Keepers of Communist and Serb Crimes in Croatia Suffocate Progress

Croatia is surely one of the most fertile grounds in the world for historians, political analysts, social psychologists, and those in fervent pursuits of truth to study and stand back cringing in disgust at the open and palpable tactics utilised by former communists (under the mask of antifascism) in the prostitution of transition from a totalitarian regime into a democratic one. If we adopt the position of labelling the hiding or desecrating the truth about crimes committed as a wicked act (if not criminal), then the coalition of Croatian HDZ and SDP governments in the past decade or so with the SDSS Serb minority in parliament reminds us of a joint wicked enterprise. A kind of a political joint wicked enterprise that strips the dignity off the defender of Croatia from brutal aggression. The joint wicked enterprise whose task manifests itself in the hiding, in the twisting, in the distorting of truth of countless crimes perpetrated by Yugoslav communists/Partisans against the Croatian people seeking independence in both World War II and by Serbs in the Croatian Homeland War of 1990’s as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

A normal, compassionate government would not even contemplate on forming a coalition with those who attacked its people from inside, like rebel Serbs living in Croatia at the time and their family members, joined in these crimes by Serbs from Serbia. A normal government of Croatia would know what it meant for its democracy-loving people in early 1990’s when the Serbs engaged in relentless and brutal campaigns of ethnic cleansing, expelling Croats (in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) and other non-Serbs from their homes, wreaking mass murder, rape, torture and devastation.  

This type of government coalition is much about blaming the victim – freedom loving Croat in this case – and justifying or shutting a blind eye at mass crimes perpetrated by communist Yugoslavia partisans during WWII and after it, as well as multitude of those committed by communist Yugoslavia nostalgics during the 1990’s war of Serb aggression. This type of government by participating in and tolerating such distortions and belittling of the historical truth of the territories populated by communist agendas and the agenda of Greater Serbia stifle and suffocate true democracy. It is in their interests to do so, otherwise the acknowledgement of communist crimes for the depravity they represent would sink them utterly and completely into the garbage bin of history, where they belong. The pursuits of secession from communist Yugoslavia in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during 1990’s aimed to achieve exactly that: dump communism and its totalitarian regime into the garbage bin of history. While these pursuits were successful militarily and with heroic gumption of Croatian independence fighters, they encountered monumental failures after the War ended. The communist mindset grew wings in its efforts to redeem the unredeemable monstrosities of Yugoslav communists and their Serb echelons. Anyone attempting to show the truth, to research the truth, to lift Croatia where it should have been decades ago after the Homeland War ended, well rid of the communist mindset and its stinking corrupt heritage, finds himself, or herself, labelled revisionist and still fighting for dignity of the good fight it fought when seceding by the will of the people from communist Yugoslavia.      

 Given that such government coalition in Croatia has also scooped under its wings the mainstream media, the truth and horror of Yugoslav communist crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of Serb-perpetrated crimes, suffers deeply. It’s difficult to say how long the truth-loving people will need to keep investing their energy in disputing the communist filthy mantra that communists liberated Croatia in 1945 and showing-up Serb denials of depravities they committed against Croats during 1990’s. The strong communist mindset thriving within such government coalition in Croatia has placed often insurmountable barriers on the road of achieving full and functional democracy since the Homeland War ended completely in late 1990’s.

The month of July is as telling as any month of the year where we see examples of such despicable approaches to historical truths.

The historical village of Srb belongs to the Boricevac parish in Croatia that in Spring of 1941 saw, at the hands of communist partisans, great human and property suffering and destruction of Croats. Their houses, church, parish residence, were burned and destroyed. All the Catholic faithful of this parish, about two thousand of them, had to leave their centuries-old homes, and unfortunately, to this day, their descendants have not realised the right of return. The inhabitants of the village of Ivezici, 37 of them, failed to escape and all were murdered and thrown into a pit, near Brotnja, on Dabin peak. In 2017 their exhumation was carried out and they were buried in the Catholic cemetery in Boricevac. And yet, one will not find this historical truth in any Croatian mainstream media. What one will find there in relation to the historical village of Srb is the Serbian National Council of Croatia, supported by the government, holding a commemoration dedicated to the so-called first antifascist uprising (against the fight for independent Croatia). The fact that horrific crimes were committed by anti-fascists against local Croats during the uprising is not mentioned anywhere where the Croatian Serbs in coalition with the government have a say. The pure truth is not a pastime the so-called antifascists of Croatia have any time or will for.

A sad state of affairs in Croatia, indeed!

This day (24 July) in 1992, the village of Brisevo in the municipality of Prijedor, became a torture and hell for the Croatian people, wrote retired General and former Member of Croatian Parliament, Zeljko Glasnovic (pictured above), on his Facebook page last week, 67 Croats were brutally killed. Everyone to the last was a civilian. The Serbs beat the killed Croats to exhaustion, cut the tendons on their arms and legs with knives, cut off their flesh from their bodies, slaughtered them, stabbed them in the body, cut off their noses, ears, genitals, ripped their bellies, broke their ribs, bludgeoned them with clubs and hoes, forced mothers, wives and children to observe the brutality and abuse of men after which women and girls were raped. You will not hear about this monstrous crime in the Croatian media. Brisevo has never existed for the Croatian media! For, the people need to be kept in ignorance, in guilt and obedience of every kind. This is the testimony of one girl (Helena Komljen, from the book on Brisevo victims by Frano Pilipovic and Ivo Atlija) who survived this horrific massacre:

“I was 13 and I remember everything well. I know we couldn’t escape anywhere, we had to stay at home and wait for our fate. As a child, I didn’t understand it all, although I used to hear Mum and Dad talk so I was scared I was also afraid that the infantry would destroy and kill us all, and I had no idea what infantry was. I thought about how we could hide and run away somewhere, although all that when I think about it now was impossible. So, the days passed in fear that some grenade may hit us, because they also shelled us sometimes as well. Then came the worst day of my life, July 24, 1992, when I was left without everything by Serbian soldiers. No family, no friends, no childhood. Only my little brother was left with me. I don’t know what it would be like if he wasn’t with me afterwards. It was morning and we all got up, Nedo Mlinar passed by our house and told us that we had to hang a white sheet on the house and that no one would touch those houses. It was then that all of us with white sheets perished. Everything was the other way around.

Around 12 o’clock, exactly what we were all afraid of – happened; the infantry entered the village. We were in the house when they threw a Zolja rocket on the roof, I was in the bathroom, I could only feel the pieces of the ceiling falling on me and the dust and hissing in my ears. We all ran outside in panic to hide in our grandparents’ basement because we didn’t have a basement in our house. My brother managed to run to my grandparents, my mum and dad managed to hide under our house, and I stayed in the middle, neither here nor there. They started firing at me in bursts, I saw bullets near my feet crashing into the ground and raising dust, cutting down plum branches and then suddenly, I fell. As I fell bullets flew over me. God was with me and saved me, that’s what I felt then. Dad thought I was hit, he called me from the side and when he saw me looking at him, he told me to get up abruptly and run to them as fast as I could. That’s what I did, and they didn’t shoot then. Then they called from above from the hill that we should all come to them otherwise they would come and kill us all, even the children they emphasised. Then my dad said, there’s no life here anymore. And of course, to save ourselves since we couldn’t escape anywhere, we went to them.

My dad immediately recognised a man who went to school with him, told him you could have killed my daughter. The same man and a few others took my dad, my grandpa and my uncle somewhere. My grandmother, mum, brother and I stayed there with the others. There were about 20 of them on that road. Grandma told them she would bring them food and water and they told her she was talking too much and that she wanted to poison them. Then one completely young man, maybe 16 years old, came to me and played with a knife in front of my face. Grandma said nothing more, she was afraid he might kill me. I was in shock, I no longer felt or feared, I didn’t care, like in a movie, in fog and I don’t know where. We were all silent, mum was holding my brother and me and grandma were sitting next to each other on the ground. Then again one of the Serb soldiers started shooting near my ear in the direction of the forest. Mum and grandma begged him, don’t, then one came to mum and said, ‘how about we kill your son, he will kill us when he grows up.’ She told them in a sad voice, don’t please, he won’t kill anyone. At that moment, 4 or 5 of them were returning, taking my dad, grandad and uncle, bloodied pants, and shoes. When grandma saw that she just cried and told her my kids are dead. They came and showed us their legs how they were wounded, how the Ustashas wounded them and that the blood on them was from the Ustashas. I will never forget my grandmother’s and mother’s face, that fear and that sadness, and they kept silent because every word could mean death for them.

Memorial to victims of Serb crimes in Brisevo

They told us to go to the weekend cottage nearby. As we were going up the one that killed my dad, grandpa and uncle said grandma stays because she talked a lot. We went on and entered the cottage. After 5 minutes two shots were heard. At that moment, I felt that my grandmother was dead. Mum looked at me and that look of hers full of fear confirmed once again that grandma was dead. She was holding my brother in front of her, and I was about 2 meters away from her. They told my brother to come to me and my brother came to me. Then, a Serbian soldier slapped my mother across the face and told her that she was a whore and that she was giving birth to Ustashas. Then, I noticed right across from me one person I knew, it was M.I., and I was hoping he could help us. I begged him with my eyes to do something or say something, but he just kept quiet. Even in his eyes there was fear. He later told me that he tried to tell a soldier, but he told him to keep quiet, otherwise he would kill him if he tried to save someone. Then they told my brother and me that we had to get out of the cottage because a soldier was waiting for us on the main road to take us to the command. We went out and I thought it was our turn now. The one who said that to us came out with us, drew his gun, and told us to run. We did that, we ran lightly, waiting for the bullet to pierce our backs, but it didn’t fire. Good luck again and God’s help. As we moved running like that, we passed our grandmother lying dead on her back, her arms folded beside her head as if praying to God. Blood was still dripping from her forehead, her eyes closed as if asleep. My grandmother, whom I loved the most in the world and without whom I could not sleep a single night, now I look at her dead in that worst way. We passed by that too and down the road a man was waiting for us. He told us sadly, oh dear children this is a war, and I will take you to safety to the command. I don’t know who that man was, I never saw him again. We went that way and then he left us with Dule in the command. So, it was a command for them.

They kept us in the attic for a few days to survive somehow, gave us food and water. There were, I don’t know anymore, exactly, maybe about 15 people. I just cried and cried day and night. In order for a group of Serb soldiers to pass, they would enter the house near Dule, and they wanted to inspect the whole house in case anyone hid. As for my mother, she was left alone in the cottage, she was taken back with 4 soldiers to the house, they raped her, bit her, tore pieces of flesh from her chest and then took her out from under the house and shot her in the head. Everyone heard her cries and moans. A few days later, my mum was buried by her brother himself and he confirmed it all. Later, my brother and I were in Ljubija with Ned Dimac and Nada and their children. They helped us a lot, they fed us and took care of us for 2 months, for sure. After that, my brother and I went to Croatia by bus. It was very difficult, years of fear and bad dreams, a big black hole in my heart and a broken childhood.”

Ina Vukic

Fortunate are the countries spared from communism after WWII

Serb rebel leader Jovan Raskovic at Srb, Croatia, 25 July 1990

Had Milorad Pupovac, president of the Independent Democratic Serb Party in Croatia, demonstrated better care and respect for the multitudes of innocent Croatian and non-Serb victims from early 1990’s in his speech at the 71st anniversary of anti-fascist (communist) WWII uprising against fascism in Srb last Friday, then this celebration of antifascist uprising would represent a heartfelt tribute to victims of fascism. But no, Pupovac went on to say that 27th July was the day when some people should hang their heads in shame, but that does not include those at the ceremony.

Wrong!

Vecernji List portal further reports that Pupovac said: “with sadness we must talk about the victims of Croatian villages in this area who fell as a result of beastly Chetnik occupation that acted in Srb. Those that had no ideas for togetherness, idea of common freedom like antifascists and partisans had”.

The reality is that there were present at Srb (last Friday) descendants, or relatives, or neighbours of the 1990’s Serbs who imposed horror in Croatia.

Pupovac could benefit from lessons in historical facts as well as in human compassion if he truly wants effective reconciliation between Croatia’s Serbs and Croatia’s non-Serbs.

The historical fact associated with Srb is that both sides murdered and slaughtered. While fascists slaughtered 300 Serbs around the place of Srb, the Serbs (Chetniks) – close to those celebrated on 27th July went on to slaughter and destroy the whole Croatian village in the nearby Boricevac in the night between the 1st and 2nd of August 1941 (those Croatians from that village not murdered were banished from the village).

The so-called uprising in Srb on 27 July 19941 is considered by many to have been a criminal Chetnik action. Documents confirm that mainly Serb Chetniks took part in this uprising and that, beforehand, they made an agreement with Italian fascists, hence, this celebrated Srb uprising should be called a fascist-chetnik operation rather than antifascist.

The salt rubbed so brutally at last Friday’s Srb celebration into the Croatian victims’ wounds has little to do with the fact that the celebrated so-called antifascist uprising against the fascist or Nazi WWII occupation of Croatia  in Srb on 27th July 1941 or that the Serb-led antifascist conglomerate slaughtered many Croatians in the same week of 1941 in Boricevac, but has a great deal to do with the fact that it was the place of Srb that marked the beginnings of the planning of the horrible Serb aggression in Croatia in early 1990’s.

That is, some 100,000 Serbs assembled in Srb on 25 July 1990 and made a declaration establishing the Serbian Assembly in Croatia, with the seat in Srb, as political representation of Serbian nation in Croatia. This went on to embrace extreme Serbian nationalism in Croatia, barricading roads in Croatia from 17 August 1990, leading to the proclamation of the Republic of Serbian Krajina within Croatia’s territory, instigating the abhorrent and brutal war of Serb aggression in Croatia.

The fact that Croatia’s former president Stjepan Mesic took part in these celebrations in Srb on Friday 27th July 2012 only evidences how cruel towards the plight of victims of Croatian Homeland War (early 1990’s) he is. Were he as antifascist as he claims, were he for freedom as he claims, he would, as honorary president of Croatian antifascist association, make an effort in contributing to the healing of the still fresh Croatian Homeland War victims’ wounds so that ethnic reconciliation in Croatia can make more positive headway.

But no, Mesic, I believe, has rarely – if at all – protected the legitimate interests of Croatian people as a nation. He often finds himself in such controversial situations that might throw a negative light upon Croatians where there is no negative light.  And that cannot be by accident.

Several dozens of protesters against the antifascist celebrations at Srb, last Friday, sent a clear message of pain that still exists, unhealed in Croatia. But, Mesic twisted and poisoned that fact by accusing the protesters of trying to equate the WWII fascists with WWII antifascists.

What can one say at the claims that the territory of Yugoslavia is strewn with mass graves of victims of communism while bypassing the graves of victims of fascism … we need to fight against that,” Mesic said.

The reality, which Mesic conveniently misrepresents, is that the graves of victims of fascism are not bypassed, indeed they’ve been well marked and many monuments raised to the victims. The reality is, also, that perpetrators of WWII fascist crimes have been brought to courts over the past decades. The reality is, also, that no monuments have been raised to the victims of WWII communist crimes in Croatia and the perpetrators of those crimes have not been brought to courts.

So, Mesic has certainly shown no compassion for any victims and used the Srb opportunity to throw a yet another spanner in the work of those who pursue justice for victims of all crimes – particularly victims of communist crimes. It’s heartwarming, though, to know that there are many in Croatia who see this and don’t shy away from making their points and claims known through the media.

Croatia’s antifascists attempt to use Srb of 1941 to demonstrate that there were some Serbs in history who fought for Croatian freedom (against fascism) could be construed as a measure of a reconciliation process between Croats and Serbs, but such an interpretation fails miserably in the knowledge that it was the very place of Srb where the roots of Serb carnage in Croatia of early 1990’s were planted.

The antifascists could be no crueler nor crasser than this. Absolutely abominable. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

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