest of Croatia, and vice versa – as soon as possible. It’s not just entering EU that’s important in this matter, it’s the right of Croatia to connect its territory into a united whole and a bridge is the best solution. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)