Miro Kovac – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Fragmented Body Politic – Symptom Of Lost Control Over Croatia’s Socio-Political Destiny

March 13, 2020 by inavukic 15 Comments

Photo: Alamy.com/ licensed/copyright (c)

Fragmentation of the so-called patriotic (domoljubne), usually dubbed as right-wing, body politic in Croatia has never been more vigorous than at the present time. All parties and political movements (and there are many) involved proclaim either in words or implications a vigorous critical loyalty to Croatia and, ultimately, to the values of the 1990’s Homeland War. However, regretfully, although all proclaim same or very similar political-social goals, burrows that separate them from each other appear insurmountable.

Fragmented body, say many an academics in the world, symbolises castration anxiety as well as loss of control; in this case over national direction. The emergence and seemingly flourishing on life-support from sections of the electorate of more than 150 political parties in Croatia vying for power, espousing a desperate need for change, may be construed as evidence that control has actually been lost in Croatia especially over the process of full democratisation as espoused in the values of the Homeland War.

In recent years, it has become obvious to all but the willfully blind that much is not well with the Croatian self-determination and ordered liberty to be had in a functional democracy where red tape and corruption are minimised (where detrimental practices inherited from the communist Yugoslavia era are thoroughly weeded out from society and public administration).

The signs that something is seriously wrong are myriad:

a degree of political polarisation unprecedented since the era when Croats won the bloody war of Serb aggression in 1990’s through which independence was won – through which Croatia seceded from communist Yugoslavia
a bitter and debilitating culture war between and within both the left-winged (mainly former communists) and right-winged (who pursue decommunisation and Croatian national identity in accordance with Homeland War values) political spectrum that appears to define and/or steer everyday life of even ordinary people;
the erosion of the bonds of civic amity and emergence of a civic culture animated by mutual hatred and contempt based on political ideology and directions in which Croatia should develop and assert its place in the democratic world;
a pervasive cynicism and a growing crisis of legitimacy of all or any party or movement body politic;
the seeming loss of any notion of an overarching common good to which private interests must be subordinated and resultant understanding of politics as a zero-sum game;
and what might be called “gridlock” wherein the fragmentation of the national body politic into a plethora of competing interests (more often personal than not) whose conflicting and ever-escalating demands induce something akin to political paralysis. (Most Croatians are acutely and keenly aware that the system is broken, that public institutions are not functioning the way they should in a democracy but seem unsure as to how to fix this.)

Indeed, Croatia (as do some Western countries) seems to be witnessing the rise of what several political scientists call “anomic democracy” in which democratic politics becomes more an arena for the assertion of conflicting interests than the building of common purposes. A common purpose for Croatia, as the values asserted via the 1990’s Homeland War tell us, is that of democratisation and decommunisation. The latter encapsulates the absolute need to rid the country of the totalitarian-like control in all aspects of state authority and expression whether it be in user-friendly legislation that promotes economic growth, an independent judiciary or balanced mainstream media etc.

In fact, so divided does Croatia appear and so dysfunctional has its politics become that it feels like being in the midst a “cold civil war”. The vitriol that gushes out between people of differing political allegiances is often suffocating. Perhaps herein lies the reason why true national leaders, whom a significant portion of people trust, are practically non-existent or, at least, invisible, or not afforded a chance to shine in the environment of many egocentric or “I know best” players.

Croatia’s critical public consensus regarding secession from communist Yugoslavia was at its peak during 1990’s and the Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ led this field of goal-focused national harmony. Then came year 2000 and increased subversive political activities from former communists which resurrected Pro-communist Yugoslavia nostalgia in at least 30% of the Croatian national body politic. This, undoubtedly, led to the collapse of the overwhelmingly widespread consensus as to how Croatia should develop and a disastrous and shameful treatment of war veterans from the Homeland War. The results of such a collapse in consensus is a society that begins to disintegrate into collection of warring tribes. The most striking example of this occurs when a society explodes into bitterly opposed camps that, disagreeing fundamentally on the moral and political principles that should govern public life, are ultimately unable to coexist in peace. It is not rare to come across people in Croatia who believe that nothing bar “gunpowder” will save Croatia, i.e. bring it back to the point of “Croatia above all else” that was in the 1990’s! On a lighter or less dramatic note, as the public philosophy that united Croatian people in the 1990’s gradually disappears, the society splinters into a multitude of hostile groups – a multitude of political tribes, as it were, which far from viewing each other as partners in a common enterprise and exhibiting an attitude of trust or civility toward one another, will instead view each other with hostility, fear and resentment.

At the same time, insofar as decisions on public policy involve the use of means to achieve social goals, the loss of shared purposes make decision-making increasingly difficult, if not impossible. If we can’t agree about where we are trying to go, how are we ever going to agree about – or even rationally discuss – the best means to get there? In short, the groups into which the polity has fragmented will be increasingly unable to reach agreement about public policies, increasingly reluctant to make compromises, and increasingly unwilling to sacrifice their own interests for the good of the community as a whole. Thus, unified action on the part of the community will become increasingly difficult if not impossible and political paralysis increasingly possible. The machinery of democracy continues to operate, but effective governance becomes impossible. The end result is the loss by the state of its legitimacy, its moral authority.

Today in this year of General Elections due around September election platforms are already being formulated and it is not unusual to come across the slogan or rhetoric that goes something like this: ”We will return Croatia to the Croatian People”, “We will return the government to the people”, etc. These emerge from a number of political parties or movements, particularly those who have positioned themselves on the right-wing or conservative side of the political spectrum.

But, how can you have “government by the people,” without having a people?

Surely, the multitudes of political parties and movements – the many personalities vying for the top, result in the scattering of votes (people) that would form that critically needed consensus for the country. Today in Croatia, pluralism has grown to the point where, we’ve reached the stage where we are ceasing to agree even in basic respects on what man is and how he should live, where morally and intellectually we can scarcely be considered one people. This is particularly visible in the shambles and political trade-offs regarding the importance for Croatia’s sovereignty of the Homeland War. The ever-growing loudness of pro-former-communist regime via left-wing parties and political movements, aggravates the critical consensus for national direction to a painful level. Hence, the common body of cultural capital on which Croatia has historically traded is disappearing noticeably, and its political institutions have become increasingly dysfunctional in that they fail to adhere to common good and insert into the “national” the “personal” interests. As for what the future holds, insofar as the prospects for re-establishing some type of substantive consensus any time in the foreseeable future seem slim, it seems likely we’re looking at dysfunction as far as the eye can see. And, that is not, to put it gently, a happy prospect.

Our politically fragmented country, as reflected in the current heated political factions, created an embankment foreclosing the opportunity for the creation of real discourse. The impetus is on us, the citizen, to act as catapults and destroy that wall, and partake in holistic discourse with one another, to push for and stand behind a leader who has not lost sight of why Croatia fought for independence and has the skill and supporting “machinery” to avert the possible disaster of the loss of Croatian identity and will. This thought, or rather wish, leads me to the beginning of this article regarding the fragmentation of the patriotic body politic.

On Sunday March 15^th the Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ (current major political party holding a coalition government) is holding Party elections, characterised by the split of the party into two evidently viciously warring camps. Current President Andre Plenkovic and his team on one side and Miro Kovac and his team on the other – each asserting that they are the right people to reinvigorate this fragmented party into what it once was – a party to be looked up to by a large proportion of the nation’s population. The implications of this rest on the realisation that even the Croatia’s major political party, that ushered in Croatian independence and secession from communism, has lost the critical consensus regarding where Croatia should go or should be; one faction claiming to be “more Croatian” than the other. Furthermore, also on the right-wing of politics, there are a number of political parties and movements and independent politicians vying for a similar outcome if elected into government at this year’s General Elections. The leading groups opposing HDZ’s control of the right-winged or patriotic electorate are the Croatian Sovereignists (led by Hrvoje Zekanovic and made up of a number of smaller political parties and individual activists) and their current coalition partners in the Parliamet (Block for Croatia/Zlatko Hasanbegovic and independent MP Zeljko Glasnovic) as well as the newly founded Domoljubni Pokret (Patriotic Movement) headed by Mirislav Skoro.

There does not seem to be much movement on either the left or the right side of the political spectrum to reel into their fold voters from the opposing ideological camps. This of course suggests that nationally, ideological divisions still prevail and, hence, attachments to individual politicians rather than party programs (for all the people regardless of their political ideology). Political ideology defined life during the communist Yugoslavia era and it seems it will take some serious work in order to free the people of this burden, and encourage them to look beyond political personalities when voting. Otherwise, fragmentation of body politic will continue to flourish even though the race to secure a cushy position for the individual politician and not for true representation of voter or constituency needs is obvious, and in essence disliked by the very constituency.

As socio-political actors, it is time when people and politicians need to realise that they are not on a crusade when it comes to Croatia as a legitimate State; rather, that they are, at this time of severe fragmentation of body politic, on an exploratory expedition to bring Croatia to how it was imagined and fought for during the Homeland War. Croatia is independent, sovereign and as such has the capacity and validity to make its own decisions for national welfare.

While the end-goal of electoral politics is winning, it should also be more about the advancement of certain programmes and policies. In a democracy it is the latter that brings in votes. And when faced with the reality of electoral or body politic fragmentation arrived at through personal ambitions of individual politicians, unless critical consensus is reached between them, leading to programme-framed and managed coalition – victory is poor, if at all existent. An interesting six-month period for Croatia and its progress into full democratisation and national identity – coming to your door! Play your part for Croatia! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Andre Plenkovic, Block for Croatia, body politic fragmentation, Croatia, Croatian Democratic Union, Croatian political parties, Croatian sovereignists, HDZ, Hrvoje Zekanovic, Miro Kovac, Miroslav Skoro, Zeljko Glasnovic, Zlatko Hasanbegovic

Judenfrei Serbia – The Right To Forget!

January 28, 2018 by inavukic 43 Comments

Zeljko Glasnovic,
Member of Croatian Parliament for the Diaspora
26 January 2018
Photo: Screenshot

The concept and practice of political correctness that has evolved during the past couple of decades has also given rise to the phenomenon of oppressive righteousness that is in many ways misguided and incomplete, hence, giving rise to a need to push back against it when it spills over into absurdity, and injustice.

Thursday 25 January 2018, ahead of the international marking of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January) Serbia opened at the UN building in New York an exhibition, called “Jasenovac – The Right Not to Forget”. On the face of it and given the occasion one can support the ethos and the core of human identity that trickles through such exhibitions: remembrance of victims of all crimes.

However, that ethos for Serbia’s exhibition at the UN becomes an insignificant secondary matter, even visibly and disturbingly unintended by the exhibition’s organisers (Serbia) when one focuses on the fact that in this exhibition Serbia – once again – omitted to remember its own WWII Holocaust victims. It has, one could say, forgotten the 94% of Serbia’s WWII Jews its WWII Milan Nedic government exterminated by May 1942, thus becoming boastfully one of the first “Jew-Free” (Judenfrei) nations in Europe. What this exhibition at the UN demonstrates clearly is that Serbia doesn’t really care for the victims of the Holocaust, for perpetuation of remembrance of the Holocaust victims, but it does care about covering up its own Holocaust history and pointing the guilty finger at Croatia and camp Jasenovac. Serbia of today demonstrates the continued oppression against Croatia in similar ways it operated during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and during the post-WWII communist Yugoslavia.

Using half-truths and lies has evidently become the material of Serbian leadership’s genetic makeup.

Perpetuating the false (brazenly increased) numbers of Holocaust victims that perished in Jasenovac – when reality of victim numbers was most likely up to ten times less than what Serbs claim, purposefully distorting history, when facts point to Jasenovac being an extermination camp for communist Yugoslavia purges (headquartered in Serbia) years after WWII ended, perpetuating its lies that Croatia’s Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac was a Nazi/Ustashi collaborator when independently researched facts (e.g. Dr. Esther Gitman) show that he saved both Jews and Orthodox Serbs during WWII, can lead only to one conclusion: Serbia’s propaganda agenda continues to fixate on vilification of the Croatian nation of today and of the past.

It is, therefore, an indisputable, albeit an act of human depravity, that Serbia, with the help of political lobby coming from the likes of Israeli Holocaust selective historian Gideon Greif and Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s shallow but politically bent Efraim Zuroff , has with this UN exhibition given itself “Judenfrei Serbia – The Right To Forget”.

It’s a shame that official Croatia hasn’t responded determinedly to this UN exhibition regarding the Holocaust and mounted its own exhibition in the same UN building, at the same time – exhibiting the truth and including all Holocaust victims within the territory of former Yugoslavia. But then, to come up with such constructive, just and enlightening response to Serbia’s exhibition requires a good will and determination and unity for exhibiting WWII truth, which appear to be calamitously lacking in Croatia. The corridors of Croatia’s government power-wielding echelons have been and are destructively riddled with communist Yugoslavia sympathisers in whose personal interests it is to permit Serbia to do as it pleases when it comes to guilt for sins committed against humanity during WWII – as long as the communists of the time are thus shielded from having to answer for their own sins against humanity!

Certainly, Croatia has plenty of capable and professional academics, historians, researchers, politicians, clergy, journalists and activists who have (especially after the 1991 secession from communist Yugoslavia) been pointing to and unveiling the facts about Jasenovac, about Blessed Alojzije Stepinac, about the WWII Independent State of Croatia – all of which facts blow the Serbian and communist Yugoslavia propaganda out of the water! But, these people act in relative isolation from each other so that such demonstrations of truth appear as personal endeavours rather than a nationally coordinated one. Official Croatia has done absolutely nothing to rein in the wealth of information and facts, which point to its true WWII history (not the one generated by Serbia and communist Yugoslavia).

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said at the Belgrade-sponsored Jasenovac exhibition’s opening on Thursday evening that its goal was to prevent the deaths at the concentration camp in Croatia from being downplayed. “The goal of this exhibit is not just to introduce the international public to a lesser-known chapter of WWII. It is also to warn about the dangers from a revival of the ideology and political practice which led to such atrocities,” he said.

Apparently official Croatia tried to stop Serbia’s UN exhibition on bases that it promotes untruths and falsities but it withdrew from that upon discovery that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (a Socialist from his past political activities) had approved for the exhibition to go ahead even if he qualified that permission by saying that the UN has distanced itself from the exhibition and its content!

But the Croatian foreign ministry said that the use of Jasenovac for “everyday political and propaganda” purposes was “unacceptable”. The exhibit was prepared without the participation of Croatia’s Jasenovac Memorial Centre, said Croatia’s Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic Buric.

Maria Pejcinovic Buric
Croatia’s Foreign Minister
Photo: HINA

“We express deep respect for all the victims of the Ustasha regime and in the strongest possible terms we condemn all its crimes and particularly crimes committed in the Jasenovac camp,” a foreign ministry of Croatia statement said. “Because of the respect for the victims, we consider it utterly unacceptable to use the suffering in Jasenovac for propaganda purposes or the goals of daily politics,” it said.

Croatian foreign ministry response to the exhibition is fine but the Croatian government failed to capture and express the essence and the meaning for the Croatian nation this exhibition targets. Certainly, majority of people see that it is an attack on Croatia and its people because, besides posting falsehoods about Jasenovac, it actually implies that there is a threat of revival of the ideology in Croatia that led to atrocities of the Holocaust during WWII.

While Croatian politicians such as HDZ’s (political party with governing majority in the parliament) Miro Kovac reacted for Croatian media to Serbia’s exhibition with: “What official Serbia is doing now is, unfortunately, what was seen in the communist Yugoslavia, and that is a continuation of imposing a campaign of collective guilt and genocide against Croatians. Franjo Tudjman was strongly opposed to this…”, the official reactions have been inappropriately scarce.

Miro Kovac
Member of Croatian Parliament
Photo: fah

Given the heartbreaking effect this mean-spirited and inaccurate as to facts exhibition at the UN has had on Croatian masses in Croatia and abroad, one expected the Croatian Parliament to set aside a time in its agenda with view to drawing up a strategy that would protect its people’s future from such Serbian scum (sorry, I find it difficult not to refer to lies as scum). But no – no such ingenuity or fairness from that lot that’s leading that parliament at this time!

One saving grace for such a parliament, though, was the speech delivered in Croatian Parliament on Friday 26 January 2018 by the independent Member of Parliament General Zeljko Glasnovic, representative for the Croatian diaspora. Here is what he said regarding the matter:

“…Basic human rights are jeopardised in Croatia. Which rights? The right to equality before the courts of law, the right to private ownership … not even 5% of land titles have been sorted, and yet we impersonate a plural democracy…

…is the right to truth a basic human right? When we’re talking about the truth here you have an exhibition about Jasenovac on East River, New York … 700,000 victims – falsified history again …when are we going to comprehend that a large professional Greater Serbia brokerage still reigns in Croatia, here in this country, that purposefully hides the true lists of those victims not only from Jasenovac but from the Second World War… when are we going to be conscious of that …

…From abroad, we are looked upon exclusively on the basis of the history of the Second World War, we still do not have an official history of that period… seated here are some people…doctors of history, science etc…what’s happening here? Do we wonder about that… in Josipovic’s days there was 50% of people in the government cabinet who were collaborators of former UDBA (communist Yugoslavia secret services), members of the Communist Party, and Yugophiles, like Dejan Jovic, why are we astonished!

… they are paid…they are paid professional antifascists to hold Croatia on the prosecutor’s bench … they’ve crept into the media, into NGOs etc…what can we expect! … what’s with the archives we are trying to retrieve from Belgrade? I spoke about that in terms of succession (from Yugoslavia) that they must be returned … what has happened …Nothing… global public is still being deceived with them …

…Slovenia has written a book “Slovenia in 1945” mentioning 17,000 victims killed by the communists after WWII…naming almost all, released to the worldwide market…where are our victims …nowhere … total autism of our professional archivists and professional antifascists…and then we are astonished…the Armenians placed a DVD into Time Magazine some years back addressing their tragedy when they suffered under Turks…a total success …Ukraine…Holodomor …every city in Canada has a memorial to victims of communism …

…and Serbs are in front of us, they’ve formed a commission for war victims after 1944 … what are we doing about that issue, we have 18,000 names recorded…Roman Leljak went recently to Serbia and found lists of thousands upon thousands Croats killed in Serbia in 1944 … I’m giving this list I’ve written for the media to the government to see what’s happening here …

…what’s the inert Croatian diplomacy doing …nothing … the Memorial area Jasenovac … that exhibition now being held in New York …an agreement was assembled on 28th March 2017 between Serbia’s Ministry of Education and the Holocaust Institute in Israel, what is the response by the Jasenovac Memorial Centre which to this day falsifies Croatian history and its well paid for that …

…when are we going to condemn the Greater Serbia imperialism … the core of all evils in these areas … and here are seated some people who don’t know who attacked them … and I repeat that like a parrot until I’m six meters under … that the biggest problem here is Greater Serbia imperialism, which from 1912 to 1990 murdered hundreds of thousands in these areas …ether wearing the cockade or the five pointed star …

… and there is silence, he has been rehabilitated as Titoism, that murdered hundreds of thousands of people, has been … and while we stand here today to remember the victims of the Holocaust when are we going to remember the victims of communism … hundred million victims …

…what’s the worst here is that we have destroyed minds and brains among us … that is the biggest barrier for Croatia … communist mental heritage …

…and finally, what kind of a future does a country that pays for the falsification of its own history have … how can it conduct any international politics…horror!”

Video extract from Croatian Parliament Friday, 26 January 2018:

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress,” said on August 3, 1857, Frederick Douglass when he delivered a “West India Emancipation” speech at Canandaigua, New York, on the twenty-third anniversary of the event. Truer words said have been rare indeed when it comes to fighting oppression that perpetuation of lies and falsification of history bring. Croatia has many struggles on its hands in achieving the truth of its existence: a free and democratic state. The struggles though need to accumulate into a single, focused and organised force whose aim is to perpetuate the truth and shed the communist mindset and which has its heart in the Parliament – will this happen? We wait in expectation and anticipation. Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Alojzije Stepinac, Croatia, Efraim Zuroff, Esther Gitman, Gideon Greif, Holocaust, Holocaust exhibition at United Nations, Ivica Dacic, Jasenovac, Judenfrei Serbia, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, Miro Kovac, Right Not To Forget, Right To Forget, Serbia, Zeljko Glasnovic

Croatia – Momentous Day For Victims Of Communist Crimes

August 28, 2016 by inavukic 16 Comments

From Left front: foreign and internal affairs minister Miro Kovac, minister for culture Zlatko Hasanbegovic, defence minister Josip Buljevic, minister for employment and retirement Nada Sikic
Photo: vlada.gov.hr

23 August was the Day of Remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in Europe and this August 23rd 2016 the Croatian Parliament devoted itself to this remembrance for the first time since its independence and secession from communist Yugoslavia in 1991. Minister for the culture Zlatko Hasanbegovic representing PM Tihomir Oreskovic, foreign and internal affairs minister Miro Kovac, defence minister Josip Buljevic, minister for agriculture Davor Romic, minister for social politics and youth Bernardica Juretic, minister for employment and retirement Nada Sikic, minister for science, education and sport Predrag Sustar, members of parliament, diplomatic core representatives, members of the academic community and religious and business representatives made this day a truly great one for Croatia.

This has been a truly momentous day for Croatia’s democratic government.

This is so because the former communists, who call themselves antifascists even though they hold nothing in common with world’s anti-fascism due to the multitudes of crimes committed in their communist name and regime, holding power in Croatia throughout this past quarter century have been fighting fiercely against even the notion that communism left many innocent victims behind it, let alone acknowledging the awful truth of horrendous communist crimes and purges. The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism was established by the European Parliament Declaration of 23 September 2008 while the same parliament confirmed August 23 as a Europe-wide day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes by its resolutions dated 2 April 2009 on European conscience and totalitarianism. In 2011, Croatia’s lawmakers adopted a declaration designating 23 August as a memorial day for victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes but observance of this event, a commemoration, was never before brought into the chamber of Croatian parliament, instead gatherings occurred at the many mass grave and pits sites where remains of victims of communist crimes lay. The Croatian parliament 30 June 2006 passed a declaration on the condemnation of crimes committed during the totalitarian communist regime in Croatia 1945-1990, which states that all totalitarian communist regimes were without exception marked by mass violations of human rights.

By marking the Black Ribbon Day, Croatia joined most of the EU member states that, in accordance with a recommendation by the European parliament, advocate contemplation of delicate and complex issues from our collective past as well as its preservation so that next generations could learn from it and build coexistence based on democracy and respect for the fundamental rights.

Zeljko Reiner
Speaker – Croatian Parliament
Photo: Hina/ Tomislav Pavlek/ tp

Croatian Parliament Speaker Zeljko Reiner said on 23 August 2016 that crimes committed by Nazis, Fascists and Ustasha in WW2 had been prosecuted and punished while crimes “committed by Communists against tens of thousands Croats” had never been prosecuted nor punished.

Addressing the commemoration, Reiner further said that the Communist regime resorted to repression in an attempt to send into oblivion the existence of Croats and some Jews, Germans and members of their ethnic groups “who were killed only because they had a different opinion“. Reiner accused the Communist regime of persecuting and killing intellectuals, middle class members, clergy and nuns or the wealthy only to confiscate their property.
“In that, everything was wrapped up in a veil of silence and fear because the regime to its very end cruelly punished all who dared to speak about that… Instead of deserved punishment the criminals received medals, apartments and villas that were stolen from their victims, top positions not only in politics but also in administration, in companies, universities… Even in verbal condemnation of communist crimes we lagged by years behind other countries who previously had communism and had implemented lustration – they shone a light upon the dark era of their history and Croatia had not done that.”

Reiner went on to say that a kind of “deja vu ” of Nazi-Fascism happened in the form of spreading a Greater Serbia idea in 1990’s and the aggression against Croatia, and he called for bringing an end to manipulations with historical truths.

He called for “shedding light of the truth” on that dark side of Croatia’s recent history. “Generations brought up on untruths, on myths by which attempts are made to justify or at least minimise communist crimes and on keeping silent about the crimes have no future because, as St Paul had said a long time ago: ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness”. That’s why the European Parliament called upon all communist and post-communist parties in their member state countries, who had not already done so to review their communist history and their personal past, to clearly distance themselves from crimes perpetrated by totalitarian communist regimes and fully and clearly condemn them.”

Reiner said that the Croatian parliament expressly gives its support to democracy and all the values and human rights upon which it rests. “In doing so the Croatian parliament follows and promotes that which was expressed by the citizens of Croatia at the beginning of the last decade of the last century and for which more than 15,000 veterans had lost their lives.”

Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
with Nikola Stedul
survivor of 1988 assassination attempt in Scotland
by Yuogoslav communist secret police
Photo:Neja Markicevic/Cropix

On the same day, 23 August 2016, Croatian president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic bestowed a medal of honour “Stjepan Radic” to the former Croatian political émigré and victim of the 1988 attempted assassination in Scotland by Yugoslav Communist Secret Police UDBA Nikola Stedul for his exceptional and long-lasting fight for national and social rights and the advancement of the Croatian people. On that occasion president Kitarovic emphasised how it is time to “morally and politically condemn the Yugoslav communist regime as totalitarian and to implement judicial processes in order to determine the guilt for the worst kinds of state terror committed during those times”. I do hope that president Grabar will work harder at influencing the Croatian government and parliament into actually delivering the means by which the judicial processes she talked of will be possible and unhindered.

What a great thing it was to see that day when the Croatian Parliament consisting of many representatives that are directly associated with the past communist regime either through personal functions/job or as children or grandchildren of highly positioned communist operatives in former Yugoslavia actually got to remember the victims of communist crimes. Somehow though, the loudly calling for shedding of light upon those crimes in the Parliament, which actually is The place for the passing of laws that would enable such a lustration, does not leave one with full confidence in such a prospect of due justice. Unease niggles on. It’s election time in Croatia and former communists and pro-Communists are pushing to get elected into the new government. If they are successful, Croatia’s path to reckoning with communist crimes will once again be shoved backwards into corridors of darkness and injustice. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)