Vukovar – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Happy Birthday Zeljko and Davor Glasnovic

February 24, 2022 by inavukic 4 Comments

Zeljko Glasnovic (L) Davor Glasnovic (R)

This year, 2022, marks yet another jubilee to celebrate in the realisation of freedom for Croatia – the May 1992 front door entry as member state of the United Nations. Between 1990 and 1995 thousands of Croatian freedom fighters descended upon the battlefields of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from all over the world, sacrificing their lives and millions of them struggled to drive away the utterly cruel Serb and communist Yugoslavia aggression. The victory against the cruel and genocidal aggressor was glorious for Croatians and it was to usher in democracy centred around all people in Croatia and beyond. How the Croatian nation has fared, without shedding communism and its mindset from all of its public administration, social and political milieus, as promised it would the very day of announcing secession from communist Yugoslavia in 1991, over the last 30 years is something we sadly and bitterly resent, knowing we cannot change that past, but the future is in our hands. Communist mindset, corrupt behaviour in public institutions and government still hold the reins that keep Croatia back from becoming a full democracy.

It is a nation’s duty to remember not only the heroism but also the suffering that fight for independence that were and are etched in the history of its existence and its hopes. And such memory is stronger when heroism and suffering are personified in people we live with, people we know and people we trust. And so, today, 24 February happens to be the birthday of twin brothers Zeljko Glasnovic and Davor Glasnovic, who had at time of raging war of aggression in Croatia come from Canada to lend a crucially helping hand in the creation of the independent state of Croatia on the battlefields and to take a heavy load of suffering through wounds and in Davor’s case – unspeakable torture as prisoner of Serb concentration camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today still, they serve as example of steadfast hope and determination that Croatia will one day be strong enough to decommunise; to rid itself of the insufferable canker that communism is.

I wish Zeljko and Davor Glasnovic a very happy birthday and know that many join me in these wishes.

Zeljko Glasnovic is a general of the Croatian Army (HV) and the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and a politician.

Zeljko Glasnovic spent five years in the Canadian army, and a year and a half in the French Foreign Legion. In August 1991, he came to Croatia and joined the National Guard Corps. During the war he fought in Lika and on the Southern battlefield, and after the fall of Vukovar he moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Tomislavgrad where he had to train new units.

In April 1992, he took part in the fighting in Kupres, where he was seriously wounded. He received a bullet near his heart, and it was said that he told his comrades-in-arms to leave him with a bomb he could use on himself should Serb enemy approach and start drawing. However, his comrades did not listen to him, so they dragged him across the snow-covered mountains to the Franciscan monastery on Šćit in Rama, from where he was transferred to Split Hospital. He spent two months in a hospital in Split, after which, still not recovered, he escaped and returned to the Kupres battlefield. In October 1992, he took over the King Tomislav Brigade. At that time, his twin brother Davor was captured in Kupres and tortured in Serbian camps.

He was first politically engaged in the November 2015 parliamentary elections. He is known for his firmly right-wing political views, especially in the area of the need to decommunise Croatia, and until July 2021 he was a member of the Croatian Parliament for the Croatian Diaspora.

Zeljko’s twin bother Davor Glasnovic also returned to Croatia from Canada to contribute to the defence of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the war of Serbian aggression. He was a member of the Special Unit of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia / SP GSHV Battalion Frankopan. On July 31, 1993, he was released after 13 months of torture in that Serb concentration camp, without one ear, in plaster, with a traumatised body that included having his knees drilled with electric drill, skin on his back torn away and an unbroken spirit for the freedom of Croatia.

Here is what Zeljko Glasnovic wrote about his brother Davor on July 31, 2021:

“On this day in 1993, after months of torture and Golgotha in a Serbian camp, my brother was released. The DORH (Public Attorney) never did anything against his torturers, nor were Croatian institutions interested in talking to him. They were not interested in where he was but instead, he was on the Serbian list of war crimes suspects in an area where he had never been during the period he was in their captivity.

While our defenders with fabricated indictments are sent to The Hague, executed, called war criminals, their dignity mocked, their victimhood belittled and forced to pay compensation to the families of killed aggressors who attacked our country, amnestied Chetniks and their families have special privileges, pensions, statuses, honour, reputation and even power. They are victims! This is a paradox that will last until lustration is implemented and final liberation of the Croatian home, which is still in the jaws of Yugozomboids, in which all defenders will be restored to their dignity and in which all victims will be able to tell their stories out loud, their abusers will be punished, and justice will at least partially be satisfied. For there will never be true justice for the fate of all victims, at least not in this world.”

God bless and Happy Birthday!
Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Croatia 30 years member of United Nations, Croatian Defence Council, Croatian Homeland War, Davor Glasnovic, genocide, HVO, Kupres, Serb aggression, Serb concentration camps, Tomislavhrad, torture, Vukovar, Zeljko Glasnovic

Croatia: Vukovar Warriors Need Your Help For Computer Game!

October 17, 2021 by inavukic 2 Comments

Creating and developing computer war games for wide audiences across the world is, in my books, one of the most successful ways in demonstrating the Croatian truth, which is so often being twisted by the anti-Croatian propaganda. Computer games engage one, immerse one into the world of the truth contained in the game itself. Vukovar, during 1990’s Serb aggression is a symbol of how Croats fought for the Croatian nation against all odds and brutal murder and ethnic cleansing, and I was truly gladdened when recently I came across a project endeavouring to develop and distribute worldwide a computer game titled “Battle of Vukovar”.

As the HRT Croatian radio program broadcasted recently: “The biggest and bloodiest battle in the Croatian Homeland War (Vukovar) inspired young developers who started sketching and writing the script for the computer game Battle of Vukovar a few years ago.

They were joined by veterans from Vukovar in order to make the Vukovar War Computer Game, as hundreds of millions of people in the world play it, as credible as possible. After the Battle of Vukovar, the game will be upgraded with other operations and battles, until the never-before-performed action of the Fire Chariot.”

I came across the invitation for people, Croatian patriots, from across the world to join the game-building team and asking for donations, as well, so that the project may successfully be developed and launched and distributed. It is a very exciting project I believe and I hope there will be plenty of people taking up the invitation publicised by Mr Damir Plavsic who was one of the commanders in the defence of Vukovar during the Croatian Homeland War and was taken prisoner by the Serbian aggressor and taken to concentration camps in Serbia where he was tortured among many other Croats.

Damir Plavsic writes:

“JOIN OUR TEAM and ‘Don’t ask what the Homeland can give me, but what I can give for my BELOVED HOMELAND!’

INVITATION TO CROATS IN THE COUNTRY AND IN THE WORLD!

WE INVITE all Croats who can help us in any way in gathering the team and making the FIRST CROATIAN WAR GAME “Battle for Vukovar”. We are looking for young Croatians – PATRIOTS who want to give their contribution and from the heart, VOLUNTEERING, help us start creating a game that will be played by millions of people around the world. Join us and be a PROUD part of the team that will prove that CROATIAN WISDOM and the COMMUNITY OF THE CROATIAN PEOPLE can do a miracle just as the HEROES OF VUKOVAR and Croatian Defenders did in 1991.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR: developers in C ++ and Unreal Engine 5, character and object modelers, young people who know how to make a good promotional video, experts in marketing and advertising, DONORS and everyone else who is willing to help us. Behind this project are the HONORABLE names of Vukovar warriors: First Commander of the Defense of Vukovar, Ivica Arbanas, Vukovar defenders: Ivan doc. Andjelic, Marko Karaula, Zvonko Gelemanovic, Damir Plavsic and many others. Join our group via this link below and help us create another Croatian miracle together.

The account number to which you can deposit your Donations is at the end of the post.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/579893240043242

You can donate money on account:

You can pay your Donation to this account number:

CRO GAME DEVS

Settlement Slavonia I 11

35000 Slavonski Brod

Name of bank: Privredna banka Zagreb d.d.

Address of bank: Radnička cesta 50, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Account Number: HR6223400091111140321

SWIFT CODE: PBZGHR2X

All donors who contributed 500 and more than (EURO, CAD, USD or AUD) will have their name appear in the game credits. (All Donors who pay 500 or more euros, CAD, USD or AUD, their name will be entered in the group ‘Bronze Donors’, at the end of the game.).

All donors who contributed 1,000 and more than (EURO, CAD, USD or AUD) will have their name appear in the game credits and will receive a t-shirt with the team logo from the development team. (All Donors who pay 1,000 or more euros, CAD, USD or AUD, their name will be entered in the group ‘Silver Donors’, at the end of the game and will receive a gift T-shirt with the logo of our team).

All donors who contributed 10,000 and more than (EURO, CAD, USD or AUD) will have their name appear in the game credits and will receive a t-shirt with the team logo from the development team and will receive a card thanking them signed by the whole development team and the heroes of the battle of Vukovar. (All Donors who pay 10,000 and more euros, CAD, USD or AUD, their name will be entered in the group ‘Golden Donors’, at the end of the game, will receive a gift T-shirt with the logo of our team and a special Thank You from the team that made the game and Hero of Vukovar).”

Joining and/or helping this team on its way to develop the computer game “Battle for Vukovar” can certainly mean a great deal in boosting one’s self-pride and the pride of belonging. Because there are very few battles in history that could compare with the battle for Vukovar, in terms of the defence of Croatia, in terms of its great psychological charge which only strengthened the Croatian people’s determination to defend itself from brutal aggression on its way of rejecting communism and establishing democracy and independence from the communist Yugoslavia. Today, Vukovar is still an inspiration to all Croatians, to a nation and being a part of developing a computer game that has the potential of inspiring future generations of all creeds and nationalities in the grandeur of defending one’s self-worth and justice for victims is truly worthwhile. I hope many of you will respond positively to this invitation to be a part of “Battle for Vukovar” computer game. Thank you! Ina Vukic

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Battle for Vukovar, Computer Game Battle for Vukovar, Croatia, Croatian Homeland War, Damir Plavsic, Vukovar

Depravity of Serbian Propaganda Against Croatia

February 13, 2021 by inavukic 24 Comments

It is a breath of fresh air to know that the Serbian movie „Dara of Jasenovac“ has not made it to the short list for Oscars 2021. Serbian attempt with this movie to receive international credibility for their lies and vicious anti-Croatian propaganda while at the same stroke of „pen“ burying further their own WWII Jew-free state – did not succeed. It is a breath of fresh air and another bright feather in the cap of humanity that this occurred. I am personally proud to have been one of several writers in the world who had the courage to publicly point to this film as Serbian nationalistic propaganda based largely on fabrications against Croatia and Serbia’s shameless, depraved and miserable push to include Serbs killed during WWII into the Holocaust numbers and Holocaust sufferings.

Instead, „Quo Vadis, Aida“ that addresses Serbian genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, did make it to the Oscars 2021 short list! Bosnia, July 1995. Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people-rescue or death? Which move should she take? Jasna Đuričić is utterly convincing as Aida, a translator working at a UN base near Srebrenica, who sees first-hand the failure of peacemakers to prevent an unfolding catastrophe. “Will anyone in the world witness this tragedy, this unprecedented crime?” pleads a voice on a radio. Yet it’s clear that, despite being an alleged “safe zone”, nobody is ready or willing to protect this area. Instead, thousands are forced to flee to the UN encampment, where the Dutch authorities promptly close the gates on thousands more…the massacre or genocide by Serbs of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys followed…a fact of recent history that Serb leaders deny as genocide to this day.

Serbia has been on a constant roll with accusing Croatia of antisemitism, of implementing the Holocaust during WWII and all the while, as I have written many a time on this blog before – hiding its own depravity and mass crimes against Croats, against the Jews, against the Muslims all over the former Yugoslavia terrain. Here, is a letter written by Philip J. Cohen, an American publicist of Jewish origin who authored notable books such as “Serbia’s Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History” (1996), “The World War II and contemporary Chetniks: Their historico-political continuity and implications for stability in the Balkans” (1997) and “Serbian Anti-Semitism and exploitation of the Holocaust as Propaganda” (1992), who was former advisor to the UN in Bosnia and Hercegovina, addressed to rabbi Abraham Cooper at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre on February 27th 1992. In his letter, re-published by the Croatian Cultural Council (HKV) portal on 27 February 2019, Cohen successfully unmasks the propaganda of ‘Greater Serbia’, which at the start of the nineties accused Croatia of fascism and antisemitism. Cohen points out that antisemitism is deeply ingrained into Serb history.

A pdf version of the complete letter by Philip J Cohen to rabbi Abraham Cooper can be read by clicking here. Here are some excerpts:

“Dear rabbi Cooper,

A campaign is taking place that aims to convince the American Jewish community of the Serb love of Jews. It also aims to propagate the idea that there is growing fascism and antisemitism in Croatia. The purpose of this letter is to recognize it for what it is, a propaganda campaign. I furnish proof that: 1. Serbia has a history of deeply ingrained antisemitism, which still operates undiminished, today in 1992;

2. The Serb love for the Jews is politically motivated – their aim is to win the support and backing of the Jews for Serb terrorist ambitions;

3. The Serbs abuse the victims of the Holocaust in neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia for propaganda purposes, but do not offer an honest account of the Holocaust that took place in Serbia.

———

Nenad Porges is the president of the Jewish Community of Zagreb, where 1,200 of the 2,000 Croatian Jews live. Darko Fischer is the president of the Jewish community of the Town of Osijek, where the Centre of Jewish Community was bombed by the Yugoslav army governed by Serbs. When doctor Klara Mandić was asked to comment on the bombing of the synagogue in Dubrovnik, she said that the local synagogue was not damaged at all. However, Jewish witnesses disagree. Therefore, it is difficult not to get the impression that doctor Mandić may be more interested in Serb propaganda interests than the wellbeing of the Jews. In truth, her North American tour of February 1992 was not promoted by any American or Canadian Jewish organisation, or the Jewish community of Belgrade. This tour was promoted by the firm Wise Communications with headquarters in Washington, who deal in public relations and represent the Serb oil company Jugopetrol, which is a mask under which the communist government in Belgrade is represented. The American Jewish-Serb Friendship Society, the Belgrade sister organisation, uses the Holocaust in a most dishonourable manner. This Californian branch tried and is still trying very hard to make both Serbs and Jews appear as Croatian victims during WWII. Their bulletin is full of stories about (Croatian) Ustasa atrocities. However, such selective display of the past contains serious shortcomings, namely: the Serb collaboration in the Holocaust or the Serb genocide over Croats and Slavic Muslims is never mentioned. It is worthwhile to consider the Bosnian Muslims, who for 500 years lived peacefully with the Jewish Sephardic community. During WWII the Serb Chetniks, under the explicit orders of their chief Draža Mihajlović, attempted to uproot all non-Serbs from Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia, and in this mission slaughtered between 86,000 and 103,000 Slavic Muslims. Today many Serbs proudly point out that the Chetniks were their defensive force in WWII, but that is simply historical revisionism. In reality, the Chetniks primarily wanted to restore the Serb crown and the territorial expansion of the Serb state. In terms of morality, they were a version or the Croatian Ustashe, both were totally guilty of genocide. Furthermore, the Chetniks also collaborated with the Nazis and fascists, which is why Jewish soldiers decided to abandon the Chetniks and join Tito’s partisans.

In August 1991, after I discovered the aftermentioned bulletin of the American Jewish-Serb Friendship Society, I telephoned the editor Mr. Grujić. He first denied that the Holocaust ever happened in Serbia. When I mentioned several concentration camps, he said that the Croats came to Serbia and governed those camps, which is too ridiculous to warrant further comment. With such deceptive revisionism of history, it is hard to believe that some Serbs have learnt a lesson from the Holocaust. Today, Croats in parts of Croatia under Serb rule are forced to wear red-white ribbons on their sleeves, which is a ghastly reminder of the yellow ribbons that the Jews had to wear in Serbia during the Holocaust. Doctor Mandić is the main patron of the view that antisemitism is on the rise in Croatia, and her accusations are centred around Dr. Tudjman. However, the Jewish leaders in Croatia and those Jews who visit Croatia, witness that there is no proof of any State antisemitism…

As we know, Truth is the first victim of war and communism. Regretfully, in Yugoslavia in which the Serbs governed, both war and communism were present. We have to be aware that the Jewish community is the propaganda’s favourite target. Belgrade particularly abuses the Jewish sensitivity to the Holocaust in the attempt to win Jewish sympathy towards the Serbs, who present themselves as victims while hiding their role as criminals and anti-Semites. In view of the aforementioned evidence, one has to investigate the true nature and meaning in the newly forged love of the Serbs toward the Jewish people.

Cordially, Philip J. Cohen”

———

Home to Croatia’s biggest river port, Vukovar was the scene of one of the darkest chapters of the 1990s wars of Yugoslav/Serb aggression against Croatia. It was virtually razed to the ground and suffered a huge massacre when war broke out after Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs opposed Croatia’s declaration of independence.

In November 1991, after a harrowing three-month siege, ethnically mixed Vukovar fell to Serb forces and some 22,000 non-Serbs were expelled, ethnically cleansed. About 350 people from the region are still reported missing. Serbs know where their bodies lie but they will not tell.

The Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ-led minority government of Croatia does nothing to defend Croatian people and nation from vicious Serb lies. It is up to individual citizens and foreign persons to do the work the government should be doing or at least supporting. The HDZ government permits smears and vicious lies against its own people and permits Serbia to “reign” freely with its anti-Croatian propaganda. This is undoubtedly because the minority government has decided to govern in coalition with minority parties, especially Serb one in Croatia, who promote the politics of Serbia rather than Croatia. It is a situation that is unbearable for a nation such as Croatia. The former Yugoslav communists and Serbs, the aggressors against Croatia, will not win this current war Serbia is waging against Croatia with its depraved propaganda of lies just as they did not win the war of 1990’s. Croatia has been and is blessed with multitudes of people around the world and within Croatia who stand firm on foundations of truth and justice. Ina Vukic