Radoncic Knows Treason
Tax Police received reinforcements in Dnevni Avaz: now their task is supported by their colleagues in uniforms. Avaz's accounts are still blocked, and Ramiz Dzaferovic has announced that the director of this publishing house, Fahrudin Radoncic, will be arrested. Why is Edhem Bicakcic determined to persevere in the struggle against the Bosniak daily with the highest circulation? What is the role of Irfan Ljevakovic in the revenge for lost elections? Will in the end Izetbegovic come out as the only victor from yet another war? Who is preparing the stretegy for organized terror against media in the Federation?
by Vildana SELIMBEGOVIC
Dani, Sarajevo, Federation Bosnia-Hercegovina, B-H, June 23, 2000
Will the next issue of Dnevni Avaz appear on kiosks? Will Fahrudin Radoncic be arrested? Will the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) fulfill its secret threats and exact its revenge against the newspaper that, until yesterday, it promoted as the most influential and highest circulation Bosniak daily? Who will abolish whom: Avaz Bicakcic's Prime Ministerial office, or will the Central Heir demonstrate to all and sundry the unavoidable fate of the disobedient ones? Fierce and increasingly brutal terror of the current authorities against Dnevni Avaz has opened the whole series of these and similar questions, suppressing to the background the fact that this is simply the latest wave of aggression against the media in the Federation: elections in November are drawing nearer, and it is necessary to clean up the media space and bring the confused population back to its senses!
Of course, no one knows exactly when the first grenade was fired towards Avaz's little dragon [paper's logo]: whether in the analyses of the relative victory of SDA in the latest municipal elections while Halid Genjac explained that media should be blamed for everything; however, the real responsibility is due to those who did not expect that from the media; perhaps, the salvo was dictated by open Bicakcic's threats; or it could be that the trench warfare started even before, when after an open demand by the First Among Bosniaks [Izetbegovic] to attack the leader of the Social Democratic Party (DSP), Lagumdzija, with all available means, Avaz responded with unbiased reporting from the rallies of the strongest opposition party in Bosnia-Hercegovina. However, it is known that the merciless offensive was initiated from the top Federation leadership with commando-style break in of the elite tax-police ninja's at four o'clock in the morning in the printworks of the disobedient publisher.
AID for Vecernje Novine
The motivation behind the choice of the taxation method is probably best revealed by by now traditional Avaz's enemy, daily Vecernje Novine from Sarajevo. Vecernje, now in private hands of a distinguished specimen of a Bosniak tycoon, are increasingly leaning towards uncanny lucidity of the secret service type in its articles. A precocious journalist of the new Vecernje sort sent the results of the inspection of the tax police in Avaz printworks to the press at the time when Police ninjas, confused by the reaction of the employees, were still consolidating their ranks. He claimed that the Police had confiscated some 2,906 copies of the paper and immediately accused Avaz of failing to pay millions of Marks in taxes. When, according to the witnesses, Avaz's reply arrived to the editorial office of Vecernje with the date on which the printworks were opened (less than three months ago), Ljevakovic himself had to decide: either include the reply, or throw out the question?!
Irfan Ljevakovic is, according to many opinions of local circles without links with intelligence services, the mind behind the organization of the attack on Avaz. The former controversial assistant director of AID [Bosniak intelligence service] and hard-liner from the SDA, ideologically matured in the famous Tesanj chain and educated by providing logistic support via TWRA [Third World Relief Agency, Austria based organization used for smuggling of weapons to the Bosniak side during the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina], developed the concept of the revenge based on the movie Empire Strikes Back. As a reminder, at the time of its founding Dnevni Avaz poached many journalists and editors from Vecernje Novosti offering them at the time long awaited salaries. Today when Ljevakovic has built up an empire saving from his AID salary, he wants his editors back and he will get them by destroying Avaz. And at the same time he will exact revenge on behalf of the Party. In order to give conspiratorial veneer to all of this, even the infamous MOS {Muslim Intelligence Service] cadres have been recruited to explain what Avaz has done to break the law and what it is going to do. Their other role is to introduce the necessary doze of mistrust with the option that Izetbegovic is strictly controlling the battle Bicakcic-Radoncic, and intends to come out of it as a definite victor. Both without Avaz and Bicakcic. And Ljevakovic definitely does not know treason.
Horrible dilemmas are just these days unraveled by the famous tax-man, the director of the Federation Taxation Directorate, Ramiz Dzaferovic, who has been sending via electronic media announcements that the director of Avaz will finally be caught and precisely because of millions of Marks of unpaid taxes?! Eureka! Are we finally on the way of resolving all problems of the Federation budget? Will the Avaz's property be sufficient to provide for all pensions arrears, compensations for workers "in waiting" [officially employed, but without work] and even cover the debt consciously made by Timur's team? Besides, where have these tax experts been hiding until now? They were not, one hopes, hiding behind big piles of documents of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory, or Saja's empire looking for a golden goose for the Federation?
Of course, no one is denying tax inspectors the right to work: at this moment the question is why Avaz's circulation and business practices did not interest them during the years when Izetbegovic every Thursday communicated with the people on the pages of this paper responding to imaginative questions he had put together himself; during the years when Avaz was the basic lever of the SDA propaganda and when subscription to this daily newspaper was treated as in the past subscription to Komunist or Borba [official publications of the Yugoslav Communist League in the former Yugoslavia] (before the founding of the SDA). Exactly the ideology of the SDA that was frequently charted by Avaz, and from which it pulled back on the eve of the most recent elections, inspired a sudden surge in the activity of the tax police and Bicakcic's dedication to the lawful state or, more precisely, initiated revenge, forgetting one of the favorite principles of Behmen and co. that everyone has the right to get to you.
Who Allowed Freedom?
However, the Prime Minister Heir did not expect the counter blow of the media giant among Bosniaks, and is now paying for that omission. Without much support among the masses, Bicakcic faced firm support of hungry pensioners, fired workers, demobilized soldiers and other Bosniaks, for his currently main preoccupation. The paper that dared slip out of control of the SDA. As usually happens, the voice of the people was heard by public servants, distinguished individuals, rejected cadres and other domestic specimens who are not afraid that Prime Minister's driver will break their legs, and they assisted Avaz to in a wide-ranging research uncover numerous government's secrets: from the number of vehicles used by the government, to the enormous monthly bills for mobile phones, controlled privatization, and since the war is continuing with ever stronger means, it is to be expected that the journalists of Avaz will get a chance to publish all that they had been looking at for years and never even dreamed of writing about.
What about professionalism, wonder the principled individuals? It is at the same spot where it's always been: with clear principles of objectivity and responsibility, totally open to all those willing to respect its rules. It is also very clear when it is in danger, and the greatest enemy of the freedom of media are exactly totalitarian systems and leaders who like to say about themselves: I allowed the freedom of press! Of course, no one has ever managed to explain to the absolutists that the freedom of speech, expression, media... is not permitted by anyone nor does it depend in democratic societies on various vainglorious political leaders who see themselves as saviors of their nations on this Earth.
Representatives of the current authorities have had exactly that position in Bosnia-Hercegovina, or more precisely, in the Federation, since the Dayton agreement until today. They are deeply convinced that the amount of independence of media depends on their will. Those who did not accept that sort of division were labeled long time ago: they were told from various meetings of Bosniak intellectuals that they are state enemies, traitors, sycophants of foreigners, foreign hirelings; bombs were thrown at them, they were threatened with guns, in the streets, printing of their publications was obstructed, their articles stolen before printing... The aggression against media is a systematic strategy of the current authorities, and at this moment Avaz has become its target. And no one has any more illusions that in the battle that he simply cannot win, Bicakcic will loose: until November there is plenty of time to besides tax, business and ordinary police include other party affiliated secret and public services, paramilitary units and individuals inclined to getting out of control. And all that with only one goal: to prolong the ten most difficult years into eternity.
Petition
Regarding the systematic, organized and brutal pressures of the authorities on Dnevni Avaz, whose goal is the destruction of that most influential and highest circulation daily in Bosnia-Hercegovina, we, the signatories, demand the following:
- That the current authorities urgently stop with repressive actions against Dnevni Avaz and the founder of that newspaper Fahrudin Radoncic.
- That the current authorities stop abuse of tax, financial, and secret Police against all free and professional media.
- That the current authorities in the shortest possible period carry out de-politization of the tax, financial, and secret Police, and place them under the control of the multi-party Parliament, or that the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina forms a multi-party committee for the oversight of the aforementioned institutions.
- That the current authorities carry out struggle against corruption and regular controls of business practices of all corporate entities in a lawful and non-discriminatory manner.
- That those responsible for catastrophic situation of human rights and freedoms in Bosnia-Hercegovina immediately submit their resignations or be dismissed.
In Sarajevo, June 21, 2000.
Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, Abdulah Sidran, Ivo Komsic, Sacir Filandra and Sefkija Cekic.
Statement
Because of the organized campaign of brutal pressures on the freedom of media in Bosnia-Hercegovina, we, the signatories, state the following:
- Oslobodjenje, Slobodna Bosna, Dani, and Dnevni Avaz express mutual solidarity and determination to jointly resist all sorts of pressures on the freedom of press and continue to professionally and objectively inform the public.
- State institutions are obliged to act within the framework of law, and do not overstep their authorities; they should apply the same criteria in their relations with all media and their activities should be transparent.
- We call on the representatives of the international factors in Bosnia-Hercegovina to use their prerogatives and forcefully sanction every sort of attack on the media and journalists because of their reporting about corruption, various abuses of the privatization process and other kinds of abuse of power.
- Regarding the financial control of the Tax Directorate in the newspaper Dnevni Avaz and later blocking of the bank account of this daily newspaper, the signatories jointly demand that the bank account of Dnevni Avaz be immediately and unconditionally released in order not to endanger further publishing of this newspaper and that the financial control of this company be interrupted until the representatives of relevant international institutions are included in the investigation if it turns out to be necessary.
- In case that these demands are not fulfilled, the signatories will as much as possible alarm worldwide journalistic organizations, international institutions for the protection of human rights, freedom of speech and press and request every sort of support for our justified demands.
- This initiative by Oslobodjenje, Dnevni Avaz, Dani, and Slobodna Bosna is open to all media and other institutions dealing with the protection of the freedom of media and we call on them to join the initiative.
Mirko Sagolj, the editor-in-chief of Oslobodjenje
Senad Avdic, the editor-in-chief of Slobodna Bosna
Vildana Selimbegovic, the editor-in-chief of Dani
Translated on July 6, 2000
