by Boris PAVELIC and Bojana OPRJAN-ILIC
American WWII war veterans in Belgrade handed the decoration to Mihailovic's daughter Gordana, "on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the victory against fascism," Vuk Draskovic's Serb Renewal Movement (SPO) stated on its web site (www.spo.org.yu). Belgrade daily newspaper Blic yesterday claimed that the ceremony had been postponed indefinitely, but the news turned out to be inaccurate.
Truman, the SPO asserts, decorated Mihailovic "based on the recommendation of the legendary American war commander Dwight Eisenhower". The decoration is in recognition of the assistance Mihailovic's soldiers provided to the US in WWII, when they saved about 500 American pilots whose aircrafts had been shot down by Germans over Serbia in 1944.
SPO president Vuk Draskovic, current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia-Montenegro, requested from US Secretary of State Colin Powell last year that the decoration awarded more than 50 years ago be finally delivered. This was a second such request, the first one being made in 1992 also by Draskovic. The first request was ignored by president Bill Clinton.
Draza Mihailovic was tried and condemned as a Chetnik commander and traitor and executed on July 17, 1946 in Belgrade. The location of his grave remains unknown until today.
According to Pusic, "the Americans really chose an unfortunate moment" to deliver the decoration. "You cannot say that someone responsible for mass war crimes is an anti-fascist, although in the first few months of the war he did fight the Nazis. It should not be forgotten that Mihailovic rejected the Partisan offer to become the supreme commander of their joint forces. He did initiate an uprising, but he would not be the first person to change his mind," Pusic wryly comments. "Americans are to be blamed for this. They allowed to be misled. However, SPO is also responsible, as they from the start took a pro-Chetnik stand, ignoring Chetnik crimes".
interview by Zlatko CRNCEC
"I've been asked to assist in democratization of Croatia and to help resolve consequences of everything that has happened in the last 15 years. Serbs were in the past recognized as a nation in Croatia, while today they have the status of an ethnic minority. From one side they were pressured by greater Serbian extremists, from the other side by Croatian nationalists. These two groups formed an alliance against Serbs and in the end they lost their status of the constituent nation and became an ethnic minority," Boljkovac explains in a short interview for Novi List why he decided to run on the SDSS list. He added that he decided not to run on the Croat People's Party (HNS) list, whose member he otherwise is, because the HNS did not ask him to be a candidate in the forthcoming elections, but regardless he believes that the HNS is the best political party in Croatia and that he especially admires its honorary president Slavka Dapcevic Kucar, as well as "Vesna Pusic and [Radomir] Cacic who sincerely and openly discuss the truth about Bosnia-Hercegovina".
"Serbs carried the biggest burden in WWII, while most Croats fought [with Nazis] in the Soviet Union and in Bosnia. Some of the leaders of the uprising were ethnic Croats, but the soldiers were mostly ethnic Serbs. We must continue living with Serbs. Instead, we are trying to erase them," believes Boljkovac. He added that "out of six divisions of the National Liberation Army [Tito's partisans], five were led by Serbs".
"Now, some in the Croatian parliament say that Tito is a criminal. If I were in power now, they would be in jail! What they are saying is not democracy, it is crime," Boljkovac believes.
He explains circumstances from the early days of WWII, and an uprising in the parts of Croatia populated by Serbs and recalls that residents of Serb villages in Banija and Kordun took him in "as their own" in 1941 after he had had to escape from Zagreb.
"One cannot say that ethnic Croats started an uprising, because something like that was impossible in regions populated by Croats in 1941. The uprising was initiated by Serbs, while some of the leaders of the Communist Party, which organized the uprising were ethnic Croats," says Boljkovac, adding that the case of the Sisak Partisan unit is only an exception confirming the rule. Although members of the Sisak Partisan Unit were ethnic Croats, they very quickly had to move to the Serb majority region.
"Sanader shares responsibility for everything that happened in the last 15 years, but now he has a good program and deserves support," Boljkovac believes.
Discussing his involvement in the first HDZ government, Boljkovac says that he joined the government only after a lengthy persuasion, but that he left it as soon as he realized that they were creating private political armies and using services of former Foreign Legion members. He adds that the then Croatian leadership in early 1991 refused to accept some fifty policemen from Knin who at one point pledged loyalty to Croatia.
"We in Gorski Kotar saved Croatia. Croatia was not saved by Tudjman," says Boljkovac, adding that not all Serbs in Croatia rebelled and trusted Milosevic. He adds that Milosevic failed to incite Serbs to rebel in Gorski Kotar, but that they instead behaved "like in 1941 when they received fighters from the Spanish civil war".
"Regardless, Serbs in Croatia were placed on the list for ‘humane population transfer'. Some of them unfortunately trusted Milosevic and then paid dearly," Boljkovac says. He adds that he opposed repression against Serbs which, according to him, started before the war. According to Boljkovac, repression against Serbs was especially advocated by Gojko Susak who organized demolition of Serb houses.
"However, it is not favorable that Serbs have become an ethnic minority, that they do not have all the rights guaranteed by the Constitutional Ethnic Minority Rights Act," Stanimirovic says.
As far as Milan Djukic, president of the Serb People's Party is concerned, it is neither too early nor too late to address the constituent nation status.
"Croatia must become a civic state with equal rights and freedoms for all of its residents, which would solve the status of Serbs in Croatia," Djukic was adamant.
The HDZ, SDSS's partner in the coalition government, also rejected Boljkovac's proposal, even though Boljkovac used to be an important member of the HDZ.
"How could Serbs be a constitutional element of Croatia when Croatia was exposed to the Serb aggression. Serbs attacked Croatia, they did not build her," also adamant was Andrija Hebrang, member of the presidency of the HDZ.
by Sergej ABRAMOV and Ladislav TOMICIC
The Hague prosecutor's office has transcripts of two meetings held in Brijuni on July 17 and 31, 1995. Immediately after the publication of the July 31 meeting transcript, which is important for the prosecutor because of the part discussing "the disappearance of Serbs", several political leaders, including the leader of the Croatian Rights Party (HSP) Anto Djapic questioned the veracity of the transcripts. Nevertheless, the state attorney's office confirmation that the transcripts were not forged failed to convince Djapic.
Ivo Farcic, General Ante Gotovina's lawyer, on the other hand still claims that the transcripts were forged.
"We haven't received any official communication from the state attorney's office, but when we do receive it we shall file a civil suit and take the role of state prosecutor. The state attorney is obliged to prosecute the act, but if they decline to do so the plaintiff is free to file charges on his own," Farcic said.
However, Gotovina's lawyers, explains Ivo Josipovic, an international law expert, can file a civil suit only if the court recognizes them as plaintiffs in the case, which according to Josipovic is questionable.
"The decision of the state attorney's office indicates that they are convinced that the transcripts were not forged and as far s they are concerned this matter is closed. That will definitely be useful to the Hague prosecutor. On the other hand, as far as Gotovina's lawyers are concerned, it is questionable whether they will be recognized by the court as plaintiffs and allowed to continue the case," Josipovic says.
Based on the request from the Zagreb Municipal Prosecutor, investigative magistrate Kresimir Devcic questioned several witnesses, mostly current and former employees of the Croatian President's Office working for the department in charge of taping and transcribing president's conversations. Employees answered questions about the way conversations had been recorded, transcribed and archived.
Based on the investigation and a recording of the conversations from Brijuni, the Municipal State Attorney's Office established that transcripts were not forged.
As is well known, our newspaper informed about the content of the controversial transcript, as well as about claims of several former top state officials that they participated in the meetings even though they are not mentioned in the transcripts. Among other, Pavao Miljavac made such assertions. Given the decision of the Municipal State Attorney's Office, a new question begs for an answer: why did they claim that the Brijuni transcript was forged?