THE CROATIAN VOICE
Cleveland, Ohio January 22, 1993
“ Lest We Forget “
More than a year after the massacre the Croatian village of Vocin, the crime has yet to
receive the attention and international moral outrage it deserves. If there is any doubt
that Serbian forces have committed war crimes, one only has to look at to this village.
The report of the heinous atrocity received a tiny one-day squib in the press. One
must ask, who committed the greater crime—the perpetrators or those who ignore it.
The only positive feature of the incident is that provides the clearest example of the
Serbian policy of “ ethnic cleansing”, or more specifically the “ Final Solution “.
During the four months of Serbian occupation, Vocin’s non-Serb villagers were
inhumanly abused and harassed. However, evil incarnate descended on a cold
December day. Having received orders to retreat, the Serbian forces unleashed their
tanks, mortars, and grenades upon the town. Not one Croatian structure was spared.
A stump of masonry wall, standing among the rubble like a sentinel, was all that
remained of the 750 year-old Roman Catholic Church.
The destruction of the church had acted as a catalyst for the human mayhem that
ensued. Although 43 bodies were found, a great number of others, including children,
disappeared without a trace. Cursory examination of the bodies, later verified by
forensic studies, revealed torture and mutilation. Those shot were from extremely
close range, usually multiple times. Bullet pathways indicate many were lying down
when shot. Chemical analysis of the charred remains—in reality, nothing but chunks of
carbon—verify the victims were burned alive
Reverend Nikola Sanjkovic, the village priest, assisted in the identification of the
corpses. One victim, 70 year-old Marija Majdanzic proved to be an American. She,
thus far, is the only American casualty of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Had
she been an oil company employee, maybe the American government would have
stirred to action.
Half of the victims were over 62-- the eldest was 84. By no stretch of the imagination
could they be considered Croatian soldiers, as the Serbs allege.
The Vocin slaughter was not a spontaneous events like Mai Lai, rather it was
calculated Serbian policy. Ethnic cleansing inexorably follows a pattern; preceded first
by a coordinated air strikes, rockets and heavy artillery, indicating a sophisticated
command structure. As the defense pulls back, Serbian infantry moves in. It should be
noted that prior to any offensive campaign the local Serb population are warned
beforehand to leave.
Once the objective is secure, the so-called Serbian irregulars start their cleansing
operation. EC monitors state that many Croatian villages have been bulldozed out of
existence. What happened in Vocin was only one example of a pattern that occurred in
Croatia and is now continuing in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The atrocities committed at Cetekovac, Skrabrnja, and Vocin are no worse than what
the Serb forces committed elsewhere. But are better known because of eyewitness
documentation. Would makes the Vocin slaughter unique was that Serbs soldiers
confessed afterward.
According to a number of credible eyewitnesses, which the Serbs left behind in their
haste to retreat, the Serbian forces went on a drinking spree after the killing orgy. A
few passed out and were left behind in the evacuation. When the Croatian forces
arrived, there were captured. During interrogation they admitted their roles in the
slaughter and being members of Vojislav Seselj’s infamous “White Eagles”. But what
was most damning is that they stated they have acted under direct orders from
Belgrade.
Frank McCloskey, the United States Congressman from Indiana, was present at the
interrogation and saw the bodies firsthand. Summing up to the affair as “ ghastly,
beyond words “, Rep. McCloskey’s presence lends objective credence. The Texas
Court of Appeals Judge Bill Bass also witnessed the aftermath and described Vocin as
a “ mindless orgy of violence “. The judge and the congressman were on a fact-finding
mission close to Vocin. After learning of the slaughter they arrived at the scene.
A somewhat related incident occurred at Vukovar shortly before Vocin’s slaughter.
After Vukovar fell to Serb forces approximately 170 Croatian patients were evacuated
from the hospital by soldiers of the Yugoslav army. Confirming eyewitness reports, Dr.
Clyde Snow, a U.N. forensics medical specialist, on October 28, 1992, said all
evidence indicated that a mass grave found outside of Vukovar contained bodies of
the Croatians taken from the hospital. It is anticipated that further evacuations will find
at least 3,000 unaccounted for Croatians from Vukovar. Since Vocin and Vukovar are
in close geographic proximity and both occurred soon after the fall of Vukovar, it is
probable that the perpetrators were same.
The West and U.N. never explicitly condemned the Serbian war policy, the ethnic
cleansing, and their concentration camps in Croatia. By contrast, in Bosnia-
Herzegovina the West responded with consternation and hand wringing—but only
after a existence of the concentration camps was made public by the media.
The incidents however will not become a footnote in history because it is the most
documented Serbian atrocity in Croatia or Bosnia. Extensive eyewitness accounts,
photographs, forensic pathology reports are available for any potential war crimes
trials. The perpetrators of these atrocities must be held accountable because of
victims must not be forgotten. For they were flesh and blood, with human desires and
a hope for a future. Their only crime was to be born Croatian.
Jerry Blaskovich, M.D.
San Pedro, CA
=====================================================
Long Beach Press-Telegram
Long Beach, CA
Published March 28, 1993
George Bush's Foreign Policy was Nothing to Write Home About
George Bush’s Foreign Policy was Nothing to Write Home About
Although some political pundits praised George Bush’s foreign policy, it was no better
than his domestic policies that cost him the election.
President Bush inherited the final chapter of the fall of communism that Ronald
Reagan had set in motion. But Bush did not know what to do with it. Foreign policy lies
in preventing war and Bush failed in Iraq and former Yugoslavia.
The parallels between Iraq and former Yugoslavia are remarkable. A week before Iraq
invaded Kuwait, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie assured Saddam Hussein that the
United States had no opinion on Iraq’s border dispute with Kuwait, and implied the
United States would not interfere. Secretary of State James A. Baker told Belgrade the
United States had “no position” on Yugoslavia’s border disputes and Yugoslavia
should use “all means possible to preserve the stability of the country.” The Serb
military took his statements as tacit approval that a Serb-controlled Yugoslavia was a
key to stability. Interestingly, Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic have survived Bush.
Since the end of World War II, the linchpin in U.S. policy was to contain communism,
encourage self-determination and champion human rights. Bush abandoned these
tenets in Russia, the very country for which these policies were specifically
formulated, and in Yugoslavia. But in Yugoslavia, Bush, seemingly unable to
comprehend “realpolitik,” continued his policy of status quo, snubbed Boris Yeltsin,
supported Mikhael Gorbachev, and most importantly, the survival of the communist
Soviet Union.
The unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall was the seminal event that reversed fear of the
Russian monolith into euphoria and bravado. Believing what the United States
verbalized, all of the former captive nations, without exception, looked to Washington
for approval and guidance in their self-determination efforts. However, they were
rudely awakened with U.S. “realpolitik. “
What transpired in Yugoslavia’s is a microcosm of a rude awakening. Bush ignored
highly credible CIA warnings in 1990 that Yugoslavia would break up spontaneously
within 18 months into a violent civil war. The Bush administration threw its diplomatic
weight against the idea of independence of any of the Yugoslav republics in the
mistaken concerns that succession and nationalism would become contagious and
destabilize the Soviet Union. Yet Bush’s proponents claims he deserves praise for
seizing the opportunity to promote democracy in the void created by the collapse of
Soviet communism.
Bush reverted to Henry Kissinger’s theses that status quo is the key to stability, which
was in sharp contrast to Reagan’s approach of a clear priority to self-determination
and human rights. In December 1991 Bush reiterated that states should neither be
created nor destroyed. Condemning “suicidal nationalism,” he begged Ukrainians to
remain in the Soviet Union and stick with reliable Gorbachev.
Following Secretary of State James Baker’s Belgrade’s speech, Serbs forces
unleashed their attack on the republics that opted for self-determination. Heeding his
advisers, the Bush administration consistently blamed the war on Croatia.
It is noteworthy that before being named advisers, Lawrence Eagleburger and General
Brent Scowcroft were principles and served on the board of Kissinger and Associates,
whose major clients included Yugoslav government-owned industries and banks.
When Eagleburger went back to the State Department as deputy secretary he
received $1.14 million in severance pay from his former employer.
Bush remained aloof about the Balkan crisis until presidential candidate Bill Clinton
called for armed protection of relief operations. Presidential spokesman Marlin
Fitzwater labeled Clinton’s idea “reckless,” but a few days later the administration
came out with basically the same statement.
Bush dismissed the Bosnian horror as a “hiccup” one month after the United Nations
Commission for Refugees said the conflict resulted in 2.2 million refugees. Not until
Bush lost the election did the administration start to make statesmanship like noises. It
was a little too late for millions of refugees, the wounded and the countless dead.
President Clinton certainly did not inherit a silver spoon. Facing a multitude of
problems - domestic and foreign - in his first real test he did not implicitly bow to Lord
Owen’s pressure. Rather, he appears to have stepped outside of U.N. guidelines and
is in the process of implementing strong economic sanctions against Yugoslavia.
Clinton wants the United States to take a more active role in the peace negotiations
and would back a plan with U.S. troops.
The cantonization of Bosnia is nebulous. Ultimately, what has been advocated by
Clinton in the presidential campaign - lift the arms embargo that prevents Bosnians
from effectively defending themselves, use American air power to counter Serbian
aggression and not to use American ground troops in any capacity may prove to be
the only feasible solution. It would take no Solomon to know what the Bosnians
choose if there had a choice - to have no “peacemakers” and the means to defend
themselves than be denied the means and be mired with peace-keepers who cannot
keep the peace.
====================================================
Long Beach Press Telegram May 16, 1993
Clinton Walking Right into Bosnia Quicksand?
Europeans Stance for Further Negotiations is Ringing Hollow
When that theater of the absurd in Greece ended, Lord Owen euphoric statements fell
short of nominating Slobodan Milosevic for the Nobel Peace Prize. Among his
statements, “no need for bombs,” Owen continued his condescending teaching of
foreign affairs to Bill Clinton. It is noteworthy that all bombs dropped thus far have
been Serbian, and since the Serbs have attained all their territorial goals, there is no
need for further bombings.
Even before the ink dried on Radovan Karadzic’s signature and his Cheshire-cat grin
faded, the slaughter of Muslim and Croatian civilians intensified. However, the real
drama came at Pale when Milosevic’s creations made their second mistake of the war
in former Yugoslavia.
The first occurred when the Serbs started the bombardment and siege of Dubrovnik.
The Balkan conflict, with its unpronounceable names, referred to by George Bush as
a mere “hiccup,” would have remained a backwater civil disorder.
The Serbs’ second mistake was not ratifying the Vance-Owen plan. Had the self
proclaimed Bosnia Serb “parliament” endorsed the plan, it would have played the way
the Vance Accord did in Croatia over a year ago: not one item has been implemented.
There has been no disarming of the Serb militia or recognition of the preexisting
borders.
After Milosevic signed the “peace” in Croatia, all the attention then focused on Bosnia.
The continuing daily shelling of towns and cities in Croatia with death, destruction and
ethnic cleansing of Croatians, has been ignored by media as a war that wasn’t.
The new Vance-Owen Plan, guaranteeing Bosnian Serbs a secure connection
between Serb-held land gave them better terms than the original one. Implementing
the plan by U.N. troops would have been de facto recognition of land that Serbs
captured. Muslim troops would not be allowed to enter Muslim areas. The U.N.
Russian troops, with their appalling record as peacekeepers in Croatia, will “enforce”
the U.N. mandate in Bosnia. The rejection would prove to be a blessing because its
implementation is, in reality, a dismemberment of the legitimate Bosnian government.
Serbian shrewdness correctly interpreted the West as trying to avoid action at all
costs. For the first time in the war, meaningful options were proposed - arming the
Muslims and Croatian Bosnian and launching air strikes.
Clinton’s proposals dismayed European diplomats. They hysterically lamented that
they would not stop the war, but escalate it and inflict more casualties. Their proposal
is further negotiations, which will only result in more dead Muslims and Croatians, who
are the real casualties of the war.
Ninety percent of the casualties have resulted from high visibility artillery and tank
guns. The U.S. Air Force has electronic surveillance capability of targeting and
neutralizing these threats within seconds. Serbian gunners may be savage but they do
not have a death wish. No rational person believes air strikes are going to stop the
war, but they would go a long way toward reducing the Muslim death rate and
destruction.
After lifting the arms embargo, casualties will then becomes Serbs, which for some
reason is repugnant to British and French diplomats. Is this an injustice? The
Bosnians had the misfortune when the war started to have Western leaders who were
wimps. George Bush, John Major and Francois Mitterand are the tragedians of this
history.
Clinton characterized the destruction of Bosnia as a smaller version of the Holocaust.
Doing nothing and allowing the slaughter to continue would condone Serbian policy.
Jerry Blaskovich
San Pedro
===================================================
The Daily Breeze
Torrance, California July 29, 1993
&
The Croatian Voice
July 29, 1993
The Anatomy for Anarchy
By Dr. Jerry N. Blaskovich
Human rights monitors were premature when they stated 1992 would go down in
history as the year the Muslims of Bosnia were extinguished. With apologies to Don
McLean’s “American Pie” July 1993 will be “the day the music died” for the Bosnian
state. We have learned two lessons from Bosnia—aggression pays and the “new
world order” is pretentious nonsense.
All U.N. actions in Bosnia were tantamount to complicity with Serbian goals. This
cooperation was succinctly stated by the Chief Liaison Officer for U.N. refugees, Jean-
Claude Concoloto: “ …the UN were not only creating refugees, but becoming a
partner in Serbia’s ethnic cleansing “
It appears to be a concerted effort to destroy the European survivors of the Ottoman
Empire dismembered some 50 years ago. Imposing an arms embargo that only
affected the Muslims and Croats, banning Serbian air flights but not enforcing the ban,
and the meaningless sanctions against Serbia are some overt examples—but the
covert ones were more destructive.
While under the protection of U.N. troops and officers in the U.N.’s zone, Hakija
Turajlic, Bosnia’s Deputy Premier, was murdered by the Serbs. The former
commander of the U.N. force in Bosnia, General MacKenzie, consistently blamed all
sides for the carnage, but never explicitly named the Serbs. However, his espoused
opinions to Congress, the media and think tanks, (like Heritage) must be viewed with
skepticism since he disingenuously never mentioned SerbNet, a Serbian lobbying firm,
paid him.
After the Bosnian government instituted investigative proceedings against MacKenzie
for sexually exploiting Muslim women prisoners provided by Serbian soldiers, he
evoked U.N. immunity.
Refugee camps typically (Muslim camps no exception) lack infrastructure of schools,
hospitals or civil administrations and are prey to epidemics. Its inmates suffer
humiliation caused by an endless existence and total dependence on aid dispensed
by U.N. agencies. What the U.N. has a ready done in Bosnia is a portent for the future.
Srebrenica and Zepa are under U.N. control where each person gets 530 grams of
food and 3 liters of water a day to drink, cook and wash with. Medicine delivered to
the Zagreb mosque for distribution had the expiration date of 1947. And, what may
have been a Machiavellian twist to ethnic cleansing; a planeload of condoms was
delivered last summer to Sarajevo at a time when there was no bread.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees there are over 2.5
million Bosnian refugees—almost half of Bosnia’s population. Those remaining will be
herded into disease-ridden ghettos. Now that the West magnanimously created “safe-
haven” Croatia, with 500,000-registered Bosnian refugees will be free to return them.
Western policy makers are unable to comprehend that Islam is not a monolith. They
put policies and beliefs of such disparate nations as Saudi Arabia and Iraq into one
kettle. Christian presuppositions and Western stereotypes imply a monolithic threat
that is nonexistent, but have forgotten that these states are the results of their
colonialism and imperialism. Regardless, the shortsightedness in Bosnia will poison
relations between Christendom and Islam for years.
The West should not be surprised when the next generation—if there is one—become
terrorists. Seeded by the West’s failure, and despite the Bosnian Muslims being the
most secularized in the Islamic world, the camps have ready become fertile grounds
for Islamic fundamentalism.
Muslims are painfully aware that the West’s concern for human rights in verbiage. The
West, while berating the Muslims to respect minorities, shamelessly refuses to protect
the largest Muslim community in Europe.
The Muslim children surviving in the twilight zone, forgotten by the rest of the world,
will not forget the 250,000 dead and how those in the West watched while their fathers
were wounded or killed, their mothers and sisters raped. The Trojan horse of
insurrection is already being built on the very doorstep of Europe.
If history teaches us anything, a settlement based on deeply felt injustices is by no
means a settlement. Rather it is a source of the even bigger and wider conflict. Victims
suffer, but never from amnesia.
Jerry Blaskovich is a San Pedro physician and an Associate Clinical Professor at USC
School of Medicine. He has visited Croatia and Bosnia several times since the war
began.
=====================================================
The Croatian Voice
Published July 29, 1993
To Be or Not to be in Bosnia
By Dr. Jerry Blaskovich
Special to the Croatian Voice
The surviving victims of Bosnia-Herzegovina received a false glimmer of hope after
President Bill Clinton announced he would use air power and lift the arms embargo.
This hope faded when Cyrus Vance’s protégé, Secretary of State Warren Christopher’
s unpersuasive arguments failed to sway the allies. How could Christopher be credible
when he downgraded the Serbian aggression as merely ‘misbehaving’?
Clinton’s decision contradicted the Joint Chiefs of Staff who were pragmatically
opposed against intervention anywhere. But after General Merrill A. McPeak stated U.
S. planes could attack Serbian forces with “virtually no risk” Clinton felt secure. It is
noteworthy, 90 percent of the casualties in Bosnia resulted from high visibility artillery
and tank guns. Our Air Force has the electronic capability to target and neutralize
these threats within seconds. A few well-directed hits would go a long way in keeping
the death count down. Serb gunners may be savage but they not have a death wish.
U.S. Marine Corps Captain, Scott Buren and military expert J.P. Mackley, recently
returned from a fact-finding mission and concluded that the Serbs are using tactics
last seen in the American Civil war. The Serbian military machine is vastly overrated.
Nonetheless, propaganda continues perpetuates the mythology of the Serbian fighting
ability.
In only took a few days after the onset of World War II for Germany to decimate the
entire Yugoslav army. The remaining royalist force, the Chetniks, under Drazan
Mihailovic’s command did fight, but it was mainly directed toward the Croatians rather
than the Germans. The communist Partisans, under Tito, did not participate in the war
until Germany attacked Russia. They became a force only after receiving vast
supplies and air support from the allies, late in the war—after the fall of Italy.
Serbian historical revisionism created a false image that somehow the Chetniks were
allied with the United States during the war. According to the Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust, resistance against the Nazis came to complete halt as early as 1941.
Serbian propagandists constantly decry the Croats’ dealing with the Nazis, but
disingenuously omit mentioning their own role.
During World War II, Serbia’s legitimate government headed by the former minister of
war, General Milan Nedic collaborated with the Nazis to an extent that Serbia was
able to retain significant civilian authority. The Serbian Orthodox Church openly
supported Nazi policy and theologically justified persecution of Jews.
These elements, working together, caused the Nazi civil administrator to proclaim
Serbia the only country where the ‘Jewish question’ was solved and Belgrade, the first
city “judenfrei”. Six months prior to the Nazi invasion, Serbia enacted laws prohibiting
Jewish participation in the economy and the university.
The Serbian army is a force without an effective infantry. They have a consistent
record of defeat when facing well-armed adversaries in parts of Croatia. What
happened in Vukovar is a prime example.
Approximately 1,500 ill-equipped, untrained, ragtag Croatian defenders were able to
hold at bay, for 89 days, 25,000 Yugoslavs equipped with tanks, artillery and aircraft.
Only after Croatians ran out of ammunition did Vukovar fall.
Besides giving the Bosnian Muslims and Croats a level playing field, air strikes and
lifting the arms embargo would reassert U.S.’s world leadership role that floundered
under George Bush. And once the Serbs realize that the war has become costly, they
will initiate negotiations. Ultimately, ending the war will be a political solution between
the antagonists.
Policy planners want a clear political mission. No cars run on Bosnian oil. What is
happening in Bosnia is far removed from our national interest. What is at stake is the
moral obligation that goes beyond national interest. When there is oil in the equation,
intervention is not a problem. Is saving lives less important than oil?
It would be comforting to think Clinton’s decision was based upon his disgust with the
UN inertia, European and Muslim countries complacency, and his moral outrage.
Or was Clinton moved by the embarrassment generated within the liberal wing of his
own Democratic Party, led by Congress when Frank McCloskey saw the atrocities
committed by the Serbs in both Croatia and Bosnia? It is noteworthy to point out that
Congressman McCloskey has not receive one cent in campaign contributions from
anyone involved in the conflict and has no expatriate Yugoslavs in his congressional
district. He is led by conscience—not politics. Would that depth leaders of all nations
be so led. ===================================================
The Times (Munster, Indiana) May 12, 1994
The Serbian Obfuscation
Apart from the deaths, human chaos and destruction “on the ground,” the main
casualty of any war is truth. New “truths” are manufactured for internal as well as
external consumption. The Serbs forte, manipulating propaganda, an art form
communism made it into a science, surpassed even Russia’s. Long before any
weapon was fired in anger in the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic rekindled
dormant nationalism to justify future Serbian actions, after he mounted a
disinformation campaign based on who did what to whom and when.
The Serbs propaganda apparatus successfully implemented post-modern critic Jean
Baudrillard’s Simulations theses that “we live in an age where people no longer
produce or create their own opinions, but rather, where people reproduce opinions
presented in the media. “ Journalists, such as Alexander Cockburn, Misha Glenny and
A. M. Rosenthal, by juxtaposition facts and selectively omitting other facts, penalized
the victims, and inexorably clouded the issues and limited debate.
They projected images to the pedestrian audience that all sides are equally guilty; the
conflict is nothing more than an insoluble ethnic style; and the Croatian government a
reincarnation of the World War II Ustashe regime. While they extolled the invincibility
of the Serbian fighting prowess, they persistently reinforced a belief that the Croats
and Muslims fought against United States during World War II and that Serbia and
America have always been allies.
According to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Serbian resistance against the Nazis
stopped in 1941. The only viable force that fought the Germans was the Partisans,
who were comprised mostly of Croatians, Orthodox Croats and Bosnians, and
Slovenes. And that are occurred late in the war, after they received massive military
assistance from the Allies.
Serbian historical revisionism disingenuously ignores their own complicity with
Germany during World War II, but consistently censures Croatia as being synonymous
with the Ustashe. The Nazis replaced a legitimate government in Croatia with the
Ustashe, an exile group of Croatian radicals. On a par with the Vichy and Quisling
states, they did not represent Croatians at large, and never enjoyed popularity the
Vichy regime had in France.
In Serbia, by contrast, the Nazis kept the government headed by former Minister of
War, Gen. Milan Nedic. Serbia collaborated to such an extent that the Serbs were
able to retain significant civilian authority. The Serbian Orthodox Church openly
supported Nazi policy and theologically justified persecution of the Jews. These
elements, working together, caused the Nazi civil administrator to proclaim Serbia the
only country where the “Jewish question” was solved, and Belgrade the first city
“judenfrei.” In is noteworthy that, six months prior to the war, Serbian enacted laws
prohibiting Jews to participate in the economy and the university.
But the coup of Serbian disinformation has been the acceptance of “Ancient ethnic
rivalry.” Both Presidents Bush and Clinton, and every secretary of state since the
conflict started, have given the American public the message of the futility of
involvement.
To be sure, the area witnessed numerous battles, since it was the fault line between
Christian Europe and the Islamic Ottoman Empire. But no battle, prior to this century,
could be construed as being ethnic. The Croats and the Serbs had a remarkable
symbiotic relationship until they were cobbled together with other Balkan people into a
kingdom in 1918. Animosity developed only after Serbs imposed draconian measures
against non-Serbs to solidify their position when they commandeered the political and
economic infrastructures of the country.
The historian Norman Stone destroyed the often-quoted myth that the campaign in
Yugoslavia “pinned down dozens of German military divisions in World War II,” after
he learned from the German Military Research Office that the actual number of
German divisions was six, two of which were manned by Croats. And only one was
that the front lines.
In Croatia, as well as in Bosnia, the Serbians have not engaged in what could be
called a normal military operation. All their vaunted “campaigns” have utilized siege
tactics. Yet, the Bush and Clinton administrations characterized the aggressors and
victims alike as “warring sides. “
A common thesis proclaims the Croatian and Serbian governments equally guilty for
the conflict and labels the government in Zagreb as “fascist. “ Tudjman’s government
has as much in common with the Ustashe as Moshe Dyan had with the PLO. The
Serbs living in Croatia became terrorized after they started to believe the mythologies
orchestrated by Milosevic that the Croats were building concentration camps for their
Serbian minority, had driven thousands of Serbs from their homes, a plot by the
Vatican against Serb Orthodoxy had been uncovered and Germany and Austria were
conspiring with Croatia to form a Fourth Reich. Even some of the Western media
conspired with the Serbian big lie.
Jerry Blaskovich, M.D., M.A. (Islamic Art History-UCLA)
Carol J. Williams, “The Last Days of Yugoslavia” Los Angeles Times Magazine
(November 24, 1991) pp 26-70‘
Philip J. Cohen, “Holocaust History Misappropriated” Midstream- A Monthly Jewish
Review. (November 1992) pp 18-20
V.P. Gagnon “From the historical perspective, this area experienced little violence
prior to the twentieth century and never witnessed a vicious religious war as seen in
Western Europe.” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1991) p 31
=================================================
Long Beach Press-Telegram July 31, 1994
&
San Pedro News Pilot August 3, 1994
No Surprises in Bosnia
When will we learn?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I’m
the fool. That epitomizes our diplomatic fiascoes with the Serbs.
Why do many pundits seem surprised by Radovan Karadzic’s rejection of the Bosnian
peace plan? Why are they now characterizing the Serb leaders as psychopaths and
demagogues? Every Serbian action, starting with the attack on Slovenia to the recent
one at Gorazade, was predictable. Their undeviating agenda are not symptoms of
madness, but reflect an all-too-sane calculating logic.
Before any offensive campaign, the indigenous Serbians are forewarned to leave.
Following incessant, coordinated tank and artillery bombardment, most of the terrified
non-Serb population flees and Serbian irregulars walk in. Those remaining non-Serbs
are beaten, murdered, and raped—wishing they had fled with the first wave. Thus, the
Serbs grab more territory that is now “ethnically pure.”
Separating the UN’s rhetoric from what is happening “on the ground,” the U.N. has
been in complicity with the Serbs. Jean-Claude Concoloto, head liaison officer for U.N.
refugees, admitted,”... the U.N. were not only creating refugees but becoming a
partner in Serbia’s ‘ethnic cleansing’. Jeane Kirkpatrick was correct when she stated:
“the West responds to the Serbian carnage only in ways that are acceptable to the
Serbs.”
Despite the West’s self-aggrandizement that followed the establishment of a “no
weapons zone” around Sarajevo, it was only a partial withdrawal. After Canadian U.N.
troops found a great number of tanks and military ordnance within the 20-kilometer
zone, Lt. Gen. Michael Rose’s statement, “the guns were not aimed at Sarajevo,” must
have given great comfort to the Sarajevans. The ordnance that was removed was
redeployed to other areas in Bosnia.
For 10 days preceding the Serbs’ destruction of Gorazde, there have been intensive
tank and artillery shelling. The U.N., however, labeled the attack as “tactical” and “not
serious.” NATO’s dud bombing did not intimidate the Serbs.
The U.N. showed no reluctance in sacrificing the 65,000 Muslims of Gorazde to insure
the safety of fewer than 200 “peace-keepers” the Serbs held hostage. In the eyes of
the U.N., it was a fair trade. And the Bosnian crisis entered a new phase.
It will accelerate the Serbs resolve to take the Muslim enclaves of Srebrenica and
Zepa. Once these cities fall, they will press that Sarajevo become an ethnically divided
city. Then and only then, will the Bosnian Serbs initiate armistice. Yet, the Bush and
Clinton administrations caricatured the aggressors and victims alike as “warring sides”
and only “when they tired of killing each other” peace will be accomplished. But this
peace, under Serbian terms, will only salve the West’s consciences
Aside from the West playing and losing the one-sided game of “I dare you, I double
dare you” with the Serbs, the seminal factor that will lead to the Serbian victory was
the West imposing the arms embargo on the victims. Shortly before the Yugoslav Army
evacuated from Bosnia, it left behind 80 percent of its weaponry to the Bosnian
Serbs—after the Bosnian Muslims naively had turned in their weapons to the same
forces. The flow of supplies from Belgrade was never compromised.
From the start of the conflict to the present, the only option is to lift the arms embargo.
Now that Karadzic is threatening to escalate the war, the arms embargo issue
becomes more meaningful. President Clinton’s foreign fallacy, coupled with the
inordinate pressure he exerted on the Senate to vote against unilaterally lifting the
Bosnian arms embargo, posits Clinton into a moral equivalence with the Serbs.
It will be interesting to see how the leader of a liberal wing of the Democratic Party
reacts. Congressman Frank McCloskey was the first person in our government to
articulate the situation in former Yugoslavia objectively. He is aware, despite the
smoke and mirrors, that everything is still being orchestrated from Belgrade.
The Serbs forte, manipulating propaganda, an art form communism made into a
science, surpassed even Russia’s. Long before any weapon was fired in anger in
former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic rekindled dormant nationalism to justify future
Serbian actions after he mounted a disinformation campaign based on who did what to
whom and when.
But the coup of Serbian disinformation is the West’s acceptance of the great lie of
“ancient ethnic rivalry.” By citing those three little words, both U.S. presidents, as well
as every secretary of state since the conflict started, inexorably confused the issue
and limited debate. To Americans, it implied the futility of involvement and
imperviousness to outside intervention.
Unanswered, real or perceived, injustices are the root of future conflict. For any
healing process to occur, those responsible for committing crimes against humanity
must be brought to justice.
It is ironic that more State Department career diplomats have resigned over our policy
in Bosnia then during the long protracted Vietnam War. Despite the palace upheaval
taking place at the State Department, the policy has remained same as it was under
the Bush administration. And we know where that has led us.
=====================================================
The American Croatian Review December 1994
Arcadia, California
The West’s Moral Equivalency with the Serbs
President Clinton’s October 15th deadline to the Bosnian Serbs came and went
without comment. Apparently, Clinton feels the “will and conscience of the
international community” has not been “defiled” enough to use military force that he so
clearly enunciated in his inaugural address.
Instead, Clinton opted to dance to the Contact Group’s tune of continuing the arms
embargo, even though it is contrary to the wish of the majority in the American
Congress.
After deviating from a just peace to just any peace, the Contact Group, comprised of
France, England, and Russia, gave up all pretense of honoring legal and moral
obligations that came with recognizing the sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Interestingly, these are the same countries that asked United States for the tools to
stop the fascist juggernaut during World War II, but deny the same to Bosnia. The
Contact Group, added a new dimension to the Vance-Owen Plan. Aside from
segregating the Muslims into widely separated ghettos, they shamelessly want to
merge the territory they seized in Croatia and Bosnia to be contiguous with Serbia and
place Sarajevo and Mostar under United Nations control. Paradoxically, they eased
sanctions on Serbia at a time the Serbs escalated ethnic cleansing.
Since the onset of hostilities, after separating rhetoric from what has happened on the
ground, almost every Western gesture abetted the Serbian agenda. Lord David Owen
and Cyrus Vance, ingenuously fuelled the conflict and provided the rift between the
Serbs and Muslims with a Machiavellian stroke. They bypassed Stjepan Kljuic, an
elected Bosnian Croat, who espoused an indivisible Bosnia, with Mate Boban, a
politician with no legitimacy that epitomized a Croatian Bosnia merger with Croatia.
When the Yugoslav army “withdrew” from Bosnia in May 1992, it left behind 85% of its
troops and equipment to the Bosnian Serbs. The West smugly accepted this gesture
as a victory of their negotiating.
The West consistently responded to the Serbian carnage in ways acceptable to the
Serbs. The U.N. ignored its own resolution 836 - which reaffirms full sovereignty,
territorial integrity in recognizing pre-existing borders, and mandates those displaced
to return to their homes in peace. Nor did they chastise Russia’s flaunting the
sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia.
According to James Defence Weekly, Russia exported $4 billion of military ordinance
to Yugoslavia in 1992. In January, 1993, Russia agreed to sell T55 tanks, anti-aircraft
missiles and anti-missile missiles that have the capability of destroying targets 375
miles away.
The U.N., masters at flexibility in interpreting deadlines, always gave the benefit of the
doubt to the Serbs that showed nothing but contempt for Security Council resolutions,
NATO intervention, and world opinion. It is not surprising that the Serbs ignored every
accord, since Western responses signaled that there would be no intervention.
After the media started casting Serbian in villainous role, the U.S. had Milan Panic
appointed president of Yugoslavia to blunt and relieve the pressure on Serbia. During
Panic’s tenure, Serb aggression and ethnic cleansing increased; they captured more
territory; its airforce flew with impunity; and the concentration camps operated without
abatement. Apparently, Panich never confronted Milosevic about the atrocities.
In the last days of Bush’s administration, Vance secured a promise from Secretary of
State Eagleburger not to allow Bosnia’s President Alija Izetbegovic to meet with the
Bush administration to present his case. Only after the gentleman’s agreement
became known publicly, Eagleburger allowed the meeting to take place.
General Lewis Mackenzie, while serving as the highest ranking U.N. officer in Bosnia,
vehemently opposed flying humanitarian aid into Sarajevo’s airport and France’s
President Francois Mitterand visit to the Bosnian capital. McKenzie persistently
berated the Croatians and the Moslems for defending themselves and wanting to take
back their homes. Later, he was accused by the Bosnian government of sexually
exploiting Moslem women prisoners brought to his quarters. When he espoused
opinions to Congress, the media, and think tanks, he disingenuously never mentioned
that he was on the payroll of SerbNet, a Serbian lobbying firm.
So much for honor!
When the initial French contingency of troops arrived in Sarajevo they were fired
upon. Without a scintilla of evidence, the French commander scathingly accused the
Muslims. Later investigation, however, revealed that the Serbs were to blame. While
under protection of the same U.N. troops in the U.N. “protected” zone, Hakija Turajlic,
Bosnia’s Deputy Premier, was brutally murdered by the Serbs. In another example of
U.N. cooperating with Serbian ideals, Jean-Claude Concoloto, Head Liaison Officer
for U.N. Refugees said: “The U.N. were not only creating refugees but becoming a
partner in Serbia’s ethnic cleansing. “
Despite fulfilling every criterion of defining genocide, Washington has strenuously
avoided the word. The West has elected to treat genocide with the same standard
applied to Stalin’s murdering over 20 million Russians, Poles, Balts, and others. It too,
with time, will be questioned if it really happened. Hitler and Stalin used identical
methods—massacre and concentration camps—Stalin managed to kill twice as many.
Yet, Stalin sat at the negotiating table as man of honor in much the same way those
responsible for the same sort of crimes in Bosnia now sit.
The West should not be surprised when the next generation—if there is one—become
terrorist. Seeded by the West’s failure, and despite the Bosnian Muslims were the
most secularized in the Muslim world, the ghettos may become fertile ground for
instilling fundamentalism. The Muslims are painfully aware that the West’s concern for
human rights is mere verbiage. The West, while berating Muslims to respect
minorities, shamelessly refused to protect the largest Muslim community in Europe. If
Christians were facing annihilation, we know in our hearts how we would react. But
Muslims are not really are not our sort of people.
The Muslim children surviving in the twilight zone, forgotten by the rest of world, will
not forget the 250,000 dead. Nor will they forget how those in the West watched as
their fathers were maimed or killed and their mothers and sisters were raped. If history
teaches us anything, a settlement based on deeply felt injustices is by no means a
settlement; rather, it is the source of even bigger and wider conflict. Victims suffer, but
never from amnesia.
=====================================================
THE ZAJEDNICAR
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania January 11, 1995
Contact Group’s Moral Equivalency With The Serbs
Now that Bihac is no longer a threat to Serbian security, the Contact Group rewarded
the Bosnian Serbs the right to join into a federation with Yugoslavia. Their blessing in
establishing a Greater Serbia is an effort to appease the Serbs. Clearly, the Contact
Group has not read the Serbs’ Mein Kampf, The Memorandum. Only two items remain
to fully realize the Memorandum’s thesis - merging the Serb held territories in Croatia
to Serbia and access to the Adriatic. Inexorably, an attempt will be made with the
Contact Group’s complicity.
The Croatian coast already is within striking distance. When the Croats refuse to bow
to the Contact Group’s diplomatic pressure to actualize Serbian aspirations, the same
scenario will be played as it had in Bosnia. However, in defending their territory, the
Croats will ingeniously be labeled aggressors.
The Contact Group self-righteously will punish the “aggressors.” To rehabilitate a
reputation it had lost in the Bosnian debacle, NATO will respond with verve. Instead of
duds, real bombs will be used. The targets will be functioning ordnance and not scrap
heaps. And the Croats will not have the U.N. to forewarn them.
Now that the Contact Group has formally acknowledged Greater Serbia, the legitimate
Bosnian government has been dealt a Kevorkianesque solution. It will be much easier
to keep the Muslims in widely separated ghettos and place Sarajevo and Mostar
under United Nations control. Hypocritically, the Contact Group eased sanctions on
Serbia at a time the Serbs escalated ethnic cleansing.
After deviating from a just peace to just any peace, the Contact Group gave up all
pretense of honoring legal and moral obligations that came with recognizing the
sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Interestingly, three of the countries in the Group;
France, England, and Russia asked fourth one, the United States, for the tools to stop
the Fascist juggernaut during World War II, but denied the same to Bosnia.
The Contact Group was aghast that the Muslims actually took back territory held by
the Serbs. As long as the causalities and refugees were limited to the non-Serbs it
was acceptable. When the Serbs became statistics, Lt. General Michael Rose
threatened real air strikes if it happens again.
The State Department’s worst fear - to obey Congress’s mandate rather than France’s
and England’s - almost came to realization. However, Secretary of State, Warren
Christopher, knew the Congress’ resolution was moot when he promised the allies the
U.S. would not break the U.N. arms embargo. To placate Congress, the administration
withdrew our three ships from the international blockade in the Adriatic. This was a
variation on the spin, since our presence there had little effect anyway. During the 17
months the blockade was in force, the 19 allied ships found only three, out of 42,000
vessels challenged, carried arms.
The West’s self aggrandizement after the massive NATO air armada attack that
resulted in five, easily repairable, craters at Udbina’s airfield was short lived. The raid
left intact ammunition dumps and fuel stores that are used against Bihac. The reason
given why the raid was not decisive is the U.N. wanted to “send a message” to the
Serbs. Just what message they wish to convey is unclear.
Although Bihac is a “UN protected zone,” the U.N. will buy the Serbs’ justification to
hammer Bihac as a defensive maneuver and the Bosnian casualties were
exaggerated, as they did at Gorazde.
Believing the smoke and mirrors that Slobodan Milosevic abdicated his influence is the
height of naiveté. For reasons that are unclear, since early November, the State
Department has initiated a campaign to whitewash Milosevic. They projected images
that Milosevic does not control events outside of Serbia and there are three distinct
groups of Serbs: Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian - as if there were different people.
This ethnic revisionism spin is reminiscent of Secretary of State Lawrence
Eagleburger’s days at the State Department. Yet, when there is active negotiation,
Belgrade continues in the key role.
Once the objectives annunciated in The Memorandum are attained, Milosevic will
declare the war is over. His reward—the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jerry Blaskovich, M.D.
=======================================================
THE ZAJEDNICAR April 5, 1995
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Quo Vadis, Christopher?
The spin has begun. After Croatia announced it will not renew the U.N. and
peacekeepers (UNPROFOR) mandate, Secretary of State Warren Christopher started
to weave a web of deceit that was reminiscent of his predecessor, Lawrence
Eagleburger.
More criticism was directed against Croatia following its announcement that had been
toward the Serbs during their four years of rampage. Christopher, the master of
understatement, who labeled the Serb genocidal acts as “naughty,” sharply rebuked
and warned Croatia’s President Franjo Tudjman, “will be sorry.”
The media’s frenzy, orchestrated by the State Department, never mentioned the
seminal reason for UNPROFOR’s presence was to implement Cyrus Vance’s peace
plan. After the Serbs had rescinded some 50-peace agreements with Croatia, the plan
was accepted. Among its provisions called for returning the displaced persons to their
homes, disarming the Serbs paramilitary rebels, and Croatia’s regaining sovereignty
over its territory. But after three years of U.N. inertia, not one of these stipulations was
realized.
Earlier this year, Boutrous-Boutrous Ghali, U.N. Secretary General, admitted to the
Security Council that UNPR0FOR was in no position to discharge its responsibility in
Croatia and its continued presence contributes to the stalemate.
The media shrilly castigated Croatia as upsetting the peace. Just whose peace they
were talking about is unclear. Certainly not the Croatians! They are subjected to
almost daily shelling from Serb artillery. Zagreb, Croatia’s capital is a mere 30 miles
from the front lines. The Serb ethnic cleansing continues unabated—all under the
watchful eye of UNPR0FOR.
The only group that enjoys peace are the Serbs that occupy one-third of Croatian
territory. Thus far, the Serbs in Croatia have not been part of the war’s statistics.
Rather than printing stories about Croatian victims that desire to return to homes the
Serbs confiscated, the media laments how the Serbs will be inconvenienced if the
Croats attempt to take back their territory.
The Serbs in Croatia are crossing the borders of Bosnia without impunity to fight in
Bihac. When Bihac falls, aside from the dire consequence for Croatia’s security, it will
realize the Bosnia Serbs ambition to join into Greater Serbia. Contrary to Strobe
Talbott’s statement that the United States will not accept the concept of Greater
Serbia, the Contact Group, led by the British, French and Russians, with the United
States and Germany in the role of camp followers, has all but de facto recognized
Greater Serbia as fiat accompli.
Aside from caring for displaced Croatians, Croatia has been inundated by Bosnian
refugees. To place only the Muslims that found refuge in Croatia into perspective,
Peter Galbraith, America’s ambassador to Croatia, said it would be equivalent to
United States taking 30 million people.
One of the carrots Tudjman accepted to extend the U.N.’s mandate, stationing
UNPROFOR on the borders between Bosnia and Croatia is nebulous, since it is
predicated on the goodwill of the Serbs. In the long term, America has placed Tudjman
in a precarious position. He must justify his waffling to parliament, who was never
noted to agree about anything, yet overwhelmingly endorsed his original decision. But
his greatest pressure will come from increasingly vocal hawks in the government.
However, continuing the status quo, Croatian victims and casualties mount; the
economy is faltering because the wartime readiness and financial drain caused by
caring for the enormous number of refugees
Originally, the U.N. set up its headquarters in Sarajevo to monitor the slaughter in
Croatia and keep out of harms way. They moved to Zagreb when the conflict erupted
in Bosnia. Now that the Serbs will be target Zagreb, it will be in everybody’s interest
for the U.N. to move to Belgrade. Besides not being subjected to danger there, they
would be able to get their orders directly—thus, avoiding the middleman.
===================================================
American-Croatian Review November, 1995
A Heroine of the Killing Fields of Bosnia
Now that the conflict in former Yugoslavia is winding down, it is appropriate to give the
horrendous statistics a human face. Fadila Zecic’s story is not unique, but is typical for
survivors of ethnic cleansing I’ve interviewed during eight fact-finding missions to the
devastated areas. Fadila’s terror started when Serb forces instituted their genocide in
the northern Bosnian town of Brcko. And even in the relative security of Paris, where
she found refuge, after she was exchanged “as a prisoner of war,” the demonic acts
she witnessed continue to torment her sleep as nightmares and as flashbacks while
awake.
At precisely 5:00 A.M. on April 30, 1992, after the Serbs deliberately disabled a vehicle
on Savski Most, one of two bridges over the Sava River that connected Bosnia with
Croatia, the resultant bottleneck of vehicles, including busses loaded with at least 150
commuters, were blown to smithereens. Following the explosions, which destroyed
both bridges, the Serbs placed barricades at strategic locations in the town and
systematically set out to destroy the one hundred or so houses around the bridges.
For the next three days and three nights there was an orgy of looting of non-Serbs
homes. A continuous stream of trucks and cars, predominantly with Belgrade
registrations, filled with booty, returned to Serbia to sell on Belgrade’s thriving black
market. Typically, following every Serbian offensive campaign, Serbs from Serbia
would come to conquered Bosnian or Croatian areas by the busloads and ransack
houses as on a shopping spree. On the fourth day the Serbs placed a large poster of
Tito, with a hand drawn beard, on the warehouse door in the port area called Lucko.
The warehouse became one of the Serbs’ most lethal slaughterhouses.
Another characteristic of every Serbian military campaign, the Serbs roundup and kill
the intellectuals-physicians, lawyers, teachers-or any one with potential in
organizational skills. Once they were no longer a threat, the Serbs would start their
systematic murdering frenzy. Several thousand Croats and Muslims were killed in two
days in Brcko. What was the left in Brcko were women and pensioners; all youths and
able-bodied males ultimately disappeared.
The prewar town of Brcko, an ancient Roman settlement situated on the Sava River,
with its picturesque blend of Turkish and Austrian architectural styles, was a
microcosm of ethnicity in Bosnia. Brcko, and its surrounding area, had 75,000
inhabitants- mostly Moslems and Croats and only 15 percent Serbs; the town had
three Mosques, and one of each: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and 7th Day Adventist
churches. Even after hearing reports that Serbs were committing atrocities in other
parts of Bosnia and despite the town teemed with thousands of refugees that had fled
from the ethic cleansing at Foca, the citizens naively clung to the belief that Brcko
would be spared. Most of the Muslims in Bosnia believed in the concept of
Yugoslavia, whereas the Serbs hid behind the word. Brcko’s mayor erroneously called
the town an “oasis of peace.” Instead it was host to the seven furies.
Fadila lived in the area called Srbski Varos. A haut monde couturier of renown, her
creations were used extensively in the movie industry in former Yugoslavia. She felt
she was spared the tribulations other Muslim women were subjected to because the
Chetniks feared reprisals from her husband and brother-both well known to the
Chetnik forces. Before the war, her husband was a policeman but is now a
Commandant in a Bosnian army unit. He remains in Bosnia to defend what is left of
Bosnian territory. Her brother was a Commandant in the 108th brigade of the Bosnian
army. He, as well as 319 children in his charge was massacred during a Serbian tank
attack. However, what troubles Fadila most is her 19-year-old son, killed by a
grenade, but was “never buried.” Throughout the interviews she reiterated not
knowing the whereabouts of his remains was the bane of her existence.
Fadila’s house was strategically located. From her window she could observe all the
activities of Lucko, as well as the warehouse and yard housing the “prisoners.” She
looked down on the yard where the nightly slaughters took place.
Isak Gasi’s, one of the rare survivors of Brcko’s slaughterhouse, testimony given to
war crimes investigators from Washington, confirmed many of Fadila’s statements.
Fadila, however, had almost nightly witnessed the atrocities.
ike clockwork, the killings started at 11:00 P.M. and finished at 3:00 A.M. The main
supervisor was Monika Simonovic-a prostitute turned Chetnik. The favorite tool, she,
as well as others used, were to break the necks of glass bottles and proceed to gouge
the prisoners genitals and abdomens. She also participated in burning prisoners.
Fadila recognized most of perpetrators were local Serbs. Preamble to the slaughter
would begin with the Serbian songs the prisoners were forced to sing. Ending with:
“Tko kaze da je Srebija mala-tri puta rat-tri puta pobednik,” (Who said Serbia is small,
two times war, three times victors) then a shout. “Tisina!”(silence) Then the killings
commenced. In the mornings, Fadila saw body parts hanging from trucks leaving the
camps-many young people’s hair turned white overnight.
The rapes and killings she witnessed were under the direction of Zoran Pejic, the
head Chetnik in Lucko. All the perpetrators were in uniform, displaying the Red Star of
the Yugoslav army on their hats. The Chetnik headquarters was the Serbian Orthodox
Church. The “Glavna rijec” (main orders) came from Pop (Father) Slavko. On August
3rd all mosques were mined and destroyed. Although the Catholic Church was mined,
it was not destroyed because it was located too near the “Skladiste” a military storage
facility. All Catholic, Jewish and Muslim cemeteries were bulldozed out of existence.
The destruction of religious structures and graves, attempts to erase signs of a culture
and a people, were examples of barbarisms at its most gross.
In her darkest hour of hopelessness, after learning about the deaths of her son and
brother and witnessing the human mayhem being committed under her very nose, she
turned toward God. She was shocked to learn that she “did not know how to pray.”
The most often heard expression in Bosnia “Thank God” is usually uttered by those
who wore irreligious. Although Fadila professed to being a Muslim, she typified the
attitude of the overwhelming majority of the Muslims in Bosnia-identifying with the
Turkish customs but ignorant of Muslim theology. The “Muslims” atitude toward “their”
religion contradicts Serbs’ justification for war was to stem Muslim fundamentalism.
As a product of communism and secularism, Fadila’s only exposure to “Religion” was
what she witnessed from Catholic friends. She nonetheless sought out and got
“religious instruction” from a Catholic friend who had some knowledge of Islam—as
she knew it. In what was probably an admixture of Catholicism and Islamic mysticism,
using 110 peas as beads, she recited over and over “God watch over me.” On
Tuesdays, she fasted and meditated on a picture of St. Anthony given by a Catholic
friend. The prayers pulled her on her depths of despair and began to feel invincible.
She felt a glass dome enveloped and protected her home.
A married couple Fadila took in for forty days- the husband, a Croat had to witness the
gang rape of his wife, a Muslim, then he was hanged. Fadila had to move 15 times to
keep one step ahead of the terrorism inflicted by those who had been her neighbors.
Once when she had gone into hiding, her Serb neighbors opened the gas jet of her
stove. On her return they assumed she would light a match, since there was no
electricity, and cause a massive explosion. Gas asked in that area is odorless. Only a
strong sense of survival averted disaster.
Fadila noted numerous vehicles with Belgrade registrations bringing people who
moved into homes whose previous owners had disappeared without a trace. Most of
the cited events occurred in the presence of UNPROFOR forces. Apparently
UNPROFOR’s only functions were carousing, womanizing, and drinking. The Hotel
Golub, where they were billeted, pervaded with a holiday like atmosphere.
When Fadila received word that she was to be exchanged as a “prisoner of war” she
was given one-hour notice. In probable deference to her status she was allowed the
luxury of a small sack. Brazenly, she took some jewelry. Miraculously it escaped
notice. Normally “prisoners” were stripped and given tattered rags to wear. Aside from
humiliating the prisoners, it enabled guards to ransack the clothing for valuables that
may have been sewn in the lining.
The only satisfaction Fadila had during her captivity was her knowing that information,
such as minefields locations, she relayed to her brother saved
Will she go back to Brcko if peace is declared? And typical of all Muslims I interviewed
the answer is-YES! They all had the forgive but never, never forget attitude. As to
living next door to their known tormentors-NO! But surprisingly few said they would
seek revenge.
====================================================
International Journal of Dermatology
Vol. 14, No. 12
December 12, 1995
A Medical Odyssey To Dante’s Inferno—Bosnia
As American physicians agonized over what creature comforts Clinton’s health plan
will offer their patients, Bosnian physicians are resorting to washing bandages
removed from the dead to use on the living. Major trauma is managed under
unimaginable difficult conditions, often without anesthesia, but with caring, skilled
hands. Disposable items, which we take for granted, are reused ad infinitum. Is spite
of the frustrations, the physicians never seem to lose compassion and respect for
human life.
It is ironic that the 20th century was ushered in by a war that started in Sarajevo and
will exit in a war that is destroying Sarajevo. Aside from the staggering human toll, the
devastation has severely taxed the delivery of health care. The Serbs’ first targets in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were medical facilities, so that basements, bunkers
and warrens created from destroyed buildings, became “new” medical centers,
reducing physicians and patients to a mole-like existence. Above ground they are
targets for snipers.
A team of American physicians was sent to the former Yugoslavia to evaluate the
medical needs.(1) Serbia and Montenegro were excluded because nothing was
damaged there and nobody has been wounded or lost a life in those republics.
\
The odyssey began in Zagreb, Croatia’s capital. Except for military uniformed men and
women in the streets, cosmopolitan Zagreb, which its Viennese-style architecture,
gave no hint that the front line is only 30 miles away.(2) But its hospital wards, filled
with civilians without extremities, with gaping visceral wounds, and blinded from
shrapnel, paint a picture of a medical infrastructure that has been stretched to the
breaking point.(3)
When the conflict was limited to Croatia, the Serbs destroyed a large number of
medical facilities. Destruction of 10 major hospitals in a country the size of Maryland
has had a devastating effect. The population not killed by Serbs’ ethnic cleansing
program contributed to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, severely
straining the remaining medical facilities. But when the Serb forces unleashed their
attack on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia became inundated with an enormous influx of
refugees—many suffering from major trauma—further jeopardizing an already fragile
medical-ecological system.
Leaving Zagreb, with its ultra-sophisticated medical facilities, the architectural
landscape increasingly took on an all-pervading gray monochromatic surrealism that
parallels the facilities where patients receive treatment.
A scant 100 miles away, but a circuitous six-hour drive skirting the Hungarian border,
around military barricades and checkpoints to avoid the battle lines and through
villages reduced to little more than rubble, lays the city of Osijek. Osijek’s General
Hospital, although sustaining damage to 80 percent of the building, continues to
function. From the onset of the conflict, all medical and surgical care has been
conducted in a maze of tunnels beneath the hospital.
The Yugoslav army (JNA) violated a number of provisions of the international laws of
war. During a one 3-day period, the hospital was hit 94 times by mortars, howitzers,
rockets, and countless by small weapons. The shelling originated from the JNA
garrison situated 50 meters from the hospital, precluding that the barrage was caused
by chance or accidentally.
The area around Osijek has borne the brunt of the Serbian onslaught in Croatia and
was a scene of the greatest atrocities. What’s happened in Vukovar and Vocin are
prime examples.
After Vukovar fell, many of the hospital’s staff was taken as “prisoners of war.” Despite
guarantees given by Yugoslav officers that the patients left behind in the hospital will
be protected according to the Geneva Conventions, the patients were evacuated and
summarily executed. Dr. Clyde Snow, an American forensic anthropologist,
subsequently confirmed reports that a mass grave outside of Vukovar contained
bodies of the patients taken from the hospital.
In Vocin, a Croatian village, 43 villagers were found massacred. Some were bond with
chains and burned. Tissue analysis revealed that they were still living when burned.
Others had skulls split open or chain sawed while alive. Since the slaughter in Vocin
was forensically the most extensively documented atrocity of the conflict, it will play a
prominent role in any future war crimes tribunal.
In Slavonski Brod, the normal population of 40,000 teemed with 60,000 Bosnian
refugees. Driving past buildings pockmarked from projectile hits, a death pall hangs
over the city. The hospital, surrounded by sandbags, functioned under shelling and air
attacks. Of the 100 patients it admitted daily, 95% were shrapnel related.
One day after we left Slavonski Brod, the sport stadium where approximately 6,000
refugees were billeted, was shelled by Serbian 155 mm artillery, leaving many dead
and an extremely large number of wounded. There is no doubt that the refugees were
specifically targeted since an airplane had circled the area a number of times that day.
Shortly after we left, Bosanski Brod, which is just across the river, fell. The fate of the
refugees is not known.
The material damage is incalculable, but nothing in comparison to the human
suffering. The countless haggard Bosnian refugees trying to cross into Croatia
emanated despair. The roads were dense with people fleeing; many packed like
sardines in the back of trucks and clinging to the roofs of tractors.
All that’s left in the town centers of Mostar and Turanj are grotesquely shattered
heaps of rubble. Not one building is considered salvageable. Broken glass from
windows blown out by mortars lie everywhere. Only ghosts of the former residents
walk among the chunks of asphalt ripped out of the ground were shells landed. The
surrealistic landscapes are like scenes from Dante’s Inferno.
Mostar’s city park, in a peaceful arbor setting, is now a cemetery. Unable to bury their
dead in the town cemetery because of Serbian snipers, the park has taken over this
function. To see nothing but fresh graves bearing crescents or crosses, all bearing
dates ending in 1992 to 1994 lends a poignancy to move even the most jaded.
Besides medical facilities, we visited numerous refugee centers. One such center was
Gasinci. A tent and barrack “city,” once a JNA base, now houses approximately 3,000
transient Muslim refugees, mostly women and children. Caring for the population is
one volunteer physician and several ancillary personnel. The clinic doors remain open
as long as there are people seeking help.
What impressed the American team about the refugee centers were the almost normal
mortality rates, low infection morbidity and the lack of epidemics; a reflection of good
hygienic conditions, nourishment and selfless medical management.
We have been inundated with TV images of the human mayhem taking place in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The bread lines and the marketplace slaughters of
Sarajevo have been indelibly etched into our consciousness. How do we react? We
wring our hands a little, than go on with our lives. Physicians on the scene, however,
heed the crying and suffering of the wounded. When this all over, the medical
personnel will emerge as the only heroes of the conflict.
Report by Jerry Blaskovich, M.D.
Selca, Brac, Croatia
References
The team was comprised of the author, Jerry Blaskovich; Thomas Durant, Assistant
Director of Massachusetts General Hospital; and David A. Brandt, Attending
Physician, John Hopkins Hospital. Drs. Durant and Brandt are widely experienced in
evaluating refugee problems.
Glavina K., Tucak A.,Janosi K, et al. Deliberate military destruction in the city of
Osijek. Croatian Medical Journal 1992; 33 (War Issue): pp 61-69.
In early May 1995, the Serbs launched projectiles on Zagreb and a number of other
Croatian towns. Although cluster bombs are internationally banned, no Western
governments chastised nor condemned the Serb’s action. The downtown area of
Zagreb was specifically targeted.
===================================================
The Zajednicar, June 11, 1997:
Two Strikes Against Democracy
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA - Although Croatia’s regional elections of April took place
without a hitch, and, more importantly, were above board, the establishment media,
who always questioned Croatia’s legitimacy, persist in demonizing Croatia. Much to
their chagrin, the media’s hatchet job of Tudjman and his HDZ Party, a thinly veiled
attempt to influence the election, didn’t sway Croatia’s voters.
”Fascists,” the Communists favorite buzz word used to cast aspersions on real or
imagined enemies, appeared ad nauseum in headlines and editorial pages about
Croatia. Rather than being fascists, most Croatian politicians, incumbents and
opposition, are dyed-in-wool Bolsheviks and many fought the Nazis during World War
II.
Not satisfied with labeling the Croatian state “fascist”, the New York Times took its
crusade one step further when it commented, dblquote Croatia’s mainstream
politicians were even more dangerous than the neo-Nazis.” Doubtless, the media’s
character assassination will intensify prior to Croatia’s upcoming presidential elections
in June.
The establishment media was enamored with former Yugoslavia and what it stood for -
especially its politics. Many reporters and pundits were products of an era that denied
the realities and excesses of communism. While glamorizing Yugoslavia, they
conveniently ignored human rights organizations that identified Yugoslavia as the
leader in abuses. Yugoslavia had more political prisoners than all Eastern Bloc
countries combined. The media apparently doesn’t realize that they’ve been criticizing
adherents of an ideology they themselves held dear.
Soon after Croatia made self-determination overtures, every Croatian nuance was
scrutinized with microscopic diligence while its peccadilloes were telescoped. When t
he Yugoslav Army attacked poorly armed Croatian civilians, the media, rather than
questioning the issues, projected Yugoslavia’s agenda. The subsequent wholesale
mayhem was perceived as something the Croatians deserved.
Croatia recently was characterized as hindering the Dayton Accords. The turnabout of
the U.S.’s once cozy relationship toward Croatia may be retaliatory to Croatia’s
purchasing airplanes from Airbus instead of Boeing.
During the past six years there hasn’t been media account mentioning Croatia in a
positive light. Never mind that Croatia took care of 690,000 refugees and kept the
morbidity and mortality rates identical to the native population. Of those who found
refuge in Croatia, 280,000 were Bosnian Muslims. U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, Peter
Galbraith, although one of Croatia’s harshest critics, put the number of Bosnian
Muslim refugees in Croatia in perspective “...would be equivalent to the U.S. taking in
30,000,000 refugees.” The lion’s share of the maintenance cost is borne by Croatia’s
citizens, who can ill-afford it. Following Croatia’s regaining the Krajina region in 1995,
the media focused on the Serb exodus. The Serbs emigrated voluntarily or ordered by
their leaders, and not from fearing the Croats as the media alleged. Although these
Serbs don’t fit U.N. guidelines, the U.N. defined them as refugees.
A large number of Serbs did flee because of fear. Many moved into homes whose non-
Serb owners were displaced or slaughtered in 1991; others had participated in
atrocities, often before witnesses - a favorite method to speed up ethnic cleansing.
Since some of the owners and witnesses were
sure to return, the perpetrators absconded.
The media resoundingly criticized Croatia for allegedly sabotaging the Serbs’ return,
but remain silent on the Serbs’ total non-compliance in allowing non-Serb refugees to
return to areas under their control. The only stipulations Croatia’s government
imposed on resettlement were if one had committed war crimes or raised arms against
Croatia. But the media continues hastising Croatia for maltreatment of Serbs, despite
international human rights organizations refuting those claims. Meanwhile, U.N.
representatives tolerate no discussion about resettling the 200,000 displaced
Croatians who remain in limbo after having fled over six years ago from real terror.
Instead of castigating the young democracy, the media should, at the very least,
adhere to the basic tenet of journalism: objectivity.
Dr. Jerry Blaskovich
======================================================
American Croatian Review (June 1998 - Year V, No.1 & 2)
An abbreviated form of this same article was published in the June, 8, 1998 INSIGHT
Magazine as a Letter to the Editor.
Kosovo! Welcome to the Club
By Jerry Blaskovich, MD, MA
Now that Kosovo has joined Croatia and Bosnia in that rather dubious distinction of
membership in the Serbian killing fields pantheon, the boldest step the State
Department could come up with was to freeze foreign investments in Yugoslavia. If
history is any indication, fluffy sanctions only unifies the Serbs and increases their
resolve. Apparently, in the words of that great American philosopher Yogi Berra: “It’s
deja vu all over again.”
The pedestrian public is generally not aware that the non-Serbs in Kosovo have lived
under martial law since 1989. All human rights are denied them, including hospital
admissions and attending schools. After Albanian guerillas ambushed four Serbian
policemen in February, the Serb military, ordered by Slobodan Milosevic, slaughtered
80 villagers—women, children and the elderly—burying them in a mass grave, Nazi
style.
Although the State Department, which heretofore were mute about the rampant human
rights violations, this incident unequivocally erased its carefully drawn line in the sand.
Yet, Robert Gelbard, Washington’s special envoy to Belgrade, saw fit to characterize
the Albanians as terrorists. Meanwhile, the Serb brutality has been intensifying daily.
Gelbard’s declaration is not surprising, since he was following the State Department’s
pattern of pacifying genocidal leaders. Two almost identical statements: “The United
States will not interfere in the internal policies” preceded the bloodshed in Iraq and
Yugoslavia and typify this policy.
The one by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Gilaspie, to Saddam Hussein opened the
door for Iraq to attack Kuwait. The other, by James Baker III, in Belgrade, triggered the
deaths of close to 250,000 souls in Croatia and Bosnia.
Lawrence Eagleburger, who succeeded Baker, sabotaged every rational
recommendation to settle the Balkan conflict if it disadvantaged Serbia. His successor,
Warren Christopher, sharpest rebuke to the Serbs, while they were committing war
crimes at its most grotesque, was that they “were naughty.”
Taking Gelbard’s cue, as he did with Baker’s in 1991, Milosevic unleashed his army
on Yugoslavia’s enemies. Despite the U.S.’s expensive political-social engineering on
the leadership in Serbian held Bosnia, no one in the “pro-democratic government”
protested. To the contrary, all Serbs, including our surrogates, rallied around the flag.
The State Department’s accommodation with Yugoslavia dates from the good old days
of Tito. Enamored with former Yugoslavia and what it stood for—especially its
politics—they ignored the Communist regime’s brutal terrorism of its citizens, who
showed no mercy to dissidents, and held more political prisoners than all the Soviet
bloc countries combined.
Perhaps Kosovo is the time and place to reflect on what happened in Croatia and
Bosnia and for the State Department to seriously consider another Berra truism: “We
made too many wrong mistakes.”
======================================================
Peter Klein
Producer, “60 Minutes”
CBS
524 W 57th Street
New York City, New York 10019
August 24, 1999
Dear Mister Klein:
It was, indeed, fortuitous that I found your letter in The New Republic (June 14, 1999).
I want to commend you for being the only mainstream journalist to publicly
acknowledge the media’s failings in the coverage of the conflict in the former
Yugoslavia.
In your response to Stacy Sullivan’s, “Milosevic’s Willing Executioners,” your well
reasoned statements: “… rarely do we [the media] have the courage to put our
thoughts into print. Maybe it’s a fear of blowing our Serbian contacts… [and]
journalists have continually failed to present an accurate analysis…” validated what
most of us out of Washington’s beltway thought were the reasons for the inaccurate
coverage. These inaccuracies were seminal to why the conflict lasted as long as it did.
If the media really rarely had the courage to put their thoughts into print, then
whose thoughts have reporters been putting out over the past ten years? Perhaps
they were the views of the editors’ or the Belgrade apologists at the State Department.
Or perhaps the media view came from the Serbian hired public relations contacts that
reporters were afraid to “blow.”
When the conflict was limited to Croatia, I cannot recall that the media ever used
a legitimate Croatian source who stated that the Croats, Slovenes, or Kosovars may
have had a grievance against Yugoslavia or Serbian hegemony. Was this a matter of
the media not having the contacts or being reluctant to use them? Instead, the
mainstream media relied only on Serbian sources.
If the purpose of journalism is to provide a modicum of objectivity, your profession
failed miserably. Until Kosovo heated up, the media bombarded the public with
Belgrade-spun phrases like: “ancient ethnic rivals,” “all sides equally guilty,” “the
Serbs defended Christendom,” “the Serbs were always allied with the U.S.” Then
there was the political spin helped along by the Belgrade supporters at State, which
held that the Croatian government of the 90s was somehow equivalent to the Nazi
quisling government of the 40s. The media, naively, or perhaps disingenuously,
persistently repeated the half truths and overt lies, and helped to perpetuate Serbian
propaganda.
Then suddenly like a Paulian revelation, the media started refuting the very same
phrases they had spoon fed us for nine years. Although the ‘new’ view that so-called
ethnic cleansing (read genocide) was an evil and central ambition of the Belgrade
government, the media acted as though it was a new discovery. Or maybe the media
had no choice but to say what the State department told them to. To the uninitiated, it
seemed the media relied only on government sources or “experts” who somehow
validated the Serbian agenda.
It was only after the word “genocide” became common currency at State
Department briefings that the mainstream media began using it in public in the Spring
of 1999. In other words, genocide was really allowed to go on for ten years and
intervention only became a viable option when the media stopped using the Serbian
public relations phrase “ethnic cleansing”. It is tragic that intervention didn’t come
earlier. Ten years of Belgrade’s ethnic cleansing produces close to 250,000 dead and
millions of displaced persons and refugees in Croatia, Bosnia and now Kosovo.
I once believed in freedom of the press, but I find it disconcerting and more than
coincidental that the “new” revelations about the Serbs came only after the United
States government quit labeling the KLA terrorists. They came after President Clinton
decided many years too late that Milosevic was responsible for the bloodshed in
Croatia and Bosnia.
In closing, I want to thank you for somewhat helping restore a measure of faith in
the media.
Sincerely,
Jerry N. Blaskovich, M.D.
====================================================
THE NEW GENERATION EDITION OF THE CROATIAN HERALD (Australia) Friday,
25th January, 2000
THE ODYESSY OF CARDINAL STEPINAC’S CAPE
As the images of Kosovo’s fleeing refugees and the news of mass grave sites fade
from memory, we are still haunted by the hard and unanswered questions about who
did what to whom during the 10 year conflict in disintegrating Yugoslavia. Although
few seem aware of it, what the Serbs did in Kosovo was no worse than what they’ve
done in Croatia and in Bosnia, where over a quarter of a million souls perished with far
less notice.
All of the slaughter and destruction were symptomatic of a disease carrier that didn’t
want to die: communism pretending to be Serbian nationalism. Few Western thinkers
can appreciate the evil that communism brought to the world. But even Adolph Hitler’s
tally sheet of murder does not come close to matching the 100 million who were
murdered in the name of communist progress. Certainly communism is a force that
affected more lives detrimentally than any other is during the 20th Century. And
Belgrade based communism was among the most notable in that regard.
According to human rights organizations, it had the distinction of having one of the
worst records among the world’s totalitarian communists, holding more political
prisoners than all the Eastern Bloc countries combined.
After World War II the Communists formed the new government in Yugoslavia. Since
the Party hierarchy perceived the Catholic Church as its arch-nemesis and greatest
threat to the regime, its first order was to set about to control it. Obviously the Church
didn’t cooperate, so the communists systematically persecuted and decimated the
clergy. For example, Yugoslav forces entered the Franciscan Monastery of Siroki
Brijeg, doused fourteen friars with petrol and set them afire. In another example, only
88 priests of Senj’s diocese survived of the 151 that were there before the war. Half
the parishes were left with no clergy.
The anti communist nature of the Church posed the most significant single threat to
the success of communist ideology. So the object of the murders was to destroy as
many priests as directly as possible and try to intimidate others into leaving. The idea
clearly was that if the shepherds were eliminated it would be easier to scatter the
flocks.
But the biggest thorn in the Communist side was Alojzijis Stepinac, the Bishop of
Zagreb. A smear campaign against him had little affect in Croatia, but tragically the
American press bought it, lock-stock- and barrel and published it as gospel. Although
there isn’t a shred of evidence that Stepinac was a collaborator, the propagandists
effectively painted him on the fascist canvas.
Prior to Stepinac’s Beautification, amidst an intensive negative media campaign the
media, including the Catholic press in the U.S., instead of focusing on his goodness,
the half-truths and lies about his role in World War II Croatia were resurrected. No less
a personage than Milovan Diljas, then in the communist hierarchy, admitted in his
book: “He would certainly not have been brought to trial for his conduct in the war...
had he not continued to oppose the new Communist regime.”
When Stepinac published a pastoral letter declaring 273 clergy had been killed, 169
imprisoned and 89 were “missing” since the communist takeover, it was the excuse
the regime was looking for. The authorities tried and sentenced Stepinac. Once
“freed” after sixteen years of imprisonment, the Cardinal was exiled to his home village
and never allowed to preside over his flock from Zagreb. He died in 1960. Rumor has
it—of poison.
It was recently brought to light that Stepinac was buried in a cape that had been
smuggled into Yugoslavia in 1954 by Frances Chilcoat, an American housewife.
The tale of the cape has all the elements of an Eric Ambler novel: an innocent caught
in a web of intrigue—the same exotic cities; Rome, Trieste, Zagreb; clandestine
meetings; a harrowing border crossing; and a refugee who triggered the affair. Ambler,
however, never had a saint as a main character. Truth, indeed, is stranger than fiction.
The odyssey of the cape started soon after the imprisoned Stepinac was named
Cardinal and shortly before Ivan Ivankovic, the refugee, escaped from Yugoslavia in
1947. Communism was at the apogee of its power and imposing its iron rule on
Yugoslavia. One of the first priests killed in the communist Yugoslavia’s campaign
against the Church was Medjugorje’s pastor. Ivan, who was also from Medjugorje,
perceived his life in danger, had no choice but to flee. Medjugorje today is the scene
where the Blessed Mother is appearing.
In retaliation, the authorities killed Ivan’s brother, Martin, and jailed his mother for 3
months. One of his sisters, Sima, also went into hiding. Another sister, Jela, was taken
ill and died soon after she was forced to search for Ivan in the hills. His father was
severely beaten and denied medical attention on the kitchen floor.
After 2 years in hiding, Ivan escaped to Italy, ending up in a refugee camp and was
finally freed when Father Ivan Tomas of the Croatian Radio Program of the Vatican
got him a job at the Croatian College of St. Jerome in Rome. Eventually, with Father
Tomas’ help, Ivan immigrated to America.
The Chilcoat’s in the San Francisco area opened their hearts and home to the
refugee. Treating him as a brother, they were present at one of Ivan’s proudest days—
his swearing in as American citizen.
When Frances Chilcoat was preparing for a trip to Yugoslavia, by way of Rome, Ivan
asked her to look up his spiritual advisor and mentor, Father Tomas. Little did Ivan
realize that simple request would set in motion, an international, potentially dangerous
intrigue.
Once in Rome, Frances met with Father Tomas a number of times. The evening
before she was to leave for Yugoslavia, Father Tomas approached Frances, in what
she thought, a surreptitious manner. He asked her to smuggle the cape of Cardinal
Stepinac, which was awarded by the Pope. Despite the danger, Frances reluctantly
agreed.
Her mission came to an end in a Yugoslav village, when a relative of Frances she was
visiting surprised her by asking about “bringing something from Rome.”
After she produced the package, they took a walk through the pitch-dark village. Out
of the gloom, they were approached by an unknown male, who took the package and
crept off into the night.
Skeptics may weave their own rationale but there are far too many coincidences in the
story of the cape for it to be completely attributable to less than divine intervention.
One incident stands out in particular. While a Yugoslav border guard was fumbling to
open Francis’ baggage, he cut his finger, yelled a few unprintable expletives and gave
up on opening the suitcase. Had he managed to open the clasp he certainly would
have found the cape, and the story would have had a tragic ending.
=======================================================
THE NEW GENERATION EDITION OF THE CROATIAN HERALD (Australia)
3 March 2000
&
The Zajednicar (Pittsburgh) 1 January 2000
CROATIA’S MEDICINE IS MORE THAN READY FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
by Jerry Blaskovich M.D.
The 22 September 1998 opening of Croatia’s newest medical school in Osijek was an
event all Croatians should be justifiably proud of—regardless what part of the political
spectrum or temperament they may lie. Although the school’s opening was extensively
covered by Croatia’s media, few Croatians in Diaspora are aware of the school’s
existence or significance.
I was honored and fortunate to have been invited to the opening ceremonies of the
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek School of Medicine, and saw that the
academic seeds planted then had blossomed into a healthy bumper crop of students,
when I visited one year later to be named lector in Dermatolgy.
As a physician, who “has been there-done that,” seeing bleary eyed students
frantically pacing the hallways with opened books for a last minute cramming session
prior to being quizzed by their professors, laboratories buzzing with activity, and the
familiar smells of the anatomy department was like a time warp. The beauty of these
sights, sounds and the savored senses was—everything seemed to be functioning as
a medical school should.
This newest jewel of the academic world could not have had a better setting.
Osijek is a city with a long tradition of intellectual curiosity. It produced two Nobel Prize
winners, which is equal to Switzerland’s output. What makes the coincidence even
more remarkable, the Croatian laureates, Leopold Ruzicka and Vladimir Prelog, not
only had worked in Switzerland; they were also products of the same high school in
Osijek.
The fact that Osijek was able to have a medical school borders on the miraculous,
since not so long ago its very status of remaining a city was in doubt. During the
Serbian led Yugoslav army aggression against Croatia’s independence effort, Osijek
was only second to Vukovar in taking the brunt of the Serb artillery, rocket fire, and air
attacks. One international news agency reported that Yugoslav shells rained on the
city’s center at a rate of one per minute. Its pre war population of 120 thousand shrunk
to 10-17 thousand. Most of those who remained lived a mole-life existence in
underground shelters. It was also a time when many in the Zagreb government had
pessimistically written Osijek off. But the brave fighting spirit of its citizens could not be
denied and the city’s defense prevailed.
Although one of the Serbs’ first targets was the hospital, the doctors and the staff
carried out their tasks with a bravado that defied logic. Patient care was never
compromised, despite the horrendous conditions. Medical and surgical care was
conducted in a maze of tunnels under the hospital, because eighty percent of the
superstructure was destroyed by Serbian weaponry. Not only was the hospital rebuilt,
a new medical school rose like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes.
The school’s inaugural was of such importance that the President of the Republic of
Croatia, Zlatko Matesa; Prof. Dr. Ivica Kostovic, Minister of Sciences and Technology;
Prof. Dr. Zeljko Reiner, Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Branimir Jaksic, Advisor to
President Franjo Tudjman, as well as the deans of the medical schools of Zagreb,
Rijeka, Split and Mostar attended with other dignitaries.
It is fitting that the first dean named was Prof. Dr. Antun Tucak, for he was driving
force that lead to establishing the school. Against all odds, including political and
economic, Tucak’s personality, behind the scenes pressure and grass roots efforts—
and probably a lot of wining and dining—brought his dream to realization.
The opening of Osijek medical school unquestionably has readied Croatia for the next
millennium, especially if Professor Tucak remains at the helm.
===================================================
SPREMNOST Hrvatski Tjednik (Australia) 23 May 2000
Dr Jerry Blaskovich’s reply to Suzanne Brooks-Pincevic
Suzanne Brook-Pincevic’s [Spremnost (4/18/00)], “ET TU!” Dr. Jerry Blaskovich,”
accuses me of a number of sins against Croatian historical orthodoxy. First, she
suggests that I support “the biggest propaganda lie…” and “the cover-up… of the
NDH and Bleiburg tragedy”. I found her characterizations contemptuous and I think
they deserve a response to keep the unsuspecting from being confounded.
Certainly she confused Spremost’s editors. Even the headline projected that I’m guilty
of treason and treachery. In the context of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” as we all
know, ET Tu!, defines such back stabbing acts. Despite the many blind allegations in
the article, I will respond to only a few because of space limitations. But it takes a lot of
water to wash off a little bit of mud.
Apparently Pincevic’s message was that I dared to trivialize and desecrate Bleiburg
and the NDH. Furthermore, she was particularly miffed that I didn’t make her thesis the
“highlight” of my book, Anatomy of Deceit. But the book was written to reveal truth
rather than satisfy Pincevic.
Its purpose was to deconstruct the rampant disinformation that has been, and
continues, to be spewed against Croatia by the establishment media of the U.S.,
England, and by the American State Department. Anatomy of Deceit‘s focus was to set
the record straight for those who had been brainwashed by those sources, and for
English readers, who, for the most part, haven’t the foggiest idea about the politics, let
alone being able to find it on the map, of the former Yugoslavia.
My chapter 2, the chapter Pincevic holds most notorious, was, by design, included to
give a bird’s eye view of who was who during the formative time of new Croatia. It
wasn’t written for Croatians, because they already know most of the score.
No purpose would’ve been served if I elaborated upon Radic and his colleagues’
murder in the Belgrade’s parliament, or if I had belabored incidents such as Sufflay’s
assignation and Goli Otok.
Despite its enormous toll, Bleiburg was but one of the many Serb horrors visited upon
the Croatian people. While Pincevic says I ‘virtually’ ignored Bleiburg and therefore
abetted in its cover up, your readers can decide from the excerpts taken from Anatomy
of Deceit.
“The Bleiburg slaughter became a truly black mark for England and the United States.
After the British guaranteed the safety of a large group of Croatian refugees, the
Croats ran up white flags in surrender. Apparently the flags signaled the Yugoslav
Army troops hidden in the surrounding forest. Despite having many ethnic Croats in its
own ranks, the Yugoslav Partisan Army opened indiscriminate machine gunfire on the
densely packed refugees. When they received no return fire, the Yugoslav Partisan
Army slaughtered the survivors with truncheons and knives. The British and
Americans had front row seats. Nicholai Tolstoy described the Bleiburg incident with
painstaking detail in The Minister of Massacres.”… “The British returned the few
survivors and other Croatian refugees who hadn’t been at Bleiburg to Yugoslavia
where they were forced into a death march and further mayhem.”
For some reason Pincevic finds ‘further mayhem’ and ‘death march’ “totally
inadequate.” It would behoove her to look them up in a standard dictionary. While she’
s there, she should also look up holocaust, a word she equated with Bleiburg.
Bleiburg wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a holocaust. Perhaps the confusion
here is that it was most certainly an unequivocal mass murder of unarmed people.
While the memory of the murdered won’t allow decent people to ignore Bleiburg, it has
little relevance in any discussion of the events of 1990-91 and far less relevance in
understanding Croatia’s current bilateral foreign relations. It is the Serb’s favorite ploy
to try to use WW II to explain the dynamics of Serbian/communist aggression in
disintegrating Yugoslavia. To buy into all of that requires us to ignore a very great
deal. Those who for some reason want to weld Bleiburg to Croatia’s future in the EU
are making a far more serious mistake.
Every historian has a favorite pivot point that they think is seminal to history. From
what I gather from “Et Tu!” and “Do Not Bury Bleiburg,” Pincevic chose Bleiburg and
the NDH on which to build her seminal moment. God forbid if someone doesn’t agree
with her.
I hate to disillusion Pincevic, but until the 90s, decidedly few Croats living in Croatia
had heard of Bleiburg. The ruling Communists made the survivors who lived in Croatia
reluctant to talk about their harrowing experiences, even to their families. In addition, a
great number of the Partizans who participated were Croatians (which was in contrast
to the Maribor and Kocevje perpetrators, who were made up of purely Serb units).
The only point we agree on was that 1945 was not a vintage year for Croatia, but for
different reasons. In Europe, the Communists took over, what was recently called the
Eastern Bloc countries, and instituted a dogma that affected more lives detrimentally
than any philosophical force in history. But in the former Yugoslavia it played a
different scenario.
Except for Slovenia, the Serbs took command of all key positions of the country’s
infrastructure—police, military, Foreign Office—the same positions they held before
the war, but with infinitely more power. In effect—a Greater Serbia. When the
excesses of the draconian Serb policies, in the guise of communism, became too
intolerable, it led directly to the 1971 Croatian Spring.
It should be stated, many participants of the Croatian Spring also fought for Croatia’s
self-determination effort of the 90s and that not only the majority of HDZ members but
also the so-called opposition parties were also Communist Party members. Very few
knew anything about Bleiburg and certainly wasn’t in anyone’s thoughts in the 1971
movement. Contrary to Mrs. Pincevic’s contention, it definitely didn’t motivate or
influence those who brought about the stupendous results of the 1990s. Those party
people, who knew, kept it to themselves, since some participated at Bleiburg and in
the post-war reign of terror. So it was in their interest to keep it quiet.
Pincevic states that I “oddly” didn’t mention the NDH or the Domobrans. Perhaps her
zeal got in the way, since she didn’t notice that Ustashe was mentioned forty-eight
times. Why exactly the omission of the Domobrans had anything to do with the 90s is
indeed mysterious.
Pincevic romanticizing the Ustashe has made her blind to some of their faults. When
the UDH were installed, they annexed most of the Dalmatian coast and islands to Italy.
The Italians harsh rule and the Croatians’ loss of identity drove many to the Partizans.
They, more than any other nationality, became the backbone of Tito’s movement.
Inadvertently, the Ustashe were responsible for the Croatian exodus to the Partizans.
Contrary to Pincevic’s shrill denunciation, I gave the Partizans very little credit for their
war effort. As attested by the quote, I gave them short shrift.
“Tito’s Communist Partisans didn’t participate in the war until Germany attacked
Russia. The Partisans became a force only after receiving vast supplies and air
support from the allies late in the war—after the fall of Italy.”
Aside from Pincevic’s character assassination against me, Philip Cohen and Michael
McAdams were not exempt from her wrath. I cannot speak for them, but I found her
comments about them repugnant. Her statement “the only people who gained from
Cohen’s book were the Jews” borders on racism, and is simply not true. Had his book,
that focused on the NDH, been published earlier, editors of the major newspapers
would most certainly have had a different perception about Croatia. The editors’ only
knowledge of the former Yugoslavia came from Serbian sources. But the book was
published too late to do any real good. The following two paragraphs, excerpted from
my book describe, albeit superficially, the media’s take on Croatia.
“Just as the Tito regime labeled every Croatian misstep Ustashe inspired, the
international media has also equated, without a scintilla of substantiation, the Croatian
government under Tudjman with the Ustashe regime of 50 years ago.” “In order to
strengthen its position, the Yugoslav Communist Party exploited Nazi history in
Yugoslavia in much the same way Russia exploited Nazi atrocities in Eastern Europe.
The Serbian-led Communist Party, painting the Croats on the same canvas with the
Nazis, successfully suppressed knowledge of Serbian collaboration with the Germans.
The noun “Croat” became a euphemism for fascism to the people of Yugoslavia. Many
young Croats came to feel ashamed of their ethnic roots. The public relations firms
hired by SerbNet projected a fascistic image of Croats during the recent conflict.”
McAdams extremely valuable monograph systematically shattered most of the Serbian
mythologies. His monograph could have been the most important contribution for the
Croatian cause. But instead of promoting it to the American public and the movers and
shakers, it was promoted mainly to Croatian-Americans.
Whenever an Op-Ed of mine was published, there was an outpour of letters to those
publications from Serbs or their sympathizers. Interestingly, relatively few attacked the
substance of what I wrote (most likely they couldn’t find anything to refute); their
criticisms were directed at what I had failed to say, i.e., about alleged crimes against
Serbs by the Croats, and my failure to perpetuate their mythologies. And like Mrs.
Pincevic, who “cannot overlook (my) many inaccuracies” but failed to cite examples,
the Serbs’ protests were similar.
Pincevic let her imagination run wild when she said my book implied the Serbs “gave
up ambitions” to create a Greater Serbia. Even a cursory reading revealed a message
that the Serbs already had de facto a greater Serbia since they owned lock, stock and
barrel – all key positions, police, etc., and most importantly the economic wealth of
Croatia. While the cow was in Croatia, it was milked in Serbia. Their war on Croatia,
had it been successful, would’ve redefined the borders, which I believe the Western
powers would have de jure endorsed. The excerpt from the book briefly addresses the
issue.
“Contrary to the smoke and mirrors that appeared in the media, Serbia didn’t start its
war to prevent Croatia and Slovenia from seceding. Stated purely and simply, the
Serbs engaged in a land grab in order to create a Greater Serbia.”
It appears that Pincevic, to justify her shortcomings, cast aspersions on McAdams,
Cohen, and myself that we wrote to “curry favor with the West (and their Bankers)…
gain monetary and moral support.” Pincevic may not know it, but when one equates
bankers, monetary gain directed against implied enemies, it’s deju vu of a communist
tactic. While we were getting our letters to the editor and Op-Op pieces published,
when it was most needed—during the bloodshed and destruction, I wonder if Pincevic
had participated in a similar fashion.
Contrary to Pincevic’s allegations, and unlike her, who had sponsors and the backing
of the Croatian community from down under, I never received an iota of
encouragement, moral support, nor recognition from the Croatian government, or the
Croatian community in the United States. All my research, time, transportation costs
(except when I went to the front lines), and time spent away from my medical practice
were done at my expense.
Pincevic appears to be beside herself that Cohen received a medal. In the context of
the time, who else was more deserving? Perhaps Pincevic herself? Or does she
perceive us as competition for her book?
=====================================================
June 19, 2000 Croatian American Times
[New York]
Suzanne H. Brooks-Pincevic’s recently SPAMMED the Internet with:
“CROATIA IS DROWNING TRAPPED UNDER THE LIES OF ITS FASCIST
COMMUNISTS (PAST AND PRESENT).”
Although her obvious intent was to give us a glimpse of her immense wisdom, what
she actually demonstrated is that she is at best a Nazi apologist or at worse, a
psychological warfare instrument for Milosevic. Either way, what she puts out is
intellectually corrupt. Pincevic’s contention that the Ustashe era was the “one thing”
Croats actually have to be proud of and respected for is not only indefensible; it’s also
political lunacy.
It fits right in to the only internationally appealing issue that the Serb ultra-nationalists
have been able to effectively use to deflect attention away from their evil deeds. That
is what they did to cause Croatia so much diplomatic difficulty in 1990-91-92.
If Croatians choose to assemble around Pincevic’s intellectual dishonesty, the Serbs
can once again hire the public relations firm of Saatchi and Saatchi to publicize the
fact that Croatians are demonstrably proud of being Nazis. Before Croatians begin to
wax too nostalgic about her statements, they should consider how all of that fits into
the here and now. It is absolutely certain that, whether by intent or accident, the article
will provide fodder to the Serb propaganda apparatus, since it re-enforces their thesis
that Croatians equate with the Nazis. The thesis has been the linchpin of their psych-
op game plan, which the Western media bought lock, stock, and barrel. With friends
like Pincevic, who needs enemies? Pincevic’s seeing Tudjman as someone who rose
to meet the threat of extinction may serve her need to link him and 1991 Croatia to
Pavelic, but, once again, it is not only intellectually dishonest and ignores the facts.
Instead of examining the facts she has chosen the route of historical revisionism and
seems to want to romanticize the Ustashe movement. She bemoans the fact that the
Ustashe “DID NOT HAVE MUCH CHOICE” but obey the Nazis. The only merit in that
argument is that the Ustashe were not elected nor did they fight for the right to govern.
Rather they were a small group of exiles who were installed by Nazi Germany, under
the advice of fascist Italy, as a puppet state. The NDH’s power to govern was no
better or worse than Quisling Norway or Vichy France.
Pincevic appears to have been vexed by the democratic voting process that took
place recently in Croatia. Perhaps it is the concept of free elections that bothers her.
Certainly that is quite unlike the good old days of the Ustashe. We may not like the
election results, but the voters made their choices one at a time.
Pincevic’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ statement ”IRONICALLY HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR
THE “BLEIBURG TRADEGDY”—THERE WOULD NOT BE A CROATIA TODAY!”
(her caps) was pure and fanciful imagination. While the memory of the murdered won’t
allow decent people to ignore Bleiburg, it has little relevance in any discussion of the
events of 1990-91 and far less relevance in understanding Croatia’s current foreign
relations. Those who rely on WW II to explain the dynamics of Serbian/communist
aggression in disintegrating Yugoslavia must ignore a very great deal. Those who link
Bleiburg to Croatia’s future in the EU are making an even more serious mistake.
Pincevic seems to believe everything she’s told. Croatians are not all “hospitable,
tolerant, righteous—forever turning the other cheek! —TOO FORGIVING!” as she
naively believes. Just look at what the Croatian CP did to their fellow Croatians. She
could start with Bleiburg and onward through 1989.
Jerry Blaskovich M.D.
====================================================
The Croatian American Times (Published September 26 and October 10, 2000)
To the editor:
John Prcela lost whatever credibility he had, when he defended Susan Brooks
Pincevic’s with the same misstatements she had used [Croatian-American Times
(7/25/00)]. His depiction that my “exchange” with Pincevic was ‘low and one-sided’ is
ridiculous. First of all, there was not an exchange. Rather it was something Pincevic
initiated in “Et Tu Dr. Jerry Blaskovich” (Spremnost). Her article, aside from being an
out of the blue character assassination against me, also grievously insulted Michael
McAdams and Philip Cohen in a manner that bordered on anti-Semitism.
My comments, which Prcela took so much umbrage with, were not directed toward her
personally, but to her intellectually corrupt statements in “Croatia is Drowning Trapped
Under the Lies of its Fascist Communists” (Spammed over the internet) and the
Spremnost article. It escapes me why Prcela went to such lengths to elucidate
Pincevic’s genealogy and spell out her art ability and personal qualities since that
knowledge had no bearing on his arguments. Unless, of course, they were meant to
excuse Pincevic’s lack of historiography fundamentals.
Interestingly, while Prcela tried to whitewash Pincevic by citing a number of my quotes
despairingly, nothing in his arguments refuted their substance.
Before Prcela commented on my statements, he should have spent time on research,
instead of relying on fantasy. Michael McAdams, who is a reliable source, despite
Pincevic’s contrary opinion, should settle some of the issues Pincevic and Prcela have
such problems reconciling with — namely, that the Ustashe were a small group of
exiles that Nazi Germany installed upon the advice of fascist Italy and how they came
to power.
After Germany attacked Yugoslavia it was doubtful who would govern Croatia: “... A
German news release of April 11th announced that Macek would head the new
Croatian government. In fact, the Germans had offered him the post and he refused.
He was asked again on October 10, 1941 after which the Ustasha imprisoned him
until March 1942 when he was put under house arrest for the remainder of the War. If
Prcela would refer to Ciano’s “War Time Diary,” he will note after Macek turned down
the post, Mussolini suggested and advised Hitler that, as an alternative, the Ustashe
could fit the bill.
“When Pavelic did arrive … he brought with him “a few hundred” … To be precise
“Kotar Duvno” arrived with 40 men; “Kotar Bugojno” with 16; “Kotar Livno” with 43;
“Kotar Kupres” with 7; “Hercegovina” with 25; “Lika” with 42; an additional 50 from
unknown groups; Five members of Poglavnik’s family; and seven Ukrainians, for a
total of some 235.” The latter number, I believe, is most accurate.
If Prcela paid attention to the context of my argument, he would have noted I did not
call the Ustashe traitors. I only said their power to govern was no greater than the
Quisling or Vichy governments. In Anglo-Saxon usage, Quisling has come to equate
with a puppet state. If Hitler wished, the NDH could have been replaced with the snap
of his fingers.
Prcela’s glowing statements about the goodness of the “intrepid defenders” was a
very subtle way to project images that the NDH were above reproach, committed no
atrocities and loved Jews like brothers. In the same context, Prcela’s tacitly implied
that Blessed Stepinac was an Ustashe. Since I am aware that some people in Prcela’s
thinking mode believe this to be the case, I hope that was not his intent. That would
carry his quest as a legitimate source too far.
It’s my understanding that one of the tenets of the Seventeen Principals, which Prcela
emphasized, was to fight to the death for the cause. If so, why are there so many NDH
survivors? Why did most of the hierarchy, who formulated the Principals, turn tail and
escape? Either all the principals should have been adhered to or none.
Prcela’s statements that the Ustasha contributed a great deal to the destruction of
Yugoslavia and that they had anything to do to destroy Yugoslavia some forty years
later were ludicrous. Contrary to his fantasies, Bleiburg, couldn’t have, by any stretch
of logic, inspired the Croatian Spring of 1971 and the war for Independence of the 90s.
It is doubtful that any pedestrian Croatian living in Croatia heard of Bleiburg before the
latter date. Certainly the slaughter wasn’t mentioned in any school textbook, never
lectured about in the schools, no articles were written about it in the media, nor did the
survivors who lived in Croatia talk it about. The survivors were reluctant to talk about
Bleiburg to their own families for the same reason those who spent time in Goli Otok.
They feared that the knowledge would jeopardize their families.
I’ve known a great number of Croats who had left Yugoslavia legally or illegally after
WWII. None knew anything about Bleiburg until individuals in émigré organizations
brought it to their attention.
It should be underscored, that most of the leaders of the Croatian Spring and the self-
determination effort of the 90s were committed Communists, who distanced
themselves from any overtones of the NDH’s philosophy. They all knew, and most
believed, the Communist Party’s version of the NDH’s history, but only very few knew
anything about Bleiburg. Those that did know kept it to themselves. For it was a
subject not to be openly discussed. Some had participated at Bleiburg and in the post-
war reign of terror. In the ‘71 and ’89 movements, many of those same individuals
were activists, often in high positions. So it was all the more reason to downplay the
issue-given the new political climate.
Regardless of Prcela’s sanctification of Pincevic, she manipulates facts to suit her
thesis. For example, she mentioned the NDH never fought the Allis, when in fact, the
NDH declared war on the U.S. and that the NDH sent soldiers to Russia to help Hitler’
s fight. As to her statement: “Just prior to WWII breaking out Albert Einstein in America
beseeched the Western governments to assist Croatia against the brutality of the
Serbs.” the facts show Einstein’s protest occurred in 1931. Although in the global
historical sense 1931 is close enough to WWII, but it was a decade early and a
decade after the Kingdom came into being. Her statements would fit in nicely in a
creative writing class.
While Prcela is in total denial, Pincevic disingenuously downgraded the excesses of
the Ustashe: “they had to go along with German policy - and then it was only TO A
DEGREE. That was all it was. Nothing more.” Wow! Isn’t that nice? Tell that to the
Ustashe victims of all ethnic ilk. Croatians, such as Macak, were not exempt from the
summer camp of Jasenovac.
“The Black Book of Communism” puts the various factions of WWII Yugoslavia into
proper perspective. This scholarly work is the definitive work on communism and was
written by a group of French ex-Communists who saw the light. “The Ustasha
group…amounted to little more than an apartheid regime that subordinated the Serbs
and carried out massacres of Jews and Gypsies. The Ustasha sought to eliminate all
its opposition, driving numerous Croats to join the resistance… Chetniks…carried out
their massacres far more often on an ethnic rather than a political basis. The
objectives of the Communists were much more clearly military and political.” I am
certain that The Black Book will not sit well with the Pincevic team.
=======================================================
Croatian American Times November 21, 2000
A review of Julienne Busic’s Book “Lovers and Madmen”
Too raw realism, not a Romeo and Juliet story
By Jerry Blaskovich
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
When I was given Julie Busic’s “Lovers and Madmen” to read, I did so reluctantly. I
vaguely remembered the author had been an activist in the 70s and was no mere
dilettante. To make a political statement, she participated in an air hijacking—an event
that made worldwide headlines—but was tragically complicated by three wounded and
one dead New York policemen. As a result, she spent thirteen years in a federal
prison. So given this background, I anticipated the book would be a manifesto along
the lines of the Unabomber or something ala Angela Davis.
I was dead wrong!
Instead, I was treated to a great depiction of courtroom trial scene. I only wish she had
expanded upon it since it was all too short. One of the book’s highlights was her pre-
trial incarceration in a Communist Yugoslav prison for dropping anti-government
leaflets over Zagreb’s downtown. The interplay with her fellow prisoners; a tweedle-
dee, tweedle-dum trial; and her unpredictable acquittal made for fascinating reading.
Whatever she said about her attorney in Zagreb was right on the mark, since I knew
him and shared the same impression. Her depiction of the hijacking was loaded with
high drama.
Busic showed a great propensity for a dramatic description of those events. Their
collective details truly placed the reader into her mindset. Surprisingly, there was
nothing in the book that could have been construed as propaganda. So much for
preconceived notions!
Although some readers may find her actions repugnant, the intensity of her writing
leaped from the pages and will intrigue even her worse detractors. Interestingly, while
the passengers of the hijacked plane were not afflicted with Stockholm syndrome,
twenty-five of them sent letters of support and pleas for leniency to the judge on her
behalf, and after sentencing, many visited her in prison. While she made no apology
for her actions, her honest appraisal and objectivity were refreshing.
She leads the readers chronologically from being picked up by Zvonko Busic (her
future husband) on the streets of Vienna, to dropping leaflets from a skyscraper in
Yugoslavia that ended in a trial, and to the ultimate act—the air hijacking. These
events, which Zvonko orchestrated, resulted in major repercussions for all parties.
Despite the book’s title, readers who anticipate a Romeo and Juliet love story—forget
it! The book had much too raw realism for that nicety. At each step of the way that
culminated in the trial and conviction in New York she filled the pages with details of
her relationship with Zvonko. Her profound statement that she wanted a myth to
dedicate her life most certainly came true. For Zvonko was a specter and he remained
an enigma, despite the voluminous number of pages devoted to him. Although he was
the central figure, she gave the readers no real information about him. If we knew what
motivated him it could have helped the readers better understand their acts.
For clarification, it should be stated that during the time Zvonko lived in Yugoslavia,
Communism’s iron fist ruled. While international Communism was a philosophy that
affected more lives detrimentally than any other force in history, in Croatia, aside from
living with that evil, Croatians had to live with something even more drastic. The
Serbs, who dominated Yugoslavia, were in the process of erasing the Croatians’
national identity by the harshest measures.
Julie’s using quotes from Nietzsche to introduce the chapters set the philosophical
tone of the book. While the book’s focus was presumably the hijacking, the underlying
real story, however, was the psychodynamics of Julie and Zvonko’s relationship. In
essence, it was a study of what happens when a strongly dominant personality from a
village in the heart of the Balkans meets with a girl from middle class America. While
the cultures are diametrically opposites, she apparently washed her hands of hers and
wholeheartedly embraced, without question, the mores of his culture and politics.
What turned Julie on to Zvonko? Did she succumb to Croatian charm, as she implies,
or was it something inherent in her personality? Until she met him, she was leading a
rather carefree, purposeless, and ambivalent life in Vienna that was not constrained
by American middle class morality, of which she was a product. There was certainly
no picket fence in her plans. Despite being an American, she projected as totally non-
materialistic. But it’s apparent from the signals she gave in the book that she was ripe
for a figure such as Zvonko.
Once they cemented their relationship they, more often than not, often lived under
deplorable conditions, both materially or mentally, looking over their shoulders for real
or imagined assassins, and harassment from government officials. How did she
survive her relationship with Zvonko?
The answer is simple. Pure and unconditional, unadulterated love!
Before many of the readers wax about her plight they should remember that in the
game of love there are no victims, only volunteers.
She prided herself in her intelligence and uniqueness. And it was probably this
uniqueness that caused her to embrace Croatian politics in the form of Zvonko. While
her contemporaries in Oregon were protesting the Viet Nam war she chose to live in
Europe. After meeting Zvonko, she learned the political and historical complexities of
the former Yugoslavia and, heart and soul, picked up the mantra for Croatia.
What was particularly interesting was the almost Jekyll and Hyde variation in her
writing. Whenever Julie focused on Zvonko, the writing was along the lines of a
lovesick diarist who couldn’t see where she was heading. However, when she wrote
about incidents where he is not present or was unable to control or directly influence
her, she wrote with the beauty and brilliance of star lit moonless night.
It’s certain many readers will condemn the Busic’s as terrorists. But the label of
terrorist is dependent on what side of the political fence one lies. Menachem Begin
and the Stern Gang members were terrorists when one adheres to the definition. Far
more lives were lost, both innocents and intended targets, through their indiscriminate
killings, such as when they blew up the King David Hotel, than those of Julie and
Zvonko. Is there a difference between the Busics’ and the Begans’ of the world? Both
felt they had no choice. But the latter ended up running the Israeli government and
christened as freedom fighters while the ill-starred lovers languished in prison.
Certainly, when the Stern Gang operated they were not doing so to free themselves
from suppression
Few realize the depths of suppression and degradation that the Croatian people were
subjected to following the Second World War to the disintegration of the former
Yugoslavia. Any opposition was dealt in only three ways—imprisonment, a bullet to
the back of the head, or exile. The latter option didn’t often occur in the form of a visa
or passport, but as an escape across well-guarded borders. Yugoslavia had more
political prisoners than the entire Eastern Bloc countries combined. So when the Busic’
s did their deed, many in the Croatian Diaspora, rightly or wrongly, looked to them as
a ray of hope. They were perceived as the only ones that brought the Croatians’ plight
to the world’s attention.
Jerry Blaskovich, M.D.
===================================================
“The New Generation- Hrvatski Vjesnik English supplement” Friday, 22nd December,
2000
&
Croatian American Times over three issues that started December 5, 2000
Quo Vadis Croatian Media?
When future historians write about the disintegration of Yugoslavia they’ll conclude the
seminal event was the United States’ government giving advice and consent to the
Serbian leadership to preserve Yugoslavia by all means available. Furthermore, the
United States will carry the same connotation as the Serbian nationalist who
assassinated the Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo — an act that triggered World War
One.
As soon as Croatia started playing self-determination overtures, the establishment
media, like the New York Times and Washington Post, took the baton from the State
Department and wrote a score that Croatia’s democratically elected government was
the reincarnation of World War II’s Nazi regime. After Serbian paramilitary forces and
the Serbian-lead Yugoslav army initiated warfare in Croatia, those same sources
tacitly cast the wounded and dead Croatians—the overwhelming majority of whom
were civilians—as something they justifiably deserved.
When the Serbs were unable to impose its mandate, despite massive destruction
and state sanctioned systematized atrocities, the Croats were painted on the equal
guilty canvas with the Serbs. Outside intervention was precluded after the conflict was
depicted as an ancient ethnic rivalry.
But Croatia’s self-determination couldn’t be denied. In 1995 the Croatians militarily
went on the offense and defeated the Serbian forces. Contrary to the State
Department’s accusations, the Serb civilians who retreated with its forces, went
voluntarily.
Enormous problem facing democracy in the first ten years
Croatia was faced with enormous problems implementing democracy its first ten
years. Aside from caring for over half a million refugees and displaced persons;
defending itself with an extremely detrimental arms embargo; a destroyed
infrastructure; economic chaos, it had to contend with a communist mindset. The
latter, unfortunately, is still in existence. The conditions in Croatia were far worse than
what other former communist states experienced, whose citizens’ lives or continuing
existence were never jeopardized and were recipients of moral and financial support
from the West.
So unlike Croatia!
And, what did the U.S. government do to help Croatia’s fledging democracy? It set
out to sabotage Croatia!
The key claims were Croatia had no press freedom and its leadership—
notwithstanding the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development study’s
conclusion that showed Croatia the “least corrupt” among 20 transition countries—
was the personification of corruption.
Croatia is the only country with the dubious distinction of receiving public scorn from
the U.S. government. A condition, which during the heyday of the Cold War and Stalin’
s purges, Russia was never placed.
The United States government clearly couldn’t tolerate the legitimately elected
HDZ Croatian government. For example, when the Papal Nuncio addressed members
of the diplomatic corps in Zagreb, he extolled the virtues and successes of the
Croatian government. As soon as the Papal Nuncio left the podium, the American
Ambassador, William Montgomery, verbally attacked the Vatican representative for
daring to show the Croatian government in a good light. The Spanish ambassador
attempted to calm Montgomery’s hysterical outburst. But when he said Montgomery
was a guest in the country and should act accordingly, Montgomery anger intensified.
According to eyewitnesses, had not Montgomery’s bodyguards intervened, he would
have become physical with the Spanish ambassador.
Croatia’s print media was not only free, but alive and kicking
Contrary to what the State Department wanted us to believe before the elections,
Croatia’s print media was not only free, it was alive and kicking. In their criticism, they
disingenuously never mentioned the major newspapers (Jutarnji List, Novi List,
NACIONAL, GLOBUS, FERAL TRIBUNE), which comprise the majority of those
published in Croatia, although markedly diverse, shared a commonality of being anti-
government—at times, venomously so.
The Croatian public can freely access newspapers of the entire political spectrum:
from that most ridiculous epitome of yellow journalism, the Feral Tribune, to the
sublime government’s mouthpiece, Vjesnik.
Vjesnik published only politically correct stories about the HDZ, Croatia’s then ruling
party. Vjesnik maintained the old Communist more of never printing anything
detrimental about the government and its politicians. Several sources said: “Vjesnik
printed stories to give to Tudjman (the then Croatian President) what they know he
wanted to read.” Although its circulation was small, it had a tremendously large, well
paid reporting staff.
By Western journalistic standards, Vjesnik is extremely bland. For example, the
morning after Tudjman’s emergency surgery that eventually caused his demise,
Vjesnik printed a small headline that didn’t really set the Tudjman story apart from
other stories of that day. On the third page, only seventy words were given to the story
(most of the words were devoted to enumerating his titles), and downgraded his
condition to a tummy ache.
The other newspapers, in contrast, ran banner headlines and devoted 3-4 pages to
the story with interviews, heavily laced speculation, and information that proved to be
highly accurate. They even interviewed Dr. Andrija Hebrang, a physician who once
had been in charge of treating Tudjman, although he really said nothing of substance.
What the folks at State Department don’t realize
Despite the fact that even the most unsophisticated Croatian is aware that Vjesnik
only articulated the government’s agenda, which is probably the reason for its small
circulation, the rhetoric against Croatia was based on this government-sponsored
newspaper. What the folks at the State Department don’t realize, Vjesnik is the domain
of the ruling party of parliament. At that time, it was the HDZ. When the State
Department’s surrogates entrench themselves in running the government, they most
likely will keep the tradition alive.
Before the election, newspapers that had ties with the HDZ Government were
despairingly labeled “regime newspapers.” But newspapers that were tied to the U.S.
government were declared “independent.”
Feral Tribune, which derived much of its funding from the Soros Foundation, is a
weekly publication that puts our best supermarket check-stand tabloids to shame. But,
instead of reporting Elvis spottings or kidnappings by space aliens, it only focused
upon the real or imagined failings of the HDZ. One particular issue, but typical of the
genre, stands out. Feral’s entire front page showed a mocked up picture of Milosevic
and Tudjman naked in bed. If this is not an example of “press freedom” run amok, I
don’t know what is. Imagine if the New York Times ran a similar mockup of Bush and
Gore, or better yet, Monica and our just plain Bill. The latter, at least, has a kernel of
truth.
Dr. Marko Sapunar, a Croatian media researcher, documented that between 1993
and 1996 the Feral Tribune received $642,781.52 from the Soros Foundation.
Interestingly, select newspapers in Sarajevo and Belgrade, also were recipients of
Soros’ largess.
Critics label Feral Tribune a prime example of yellow journalism, but that term
gives the publication too much credit. Yellow journalism, at least, uses half-truths. In a
typical story, a reporter would ask a personality (political or high profile person such
as a movie star, but always someone who is HDZ orientated): ”We have heard that
you danced naked in front of a bunch of Chetniks (Serbian paramilitary force).” She
would immediately deny the allegation. The Feral would then run under banner
headlines, so and so, the glamorous actress, who is closely allied with the regime,
denies she danced naked in front of a bunch of Chetniks.
The Jutarnji List, another anti-government newspaper before the elections, but
with infinitely more journalistic credibility than the Feral Tribune, is a subsidiary of
“Europe Press Holdings”(EPH), which is owned by Ninoslav Pavic. He also owns
Arena, Globus, Gloria, Auto Moto, and the Croatian editions of Playboy and
Cosmopolitan.
Why media boss Ninoslav Pavic were saving Ivic Pasalic
His publications have blasted most of the personalities of the HDZ, except for Ivic
Pasalic (Tudjman’s hatchet man and power behind the throne). This tacit hands off
approach enhances rumors that there was an accommodation between Pasalic and
Pavic. It’s common knowledge that Pasalic has planted stories with Jutarnji List to
smear his political enemies.
But the apple of the State Department’s eye is Nacional. Its apparent only functions
were to uncover and expose real or imagined shenanigans of the HDZ, its
functionaries, and Tudjman’s family. Before USAID took over financing Nacional,
according to reliable sources, the major funding came from Veljko Santic, an old time
GENIX or INEX hand, via Mladen Pleso. The Nacional was not averse to publish
classified government documents that were provided by a HDZ functionary who
thought it would further his political career.
The USAID financed the design and translated all of Nacional’s archives into
English for its website. Nacional’s General director, Marijan Jurleka, coincidentally
was once editor of Pregled (the U.S. embassy’s monthly publication in Croatia).
Another coincidence, Lynn Montgomery (wife of the American Ambassador), aside
from her dilettante acting and/or supporting Shakespearean productions in Zagreb, is
an occasional columnist. Interestingly, following the election, a previous high HDZ
functionary became a columnist for the paper.
Except for Pavic’s consortium, most of the newspapers are in deep financial
trouble, despite USAID, EU, USAID and Soros Foundation subsidies.
The cash flow problems partly result from a number of successful libel suits by the
plaintiffs. The media interpreted the newly found freedom that followed Communism’s
downfall to mean they could indiscriminately shoot from the hip on any story or
personality. A reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous said: “What strikes
me most in the post-Communist press is a sanctimonious conformity among many who
claim to be “professionals” on one hand and complete disregard establishing and
double-checking the facts on the other. It is as if two cultures coexisted, both of them
equally detrimental to the credibility of the media.”
Many reporters I’ve interviewed had problems with the “Penalty Law.” According
to their interpretation, the law doesn’t favor “media freedom” and encourages libel
suits. Stjepan Malovic, Director of the International Center for Educating Journalists
(ICEJ) in Zagreb, and a great fan of Feral Tribune, went so far as to say: “(the) Latest
Court decisions is clearly showing how media freedom is not protected by judiciary
system.” But the flurry of libel suits has resulted in more responsible reporting.
State Department is paying legal fees
The State Department in August 1999, apparently troubled by the rash of
successful libel suits against their surrogates established a legal fund of $100,000 to
pay legal fees for the Croatian Journalists Association stemming from criminal and civil
lawsuits. Ostensibly it’s not to pay awards, but to defray the costs of defense. Imagine
the hue and outcry by Congress, if Russia, when it was at the height of its power,
decided to similarly finance the legal defense of groups like the Chicago Seven or the
Indians at Wounded Knee.
The State Department has taken the role of social and educational engineer to
make Croatia’s media conform to their standard. Although journalism in Croatia has
traditions dating from the Austro-Hungarian era, the State Department via USAID are
trying to teach the Croatians how to be journalists the American way.
And they are already half way there. Since many of the Croatia’s media folk are
products of an atheistic system, they could readily fit in mainstream American
newsrooms. A classic 1980 study by Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public
Affairs found that in the most influential newsrooms in the US, half of the 286 elite
media people surveyed “eschewed any religious affiliation” and 86 percent seldom or
never attended religious services. And these are the very same people the State
Department has chosen to be the standard for ethics.
While many journalists are survivors of practicing their craft under communism,
when they developed the art of being able to write between the lines without going to
jail, apparently have no qualms to march with a new drummer.
There are more journalists per capita in Croatia than in the U.S.
For the moment, journalism is a respected profession in Croatia, but if American
standards are instituted it will bring its reputation down to the low level it has in
America. According to many recipients of their largess, the US’s “experts” collective
attitude is similar to the Portuguese Jesuit missionaries who went to Brazil to
Christianize the natives.
Despite the negative reputation, journalism, as a career, is still popular in Croatia.
The ratio of candidates for Study of Journalism of Faculty of Political Science is eight
to one. Of the over 3,000 journalists in Croatia, most work in the print media. Which is
an enormous number when considering that the total population of Croatia is less than
four and a half million. I’m certain you’ll find that there are far more journalists per
capita in Croatia than in the US. In contrast to the US media folk, the majority are not
only well educated (university degree), they have a large number of women, which
should start the juices flowing over the collective clitori of the politically correct feminist
movement in the US.
Aside from direct funding of pet projects in Croatia, IREXProMedia, a USAID
organization, in conjunction with the Soros Foundation, sponsored “workshops” at
The Freedom Forum European Center for the Croatian Journalist Association. The
irony is that most of the “students” came from the very groups the Soros Foundation
and the U.S. government wanted to sabotage.
“TRAINING FOR BETTER MEDIA,” a monograph, co-edited by Malovic that came
out of the workshops articulates the state of the Croatian media. Throughout the
monograph, there was a common thread that the Croatian media is in disarray and the
supposed lack of press freedom was caused by the government. Reading the
monograph, I got the impression that this thesis was to satisfy the sponsors, because
the thread unravels by the many contradictions in the work.
Malovic’s statements: “Most journalists have had neither skills nor knowledge to
efficiently practice independent, balanced and free journalism … There is no
investigative approach” are the bottom line for understanding journalism in Croatia.
But they are in direct contradiction to what USAID and Soros want us to believe—all of
Croatia’s ills, including bad weather, resulted from the HDZ.
The old communist system wasn’t conducive to investigative reporting, particularly
political, and was never in the vocabulary of the communist media. Journalists were
given government press releases, which they regurgitated in different writing styles—
no freethinking was allowed. Although investigative journalism, before the
election was the “flavor of the month,” few journalists were equipped to carry out this
brand of reporting.
But now that the HDZ is history, investigative reporting of the new government
has almost become defunct. The media’s accommodation with Croatia’s President
Stipe Mesic is astounding.
For example, nobody questioned Mesic’s often quoted statement, which has
become his rallying cry: “We (Croatians) have been living the dark for the past ten
years.” Apparently they have forgotten that Mesic was a prime mover and shaker for
four of those years.
During Mesic’s tenure as President of Yugoslavia, SUP and the Serb paramilitary
forces de facto occupied Croatia and Yugoslav Army attacked the country. He was
Head of the HDZ when the hierarchy replaced the legally elected Kjuic as president of
HDZ for Bosnia-Herzegovina. While serving as HDZ’s Secretary, the HDZ changed
the name of the Victims of Fascism to Heroes of Croatia (there was a recent big
brouhaha in Croatia to revert the name back to the old communist name that Racan
and Mesic encouraged). Despite a Croatian law requirement, Mesic went to the Haag
as witness without obtaining permission of the Vlade Republic of Croatia.
He was President of parliament (the second highest position in Croatia) at a time
when key political activity was happening and revolutionary laws were made that
affected the economy, i.e.,privatization, which is the main criticism and bone of
contention in Croatia today. Although the question was raised numerous times, Mesic
hasn’t answered the question: Who provided the funds for his campaign? Nor has he
answered charges by Budak, which backed with documentation, that he was an agent
of UDBa.
Any and all of the above would have whetted the appetite of any reporter worth
his salt. However, there has been barely a peep from the media.
One of the most principled and respected media persons in Croatia, Branko Salaj,
Croatia’s Minister of Information during the war and recently director of HINA, said
most of Croatia’s journalists haven’t learned the who, what, when, where of journalism
and are, in reality, frustrated novelists, enamored with prose.
In interviewing journalists, I was struck by the naïveté of these educated and
supposedly sophisticated individuals. Most haven’t a clue about journalistic economics
or free marketing concepts. This was exemplified by Malovic’s statement: “Journalist
(s) in the state controlled media or those, whose owners are not allowing freedom of
the press, are forced to practice self-censorship and to hide themselves in newsrooms
trying to survive and waiting for changes. It is humiliating and insulting their dignity.”
Many journalists (as well as other professions) mourn the demise of communism
when everything was subsidized, from accountants to zookeepers, by the government.
But people who were raised under communism fail to realize that whoever owns the
media sets the policy, which is the case in the real world. One only has to look at the
monolithic TIMES MIRROR, which is owned by the Chandler family.
Does Malovic and cohorts expect that the owners will allow reporters free rein
over content and, most importantly, without accountability?
Malovic looks to the Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) for salvation. When
Malovic crowed that: “The CJA is one of the most active NGO on the very important
field of the media freedom” he meant the Association was not controlled by the HDZ.
But he has no problem accepting that the U.S., EU governments and the Soros
Foundation, whom are financing the CJA are doing so with strings attached. In 1998
EU gave 140,000 DM to CJA and 25,000 DM to the Syndicate, figures for the US,
which provided the lions share, are not available.
It remains to be seen how Dragutin Lucic, the newly elected president of Croatian
Journalist Association will deal with his sponsors. Either the CJA has a magic bullet to
resist the pressure of their financial angels or they are not aware that their sponsors
are not backing them for altruistic reasons. Mario Profaca, a freelance journalist, who
operates an extremely credible website of international stature, succinctly put the CJA’
s naiveté of accepting Greeks bearing gifts cliché into perspective: “Those that feed
chickens do not do so because they really love chickens, but if they don’t lay eggs
they’d end up in the pot.”
A point that is lost on the journalists is economics. Since the elections, the
collective circulation of the print media has gone into a dramatic free fall. What the
profession must realize is that their jobs depend upon the reading public. When that
source dries up, which it is in the process of doing, they have to realize subsidies will
not be forthcoming to bail them out. They must act like real reporters and put out a
better product, instead of crying their woes and harping on the past.
====================================================
“The New Generation- Hrvatski Vjesnik English supplement” (Melbourne) February
23, 2001
DIPLOMACY IS THE ART OF COMPROMISE BUT CROATS INSTEAD ACCEPT
UNQUESTIONINGLY AMERICAN PROPOSALS...
While governments and individuals speculate upon what the new administration has in
store for them, many Croatian-Americans have already reached some conclusions.
Young Bush’s policies toward the republics comprising former Yugoslavia will be
nothing more than a reincarnation of his father’s. The first omen was his naming Brent
Scowcroft as advisor. Scowcroft had been Security Advisor to the elder Bush. He,
along with Henry Kissinger and Lawrence Eaglebuger was one of the ‘troika’ at
Kissinger and Associates (K&A) whose lobbying for Serbian clients grievously harmed
Croatia’s self determination effort of the early 1990s.
Eagleburger’s chicanery, such as altering secret communiqués that were passed onto
the President, blunted the Serbs’ responsibility for war crimes and cast Croatia in a
bad light. The disinformation seeds planted then continue to bear fruit against Croatia.
However, when James Baker became a presence on television during the counting
and the recounting of the votes in Florida, it sent shivers down the spines of many
Croatian Americans.
Baker will forever be remembered for his 1991 speech in Belgrade that gave carte
blanche to the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitary forces to unleash their
juggernaut on Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina, which resulted in the deaths of over
250,000 innocent souls. The only positive effect his speech had was that it
inadvertently led to Yugoslavia’s disintegration. But the clincher for many Croatian
Americans was Bush’s front-runner for the seat at the U N. Lee Hamilton, the
quintessential pro Serbian, was a Democratic Party Congressman who literally swam
in an ocean of money that was laundered by Manatos and Manatos, a Washington D.
C. public relations firm and a front for Serbia an organizations and individuals that
included Milan Panich, Milos Ljuboja, and Michael Djordjevich.
A few weeks after Hamilton received a “donation” from Djordjevich on April 25, 1994,
Djordjevich and Vladimir Matic, Yugoslavia’s former Assistant Federal Minister for
Foreign Affairs were invited and addressed the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the
House of Representatives.
Hamilton continued to dance to the Serb’s tune even after leaving Congress, when he
was named Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center. The Wilson Center
was a credible Washington D.C. think tank that conducts symposia and colloquiums
for the movers and shakers of the Beltway. While the topic of the former Yugoslavia is
on the agenda at least once a month, the guest speakers or moderators are invariably
Serb apologists or sympathizers, such as Aleksija Djilas and Robert Hayden. During
Hamilton’s tenure, there has not been one speaker that gave a perspective for Croatia.
During the presidential campaigning some Croatian-American organizations, which
were seduced by photo-op sessions with the Democratic Party leadership, fell all over
themselves backing the Democrats. They frequently brought up the elder Bush’s
record and the influence it would have on young Bush. After Bush’s victory they
gloated: “We told you so.”
Their loyalty to the Democrats is misdirected when objectively analyzing what Clinton
administration did positively for Croatia. It all adds up to a big zero. At least under the
old Bush administration there was no question that the policy was decidedly pro-Serb
and anti-Croatia.
Clinton’s administration was much more devious and destructive. Every proposal they
put forth was detrimental for Croatia. The tragedy is that the present Croatian
government is bending over and spreading their cheeks to be penetrated with an
American policy that chips away at Croatia’s sovereignty.
The Croatian hierarchy apparently is not aware that diplomacy is the art of
compromise; they instead accepted unquestioningly every American proposal without
receiving anything in return.
=================================================
THE NEW GENERATION A ‘Hrvatski vjesnik’ English supplement
Volume no 4, No. 144 Friday, April 13th, 2001
CROATIAN AUTHORITIES USE FOREIGN EMBASSIES TO CARRY OUT THEIR
DIRTY WORK!
Although Franjo Tudjman’s government hasn’t (yet) been indicted of any crime, they’
ve been tried and sentenced by the kangaroo courts of the State Department and
Whitehall. The USSR, in its heyday of human rights violations and the Gulags, was
never similarly castigated – but it must be remembered that those bodies had an
accommodation with the Stalinists. Croatia has become an international pariah for the
simple reason that the United States didn’t agree with Tudjman’s policies.
By Dr. Jerry Blaskovich, MD
(in the United States)
n January, Doctor Andrija Hebrang, a former member of Tudjman’s government
applied for an Australian visa. This otherwise routine request was treated in a total
discriminatory manner and overstepped the boundaries of civilized propriety.
Hebrang was required to sign affidavits that he didn’t participate in war crimes. They
also asked him to compromise Croatia’s military data. But most significantly, Kathy
Soldo, Visa Manager for the Australian embassy in Zagreb, dictated a note, which
Hebrang was made to sign, stating his visit wouldn’t be official nor cause the Croatian
émigrés in Australia to gather and meet with him.
Those unprecedented stipulations came from a country that had no moral qualms
decimating its indigenous (aborigines) population and whose only major political
decision in recent memory was whether to continue pay homage to England’s Queen.
In March, on the eve of his Australian visit, Soldo informed Hebrang by letter that his
visa was denied because he was “a person whose presence in Australia would
prejudice relations between Australia and another foreign country.”
Australia’s reasoning defies logic, since Hebrang’s credentials are impeccable. A few
years ago, during an Australian visit, ministers and members of its Parliament readily
accepted Hebrang as an honored guest. Aside from being a practicing physician, a
renowned university professor and lecturer at professional international congresses,
he was twice a member of Croatia’s Parliament, and served four governments.
During the war, Hebrang was Minister of Health and later the Defense Minister. NGOs
can readily attest that through his offices, he saved thousands of lives, regardless if
they were Croats, Serbs, or Muslim. His bravest action, however, was that he openly
criticized some of the non-democratic methods of Tudjman’s government. In protest,
he resigned from the government, Minister of Defense, and Vice Presidency of the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the ruling party of the time.
The Hebrang affair is not an isolated incident. Earlier, Croatia’s ex-president’s son
was denied even a visa application. Apparently a past association with a demonized
government also stigmatizes him.
When Hebrang applied for a visa, the Australian embassy contacted the ruling
government in Zagreb and told them of Hebrang’s intention and asked how the visa
should be handled. They advised the Australians to deny the visa because it would
incite the Croatian émigrés in Australia to do who knows what. Consequently, the
Australians heeded the advice.
When it’s all said and done, the only party that will benefit by Australia’s blatant
meddling in Croatia’s internal politics is the ruling coalition in Croatia. It was not lost on
the coalition that the Croatian Diaspora rejected their platform and overwhelmingly
voted for the HDZ in the last election.
By limiting the Diaspora’s exposure to the HDZ ideology, it would dampen its influence
and go a long way to help the coalition’s agenda. Interestingly, under Tudjman’s so-
called tyrannical government, anyone from the opposition was free to travel to
wherever and whenever they wished.
The travel restrictions placed on the Tudjmanites harkens back to the good old days
of Stalinist Tito, but is subtler. They use foreign embassies to carry out their dirty work
Note: It would be instructive for the readers to read Philip Ruddock’s rebuttal letter to
the above article regarding Hebrang’s visa as well as my response. Ruddock is
Australia’s Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs.
The New Generation- A ‘Hrvatski Vjesnik’ English Supplement Volume 4, No. 150
Friday, June 1st, 2001
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
PHILIP RUDDOCK:
AUSTRALIA’S VISA PROGRAM IS NON-DISCRIMINATORY
I reject the suggestion in your article of 13 April 2001 (“Croatian Authorities use foreign
Embassies to carry out their dirty work” by Dr. Jerry Blaskovich) of alleged
discrimination in the visa application of Dr. Andrija Hebrang.
Australia is committed to tackling war crimes issues and has taken a number of
initiatives in this area. Matters concerning the entry into Australia of possible war
criminals are my responsibility.
However, Australia’s visa program is non-discriminatory and all applications are
considered on their merit. Character checks, to prevent the entry into Australia of any
persons who has been involved in the conflict in the former Republic of Yugoslavia.
Dr. Hebrang was asked to do no more than complete a standard declaration form that
is a requirement for all other visa applicants from states that constituted the former
Republic of Yugoslavia who were, at the time, of military age.
The information requested is used for no other purpose than to assist in quickly
clearing those who were not involved in such activities and to identify those whose
applications may require closer scrutiny.
Your allegation that this was a discriminatory tool used against Mr. Hebrang is totally
without foundation and is rejected out of hand.
Philip Ruddcock MP,
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Canberra, ACT
======================================================
The New Generation- A ‘Hrvatski Vjesnik’ English Supplement Volume 4, No. 154
Friday, June 29th, 2001
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
BLASKOVICH’S RESPONSE TO RUDDOCK’S LETTER
Philip Ruddock’s comments in The New Generation (AUSTRALIA’S VISA PROGRAM
IS NON-DISCRIMINATORY-1 June 2001) were disingenuous. Andrija Hebrang’s visa
application was not treated in a “non-discriminatory” manner as he alleges. Rather,
before Hebrang’s application was to be considered, he was made to write a note that
Ruddock’s representative in Zagreb, Kathy Soldo, dictated stating that he would not
meet with nor cause Croatian émigrés in Australia to gather during his visit.
Ostensibly, Ruddock’s mandate is to insure possible war criminals do not enter
Australia. If Ruddcock’s statement is to be believed, then Hebrang’s visa was denied
on those grounds. I am not aware that Hebrang has been investigated, let alone
indicted of war crimes.
Perhaps Australia is privy to information the world investigative bodies are not aware
of. If so, for justice’s sake, the Australian government should not walk but run to the
Haag’s War Crimes Commission to make its evidence known and rid the world of
Hebrang’s menace.
Although the official denial was that Hebrang is “a person whose presence in Australia
would prejudice relations between Australia and another foreign country,” no matter
how much I tried to interpret that statement I couldn’t conclude that it meant he was
involved in war crimes. If Australia does not have evidence that Hebrang is a possible
war criminal, she should be more forthright and state the true reason for the visa
denial.
Jerry Blaskovich MD
====================================================
THE NEW GENERATION Friday, 4th May 2001
MEDJUGORJE—BASTION FOR PEACE?
By Jerry Blaskovich, M.D.
Ostensibly the UN’s and NATO’s mission in Bosnia is to protect the peace. But the
pilgrims and villagers of Medjugorje who were terrorized by British troops on April 10th
and 11th have grave doubts about that mission.
According to Father Ivan Sesar, Pastor of St. James Parish Church at Medjugorje,
military vehicles loaded with heavily armed soldiers and tanks with canons at the
ready entered the town at 4 PM. Without regard to pedestrian or vehicular traffic they
drove through the streets at a high rate of speed, stopping when they confronted
potential targets—a group of 1000 pilgrims armed only with rosaries.
The military’s hostility shocked and intimidated the pilgrims. Luckily, the soldiers were
disciplined enough not to scratch their itchy fingers. Their overt aggressiveness is
understandable, since they were British paratroopers newly arrived from Northern
Ireland; consequently, they had no patience with Catholics.
The next day British vehicles and tanks drove several times around the Shrine that
increased apprehensions of villagers and pilgrims alike. Not satisfied with this
harassment, an armada of French helicopters buzzed the Sanctuary a number of
times. Interestingly, the attacks coincided during the scheduled the celebration of the
Mass or recitation of the Rosary. Thus, disrupting the Services.
The British paratroopers behavior was in marked contrast to Spanish troops whom
they replaced. Previously, uniformed soldiers in Medjugorje were given scant notice.
But, the Spaniards were then on an entirely different another mission—to visit the
Sanctuary of the Queen of Peace—not as soldiers, but as pilgrims.
The UN and NATO backed operation in Medjugorje occurred shortly after Wolfgang
Petritsch, High Representative of the United Nations for the Implementation of the
Dayton Accords, personally accused the Catholic Bishop of Mostar of “spreading
hatred and supporting war criminals.” The Bishop’s bailiwick encompasses
Medjugorje.
Petritsch’s enforcers (S-FOR troops), showing its armed might on those holiest days
of the Catholic Church’s calendar—Holy Week—was the height of arrogance. Aside
from disrupting its solemnity, S-FOR’s “routine action” also occurred almost on the eve
of the twentieth anniversary of Our Lady’s first appearance to the children of
Medjugorje.
Since then, over 22 million people paid homage to the site without a hitch. But, even
during the heyday of the Serbian aggression in Bosnia, with their wholesale
slaughtering of 250,000 souls, pilgrims were never threatened as now. While the heart
of the message of Medjugorje is peace, Fr. Sesar said: “ The [S-FOR’s] show of force
witnessed by people who made the pilgrimage to Medjugorje to seek peace and to
pray wasn’t easy for them.” Clearly NATO’s the UN’s hierarchy in Bosnia is immune to
Roman Catholic sensibilities.
The State Department’s issuing dire warnings about visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina
because of disturbances didn’t deter 300 Americans who were among the 4,000
pilgrims at Medjugorje during Holy Week. Whatever disturbances were from S-FOR
troops.
Christopher Hitchens, a writer for Salon.com in his “OUR LADY OF LIES” probably
articulated Petritsch’s true motives in Medjugorje. Aside from characterizing Fatima,
Lourdes, and Medjugorje as racketeering religious hubs and hallucinations, Hitchens
indicted Medjugorje’s ideas responsible for the evils of the bloody ethnic hatreds in the
former Yugoslavia.
Fr. Sesar, a survivor of the worse excesses of communist tactics, voiced his concerns
to Petritsch, Jacques Klein, Office of the High Representative Commanding Officers of
the S-FOR in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and Thomas Miller, Ambassador of the USA in
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In his letter to Miller, Fr. Sesar asked him to deliver the communiqué to the Military
Chaplain for the U.S. Army. Hopefully the Chaplain will not act out of politically
correctness but of conscience.
The harassment at Medjugorje is part of Petritsch’s campaign against Herzegovina’s
Roman Catholics. The Dayton Accords gave—although not de jure, but de facto --
49% of Bosnia to the Serbs as a mini-state, and to the Muslims and Croats, enclaves
ruled by international authoritarians, such as Petritsch. In the process, Bosnia-
Herzegovina traded its sovereignty to become a thinly disguised protectorate of the
international community. Sarajevo was to remain the capital and theoretically all ethnic
groups would share in the government.
Last November, however, when over 90% of the Croats voted into office candidates
deemed not acceptable to Petritsch, he voided the results. Not only did Petritsch
arbitrarily deny the elected from taking office in March, he banned them from
participating in politics in the future. Although elected democratically they were purged
on the dubious grounds that they engaged in “anti-Dayton activities.” Consequently
the Croatians are now disenfranchised, because they have no elected representation
locally or at the federal level in its executive and legislative branches. But Petritsch
knows best and appointed people more pliable.
The international hierarchy disingenuously instituted a campaign that the Croats were
“right wingers“, ‘nationalists”, and “criminals” (the latter accusation was based on
personal opinions, most notably by Petritsch and his deputy Colin Munro, who,
alluding to the Croatian leadership that he “will not talk to criminals” – yet no one has
been indicted of any crimes) and most importantly, a detriment to Dayton.
U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, Thomas Miller, was not above casting aspersions on the
criminal nature of the Croats: “All you have to do is drive around Herzegovina, see the
companies that these people own, the houses they live in, and ask yourself a simple
question: where did all this come from?” What he doesn’t say is that these
hardworking Croats built homes and an infrastructure on their own and were not
recipients of the billions the international community poured into the Serbian and
Muslims enclaves. Since Dayton’s been in effect the American taxpayers have
expended $5 billion in direct aid and another $10 billion in military expense. What’s
happening in Herzegovina are only symptoms of NATO’s and the UN’s failed mission
of social engineering.
To coerce and punish the Croatians who had the audacity to vote for politicians of
their choice and not UN backed ones, Petritsch ordered troops with tanks and
helicopters to raid and close the Hercegovacka Bank and its thirty affiliate banks
scattered throughout Herzegovina. It effectively cut off 150,000 Croatian clients to
access their money. Many relied on those savings to sustain life. The bank was also
the conduit for monthly pension checks. NATO admitted it would take a year to sort
out the “evidence” before the “honest (if there are any) Croats” will get to their money.
The bank closures are clearly an effort to sabotage the economic backbone for the
Croats of Herzegovina.
Interestingly, the international community never launched a military operation against
the Muslims or the Serbs, even when they were justified. They had no qualms when
they allowed the latter’s slaughter of over 250,000 souls without hindrance.
The marked discrimination of the Croats by the enforcers of Dayton prompted the
Bishop’s Conference of Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) to address the signatory states of
the Dayton Agreement on the issue. Clearly alluding to the military action in
Medjugorje the Bishops said: “the official representatives of the International
community in B-H have taken obvious unjust decisions and measures - especially
recently (which are well known to you)” . . . The un-democratic methods and the use
of force by the International community in B-H towards resolving the open political
problems of the Croats are completely unacceptable . . . [and] has frightened many
other Croats in B-H, thereby coercing them to emigrate.”
When S-FOR intensifies its activities against the Croats and given the UN’s anti-
Christian stance, will they make it difficult for the pilgrims to find personal peace in
Medjugorje?
======================================================
THE NEW GENERATION “Hrvatski Vjesnik” English supplement
Friday, 8th March, 2002
GOTOVINA ALIVE AND KICKING IN THE US CONGRESS
by Jerry Blaskovich
Washington: While the Ante Gotovina affair has, for the moment, been swept under
the rug in Croatia due to the Racan government’s intimidation of the press, the matter
is alive and kicking in the United States. In recent days every major newspaper in the
US, plus Agence France Press and Reuters carried the story of injustice at the ICTY.
European socialists, including the President of the European parliament, were
outspoken in their protests against the conclusions of a Congressional hearing held
on February 28.
At that hearing the Gotovina case was held up as the best example of the ICTY’s
politicized and inaccurate prosecution. The hearings on the Yugoslavia and Rwanda
tribunals before the Committee on International Relations in Washington D.C. were put
together partly as a result of a long lobbying campaign by the Croatian American
Association. Chaired by the distinguished Representative Henry Hyde, the hearing
was the first ever held in Congress that criticized the ICTY for mismanagement,
corruption and abuse of judicial standards.
The witnesses included U.S. Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, Pierre Prosper;
former ICTY Judge Pat Wald; Professor Jeremy Rabkin of Cornell University; Larry A.
Hammond one of the most renowned defense attorneys in the United States. What is
surprising, is that the witnesses were unanimous in criticizing the political biases and
mismanagement of the Tribunals. Their collective arguments cast doubt on the very
integrity of the Tribuna ls. In debates that centered on concerns about the lack of
professionalism and mistakes ICTY has made, important questions were raised
whether the trials were in themselves truly fair.
More specifically, Hammond cited several cases where evidence was used or not
used that infringed on the accused right to due process. For example, two witnesses
with false identities testified against Dusan Tadic that ultimilely convicted him. In
Tihomir Blaskic’s case, the prosecution withheld evidence which would have
established his innocence. Most of the witnesses that testified against Ante Furundzija
did so in secret. These examples strike at the heart of due process. Hammond’s
testimony was particularly critical of the Tribunal’s misconduct prosecuting Croats—
most notably Blaskic, Kordic, Furudzija and Gotovina. On the latter’s case, Hammond
elaborated about some of the cornerstones of the Tribunal’s charges against Gotovina.
ine The Tribunal charged that Gotovina ordered a “massive artillery assault” on the
city of Knin during Croatia’s attempt to regain territory the Serbs conquered in 1991.
Despite an invasion of busloads of international reporters to the city a couple of hours
after the alleged attack who found no evidence of artillery destruction and thus, there
are an ample number of credible witnesses who could refute the ITCY’s allegation,
nonetheless, the ICTY saw fit to indict Gotovina on that charge. While the Tribunal
also charged Gotovina responsible for deporting Serbs on a massive scale from the
Krajina, Hammond made a strong argument with the Committee when he brought up
the point that the Knin offensive took place with the full knowledge and participation of
the United States.
To supplement his argument he quoted former ICTY spokeswomen Florence
Hartmann’s book: “Belgrade caused the evacuation of the Serb population of Krajina
towards Banja Luka and northern Bosnia. . .so that later it could justify holding on to
these territories” and urged the interested parties to read Richard Holbrooke’s book
“To End A War” if they still had doubts. Hammond concluded that there had been a
trampling of Gotovina’s due process right.
While due process is the very cornerstone in criminal cases in the United States,
Representive Tom Lantos, a Hungarian by birth, took umbrage with Hammond’s
argument. Lantos argued that the loss of an individual’s right to justice under due
process of law is unimportant compared to the need to punish those indicted for
crimes against humanity. Chairman Hyde strongly objected to Lanto’s statement. He
said that the right of due process of law is the corner stone of American justice and
that without justice the survival of mankind is questionable. Over the next few months
we will no doubt witness the ex tent to which the hearing will influence the ICTY.
=======================================================
THE NEW GENERATION
Volume 5, No. 191 29 March 2002
NEW APPOINTMENT IN BOSNIA DOES NOT BODE WELL FOR CROATS
By Dr Jerry Blaskovich
(In the United States)
As the best known enforcer of the failed social engineering experiment called the
Dayton Accords, prepares to fade back into Austrian obscurity, the Croats of Bosnia-
Herzegovina are mostly of the opinion that things can’t get much worse. Unfortunately,
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, who appears certain to replace Wolfgang Petritsch as
United Nations High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina (OHR), may well be set
to nail the coffin lid shut on any remaining chances to preserve Croatian ethnicity.
Once Ashdown gets through Petritsch’s reign will probably be looked upon as
enlightened despotism.
Petritsch shocked HDZ leaders recently, when he told them that while he had been
considerate of the wants and needs of Croats in BiH , that would all change when
Ashdown takes over. As the old joke goes about what Hitler would say if he were
given a chance to live his life over again: “No more mister nice guy!”
During Petritsch’s draconian rule he managed to alienate most BiH’s Croatians. In a
span of one year he disenfranchised Croat voters by rescinding election results he
didn’t like. He closed down banks without a shred of evidence of wrongdoing and
caused havoc among the common people who had savings there and caused a
recession in the Croatian economy of BiH. For good measure he defamed the Catholic
Church of BiH, including its Cardinal and Bishops. But, as the great P.J. Barnum said:
“You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
Make no mistake where Ashdown is coming from. This is no ruddy-cheeked Episcopal
deacon wanting to do justice. Almost without exception all of his public utterances
about former Yugoslavia have been d ecidedly pro-Serbian and vehemently anti-
Croatian. Ashdown is infamous for publicizing former president of Croatia, Franjo
Tudjman’s napkin drawing of a map that divided BiH. Although Tudjman’s alleged
sketch was based on a Bruxelles 1993 map that NATO uses, Ashdown swore that
Tudjman’s ‘map’ was evidence of the Serbs and Croats dividing Bosnia. Ashdown’s
testimony based on this single sourced and completely falsified ‘evidence’ played a
large role in getting Tihomir Blaskic 45 years in prison.
The power of the OHR is dictatorial enough to have made Joe Stalin happy. Under the
terms of Dayton, B-H traded its sovereignty to become a protectorate of the
international community. Dayton gave—not de jure, but de facto -- 49% of Bosnia to
the Serbs to rule as a mini-state. It essentially validated the Milosevic’s mass murder
and genocide campaign. The Serbs have been thumbing their noses at Dayton and
the international community ever since. That left the Muslims and Croat enclaves to be
ruled by an authoritarian OHR that made no secret of favoring the Izetbegovic
hierarchy. Under Dayton any or all decisions of the Bosnian Federation can be over-
ruled by the OHR.
When the overwhelming majority of Croats did not bend to Petritsch’s policies, the
international community’s hierarchy disingenuously instituted a campaign that tried to
paint the Croats as ‘right wingers’, ‘nationalists’, a detriment to Dayton, and ‘criminals’.
The latter accusation, though no one has been indicted of any crime, were purely the
opinions of Petritsch and his deputy Colin Munro, who, alluding to the Croatian
leadership said he “will not talk to criminals”.
The U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia, Thomas Miller, a Clinton appointee, was also quick
to comment on the Croats’ inherent criminal nature: uote All you have to do is drive
around Herzegovina, see the companies that these people own, the houses they live
in, and ask yourself a simple question: where did all this come from?” What he doesn’t
say is that these hardworking Croats built those houses and an infrastructure on their
own. The Croats received a pittance of the billions the international community poured
into the Serbian and Muslim enclaves. Since Dayton’s been in effect the American
taxpayers have expended $5 billion in direct aid and another $10 billion in military
expense
Notwithstanding the amount of money that went down the rat hole and the enormous
political failure, the international community continues patting themselves on the back
for a job well done. Usually in lockstep with numerous think tanks that monitors events
in Bosnia, even the International Crisis Group (ICG), said the peace process was
failing. The two British board members of the ICG have some intere sting and partisan
connections to matters in ex-Yugoslavia. William Shawcross is a journalist with a
decidedly pro-Serbian bias and Dame Shirley Williams is a peer in the House of Lords
who is close to the former Liberal-Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown. George Soros’
“Open Society” is one of the funding bodies of the ICG.
Shortly after Petritsch accused the Catholic Bishop of Mostar of “spreading hatred and
supporting war criminals” he sent S-FOR troops to Medjugorje to intimidate and
harass the native Catholic Croat population and thousands of pilgrims. Two British
armored personnel carriers threatened pilgrims. In his arrogance, Petritsch chose his
military operation to coincide with those holiest days of the Catholic Church’s calendar-
Holy Week.
The S-FOR troops were hardened British paratroopers newly arrived from Northern
Ireland who have no patience with Roman Catholics. Parenthetically, Ashdown was a
former British Marine major who served in Northern Ireland and whose units
mercilessly attacked Irish Catholics.
In the last election, when over 90% of the Croats voted candidates into office deemed
not acceptable to Petritsch, he voided the results. Not only did Petritsch arbitrarily
deny the elected from taking office, he banned them from forever participating in
politics. HEIL Wolfgang!
Although the election was legitimate the winners were purged on the nebulous
grounds that they had engaged in “anti Dayton activities.” Throwing democratic
principals out the window Petritsch appointed people who were more pliable. Tame
Indians so to speak.
Consequently the Croatians are disenfranchised and have no representation locally or
at the federal level in BiH’s executive and legislative branches. To coerce and punish
the Croatians who had the audacity to vote for politicians of their choice and not UN
backed ones, P etritsch ordered troops with tanks and helicopters to raid and close
the Hercegovacka Bank and its thirty affiliate banks scattered throughout
Herzegovina. This action effectively cut 150,000 Croatians to access their money. The
bank, aside from those who relied on those savings to sustain life also was conduit for
monthly pension checks. NATO admitted it would take a year to sort out the
“evidence” before the “honest (if there are any) Croats” will get their money. The bank
closures are clearly an effort to sabotage the economic backbone for the Croats of
Herzegovina.
Interestingly, the international community never launched a military operation against
the Muslims or the Serbs, even when justified. Most recently, Serbs in protest to the
laying of a cornerstone of a new mosque that was supposedly to be built in Banja
Luka threatened violence and held a U.S. Ambassador and a number of high-ranking
UN officials hostage. The S erbs, not surprisingly suffered no repercussions. But then
again we must remember the UN had few qualms when they allowed the Serbs to
slaughter over 250,000 souls without much hindrance.
The marked discrimination of the Croats by OHR prompted the Bishop’s Conference
of Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) to address the signatory states of the Dayton Agreement
on the issue. Clearly alluding to the military action in Medjugorje and OHR’s
overturning the election the Bishops said: “the official representatives of the
International community in B-H have taken obvious unjust decisions and measures -
especially recently (which are well known to you)” . . . The un-democratic methods
and the use of force by the International community in B-H towards resolving the open
political problems of the Croats are completely unacceptable . . . [and] has frightened
many other Croats in B-H, thereby coercing them to emigrate.”
Ashdown te s appointment most certainly will not bode well for the Croats.
=====================================================
THE NEW GENERATION FEATURE ARTICLE
19 April 2002
QUO VADIS CROATIAN MEDIA—REDUX
By Dr. Jerry Blaskovich
Singing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” (with apologies to Pete Seeger) to those
in Croatia’s media hierarchy who have survived the Tudjman era would be
appropriate. The flowers who supposedly had to live under the compost heap of the
previous government have certainly blossomed and now thrive gloriously. They have
been rewarded by the Racan/Mesic mob for the almost intolerable suffering they
endured under Tudjman’s alleged dictatorship. Following the January 2000 elections,
those downtrodden media folks must have had the same emotional euphoria as those
who were freed from imprisonment at Goli Otok. Never mind that the present
Racan/Mesic government was of the very same party that created Goli Otok.
After the election many members of the media were named to key positions both in
government and the private sector. The Foreign Ministry was particularly liberal in
rewarding those who had been especially critical of the Tudjman administration.
Apparently real qualifications were a secondary consideration.
Before being named ambassador to Austria, Drazen Vukov-Colic, wrote a column for
Rijeka’s “Novi list”. Novi List, aside from being considered an ‘independent
newspaper’ by foreign sources, was vehemently anti-HDZ. Under the Communist
regime of Yugoslavia Vukov-Colic prospered as chief editor of “Danas” and as
“Vjesnik’s” correspondent in Germany.
Ambassador Jagoda Vukusic, another Novi List journalist and chief of their office in
Zagreb was president of the Croatian Journalists Ass ociation (CJA) for two
successive terms during the 1990s. The CJA had considerable influence in fostering
the activities of “independent” journalists - for the benefit of their foreign protectors.
Despite having negligible knowledge of English and not possessing a university
degree, which is one of the usual requisites for an ambassador, Vukusic nonetheless
was posted to that position in Norway.
Drago Buvac, was a commentator for Vjesnik, Danas and a number of other
communist controlled newspapers before 1990. During the nineties he continued
writing for Vjesnik and Slobodna Dalmacija. He subsequently was named by the
Racan government as ambassador to Japan.
Aleksandar Milosevic was a foreign policy commentator and Vjesnik’s editor before
and after 1990. Despite being a Serb, he is probably the most principled newsperson
of the group named in this article. In 1991, he joined the Croatian National Guard and
at great personal ri sk helped defend Sisak. He always publicly admitted to being a
SDP (Racan’s party) member and a friend of Davorko Vidovic, Minister of Labor and
Social Welfare. He is now ambassador to Macedonia.
The No.2 in the Skopje embassy is Dragan Djuric, also a Serb. He was a journalist for
Vjesnik who later wrote for Feral and Nacional and returned to Vjesnik as a
correspondent in Macedonia.
Neda Ritz who was named ambassador and permanent representative to UNESCO in
Paris, worked for at HTV many years- first as a journalist and later as editor of cultural
programs. In the spring of 2000 she was named its chief editor.
Tomislav Jakic, the principal foreign policy advisor of president Mesic and a great
friend of Mise Broz (Tito’s son), held the important position as political editor of
Radiotelevizija Zagreb before 1990. During the nineties he worked as a correspondent
of Radio Free Europe (USIA) and wrote columns for Nacional. He was ver y active in
Forum 21.
Forum 21 is a small group of journalists and editors of HTV that included Tihomir
Ladisic, Dubravko Merlic, Denis Latin, Damir Matkovic, Igor Mirkovic, Silvana
Menðusic. They established Forum 21 as an informal association whose alleged goal
was to fight for “public television”, a vehicle they felt would exclude HDZ politicians. In
reality, Forum 21 was used to implement the private agendas of several “journalists-
stars” from HTV who thought they were not treated in a way they “deserved”.
Membership in Forum 21 was not limited to HTV people. Other journalists opposed to
the government, as well as some not considered to be strongly opposed, such as
Mirko Galic, joined. At that time Galic was a serious candidate to become director of
HTV, a position he holds today. In 1998 he became chief editor of Globus.
In the mid 1990s most journalists in Croatia started to characterize themselves as
almost being martyrs, since they had to work under the government’s totalitarian
conditions, while forgetting how it was under communism. The international interests
including the U.S. State Department, who most likely helped finance Forum 21,
encouraged and exploited the group’s mission. They expanded upon the association’s
view of the HDZ as living proof that there was a lack of “freedom of expression” not
only at HTV but also in Croatia in general.
In order to try to destabilize and replace the Tudjman government, the Hollbrooke
State Department helped characterize Forum 21’s actions as the fight of
“independent” journalists against intolerable persecution by totalitarian rulers.
Most of Croatia’s media of that era, in lockstep with the State Department and the US
establishment media, insisted on calling the legitimately elected government a ‘
regime’. One New York Times editorial during Tudjman’s reelection campaign stated
that if he retained the office, it would be far worse than if fascism came to power. The
Croatian press, most of which had ties with foreign interests, was labeled
“independent”. But those who wrote about the Tudjman government without including
the proper rancor were considered contemptible. Most of the disinformation about the
Tudjman government was planted by State Department information warfare people
who got their lies into circulation by passing it through Forum 21.
At the same time editors and staff were writing vehemently anti-HDZ stories they were
disingenuously crying that there was no press freedom in Croatia. Despite the
allegation, the downtrodden press was somehow able to project half-truths, and a vast
number of bold-faced lies about the HDZs failings, foibles, and corruption. It went out
to the Croatian public to an extent that it he lped, in no small measure, vote the HDZ
out of office. And that is certainly what Hollbrooke and George Soros were trying to
accomplish.
There is a whole litany of HTV people getting their just reward for their deeds of the
1990s. Tihomir Ladisic, who was SDP spokesman during their campaign, and whose
wife is the deputy chief editor of Globus, became editor of HTV’s information program
but later took over one of the most important political forum programs. A Serb, Mirjana
Rakic, who, until 2000, was HTV’s foreign policy programs editor, became chief editor
for all information programs. Dubravko Merlic became the principal editor of TV
Dnevnik, but when he was suspended from that function he resigned in protest and is
now the chief of Public Relations at Pliva Pharmaceuticals. Goran Rotim, who is the
foreign affairs desk editor, was spokesman for MFA. After he resigned from that
position Rotim returned to HTV. Ivana Prohic went to the Ministry of Reco nstruction,
while Sanja Marðetko Kurecic moved onward to the Ministry of Finance. Sanja Bach
ended up at the Ministry of Economy. Denis Latin is editor of the most controversial
and biased TV forum-show “Latinica”. He is also columnist for Nacional. While his
texts are full of hatred for the ex-government they are also a bit cynical towards Racan’
s government. It should be noted that Globus is generally considered as Racan’s
vehicle while Nacional is euphemistically called ‘Mesic’s bulletin’.
Another group of journalists who were not publicly considered as “independent”, were
rewarded for their lack of objectivity. What they did do covertly in the 90s is not known
at this time. Zrinka Bardic from Radio 101 went to the Ministry of Interior, Andrea
Latinovic of Vjesnik, to the Ministry for Labor and Social Welfare, and Silva Stazic of
Slobodna Dalmacija to the office of the Mayor of Zagreb .
International interests, including the State Department, had a great stake in
demonizing the Tudjman government. It was common knowledge that the newspaper
most critical of Tudjman’s government, Feral Tribune, was mostly financed by a Soros
foundation. Apparently Feral will soon go the way of the dinosaur. The sponsors got
as much mileage as they could vis-à-vis the HDZ and consequently, the money source
has dried up. Interestingly, much of the startup costs of Nacional came from the old
hands of GENIX and INEX via conduits. USAID financed the design of the website and
translated Nacional’s archives into English. Jutarnji List was a subsidiary of Europe
Press Holdings.
=======================================================
THE NEW GENERATION “Hrvatski Vjesnik” English Supplement 28 June 2002
Harrison’s Flowers Is No Bed of Roses
The film, “Harrison’s Flowers” is much more than a moving love story painted on the
rough canvas of the war in former Yugoslavia. To those who actually lived through the
death throes of the Croatian city of Vukovar in the fall of 1991, the film actually brings
the city back to life during those trying days. The film’s raw realism and its graphic—
almost too brutally real—images were enhanced by authentic, detailed sets. The film
definitely will induce a déjà vu among Vukovar’s survivors and others who know the
city.
In no small measure, Harrison’s Flowers gives audiences who never
experienced the gruesomeness of bloody war a salty taste of it. Through the on
screen deaths and the physical and mental woun ding portrayed in the scenes, this
film conveys a feeling of life’s fragility rarely felt by people who have not been to war.
The helplessness one experiences when under attack from artillery or mortars holds
the viewer momentarily paralyzed.
During the heroine’s undeviating quest to find her husband, a Newsweek
photojournalist reportedly killed on assignment in the war ravaged area of Eastern
Croatia, her first encounter is with a group of violent tempered Serb troops which sets
the tone for rest of the film. Without qualm, rhyme or reason, a Serb soldier summarily
shoots the woman’s innocent hitchhiker in the forehead and then attempts to brutally
rape her. Although somewhat stereotypical, the blasé indifference on the part of the
other Serbs in that striking scene, gives a true glimpse of Serbian traits witnessed
throughout the war.
Surprisingly, the film depicts the Serbs with their warts and all;
heretofore all films a nd the vast majority of books written on the subject gave a
decidedly Serbian spin. One scene in the film typified the Serbs’ actions. In the
background, the camera, while focusing on the main characters’ plight, shows a Serb
soldier shepherding a group of children into a hallway. Once the children were inside
their supposed safe haven, he hurls a grenade into the group—killing them all.
I was surprised to learn that the war scenes were filmed in the Czech
Republic instead of Croatia, where it actually happened. But it’s
understandable, since it would have been too embarrassing for the present Croatian
government. No doubt there would have been far more serious implications for Stipe
Mesic, the Croatian president, who would have had to explain to his wife that he
allowed a film to be shot in Croatia that showed Serbs in their true light.
I hope the current neo-communist Croatian government does not revert to their old
ways when censorship was the norm and allow the movie to be shown in Croatia. But
most probably, the international community will ban the film in Croatia, since anything
that depict the Serbs objectively is most definitely not judged to be politically correct
and could hinder those bodies in carrying out their agenda. The international
European socialist overseers clearly made their intentions known to the Croatian
government when they censored contemporary history books and ordered teachers
not to reference and discuss the war years and the Serbs’ role in Croatia’s
classrooms. (Perhaps the international community’s mind police will think up a way of
preventing discussions of the subject in the Croatian homes. It is, of course,
acceptable for Serbs to teach their version of the 1990s events—most likely because it’
s part of the Serbian pantheon to glorify their losses)
The only negative comments about Harrison’s Flower s that I know of came from
Croatian-Americans who thought some scenes insulted Croats. A scene that
particularly rankled them showed people listening to a CNN commentator stating the
Serbs, called Chetniks, were fighting Ustashe Croatians and alluded to the “all sides
are equally brutal” theory. Doubtless that scene had no meaning to the general
audience but was readily picked up by Croatian Americans.
The reference to Ustashe was a fundamental piece of disinformation that
Serb propagandists used so effectively to justify the war. Although the
Ustashe issue is intellectually corrupt, it nonetheless got a deal of press coverage.
The Los Angeles Times (euphemistically called LA Pravda), according to one of its
reporters who told me in confidence that reporters dealing with the conflict (at least
until 1992) had to insert a reference about the Ustashe—regardless how atrocious a
Serb action may have been.
While the med ia consistently projected images that all sides were brutal and equally
guilty, reporters at the battle-lines felt secure in the company of Croatian soldiers, but
when in the company of Serbs they were rightfully apprehensive.
Interestingly, while the film was dedicated to the 47 journalists who were killed during
the conflict it failed to mention there has not been one instance that Croatians willfully
killed journalists. A comment long ago by William A. Orme Jr., Executive Director of the
Committee to Protect Journalists places the dedication into better perspective. He
asserted that most of the journalists were victims of deliberate targeting. During 1991
to 1994, more reporters were killed in Croatian and BiH wars than had been during
both the Vietnam and El Salvador wars.
===================================================
The NEW GENERATION “Hrvatski Vjesnik” English Supplement 30 August 2002
The news in Croatia depends on government’s priorities
By Jerry Blaskovich MD
Selca, Brac—The unveiling of Franjo Tudjman’s bronze bust on August 5th at Selca,
Brac is yet more proof that the present Croatian government’s “de-Tudjmanization”
program has failed. Croats continue to fondly embrace the ideals of freedom and
independence despite the Racan government’s insistence that neo-communism is
better.
Although Selca has a population of only 750, an estimated crowd of 2,000 braved a
scorching sun to witness the dedication of Tudjman’s sculpture executed by the young
artist, Nikola Sanjek.
The speeches by dignitaries, who included Miroslav Tudjman, the son of the late
president, Admiral Domozet Loso, and General Praljak, were frequently interrupted by
shouts of “Franjo!” Franjo! ”Franjo!” Some individuals in the crowd proudly held
pictures of Tudjman like cherished icons in outstretched arms. Ankica Tudjman, the
widow of whom many call ‘the father of the nation’ unveiled the memorial bust.
Although Tudjman detractors labeled the unveiling a political rally, it was, in reality, an
event that transcended politics.
Selca has a tradition of erecting sculptures dedicated to prominent individuals and a
justifiable reputation for being a hotbed to Croatian ideals. In 1911 Selca erected a
bust of Leo Tolstoy, which had the distinction of being the first monument to the author
in the world. The town’s fathers chose Tolstoy over other candidates in a vote that
Josip Juraj Strossmayer lost by one vote.
On the town’s main square, Dr. Ivan Pernar, who was one of Croatian delegates
wounded in the 1928 Belgrade Parliament massacre, dedicated Antun Augustinic’s
magnificent bronze of Stepjan Radic in 1938. Radic, the most charismatic Croatian of
the time, succumbed to wounds inflicted by Punisa Racic, a Serbian delegate in the
parliament.
What is interesting is that during the Communist era, which the government is in the
process of reincarnating, Selca erected no monuments or signs to that regime during
or after those dark days. Despite the harsh measures by the Marxist regime, in Selca,
unlike other locales, the communists enforcers did not dare destroy any symbols that
preceded their rule—even the corner piece of the Catholic Church that was dedicated
to King Tomislav’s 1000th year anniversary was left intact.
When Croatia threw off the yoke of communism that was under the guise of Serbian
hegemony and became independent, the Selcans responded in the way they do best.
Proud of Croatia’s independence and as a show of gratitude, they erected a bronze
bust of Hans Dietrich Genscher of Germany in 1992. In 1996 the Selcans raised a
monumental statue of Pope John Paul II. The imposing work by the artist Kuzma
Kovacic, done in white Brac stone, truly captured th e living essence of the Holy
Father’s charisma.
To make the circle complete the Selcans added a bust of the Austrian diplomat, Alois
Mock in the year 2002. Genscher and Mock played major roles in getting their
countries to recognize Croatia as an independent state—although it was contrary to
the international community’s policy. However, it was the Holy Father who set the
stage for Croatia’s recognition. In late 1991 the Pope announced that the Vatican
would recognize Croatia over the European Union’s staunch objections.
While the above individuals definitely helped Croatia’s independence, the town’s
fathers thought it time to honor the one person who truly brought Croatia to its place in
the sun—Franjo Tudjman. Many voiced the opinion that without Tudjman, Croatia
would now be living under Serb domination.
Despite the enthusiasm of the majority of Selca’s citizenry for a monument , its
realization had a rocky road. After the Town’s Council, including the mayor,
unanimously approved the project, misunderstandings or lack of communications
resulted in police intervention. Once those issues were resolved, a group of detractors
who felt they had been disenfranished during Tudjman’s mandate, instituted a petition
to call for a Referendum to stop the project. Although it rapidly ran out of steam, the
issue caused major rifts in families. Fathers turned against sons, uncles against
nephews. The debate boiled to such an extent that the town’s priest brought up the
issue at the homily at a Sunday Mass. And at the sign of the hand shake the priest
asked specifically for the protagonists to reconcile their differences.
Nonetheless the dedication took place as scheduled.
Interestingly, except for a tiny squib in the Slobodna Dalmacija, the mainstream
Croatian media ignored the event like the plague. Instead they carried the vandalism
of a communist monument as a major news story. Obviously news in Croatia depends
on the government’s priorities.
===================================================
THE NEW GENERATION [Hrvatski Vjesnik—English Supplement] Friday 27
September 2002
Domogoj Margetic, a well-known Croatian investigative and President of the
Association of Journalists of Croatia was recently released from prison after being
incarcerated for two weeks. There was nothing in the Croatian media about his arrest
or release. Although Margetic’s colleagues knew what happened, there was nothing in
the Croatian media about his arrest or release...
Collective Silence Speaks Volumes For Freedom of Croatian Press
By Jerry Blaskovich MD
In a Kafkaesque scenario, Croatian investigative journalist Domogoj Margetic was
arrested on August seventh on the dubious charge of “failing to have a fixed address
known to the police”. But the arrest took place at his permanent residence, and what’s
more, the police were armed with a warrant that stated his address.
According to the official document policemen presented during the arrest, the warrant
was supposedly ordered by Judge Silvana Godrijan, County Court of Jastrebarsko.
Although the warrant was not signed, the judge’s typed name was affixed with the
County Court of Jastrebarsko’s official seal. Two weeks later, when Margetic
confronted Judge Godrijan about the warrant, she was flabbergasted. Not only did she
deny any knowledge of the warrant, she was out of town on vacation at the date the
warrant was issued. She unhesitatedly signed an affidavit to that effect and gave it
Margetic.
Margetic has been a thorn in the side of the present government for some time after
publishing articles that the government considered detrimental and displeasing. This
arrest is only one incident in a long line of confrontations Margetic had with the
authorities because of his investigative reporting. Most recently his investigative
reporting revealed the contents of an agreement with the Croatian Prime Minister Ivica
Racan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which heretofore was secret—even
to the members of Hrvatski Sabor (Croatian Parliament).
Two months ago Margetic was shooting a documentary about the hunger strike of
Croatian policemen fired after the Coalition government won the elections. Police
asked Margetic and his film crew to hand over all recorded material. The incident
happened on the St. Mark’s square, which lies between ancient St. Mark’s Church
and the Croatian Government building, which is under the very nose of the
government.
fter Margetic and his crew took refuge sought “church asylum” in St. Mark’s church,
police reinforcement came to the square and surrounded the church in a professional
antiterrorist combat manner. They denied two Croatian Parliament members, whom
Margetic called on his cell phone, to enter the church to talk to the journalists.
Margetic also called the highest Croatian Catholic church authorities about the
incident.
After a number of hours, in the dead of night the police got an official order to end the
siege and withdraw. The besieged journalists shot whole event from inside the St.
Mark’s. The footage will to be a part of a documentary that will particularly rankle the
Croatian Government when shown.
Between 1991 and 1997 Margetic was President of the Croatian Youth
Association. During that time, the then Croatia President, Franjo Tudjman, entrusted
Margetic to keep certain documents. From time to time certain parts of those
documents would surface in his newspaper articles when he deemed it appropriate.
Consequently, the government is doing everything in its power to terrorize Margetic to
provide those documents, files, and reveal his sources of other stories.
At each and ever interrogation he never revealed his sources and vehemently refused
to turn over any documents, particularly the Tudjman papers, since it would break the
promise he made to the late president. This may be the crux of the government’s
ongoing investigation and the pressures they are putting upon him.
About two years ago Margetic wrote a major story exposing the Croatia mafia, which
lead to their arrest. During his incarceration it was no coincidence that he was placed
in a cell that contained a number of Croatian mafia members. In the neighboring cell
was the apparent mafia ringleader, Ante Jelavic.
Margetic overheard the special guard who was passing by shouting “Very interesting:
the Mafia boss in one cell, and Domagoj Margetic in the next one!...”. It would be a
gross understatement that the situation in his cell was sticky.
While in prison Margetic was denied access to any newspapers, or the library, nor
was he not allowed to write. They withheld all mail addressed to him until he was
discharged.
Immediately following his incarceration Margetic went on a hunger strike. During the
two weeks he lost 9 kilograms in weight. Prison authorities did not inform the presiding
judge that Margetic was on a hunger strike nor did a physician examine him; despite it
was compulsory by law.
On the fifth day of the hunger strike he was transferred to a prison
hospital in other part of town because of his precarious health. Despite being under
intensive care for serious kidney and cardiac problems, on the seventh day of his
incarceration he was interrogated for the very first time. Most of the questioning
revolved about the IMF story. The interrogators wanted particularly to know whom his
sources were at the Bank in Croatia and the Ministry of Finance. Although the
interrogators were from the Ministry of Justice, they trampled his rights as a journalist
since the media are protected
On the eighth day an unnamed individual from the Ministry of Justice
visited the journalist in the prison hospital and promised to free Margetic within the
hour if he acquiesced. Interestingly, no one questioned him about his not having a
fixed address. Never mind that it was the supposed purpose of his arrest.
Despite Margetic’s deteriorating health the prison warden, Dajanovic, insisted on
returning Margetic to prison but was overruled by the physicians. As Margetic’s
medical condition worsened the attending physician, Dr. Boris Magazin, called the
warden to come to the hospital to observe Margetic’s status first hand. The warden
was not moved and insisted Margetic be removed to the prison. Magazin’s
remembering the Hippocratic oath responded: “Over my dead body!” Finally, Ingrad
Anticevic-Marinovic, Minister of Justice, State Administrator and Local Administrator,
intervened in the logjam over the hunger strike.
Immediately following the arrest his girlfriend called both Edin Tuzlak, General
Secretary for Amnesty International of Croatia and Margetic’s attorney. All Tuzlak’s
efforts to intervene and visits by Margetic were denied. The attorney dragged her feet
and waited seven days before she bothered to visit Margetic, but even then she did
nothing. One of Margetic’s first acts after being discharged was to fire her. While in
prison Margetic filed an appeal to the higher court, but Bozidar Rumenjak President of
the Regional Court of Zagreb denied it.
While some of Margetic’s colleagues filed copy about him, not one editor has elected
to run the story. So much for press freedom in Croatia! Where are those media people
of the 1990s who were characterizing themselves as martyrs during the “Tudjman
era”? Although they published what ever they pleased, including lies, and most
importantly—without hindrance, they were forever crying foul.
Prime Minister Racan must have been speaking tongue in cheek when he said in a
forum at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC in June “. . . the
country (Croatia) boasts a free media.“
Although there hasn’t been a trial, Margetic was ordered not to travel
outside of Zagreb and must report in person on the 15th of every month to the District
Judge. Margetic has scheduled a press conference in September that is certain to
have a large attendance. The question will be—what will actually be published in
Croatia.
What started as a brouhaha over a person’s domicile has evolved into political
ramifications and press freedom. Apparently the Croatian justice system is harsh.
Imagine the prison system in the United States, if the same standards were applied to
the homeless and people without fixed addresses. There would be no room in the
prisons for real the criminal class.
With such standards of justice it would not be surprising if the government reopened
Goli Otok (a deserted island), known as Yugoslav Gulag.
After all, the ruling government is of the same party that instituted Goli Otok in the first
place.
=====================================================
THE NEW GENERATION [Hrvatski Vjesnik—English supplement]
1 November 2002
THE GHASTLY SLAUGHTER OF VOCIN REVISITED
Lest We Forget
By Jerry Blaskovich MD
The former police chief of the Croatian town of Slatina, Djuro Matovina, testified in
early October 2002 at the Haag War Crimes Tribunal that the White Eagles, a Serb
paramilitary force, massacred 45 civilians in the village of Vocin. While Matovina’s
statements about the December 1991 slaughter had little meaning for the average
reader, it most likely caused a great deal of consternation for the present Croatian
government who are trying to downplay and distance themselves from any event that
occurred during Croatia’s fight for independence and particularly anything that
negatively depicts the Serbs. Matovina’s testimony, however, brought the crime to the
attention of the international community, who heretofore are reluctant to acknowledge
that war crimes were committed on the Croats by the Serbs.
Initially the report of the heinous atrocity received a tiny one-day squib in the press.
Only after the Foreign Press Bureau raised a hullabaloo a week after the event did the
international media get involved. Prior to the Vocin slaughter, all reports of atrocities
on Croatians were ill-reported and viewed with skepticism by the international media.
One must ask, who committed the greater crime—the perpetrators or those who
ignored it.
The White Eagles were under the direct command of Vojislav Seselj. Seselj now
serves as a member of the loyal opposition in the Serbian parliament despite the fact
that a little more than a year after the Vocin massacre, Seselj was named a war
criminal by U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. Interestingly, the Serbian
government and its parliament is now the darling of the European Union and is getting
the same sort of adulation that was heaped on the Tito government.
What happened at Vocin was no worse than what the Serbs did elsewhere in Croatia.
However, Vocin was unique. Serb soldiers who participated in the slaughter
confessed to their deeds and directly implicated Seselj.
After receiving orders to retreat, the Serb forces who had occupied Vocin for four
months and inhumanly abused and harassed the non-Serb villagers, unleashed evil
incarnate on a cold December day in 1991. Using tanks, mortars, and grenades they
devastated the town. Not one Croatian structure was spared. A stump of masonry
wall, standing among the rubble like a sentinel, was all that remained of the 750 year-
old Roman Catholic Church.
The church’s destruction acted as a catalyst for the human mayhem that ensued. The
Serbs than went on a orgiastic killing spree.
Although Matovina testified that 45 Croats perished, fifty-five was the actual number.
In situ examination revealed that most of the victims had been tortured and mutilated.
Half the victims were over 62, the eldest was 84! Many were killed in ways that defied
imagination. None of the victims had succumbed to wounds normally found in warfare.
After the bodies were identified and photographed, extensive forensic studies were
carried out.
Probably the Serbs’ most grotesque act was when they handcuffed a 23 year-old
Croatian and hung him by his arms high on a tree limb across the road from the
Catholic church. According to witnesses, the Serbs toyed with him by cutting his face
with a chain-saw several times. They then proceeded to amputate his lower limbs.
While still alive they chain-sawed him in half. His body parts were doused with
gasoline and set afire.
A husband and wife were killed by a solitary gun shot below their eyes at close range.
Several victims were found chained to chairs and burned in increments to prolong
their agony. Chemical analysis of the charred remains—in reality, nothing but chunks
of carbon—verify that the victims were burned while still alive. The victims only crime
was to be born Croatian.
According to a number of credible eyewitnesses, which the Serbs left behind in their
haste to retreat, the Serbian forces went on a drinking spree after the killing orgy. A
few passed out and were inadvertedly left behind in the evacuation. When the
Croatian forces arrived, there were captured.
During interrogation they admitted their roles in the slaughter and being members of
Seselj’s infamous “White Eagles”. But what was most damning is that they stated they
were acting under direct orders from Belgrade. A U.S. Congressman, Frank
McCloskey, was present at the interrogation and saw the bodies while still warm. He
summed up to the affair as “ ghastly and beyond words”. The Texas Court of Appeals
Judge Bill Bass also witnessed the aftermath and described Vocin as a “mindless orgy
of violence”. Their testimony lends objective credence to the incident.
The Vocin slaughter was not a spontaneous event, rather it was an implementation of
a calculated Serbian policy. In the global sense, Vocin may be insignificant, but the
gallons of blood shed there became part of the ocean of blood the Serbs caused to be
spilled in the former Yugoslavia.
Perhaps Matovina’s testimony about Vocin may cause the Tribunal to rescind its
decision to limit its findings to Bosnia and Kosovo and ignore crimes committed on the
Croats. But the policy, most likely, will continue to remain in lockstep with U.N. and
American government who never condemned the Serbian war policy, the ethnic
cleansing, and their concentration camps in Croatia.
Dr. Blaskovich led the medical investigation at Vocin for the Foreign Press Bureau.
====================================================
THE NEW GENERATION [Hrvatski Vjesnik]
11 April 2003
Zoran Djindjic was a casualty of a turf war between rivals in the Serbian Mafia
By: Dr. Jerry Blaskovich
(In the United States)
The war in Iraq rightfully displaced the coverage and analysis of other important world
events for a time. But the time has now come to have a look backwards at one issue
that continues to haunt us. On the eve of the Iraq War the assassination of Serbia’s
Premier, Zoran Djindjic, was headline news. Until they were distracted, media pundits
speculated about the motives for the murder and its implications.
Unfortunately, the shock expressed by the establishment media regarding Djindjic’s
death was just as misguided as the shock CNN and the LA Times expressed at the
coalition’s quick success in Iraq. It’s obvious that the media really lacks a fundamental
knowledge about European history. If they had studied their history there would have
known that assassination of the heads of state in Serbia is a long cherished tradition.
From the founding of the Serbian monarchy in 1804 to its demise in 1939 only two of
its twelve kings died of natural causes. The rest died violently. Thus, Djindjic’s
assassination certainly follows this time-honored tradition.
The pundits who speculated that Djindjic’s so called political reforms and his program
to crack down on the Serbian Mafia were sufficient motives for the murder were only
partially correct. The fact that Djindjic instituted his own political agenda as opposed
to Sloboban Milosevic’s did a play a role, but it was relatively minor.
Djindjic came to power with the backing of a Mafia group that was in competition with
a faction allied to the Milosevic regime. In essence, Djindjic was a causality of a turf
war between Serbian Mafia rivals. The major problem in Serbia is not reform but
gangster activity and warfare reminiscent of Al Capone’s heyday in Chicago during
Prohibition.
Milosevic’s old intelligence apparatus worked hand in glove internationally with Russia’
s KGB. Following the downfall of these organizations they reemerged as the Mafias in
their respective countries. The cozy relationship they had then persists today. There is
too much at stake. Serbia is the main transport point for drugs, prostitution and illicit
arms—much of which went to Iraq—emanating from Russia’s Mafia.
It is highly doubtful that the criminal elements will be brought under control by the new
government nor any government in the near future. Honoring criminals in Serbia has
even a longer tradition than regicide. Folk tales honoring both assassins and criminals
are at the apex of the Serbian pantheon of heroes. To this day Serbs are moved by
the mythology of Marko Kraljevic and honor one of their most venerated heroes,
Gavrillo Pincipe, whose brazen murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife started
World War I.
Interestingly the recent crackdown on “criminals” by the government has been mainly
directed to Milosevic’s supporters. What the late mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley
used to say of his city: “We ain’t ready for reform” could just as well be applied Serbia.
Jerry Blaskovich, MD
==================================================
THE CROATIAN AMERICAN (New York) AUGUST 5, 2003
By Jerry Blaskovich, MD
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
A new Street sign will be unveiled July 31 in the Los Angeles suburb of San Pedro.
Renaming streets in Los Angeles is a matter not taken lightly by the City Council. A
few weeks ago, after much heated debate, the Council tabled a proposal to rename a
street to honor the late Tom Bradley, a long time mayor of Los Angeles. But the Los
Angeles City Council, without hesitation, unanimously voted to rename a portion of
Palos Verdes Street to Ante Perkov Way. Ante Perkov, a Croatian immigrant, was a
renowned restaurateur, philanthropist, and one of San Pedro’s most outstanding
citizens.
While The Los Angeles Times devoted a great deal of space to the Council’s decision
making process, it only touched briefly upon Perkov’s reputation as a community
leader and his generosity in feeding the needy. His story could very well epitomize the
American story.
In 1940, working as a galley boy on a Yugoslav freighter, he jumped ship in
Charleston, South Carolina. Following a series of tragic-comic adventures Perkov
arrived in San Pedro with two quarters in his pocket. Starting as a dishwasher in a
greasy spoon dive, Perkov eventually created an little empire with his restaurant and
catering business. Ante’s Restaurant put Croatian cuisine in the vocabulary of Los
Angeles’ diverse gourmand landscape.
His first eating establishment was a café with eight stools in the heart of San Pedro’s
rough and tumble waterfront that was epitomized by notorious Beacon Street. An area
filled with watering holes like Shanghai Red‘s, Tommy’s Goodfellows and White Swan
were renowned to seamen throughout the world, his cafe soon became a oases for
those who indulged in Beacon Street’s temptations and politicians from City Hall up
the street.
When reform minded do-gooders instituted so called urban renewal the ever colorful
historic Beacon Street establishments were razed and irreversibly altered the town‘s
character. The resilient Perkov then opened a restaurant across from the Court
House. He often jokingly said that the judges and lawyers that frequented his
restaurant were shadier than the ones from old Beacon Street. His restaurant
flourished to an extent that he soon outgrew the location. He finally settled in a huge
complex on Palos Verdes Street.
In the process of assimilating in America, Perkov’s Croatian heritage took a back seat
since he wholeheartedly embraced all that is good about his adapted country. Perkov’
s proudest day was when he became an American citizen. He made certain that the
largest American flag in San Pedro flies over his restaurant.
Perkov never forgot the generosity strangers extended to him in his trek across
America. With his ever present trademark of wearing a fresh carnation over his right
ear, he never turned down a plea from those down on their luck—either in form of
cash or a meal. A tradition he carried out until his death.
Perkov became involved with just about every civic service club and charitable
organization of the harbor area. America has reciprocated his love and generosity.
Aside from being elected Honorary Mayor of San Pedro, recipient of an honorary
degree from Pepperdine University for humanitarism during his illustrious career he
was honored Man of the Year by: the Salvation Army, Boys Club, Boy Scouts,
Toberman Settlement House, and Lions’ Club. Numerous religious and other civic
organizations also honored him. I believe there is no Croatian-American that has been
more philanthropic than Perkov. And he has done so without fanfare, strings attached
or for tax purposes.
In the process he never lost his bearings. He remained the same Ante that he was
when he had the little café on 7th Street.
=======================================================The New
Generation (Hrvatski Vjesmik—English Supplement)
Friday, 24th October 2003
COMMUNISM- a philosophy that affected more lives detrimentally than any other
force in history.
By Dr. Jerry Blaskovich
(In the United States)
During my recent visit to Croatia I read numerous newspaper stories regarding the
510th anniversary of the Krbavskoj Battle at Udbina. While they were informative and
interesting the political views expressed by various Serbian spokesmen were
especially fascinating.
From their comments one can conclude that they have a major psychological problem
dealing with a Croatian historical event that occurred over a half a millennium ago. For
instance, after plans were revealed to build a Catholic Church at the site to
commemorate the Croatian dead, Serb spokesmen stated that such a move is
provocative and would “rehabilitate fascism and the Ustashe.” How the building of a
Catholic Church dedicated to dead warriors of a 1493 battle against the Ottomans
could be interpreted as such not only defies logic, it also comes close to pathological
paranoia.
Perhaps Serbs subconsciously fear that reviving Croatian history may open a Pandora’
s box of facts that they may wish would remain forever forgotten. For example, during
World War II, Udbina’s Croatian population was almost totally decimated by Serbian
Partisans. While the unmerciful slaughter and wanton destruction was supposedly
done as an act of “anti-fascism” the Serbs established their permanence there. After
the war, to further erase all memories of a Croatian presence they destroyed an
ancient Catholic Church, using the same excuse.
The events at Udbina in WW II remind us of what Serbs did during the most recent
war. There is the matter of Sesjli’s ordered massacre of the elderly at Vocin and the
destruction of the Catholic Church, which had stood for five hundred years. And then
there is the matter of what they did to the Vukovar hospital patients in 1991. The mass
graves are only now beginning to tell the horror of that massacre.
From the time the Serbs ruled the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes until
Croatia’s independence, the Serbs and then the communists had suppressed most of
Croatian history. Since independence, there is a new movement to remember once
forbidden Croatian historical events.
Given this circumstance, perhaps now is the time to open a dialog to commemorate all
of the victims of the communist regime. Doubtless, this suggestion will provoke
protests from those who continue to adhere to the so-called glorious days of
Communism and their ongoing commemoration to Victims of Fascism.
Separating the rhetoric from the substance, the number of people who fell as a result
of fascism is a drop in the bucket when compared to the ocean of victims caused by
communism. Aside from the various purges and mass murders they committed,
communism caused the largest mass exodus in Croatian history. Croats left their
native land seeking freedom of thought and freedom of religion. For the generation of
adults who cannot now relate to the days of Communistic rule, it would be instructive
to provide a little more background.
Communism, objectively, was a philosophy that affected more lives detrimentally than
any other force in history. Even Adolph Hitler’s tally sheet of murder does not come
close to matching the 100 million who were murdered in the name of communist
progress. And Belgrade based communism was among the most notable in that regard.
According to human rights organizations, Yugoslavia had the distinction of having one
of the worst records among the world’s totalitarian countries. They held more political
prisoners than all the former Eastern Bloc countries combined.
The definitive work on Communism,” The Black Book of Communism” (Harvard
University Press; Cambridge, Massachusetts 1999) articulated the situation in
Yugoslavia best: “Rarely in the course of history had the arrival of a new regime been
preceded by a bloodbath on the scale of the one seen in Yugoslavia, where out of a
population of 15.5 million, 1 million died. A series of ethnic, religious, ideological, and
civil war tore the country apart, and many of the victims were women, children, and old
people. This was truly a fratricidal war, and the genocide and purges ensured that at
the moment of liberation, Tito and the Communist Party had hardly any political rivals
left. They swiftly set about eliminating them all the same.” (pp 397-398)
The human toll in Croatia was especially horrific. The wholesale slaughter of Bleiburg
and Krizni Put were portents of what was in store for Croatians. The untold story is
just how many Croatians were shot at the borders trying to escape tyranny. Likewise,
the number who were caught and imprisoned because of their efforts is also unknown.
Those hundreds of thousands of Croats that successfully fled ended up in refugee
camps in neighboring countries. Most of them eventually settled in the United States,
Canada, and Australia. The escapees all told the same stories—swimming across the
Drava, passing over snow capped mountains, rowing across the Adriatic—all at great
personal risk to life and limb.
The Catholic Church also suffered enormously. The Communists perceived the
Catholic Church of Croatia as its arch-nemesis and greatest threat to the regime. They
systematically persecuted and decimated the clergy. The tactic was to scatter the
flock by killing the shepherds. For example, Yugoslav forces entered the Franciscan
Monastery of Siroki Brijeg, doused fourteen friars with petrol and set them afire. In
another example, only 88 priests of the 151 in Senj’s diocese survived the Communist
policy. Half the parishes were left with no clergy. The then Bishop of Zagreb Alojis
Stepinac was arrested after publishing a pastoral letter declaring 273 clergy had been
killed, 169 imprisoned and 89 were “missing” since the communist takeover. Yet there
are those who continue to pay homage to Communism. Among them the Croatian
Ambassador to Washington, who claims that it was “the red star” that led Croatia to
independence? At least the a dherents of that failed and criminal system could be
objective and acknowledge the excesses and slaughter visited upon their fellow
Croatians. Instead they remain steadfast and committed to communist ideals—despite
their crimes.
It is extremely doubtful that the present regime will ever face the truth. Especially when
you have a Croatian Premier who was the defining force of the Graduate school of
Marxism at Kumrovac and whose favorite blame-word are far-rightists, which he
equates with “fascists”, when discussing his dealings with an opposition that
represents the biggest percentage of Croats.
====================================================
The New Generation Hrvatski Vjesnik 14 Nov. 2003
Are Crimes Committed in the Name of Religion the Greatest Crime?
The inauguration of the Sultan Selim Mosque at Stolac last summer was a
monumental event for the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The new mosque replaced
the one that was built during Ottoman rule, but which had been destroyed during the
1990s war.
Although most of the Muslim hierarchy of B-H was present for the festivities, their
Christian counterparts were conspicuous by their absence. But, after all, given the
politics and the tenor of the speeches, it was strictly a Muslim affair.
The decision to build the mosque was clouded with controversy. A very commendable
Op-Ed piece by Ivica Milvoncic, (“Selimova djamija u Stocu ostaje kamen smutnje”
[Vjesnik, 28 August 2003]) that was a to attempt to explain the problem fell short. An
understanding the history is necessary in order to put this controversy into proper
perspective.
When the Muslims originally built the mosque on what had been a pre-existing
Catholic Church site it was not at all unique. Throughout history Muslims never
hesitated to destroy churches to erect mosques on the same sites, or to convert
existing churches. In fact, transforming existing Christian churches was often one of
their first acts when Muslims conquered new territory.
From the time of Islam’s first military incursions outside of Arabia, the Muslim hierarchy
astutely realized that imposition of Muslim architectonic signs sent a loud and clear
political message to the vanquished. The religious significance was only of secondary
consideration.
Mosques and their accompanying minarets, aside from reorganizing urban spaces to
support Muslim activities, reinforce political and religious values of their presence
upon an urban environment, especially in areas where Muslims are not in the majority.
Mosques were even built in After plans were proposed for the mosque it evoked a
great deal of protest from a wide spectrum—including the town’s council, which was
comprised of the groups that make up the hodge-podge of B-H’s diversity, local
Muslims, and archeologists. Stolac’s town council and Muslims were opposed to its
building at the proposed site because they had a better location in mind, while the
archeologists were interested in uncovering an ancient Christian monastery that
preexisted the Muslim era.
Despite legitimate protests Sarajevo’s Muslim hierarchy and Wolfgang Petritsch, who
had the final say so, acquiesced to British pressure, overruled all local sensibilities
and forced the issue. Most significantly, Petritsch ignored evidence that some of the
funding for the mosque came from sources that had alleged ties with Muslim terrorist
organizations.
Just as Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Petritsch fiddled his wrath against the Croats
while the muhajdins were burning dogma into the hearts and minds of the Bosnian
Muslims. During the time Petritsch was spending his energies demonizing and
harassing Croats the muhajdins were teaching and transforming the most secularized
Muslims of the Islamic world into mirror images of themselves. And just as President
Bush, the elder, ignored warnings that Yugoslavia was on the verge of war; Petritsch
ignored warnings about the Muslim fundamentalists in B-H.
While some commentators labeled Reis Mustafa Ceric’s statements at Stolac as
intolerant, it should be noted that his statements were typical of the undeviating
utterances of all Imams. In his wrathful statements Reis Ceric apparently has forgotten
Cardinal Pujic’s goodness and the Catholic Church’s caring for Muslim refugees and
displaced persons. Clearly Ceric did not learn about objectivity or tolerance when he
studied in the United States.
Until the mid twentieth century the confessional faiths lived in relatively harmony in
Muslim ruled countries. Since then there has been a tremendous turnaround. While
the imams publicly articulate to Western audiences that Muslims are tolerant of other
religions, the realpolitik is another story.
One only has to look to the Copts in Egypt and the Christians in Syria as examples.
Christian communities in predominate Muslim countries have been decimated. Those,
who remain, live in fear. Although the Muslims acknowledge ‘people of the book’ they
only pay lip service to the concept and care absolutely nothing for the plight of non-
Muslims.
Despite deaths of countless innocents from the hands of their co-religionists, such as
the airline high-jackings of the 70s; the tragic events in Palestine and Israel; the
September 11th disastrous incidents in the United States, the wanton destruction of
Buddhists statues in Afghanistan; and most recently, the bombing in Indonesia; there
has not been one voice raised from the Muslim clergy in condemnation of these
inhumanities. Their collective silence implies a tacit approval of these actions.
Perhaps crimes committed in the name of religion are the greatest crimes.
Jerry Blaskovich, M.D., M.A. (Islamic Art History-UCLA) Author “ANATOMY OF
DECEIT” (Dunhill Publishing: New York)