Open Letter to the HDZ Hierarchy

By: Dr. Jerry Blaskovich

August 14, 2005

(see also one of the original emails with death threats to the organizers of Oluja celebration in support of Gen Ante Gotovina -  sent by Frank Bilaver/HDZ to Ivana Arapovic)

Most Croatians living in the United States are appalled by the abhorrent method the HDZ is using against those who disagree with your new found policy that distances yourselves from the independence movement and demonizes those who fought for it, especially General Ante Gotovina. To enforce this policy, your instrument, Frank Bilavar, President of the HDZ in the United States, sabotaged rallies that were held on August 5th  in the U.S., Australia, and Canada to celebrate Operation Storm and acknowledge Croatia's military heroes. He was partly successful, since his intimidation tactics kept a large number of people from attending.  At least Bilaver didn‘t implement his threats that he and his “friends” would "show up" at those celebrations and "murder" those that attended. His communist like tactics caused the HDZ to lose any creditability it had with the Diaspora.

While we realize the HDZ’s hierarchy are products of the communist system, we were nevertheless shocked that you would stoop to that level and use their techniques on those who gave their hearts and souls for Croatia and value its independence. Apparently the HDZ has a major problem reconciling themselves with people of this sort.  Since the election the HDZ has progressively washed its hands of those who brought the Croatian dream to reality. In that vein, the HDZ has outdone the Racanists and have taken a page from their communist playbook.

Croatia, largely because of its own ineptness, has an extremely bad image in the West. But if the HDZ continues to threaten murder, whatever positive image Croatia has will be irretrievably flushed down the toilet. Imagine what Croatia’s image would be if Bilavar and his HDZ ‘friends’ did murder dissidents.  Croatians would forever be characterized into a worse image than what Gavrilo Princip or the assassin of King Alexandar has in the historical context.

Doubtless there will be the excuses that the HDZ in Zagreb didn’t know what Bilavar was doing. But Bilavar, most certainly, would not do something like this on his own initiative. He doesn’t have that mental capacity.  As it was with Eichman, he was merely carrying out orders.Many of us in Diaspora are wondering where the HDZ is taking Croatia. It most certainly doesn’t look promising, particularly now that the HDZ is marching to the same drummer as the Racanists. They doubtlessly will criminalize those who picked up weapons against Yugoslavia and the Serbs. All for the sake of joining the EU.

What became the nail in the coffin for our disillusionment with the HDZ  occurred when the HDZ allocated 3 million dollars to apprehend Gotovina. While it may be pocket money for most HDZ’s politicians, it must certainly represents a lot of money to those who have to work for a living. It would be much better served if those funds were used on projects that would help Croatia.  Where and how will the funds be used? Do you plan on hiring private detectives from outside the country?  If Croatia uses their own police there is no need to pay them for a job they are mandated to do anyway. Maybe the government does not trust the police because many of them have positive feelings for Gotovina and fought in the war. Perhaps the HDZ team will call back the MI6 that Zuzul and Sanader who gave MI6 carte blanche to investigate all Croatia’s secrets last May. I understand they came no closer to finding Gotovina then the man in the moon.Then there was that little matter of accepting money from Montenegro as payment for some cows they killed. The government, by accepting this money, apparently places a higher value on cows than the innocent dead human beings. It’s insulting to their memory.  Given the past performance, it will be interesting to see if the owners of the cows will be reimbursed.

The diaspora is not alone in their disillusionment with the government. It is also shared by a number of its army generals. After the Defense Minister invited most of the generals who participated in Operation Oluja, including those retired, to a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Knin’s liberation, some generals were conspicuous by their absence. General Glasnovic was relieved that he wasn‘t invited since Sanader’s and Mesic’s presence would:  “Stink up the place”.  I immediately thought back during the Stalin era when he invited those he thought did not agree with him for “consultation”. Very few returned from ‘consultation’ without getting a bullet to the back of the head or ended up in the Gulags. I hope this is not in the Defense minister’s plan. But given the new found communist mind set it wouldn’t surprise us very much.

THE NEW GENERATION - CROATIAN HERALD, Friday, May 20, 2005

Resurrecting the Red Star

(The name of antifascism manipulated and tarred by communists after WWII)

By Jerry BLASKOVICH

(in the United States)

The turbulent modern history of Croatia is easily categorized. It survived the 'Croatian Silence' - the darkness that draped Croat culture following the devastating failure of the 'Croatian Spring' - but it took the independence movement and the Homeland War of the early 1990s to truly inspire the 'Croatian Awakening'. Then, with the resurrection of neo-communism and the demonizing of the patriots who fought for a free Croatia, that era can appropriately be called the 'Croatian Eclipse'. Unfortunately, Croatia now has come full circle and is in what should be called the 'Croatian Coma'. History repeats itself. Stipe Mesic was the last president of that failed experiment called Yugoslavia , and if the present trend continues he will be the last president of Croatia. Certainly, the result will be that Croatia 's place in the sun will only amount to a minor scar on the grand face of history. Contrary to the prevailing political rhetoric, Croatia 's independence became a reality through grass roots efforts. It began when farmers in the villages of Croatia valiantly defended themselves against a barbarous Serbian led Yugoslav army and its auxiliary Chetniks. The villages and then towns like Bjelovar and Sinj stood up and defended themselves despite Zagreb 's demands that they remain passive in the face of a Belgrade orchestrated campaign of genocide.While the overwhelming majority of the Croatian voters elected to secede from Yugoslavia and Serbian demagogy, Croatia 's leadership still harbored hopes that some sort of accommodation could be reached.The necessity of self defense coupled with the independence groundswell and the deep yearning of the Croatian people could not be denied. Much to the chagrin of many HDZ politicians (other than HSP), probably all the opposition parties, and certainly Belgrade, Croatia became an established state. Newly won independence revitalized traditional Croatian values that had been long suppressed by Draconian communist and Serbian rule. Once again Croatians walked with their heads up high and publicly practiced their faith without fear of repercussion. But after the professional politicians took over, Croatia and its Croatian cherished values went into a tailspin. When it became clear that there was no turning back and Croatia de facto was here to stay, the offspring of the former communist elite assumed major positions in the Croatian government. The most striking example is Miso Broz, presently Croatia 's ambassador to Indonesia , Tito's son. Tito, who many may recall, was Yugoslavia 's bloody dictator whose policies caused incalculable harm for most Croatians. Not only have the offspring of the former power elite been rewarded, the government also resurrected old communist thugs like Budimir Loncar to government service. Loncar, who left behind a trail of Croatian blood in his rise to the top of Communist hierarchy is now a principal adviser to Mesic. While serving the Yugoslav government, he, more than anyone else, harmed Croatia 's fight for independence. It was his initiative in the UN that imposed an international arms embargo on Croatia .Who knows how many Croatian lives would have been saved if Croatia had the proper arms with which to defend itself. Tragically Croatian defenders out in the villages had to rely on hunting rifles against one of the largest armies in Europe. Equipped with the most sophisticated weapons of war the JNA and its Chedos murdered over 14,000 Croatians. Remarkably, there is now a movement in Croatia to cleanse the Serbs' genocidal acts and responsibility for the Homeland War. Many Croatians ask: 'Is this what we fought and died for?' Although very few of the elite participated in the Homeland War or even agreed with the Independence movement, the communist values they had learned at their parents' knees is once again being imposed upon Croatia . One of the first acts of the new elitists was to disenfranchise those who brought Croatia to independence. Not only have they displaced hard fought for Croatian ideals, they also quasi criminalized them. The major media outlets, although owned by foreign interests, are mouthpieces for the Racans and Mesics. Meanwhile, those who remember what it was like to live under the communist yoke and those who fought for Croatian ideals are finding themselves marginalized. They have lost hope for any meaningful future for Croatia . Originally the agenda and differences between the HDZ and the other political parties were sharply contrasted, and that is precisely what energized the average Croatian in the early 1990s. They enthusiastically embraced the HDZ agenda, but now those Croatian aspirations are dashed. Since the last election the dividing lines between the HDZ and the defeated Racan government have blurred to the point of merging. Seemingly Racan's goals have been embraced by the HDZ. The loss of credibility has developed a generalized apathy and has been replaced by secularism. There has been a splurge of consumerism and hedonism - something that secularists thrive on. If reports that one in three teenage females are afflicted with Sexually Transmitted Disease are to be believed, it is an affirmation that promiscuity is the accepted norm for Croatia. Despite the fact that a vast majority of Croatians declare themselves to be Roman Catholics, if one brings up in any forum the Catholic Church's ideas on abortion, homosexuality or premarital sex they are almost immediately booed down before making the point on these subjects. That fact and the issue of promiscuity are certainly secular victories. The main problem with politicians of all parties, including the HDZ, is their failure to come to terms with the evilness and indefensible crimes that the Croatian Communist party willfully committed against its own people. There remains today a collective silence about the Party's role in the death marches and in the filling of the mass graves. There is little mention of the murder of several hundred Catholic priests and nuns; the forced mass deportation of Croatians, often at a great risk for their lives. Then there is that charming communist resort - Goli Otok. Remember Bleiburg, where countless thousands were slaughtered? It is only a whisper in today's Croatia . Under the Red Star any opposition to communist ideology was dealt in one of three ways: a bullet to the back of the head, imprisonment or escape into exile. Yet politicians continue to pay homage to those inglorious days. Besides the failure of any politician criticizing that dark era, the media is loath to bring it up. Presently Croatia is celebrating the victory against fascism, which is all well and good if it stays limited to World War II. For those who do not know or have conveniently forgotten, the term 'anti-fascism' was the lynchpin byword for the communist party. Not only was it used against anyone who dared think, let alone express, dissent - the term also camouflaged the worst communist crimes. What proponents of 'anti-fascism' fail to say is that their beloved movement will be remembered as a political system that institutionalized a fifty-year reign of terror. Instead of remaining quiet to a revisionist view of what 'anti-fascism' really did create, we should be commemorating the victims of Communism of the post war era. The number of victims caused by fascism was a drop in a bucket when compared to the oceans of victims of Communism. In the early 1990s Budimir Loncar's Dalmatian neighbors buried his house in 'djubar'. Certainly more of the same would be appropriate for burying Stipe Mesic and his propaganda about the glories of the Red Star.

 Dr. Jerry Blaskovich is the author of the book 'Anatomy of Deceit - An American Physician's First-hand Encounter With The Realities Of the War In Croatia' and has had numerous articles and Op-Ed pieces published in the United States and Australia.

THE NEW GENERATION - CROATIAN HERALD, Friday, May 13, 2005

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

Freedom of Expression--Croatian Style

By Jerry Blaskovich, MD

A major drama is being played out in Croatia that has tremendous ramifications, for it strikes at the very heart of the basic freedoms of expression and the press.

On April 28,2005, The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia at the Hague issued indictments against Domogoj Margetic, a former investigative reporter for ‘Hrvatsko Slovo‘, and three other Croats for “contempt against the court for revealing a secret witness’s identity and testimony in the Tihomir Blaskic trial“. If convicted each may serve up to seven years or pay up to a 100,000 Euro fine, which is far more severe then what is meted out to convicted war criminals. But that is not unexpected since the accused are Croats.

The ‘secret’ witness was Stipe Mesic, Croatia’s president, whose testimony ultimately convicted Blaskic. Interestingly, the Slobodna Dalmacija published basically the same material during Racan’s tenure, including naming Mesic. Instead of pressuring the Hague, as he has done in this case, Mesic, typical of communist rhetoric, called the paper a fascist publication, turned to Racan and got the editor, Josip Jovic and several reporters fired, then replaced them with cadres loyal to Mesic and Racan.

Once the Croatian media learned about the indictments, instead of interviewing representatives of “Udruzenje Novinara Republike Hrvatske” (UNRH)[Society of Reporters from the Republic of Croatia], which Margetic is a member and president of, they interviewed the vice president of Hrvatski Novinarske Drustvo (HND)[Croatian Reporters Society], a rival organization with a different agenda. Of all the indicted, Margetic, is the only one in jail, albeit on unrelated trumped up charge. Since there was no report of Margetic’s incarceration either the Croatian media was not aware of Margetic‘s plight or it was censored.

The arrest was doubtlessly in retaliation to Margetic’s newly published book ‘Stipe Mesic Dossier of Treason - Unauthorized Biography of the Second Croatian President‘ and to keep him in custody until the indictment. The Croatian government most certainly did not want a repeat of the Gotovina fiasco. The 600 page book documents Mesic’s career from 1958 with UDBA, including his Hague testimony, to the present.

There was a great deal of enthusiasm projected at the book’s prepublication launch on February 11th, when over 200 people attended a forum that was chaired by academics and prominent professors.

Just prior to the book becoming available to the public the publisher of "Stegatisak" called Margetic the morning of March 9th and told him that "a member of the POA (Protuobavještajne agencies)[counter-intelligence agents] threatened to confiscate the books" and that Margetic should come at 2 PM to attend a meeting at the publishing house. Anticipating the worse, Margetic sent some colleagues instead. Meanwhile Margetic called Tomislav Karamarko, POA head, and Ivan Jarnjak, president of the Parliament Committee for Internal Affairs and National Security, to prevent destruction of the books. His pleas fell on deaf ears since the building was surrounded by the police at 2 PM. That evening, at 6 PM it was confirmed that the books were destroyed in a manner that were highly reminiscent of the Nazi book burning. An arrest warrant was issued for Margetic.

While four media outlets had the story about the destruction of the books, no one was allowed to print anything because of an apparent ban from the office of the president of the republic Stipe Mesic. Ingenuously the warrant had nothing to do with the book, but for a 1993 alleged crime for which he had been exonerated. The major and only witness ‘against’ him testified at a hearing that the charges against Margetic were invalid and trumped up.

Nonetheless, with an arrest warrant out for him Margetic went into hiding and was finally arrested on 21 April in front of the Macka (Cat) Café. The police told Margetic’s friend, who was present at the arrest, that Margetic was charged with “illegally easedropping” on an unnamed person in 2003. Once incarcerated the charge was changed to a failure to pay a mortgage or loan (default) for a piece of property he had purchased.

It would be a long stretch of naivety if anyone believes that Margetic’s arrest was not coincidental to the book’s publication book. A similar situation occurred when he had another book published. Because of his investigative reporting and well documented books Margetic has been thru the revolving door of the Croatian justice system.

After a series of articles in ‘Hrvatsko Slovo’ exposing Mesic’s and Racan‘s illegal dealings, Mesic, in August 2004 publicly characterized accused the newspaper that it prints lies and Margetic, as “anti-civilized’. Most significantly he ordered political coverage of the newspaper be changed. The following day, Stjepan Seselj, Director of Hrvastka Slovo, told Margetic to stop writing about Mesic or be fired. Margetic elected the later option.

On 1 September, the police arrested Margetic on a rather nebulous charge. He remained incarcerated for six days and freed without comment. Not coincidently, the arrest came on the heels of his newly well documented published book ‘Tko je opljaèkao Hrvatsku’ {Who Looted Croatia}, which contained  a virtual who‘s who of the political elite‘s chicanary, especially Mesic.

Prior to that arrest, Margetic was also arrested in 2002. Despite the arrest taking place in his home, he was charged with vagrancy. This particular arrest came after he wrote a series of articles that outlined Racan’s government’s secret agreements with the International Monetary Fund, agreements which members of Sabor (Croatian Parliament) were not aware of.

Interestingly, the judge who supposedly issued the arrest warrant denied issuing any order against Margetic. The interrogations never mentioned his arrest charge, but focused on his investigative reporting. Nonetheless he was incarcerated for two weeks and set free without an apology.

Unquestionably all of Margetic’s arrests resulted from publication of his books and exposes that addressed Mesic and Racan chicanery, while the alleged charges were mere smokescreens. Given the dire political climate in Croatia, how the Margetic affair will end is conjectural.

Gotovina Alive and Kicking in the US Congress

By Jerry Blaskovich

 The New Generation “Hrvatski Vjesnik” English Supplement, Friday, March 8, 2002 

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, wereoutspoken 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 Tribunals. 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 ultimately 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.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 extent to which the hearing will influence the ICTY.