Tragedy Buried In Registrar's Office In Osijek

Marija Lovric has tried to meet Zlatko Kramaric, but this symbol of liberal Osijek was too busy to schedule a meeting with the woman ignored by everyone

by Boris PAVELIC

Novi List, Rijeka, Croatia, July 14, 2003

"As if I don't exist". This is how Marija Ilic, a resident of Osijek, describes her life since 1991. Since November 26, 1991, when her husband was taken from their apartment in Osijek, she has lived with oppressive uncertainty of that disappearance, as well as arrogant ostracism by public services and the public, and finds it hard to decide which one is worse.

"I tell my story, how everyone ignores us and spits on us. How can that be possible?! I am a resident of this city and a citizen of this state! And it seems everyone has these or those rights, apart from me and my family. That cannot be. That is not fair," says this woman, who has been for years already trying to support her three-member family on 2,000 kunas [$285] a month, with unimaginable difficulty. And while she relates her story it is obvious that she has a hard time suppressing anguish and disbelief at injustice that she did not deserve.

Marija's "Road To Nowhere"

Marija's husband Branko had a Croat father. However, he died early and Branko was brought up by his Serb mother (these details are important for this story). Branko worked for Osijek Telecommunications Center for a long time. In late eighties, he was demoted from the director of the center to a lower position. He left the Communist Party and stayed out of politics after that.

The war started and the Lovric family stayed in Osijek with its two sons. When the worst fighting started, after the fall of Vukovar, Marija moved with her sons to Germany, and Branko stayed in the apartment. November 26, 1991, came and since then Marija has been struggling to find out what happened to her husband.

"A witness claims that Branko was taken away by three armed soldiers. As soon as I found out about his disappearance, I returned to Osijek. I arrived on November 28. I went straight from the station to the Police, then to the Red Cross to file a missing person report," Marija says. But, nothing happened. Her road to nowhere started.

She was immediately fired. She was sent off with words that were considered to be normal at the time. Two years later, she was awarded a state pension for disabled persons, which is to this day her main source of income.

Croatian Telecommunications Ignore Appeal For Assistance

Marija reserves most of her anger for the former employer of her husband, currently known as Croatian Telecommunications, or HT. Marija explains that HT typically awards primary and high school scholarships to children of its dead employees. If the father died in the war, children also receive college scholarships. HT's response to Marija's appeal for assistance in 1997 was signed by director Petar Tumir. Is says: "Regarding your request for education assistance for your children, it has been rejected". That's all. No explanation.

Marija Lovric is convinced that in Osijek a silence conspiracy surrounds the disappearance of her husband. When in she requested some document confirming that she had filed a missing persons report from the Police and the Red Cross, so that she could get her husband officially declared as dead, she got a paper with wrong dates.

"Why did not they write that I reported that he was missing on November 1991, as I did? Instead, they wrote in the Police that I filed a missing person report on December 24, 1991, and in the Red Cross on January 24, 1992? That is not true, and no one can convince me that that was an honest mistake," Marija says.

Claims About "Husband Serb Spy"

She also visited the county state prosecutor, but her statement has apparently disappeared "in the bowels" of the county registrar's office. She also wanted to tell her story to Osijek mayor Zlatko Kramaric, but this symbol of liberal Osijek could not find time to schedule a meeting with her. Instead, he sent her to his deputy and city attorney. All of that produced no results.

Perhaps the only one of the victims of disappearances in Osijek in 1991, Marija Lovric spoke out as early as 1998, when the newspapers for the first time reported her story. There was no reaction. But a reaction came a few days ago, when the Croatian TV reported Marija's story, and a local newspaper published assertions of those who claimed that her husband was a Serb spy and actually ran away from Croatia.

"I have no evidence of any kind, but I am absolutely convinced that he ran away," says Osijek attorney Drazen Matijevic. Matijevic also represents Branimir Glavas and is a member of the state judicial council. He publicized his theory in Glas Slavonije His apparent ability to dismiss personal suffering and lack of readiness to understand that Croatia will not be a normal country until every single one of its citizens enjoys full and efficient legal protection is shared by an overwhelming majority of residents of Osijek these days. Courageous individuals like Marija Lovric are the only guarantee that this will change one day.

Translated on November 17, 2003