Nobody is Allowed to Like You!

by Marinko Culic

Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, March 23 1998

Let the world continue with pressures on Croatia, we cannot prevent that, but can squeeze the locals favored by the world: opposition, CHC and other non-governmental organizations, media... The more they press us from abroad, the more we will squeeze inside.

That's how Franjo Tudman imagined the defense of his presidential castle after the strongest and most persistent international siege to which he has been subject so far (the pressures from 1993 were mostly in the function of stopping Croatian-Bosniak war). With that tactics he managed to prevent or remove outside pressures in the past, but it has now been pushed to the limit. As if the elderly leader has already stumbled on a crazy idea of using his subjects as hostages and live shields against unjust, disloyal and ungrateful West.

Actually, that use of one's own citizens as hostages has already started with the partial suspension of political freedoms in the country, implemented after the supposedly condemned and almost certainly commissioned Dapic's march through Vukovar and Knin. The second goal of that Ustashe exercise along the most sensitive fault lines of the new Croatian state is at least equally important. Dapic's task was to bring back pre-political language of public warrants from the early nineties so that all those who at all solidarize with the decadent West would automatically end up on the index of proven enemies of the state.

Propaganda Machine

The teeth of that powerful propaganda grinder were first tested on Stipe Mesic, whose trip to the Hague was condemned by Dapic himself as "treason" (although the trip is a logical consequence of the law about cooperation with the international tribunal enacted by the Parliament, and, furthermore, is the result of the obligations accepted by Tudman himself). Then the propaganda machine attacked Paraga, Cicak, Pauletta, Jakovcic... True, some of them, especially Pauletta, assisted by making imprudent and even stupid moves.

But the manner in which the machine treats them demonstrates that their mistakes are actually not that interesting for the HDZ propagandists, except as excuses for the initial attack which can be found anyway, one way or another. Thus, Pauletta was accused of collaboration with post-fascists of Gianfranco Fini, although HDZ had itself collaborated very closely with the party even when Fini was still pure, "unreformed" fascist. Cicak and Paraga were attacked for inspecting ranks of young men in black T-shirts and being photographed under Pavelic's portraits respectively, although it is perhaps far more shocking that such iconography is openly used in Croatian Army, extreme press, and via certain parliamentary political parties, but also in other ways, even in the Parliament.

Finally, after drawing a parallel between Tudman and Ceausescu, Ivan Jakovcic was accused of "destroying Constitutional order" (Valent) and "inciting a civil war" (Pasalic), instead of simply offending or slandering the president which is the correct description of his act (why else do we have the law for the super-protection of His name and actions?). But why fight Jakovcic in court and furthermore risk that there someone demonstrates that some comparisons between Tudman and Ceausescu are very plausible (insistence on the autonomous status of the country with respect to powerful foreign partners, but only to be given free reins at home).

Fake Panic

It is much simpler to pass Jakovcic through the propaganda machine and proclaim him to be a subversive spokesperson for the fickle West. The main goal of the current campaign is to provoke a short term hysteria in the part of the public loyal to HDZ because of a supposed change in the quality of the pressures applied to Croatia from abroad. Apparently, these pressures have never so far "found such support and collaboration of certain opposition leaders and non-governmental organizations, who have recently, besides all of their previous actions, openly called for the rebellion against democratically elected authorities" (this is a quote from a letter of support sent from the Zagreb HDZ organization to cautious party leadership).

This loud but undoubtedly fake panic reveals new tactics of the Croatian leadership against pressures from abroad. They will not any more be diminished and portrayed as irrelevant but, on the contrary, made worse and more dramatic than they really are. All the way to doomsday babbling that the anti-Croatian West has already made a plan to eliminate current authorities and found local collaborators for that plan. With that in mind, some recent pressures were not disqualified or denied importance as had been a custom until recently, but were actually blown up with addition of half truths and fabrications. That was done with the recent letter of 12 American Congressmen to president Clinton in which they demand "additional pressure" on Croatia with several direct goals.

These are "holding of free and fair elections", return of "the opposition leaders who were removed from the Parliament by the decision of the administrative court", enabling of "multi-party control of the electoral process", and the demand that "journalist and judges be allowed to do their work without fear of political pressure". Although at any time this would have been sufficient for the qualification about "arrogant meddling in the internal affairs of the country" that didn't happen on this occasion. The authorities made a false claim that the American congressmen besides above mentioned demands had also demanded early elections (Krpina), obviously with the goal of implying diabolical connection with SDP's initiative for early general elections.

The goal is very clear. By fanning among politically illiterate the fear of foreign conspiracy against independent and sovereign Croatia and at the same time slandering the opposition by implying that it is involved in the conspiracy, HDZ will offer the opposition to "redeem" itself in the only possible way: by condemning pressures on the ruling party and Tudman. That offer has actually already been made: a debate in the Parliament on the topic of the most recent pressures on Croatia has already been announced and its goal is probably to extract some sort of consensus of all parliamentary parties about that. If the opposition falls in that banal trap, HDZ will be given an opportunity to get out of trouble by using one of its old tricks.

Forced Closing of Ranks

Serious mistakes of the official policy would be shared with others, i.e. made collective, while the credit for all successes will be kept for the ruling party, i.e. individualized (only once this trick totally back fired, in 1993, when the discussion in the Parliament about foreign policy unexpectedly led to the acceptance of conclusions offered by the opposition, rather than the ruling party). HDZ has won additional month for the adjustment of the Croatian political scene. After a series of concessions to the International Community and fairly conciliatory talks between Tudman, Kinkel and Vedrine, the faithful European Commission report about Croatia was postponed from the end of March to the end of April.

These few weeks now appear doubly important. On one hand, it will become clear whether Croatian wondering in European wastelands has ended or, as is more likely, everything will continue as before until some new ultimatums and threats from Brussels or Washington. On the other hand if bad news arrive from Brussels, HDZ may use current verbal "civil war" which it has fanned for years and in which it has recently received the assistance of several fools from the opposition, for an attempt at violent closing of the ranks at home and a spectacular "no" to the traitorous West.

Translated on 6/10/98