Comrade Sues
The fact that an Italian national can today persecute Croatian writers in the Croatian media because of their "nationalism" is a new proof that the process of the creation of a new Yugoslavia is far advanced
by Josko CELAN
Slobodna Dalmacija, Split, Croatia, July 5, 2000
The scene from the Jutarnji List from two days ago was very telling: in the upper right corner of the ninth page one could see a big photograph of Predrag Matvejevic, a Leninist, Suvar's Yugoslav patriot, and a Communist, currently an Italian national. In the lower left corner, on the other hand, there were photos of three Croatian writers (Marija Peakic-Mikuljan, Stjepan Seselj, and Pajo Kanizaj), lined up like criminals on a police wanted poster and left defenseless. Around the photos one can read a long and fierce Matvejevic's indictment: Mrs. Peakic-Mikuljan, according to prosecutor Matvejevic (perhaps initially Matvejevich) is a "nationalist", Seselj is an organizer of "Ustashe lectures" and Kanizaj a "Serb hater". After seeing that scene and reading the indictment, I spontaneously had one thought: the return to Yugoslavia is going at full speed!
Yugophilia
The issue at question was that the Society of Croatian Writers had invited its rebellious members to return to the fold; Matvejevic's response is obvious from the above mentioned: get rid of "nationalism" and I will return. But Yugoslavism is not making advances only at home. It is very popular everywhere between Washington, Paris and Rome. On June 25, a journalist of the Rome daily "Messaggero" wrote about the game between the Italian national team and the team of the "old Yugoslavia" in honor of Kreso Cosic [a legendary Croatian, former Yugoslav, basketball player, also honored by the basketball hall of fame in the US] with the emotions of a true Yugonostalgic: "It was wonderful to see a good move here and there... but best of all was to see them, people from the old and dear Yugoslavia again together, waving a single flag". If only you knew how many Yugophiles there are on the other side of the Adriatic Sea! And with a good reason! Our late president, the founder of our state Franjo Tudman once before his death said that in Croatia there were about fifteen-twenty percent of Croatian citizens who had never accepted the existence of the Croatian State. That roughly corresponds to the number of Serbs (800,000 or 17 percent), Yugoslavs and other similar categories in the last population census. They would constitute some, say "Genetic Yugoslavs". Some of them left with the Yugo Army, others after the "Storm". But some remain. They are "Yugoslavs by conviction" (now Euroslavs or western Balkanites), therefore Croats with a pro-Yugoslav orientation. They have been maintaining a stable number of Yugonationalists in the independent Croatian State. They have been keeping their numbers stable, or even increasing them, to more than a fifth of the overall Croatian population.
For example, in Rijeka, according to the last population census from 1991 the percentage of those was even bigger. While in Split there were only ten to at most fifteen percent, in Rijeka it was possible to find as many as 33 percent of them! Such political and demographic circumstances probably explain a part of the secret of the Rijeka daily Novi List and its militantly pro-Yugoslav editorial policy and in turn, of course, the secret of the power of combative Yugoslavs such as Matvejevic, one of paradigmatic in-house writers for the Rijeka daily. I've always known that it is possible to gather a handful of Yugoslav journalist fanatics anywhere in Croatia. For example the Split weekly Feral Tribune employs only about ten Croats from Split, while all the rest are the same Serbs who write for the publication of the Serb minority "Identitet" [identity].
But for a long time I wondered: fine, it is possible to gather or buy ten, twenty or one hundred journalists, but who reads those publications? Who are those people? Or, in other words, what kind of Croats are they? Whereas it was sufficient to look at the most recent census data, and check the achievements left in different points of almost the dismembered Croatian State by two Yugoslav States (the third one is being prepared) to figure everything out.
Thus we again return to Matvejevic and the beginning of this article. Matvejevic issues wanted posters for Croatian writers, and some people allow him to attain the status of a prosecutor and judge. Ten days ago in Novi List the same author finished the series of his sickeningly sentimental reports from Serbia, as he admitted, "with tears in [his] eyes". "I love these people and this country as much as before!", he exclaimed. If you did not get it, these "people" are Serbs and the "country" is Serbia!
Now, just imagine, someone who literally cries while leaving Belgrade to return to Zagreb - probably only passing on the way to his new homeland Italy - and starts persecuting "Ustashe", following the model developed to genocidal perfection in two Yugoslavias, and in that uses now much abused filler "we do not advocate a new Yugoslavia, but..." In the most recent Matvejevic's version it goes like this: "I do not support some new Yugoslav state, but only dignified cultural relations between similar nations". He should be trusted as much as the Balkans unifier Stjepan Mesic when he says that here will be no common Croat-Bosnian-Serb military unit.
Networkers
Besides, it is enough that Matvejevic, a Leninist, a Yugoslav, an Italian and a citizen of the world chases "Ustashe" and the Croatian Culture in Zagreb. The hardware will anyway be provided by Monsieur Chirac, the creator of the western Balkans, and Mr. Mesic - under watchful eye of the imposed Balkan administrator Jacques-Paul Klein - who will unify western Balkan armies. Matvejevic's "dignified cultural relations", with happy tears of newly discovered brotherhood and unity, will on their own find place in the framework of the new age kingdom of Serbs and Croats - without Slovenes, but instead with five million Albanians. In that state, in a decade or two there will be no Croats. Instead we shall have an uncertain number of fat "citizens of Croatia", meek and hopelessly networked subjects of the big Orwellian Europe.
That fact that certain Matvejevic can today in Croatian media persecute Croatian writers for their "nationalism" is only another proof that they are under almost hundred percent anti-Croatian occupation. Since the situation with the media is as it is - and Croats still haven't disappeared - it can be expected that they will raise their voices as soon as summer heat is over. This fall, in the streets, if they cannot do that in the media and in regular ways in the public.
Translated on September 21, 2000
