Vecernji List – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Exclusive Interview With General Ante Gotovina

December 7, 2012 by inavukic 5 Comments

General Ante Gotovina – November 2012 Photo: Filip Brala/Pixsell

An intimate confession by General Ante Gotovina given in his family home in Pakostane after his acquittal in The Hague

Authors: Jadranka Juresko-Kero, Davor Ivankovic, Goran Ogurlic

Published in Croatia’s Vecernji List 26^th and 27^th November 2012. (http://www.vecernji.hr)

(Translated into English by Ina Vukic)

“I believe that our destinies are written in God’s book, and so too the fact that as a young man I went into the world and became a soldier. I believe that it’s also written in there that I return as an experienced soldier and help the homeland that was under attack in the war it did not want”.

Translated and re-published on this blog with permission from Croatia’s leading daily newspaper Vecernji List

The complete interview with General Ante Gotovina can be read here

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ante Gotovina, Croatia, Davor Ivankovic, Dunja Gotovina, Goran Ogurlic, Jadranka Juresko-Kero, Luka Misetic, Vecernji List

Joint injustice against Croatia so far – Joint justice from now on

September 23, 2012 by inavukic 8 Comments

Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac

Video now with subtitles in the English language!

Joint Injustice (Udruzena Nepravda) – a documentary film
Produced by Vecernji List newspaper, Croatia
Author and Director: Jadranka Juresko-Kero, August 2012

All participants in this documentary film are independent professionals who have no association whatsoever with the ICTY in the Hague, with its Prosecutor or with the Defence of Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.

Participants are:
Mirjan Damaska, Law Professor, Yale University, USA
Brian Gallagher, British journalist, UK
Mishka Gora, Historian, writer and humanitarian aid worker from Tasmania, Australia
Robin Harris, Historian, writer, adviser to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, UK
Neven Sesardic, Professor of Philosophy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Goran Visnjic, Actor – widely known for his role as Dr Luka Kovac in the hit TV series ER, USA, numerous Hollywood and Croatian movies the latest of which many know is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Ina Vukic, Psychologist, writer, humanitarian aid worker and author of “Croatia, the War, and the Future” blog, Australia

Documentary film “Joint Injustice” is a Vecernji List newspaper and journalist Jadranka Juresko-Kero story about the court process against Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, about the workings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague, about the effects of the original ICTY Trial Chamber judgment, and explains possible judgments of joint criminal enterprise that implicate the whole of the Croatian nation.

The film talks about the participants’ experiences and opinions on the workings of the Hague Tribunal and about the original judgments against the Croatian Generals, who expect the ICTY Appeal Chamber to deliver its decision in December 2012.

All the participants in this documentary have followed closely the work of the ICTY Tribunal for many years and conclude that the court proceedings demonstrate failings of an ad hoc court and that the judgment against the Croatian Generals dated 15th April 2011 was delivered on the basis of inadequately confirmed and inadequately legally relevant evidence.

They talk of the repercussions a confirmation of the original judgment against Gotovina and Markac might have upon Croatia, especially those allegations dealing with criminal enterprise and deportations of Serbs during the military operation “Storm” in August 1995, which liberated Croatian territory from Serb occupation.

This film is the result of the labour of love for truth and justice! Enjoy and spread the good word here and via Youtube video above about Croatia’s struggles amidst brutality to become independent and democratic. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Ante Gotovina, Brian Gallagher, Croatia, Goran Visnjic, ICTY, Ina Vukic, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Jadranka Juresko-Kero, Joint Injustice, Mirjan Damaska, Mishka Gora, Mladen Markac, Neven Sesardic, Robin Harris, Udruzena nepravda, Vecernji List

In pursuit of justice – Communist crimes

November 7, 2011 by inavukic 2 Comments

On Friday 4 November 2011 The widely read and acclaimed Huffington Post published an article :

“Josip Boljkovac, Croatia Former Interior Minister, Arrested Over Post-WWII Killings”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/josip-boljkovac-arrested_n_1071271.html

Public debates ran hot last week in Croatia on the issue whether an anti-fascist from WWII should be apprehended and tried for war and post-war crimes. One could have easily understood from those who spoke against the arrest that the terrible crimes Boljkovac is suspected of having committed were not as important as the fact that he was an anti-fascist.

Having read the article published in the Huffington Post I reacted and commented. The Huffington Post published my reaction:

Ina_Vukic | Nov 4, 2011 9:39 AM EDT

“The sources or contributors for the article seem to exclude the Croatian side, and gives an impression of yet another unfair attack on Croatia and its integrity.It would have been more credible if Mr Elan Steinberg corroborated his accusations against alleged Croatia’s failure to prosecute criminals from WWII by providing actual names of persons that should have been prosecuted but weren’t. The reference to Stipe Mesic’s (ex-president of Croatia) words that Boljkovac was a proven “anti-fascist” somehow alludes to the idea that anti-fascists were incapable of murder and mass murder, or that if one was an anti-fascist and murdered innocent people he/she could not be called to account for such heinous crimes; not even for the brutal filling with corpses hundreds of mass graves in Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina in 1945 and after – the documented vicious deeds of so-called anti-fascists. At the end of the day, with lots said, everyone deserves justice including the anti-fascists. So wouldn’t the world be a great place if Croatia was allowed to prosecute, with due process and in an orderly fashion, the alleged murderers on evidence they have?! In February 2010 prominent European politicians, former political prisoners, human right advocates and historians signed a Declaration on Crimes of Communism which called for the condemnation of communism. Ina Vukic, http://www.inavukic.com”.

On the 5^th of November 2011 Vecernji List (http://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/mesic-treba-rascistiti-sa-svim-zlocinima-koji-su-se-dogodili-clanak-343329) from Zagreb published an article quoting Stjepan Mesic (former president of Croatia): “A long time ago I said to Karamarko that the antifascist’s battle was the brightest page in Croatia’s history. To wrestle out of a most horrible evil in the history of mankind, we have done that. Were there crimes committed in that? Probably yes … It’s a 70 years distant event but we haven’t heard of a single piece of evidence. They are only indications, but I wouldn’t enter into the police’s work.”

The article further states that Mesic had sent a message that the crimes of anti-fascists have to be viewed in a historical context and that the law should not protect anyone. He also stressed out that all crimes that occurred in that region must be cleared.

The crimes of anti-fascists have to be viewed in a historical context! According to Mesic!

Would that mean that historical events such as WWII victory should be used as an excuse for mass murder of innocent people?

Does that mean that because communists or anti-fascists gained victory and power over Yugoslavia in 1945 their war crimes are not really bad crimes, or that being an active anti-fascist is a mitigating factor in the crimes of murder?

The only historical context that comes to my mind for those WWII mass murders – if they were committed – is that they were committed. It does not matter where or when – murder is murder and nothing can excuse nor mitigate it.

I gather (from Mr Mesic’s past public statements) that when he talks of “a most horrible evil in the history of mankind” he is talking about Nazism/Fascism… BUT the facts of history are that many, many thousands of innocent Croatians who were neither pro-Nacism/Fascism nor pro-Communism lost their lives in mass graves of Communist/ Anti-fascist war crimes and post-war crimes.

Croatia was and is filled with millions of people who had no political affiliations nor sympathies with either Ustashi or Communists during and after WWII.

Hundreds of thousands had emigrated or fled to the West – distancing themselves in their daily lives from that harsh political dichotomy which was imposed upon the Croatian people, as though nothing else existed, without any regard to those who stood firmly outside it. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb), B.A.,M.A.Ps.(Syd)