Cardinal Vinko Puljic (bottom centre) leading an online prayer
of Croatians across the world on Saturday 23 May 2020
Photo: Screenshot

“There is method in the madness” idiom originates I believe from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1602). Whoever wishes to subscribe to practicing double standards vis-à-vis victims of crimes, in order to justify an oppressive political regime such as communism, is on their own as far as humanity is concerned. Or at least, it should be that way!

There is no spectacular revelation one can make today regarding the radical evil of Yugoslav communist regime (and all other communist regimes particularly in Eastern Europe). That is, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 what has emerged from the secret archives (and there are still many more to be examined once full access is granted) and other verifiable sources regarding the former communist regimes confirms the long-held view that communists engaged in revolutionary and brutal civil war to accomplish the total transformation of the economy, society, and culture. What is disturbing even more is the comprehensive and systematic justification of communist crimes that defines the method in the madness that is plaguing the world and humanity well into the 21st century. When comparing the number of victims of the communist regimes (between 85 and 100 million worldwide) with the number of people who perished under or because of Nazism (25 million worldwide) then in comparison by numbers of victims one can capture the dimension of horror of communism and its follower’s vicious attempts to avoid due condemnation of communism.

When despite the fact that the European Parliament had late 2019 declared communism, Nazism and fascism as criminal regimes of the past, Croatian politicians and antifascists celebrate even today the 15 May 1945 as the day of liberation of Croatia the world is brought to its knees in despair and misery that lies can inflict upon humanity, upon common sense, upon decency and dignity – upon the truth we seek and strive for.

Let’s get this straight Croatia was not liberated in May 1945 – Yugoslavia was liberated from masses of people who in WWII fought for liberation from oppressive Kingdom of Yugoslavia, led by Serbian Monarchy, so that communism could be installed. Whatever WWII Croatian Independent State (NDH) may have done, whatever crimes may and have been committed in the name of that state the irrefutable fact remains that an overwhelming majority opposing communist forces fought for an independent Croatia and did not indulge in committing crimes against anyone or anything. And for this they were punished, massacred, banished into exile, oppressed … and for this they are being punished and vilified even today!

The communist sympathisers’ protest in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in front of the Catholic cathedral when Cardinal Vinko Puljic held a commemorative mass on 16 May 2020 for the communist Yugoslavia victims at Bleiburg, Austria, in May 1945 and months and years that followed WWII, and the support these protesters rustled up from the World Jewish Congress, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a number of former communist operatives from former Yugoslavia including its last President Stjepan Mesic attracted worldwide media coverage, which clearly exuded madness that attempts at justification of communist crimes promote. It is in essence pathological madness that is exuded. To discriminate among victims of true crime is a pathological trait that lingers on among human society, making it a truly sick one. The Mass in Sarajevo honoured all innocent victims of the war and post-war era, including all those killed without trial.

The protests or objections to this mass in Sarajevo rested on the rhetoric that hundreds of thousands of Croatian people murdered by Yugoslav communists after WWII ended do not deserve remembrance and respect owed to all victims; that they were murderers of Jews in WWII, of Serbs, of Roma; that they were all Ustashe or fascists…  In New York Times one could read:  “Honoring ‘the genocidal Ustasha state (NDH) is not only an insult to its victims and their families, but also to all those who opposed the crimes committed by the Ustasha,’ the Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement on Thursday…” The Times of Israel, Reuters, The Associated Press, Haaretz, Al Jazeera America,  Deutsche Welle etc all promulgated and fired up the protesters’ views and opinions regarding the commemorative mass for victims and barely any promulgated the views and opinions of those who stood behind such a mass; indeed they were labelled as revisionists of WWII fascism and nationalism.

What a sad, sad time for humanity and truth!

If the protesters and their supporters think they scored new points for justification of communist crimes they need to re-examine their conscience, and reality! Nothing was gained from this protest and media frenzy apart from new lies added to the list of methods and tools communist followers use in order to justify the unjustifiable.

About 200,000 soldiers from the WWII Croatian defence forces marched to Bleiburg in May 1945 and about 500,000 civilians (including the elderly, women and children) went with them. They wanted nothing to do with communist Yugoslavia. They all wanted an independent Croatia, away from Yugoslavia.  Isn’t self-determination a right that the world celebrates?

The Sarajevo protesters in front of the Catholic Cathedral on May 16^th and their supporters, including the Jewish World Congress and Simon Wiesenthal Centre are saying to the world that all those among the 700,000 Croatians fleeing communist Yugoslavia at the end of WWII – out of which more than 500,000 were murdered by that communist regime post WWII – deserved to be killed so brutally and massively because they all committed crimes against others!

They did not! If among them there were individuals that may have committed crimes during the War that did not and does not justify accusing of crimes without evidence everyone who was there. It is a depravity; it is evil to do so.

Talking to Croatian Catholic Radio, Cardinal Vinko Puljic said that “the Church has always respected innocent victims” and that the mass was not intended to celebrate anyone. He added that a “crime cannot be defended by (another) crime.”

“We want that double standards in respecting the victims of hatred and massacre be stopped,” Cardinal Vinko Puljic said after he held the mass in Sarajevo for victims of communist crimes.

Due to coronavirus restrictions only about 20 people attended the service which, like the protest, ended without incident. It is the world’s media passing on the WWII pro-communist sentiments and crimes’ justification that turned the mass into a spectacle of disorder; a disorder where certain crimes are justified on political grounds, devoid of humanity.

Cardinal Vinko Puljic
Photo: Fena

Sarajevo Times reported on May 17:

“In a sermon during the mass in the Sarajevo Cathedral on Saturday, Vrhbosna Cardinal Vinko Puljic pointed out that the victims of Bleiburg and all victims of hatred cannot be spoken of without ‘special tremors of the heart’ and that this is the main reason why he agreed to lead the Mass on the anniversary of 75 years of suffering in Bleiburg.

Prayer is the most sacred act, an act of respect, remembrance of them, the price of freedom that we build,’ stated Cardinal Puljic and added that this is how the evaluation of living is renewed. Cardinal Puljic said that the fate of peace was largely entrusted, not only to official state institutions. Human justice must prosecute crimes – said the cardinal, but also added that justice stands far from any blind urge for revenge and is guided by the common good.

We owe equal respect to every victim,’ – said the bishops and added that ‘liquidations without a court are always a grave crime before God and people.’

The Archbishop Puljic reminded that he was born in the time of Bleiburg, that all these years, as he said, the graves of the victims were not discovered, that they died without trial, ‘by the arbitrariness of those who boiled without hatred’. That is why yesterday he prayed for the victims of the Bleiburg field of Jasenovac, Glina, Srijemska Mitrovica, Dravograd, Sarajevo, Foca, Siroki Brijeg …

When the silence will rise from these graves depends on today’s authorities,’ said Cardinal Puljic. He added that a climate of coexistence, forgiveness, trust and reconciliation should be created here and today.”

The executions and mass murders known as “Bleiburg massacres/genocide” (although most murders happened away from Bleiburg once the Croats fleeing communist Yugoslavia were forcefully handed back to Yugoslavia by the British forces there) remained a taboo topic until the breakup of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. A large event to commemorate the victims has for many years been held annually in Bleiburg. The Bleiburg commemoration of 2020 had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic and masses such as the one in Sarajevo were held instead, in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The protesters against the mass in Sarajevo and their supporters viciously attacked the holding of the mass also on grounds of coronavirus related restrictive measures – that it should not be held, that rules of restrictive measures must be adhered to by those who commemorate victims of Bleiburg. However they failed to do the same for the commemoration for the WWII Jasenovac camp victims (Jews, Serbs, Roma, Croats) held only several days before in Croatia!

Alarmingly, the antifascists (or communists in this case, wearing a cloak of false antifascism) do try forcing different rules for different “classes” of victims even though all are in one and the same class: victims!

HE Eric Nelson, the U.S. ambassador to Bosnia, said for the public, Radio Free Europe, on May 15 that commemorations should “focus on remembrance, not revisionism. Especially this year, when we mark the 25th anniversary of the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, it is important for everyone to focus on two values of democracy – reconciliation and inter-religious dialogue.”  The U.S. Embassy in Bosnia called “on those organising the Bleiburg commemoration in Bosnia and Herzegovina to refrain from historical revisionism and retrograde rhetoric.” It is a pity and a shame that he even said that – since when is commemoration of victims a revisionism in the sense his words implied! Be that as it may, the facts of history must be revised. We clearly see the need for that when the protesters in Sarajevo and their supporters from the above-mentioned Jewish organisations and also Serbian Orthodox Church actually accuse, abominably, all of the 500,000 and more Croats murdered and executed by the communist regime of Yugoslavia as having been murderers themselves during WWII.

Some might call such commemoration as the one in Sarajevo an “opening of old wounds” but it’s blatantly evident that those who call it that with a view of criticising it have a great deal of guilt to hide. It is obvious for the sake of peace, for the sake of truth, that factual revision of WWII history of Croatia (written by the communists and their sidekicks) is no longer a choice. It is a must! Ina Vukic