Martin to Zagreb, Martin from Zagreb
by Ognjen Mihajlovic
Velika Srbija [Greater Serbia], Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, 3/20-4/5 1996
Serbian media should urgently be taken out of the jurisdiction of the Serbian Ministry for Information and the Serbian Parliament and be put under the care of the Ministry for environment. Or even better, the care for the media should be the duty of the Health Ministry. Radio-TV spectrum above Serbia is so polluted, that the dangerous outbreak of different psycho-somatic diseases can be expected any day. A large number of viewers have already had the first symptoms; the most frequent indications for the disease are sickness and vomiting (followed by a huge amount of obscenities). People suffering from ulcers are in the greatest danger.
How can one stay healthy, both psychologically and physically, after a spate of all kinds of fraternizing with the murderers? We had a hard time pulling through "United brothers", and already, we are being served a comedy entitled "Normalization of relations between FR Yugoslavia and the Republic of Croatia." The author of this serial (most likely a woman, a comrade) probably had in mind that plain stupidity is a sure-fire way to induce laughter in the audience. However, the project has failed because it has deeply hurt the feelings of the population. It would have been ridiculous if it wasn't morbid.
Trial as a Provocation
The strongest and most terrifying proof that the "normalization" is simply a communist-ustashe crime against the Serbs, is the "coincidence" that on the same day when comrade Minister of Foreign Relations, Milutinovic, arrived on a visit to Croatian Foreign Minister, Mate Granic, Croatian authorities started the trial against a group of 18 Serbs (two of whom are sill at large) accused for spying against "their beautiful country." Taking into account that in Croatia trials to Serbs are not news but simply filth, this wasn't surprising. Also it was clear why the beginning of the trial was scheduled for Monday, March 11. Exactly like when cannibals dance around a fire on which they roast their victims. This way, ustashe are not only sadistically torturing the Serbs in a courtroom, but also laughing in the face of the whole Serbdom and Serbia. That's how much they care for a Serbian minister. However, only Croats think that that Minister is Serbian; here, people know who is in power. It is true that the majority of Croats believes that they have defeated Serbs in this war, but they don't understand that in that war Serbia was ruled by the Communists. Of course Milutinovic knows well who is the boss, and he doesn't give a damn for trials and other offenses at the expense of the Serb people. Because of that he did not feel, nor react to this "provocation". In Serb language there is a much better word for this.
It's Snowing and Heads are Falling
Well known Croatian cynicism was dominant throughout the negotiations. For example, they, the Croatian side were, of course "worried that they hadn't received a clear answer about the fate of the missing persons and those individuals incarcerated in the Yugoslav territory." Unlike Croats, Serbs know the fate of our missing and imprisoned persons in Croatia. The Minister didn't find it appropriate to react to all that with a single word. If he didn't express outrage and leave such cynical negotiations, he should have at least demanded that Croats provide data about the missing and incarcerated Serbs in Croatia going several centuries to the past. Instead he went to meet with some unrepresentative representatives of the Serbs in Croatia. Let us not mention Milutinovic's small talk with Tudman about the weather and snowfall on that day (this could be clearly heard during their meeting, while the cameras were on). It didn't matter that at the same time Serb heads were rolling in a Zagreb courtroom; it was important to solve the problem of snowed in cities, since they had both, in their own way, solved the "Serb question".
Diplomat's ABC
You are wrong if you think that diplomats sometimes have to discuss even weather. Any normal country would have refused to negotiate until the trial was adjourned and accused released. Or, it would have used this judicial farce as an excuse to cancel the visit, for which the responsibility would lie on the other side, in this case Croatia. That way they would have remained clean in the eyes of the world and their own people, actually their voters since they don't recognize the existence of the Serb people. But no, it was necessary to play the role of poltroons all the way, and ignore everything in order to please the Americans and ustashe. In this case, it is indeed brutal to talk to Poglavnik [Ustashe leader in WWII; Ustashe are a Croatian fascist movement] about snow while the Serb heads are rolling: he could have at least tried to show respect for the relatives of the slain, tortured and tried victims. If only Milutinovic managed to get something! No! Reply to all his appeals was the same: "It is feasible in theory, but..." The only palpable result was the announcement of the forthcoming Granic's visit to Belgrade. "Sometimes in April." And if by chance, that visit falls on April 10, the anniversary of NDH [NDH, or Independent State of Croatia was a German puppet state in Croatia during WWII, ruled by Ustashe]... Serbs will celebrate that day by working, eating grass. That is the way we are treated by pro-ustashe communist regime in Serbia.
Ustashe-Communist Alliance
This is old news: ustashe and communists ("leftists") have been collaborating forever. Just recall that when ustashe, before World War II, organized a so-called "Lika uprising", led by Mile Budak, a horrible criminal and cannibal, this uprising was supported by the Communists ("leftists"). During World War II, communists hushed up news about Jasenovac [Ustashe run concentration camp in which somewhere between 8,000 (Croatian president Tudman), 50,000-60,000 (scientific estimate) and 1,000,000 (Serb nationalists) Serbs were murdered by during WWII] and never even tried to liberate prisoners from the camp, although Ustashe defense of this area was very weak. After the war, their beloved tito (deliberately not in capitals), never demanded extradition of pavelic (same as the name of the already mentioned croat). That monster died from wounds which were the result of an assassination by the Draza Mihajlovic's Chetniks. Finally, Milutinovic shook an ustasha hand while only a few hundred meters away 16 Serbs were fighting for their lives. There is not enough newsprint in Serbia to print all the evidence for the alliance of the ustase and communists.
Degen and his Namesakes
To compound the shame, 18 accused Serbs are defended by a Zagreb lawyer Silvije Degen, who has stated that the trial was not fair. His Belgrade namesakes [degen = degenerate] haven't reacted so far. As far as that trial is concerned.
Belgrade journalists had better things to do in Zagreb [Croatian capital]. They scattered all over the city making reports about the life in the capital of NDH. Reporters from all Belgrade TV stations, state-controlled, private and confiscated, simply tried to outdo each other while trying to describe atmosphere on "Jelacic square" and other Zagreb "landmarks". They liked Zagreb so much that they should have entered one of the Catholic churches and converted to Catholicism [Croats are Catholics while Serbs are Eastern Orthodox; by converting to Catholicism, a Serb becomes a Croat]. Of course later, in editing, they used simplest tools: almost all reports were based on surveys. The easiest thing for a journalist: push a microphone to faces of several passerbys, pick out the suitable statements and your minutes are already there.(...) If they are really journalists how come they haven't been to the frontlines in Serb Krajina and Srpska? Belgrade journalists who crossed the Drina river in the moments crucial for the Serb people can be counted with fingers of one hand. Those who made it to Pale don't count, since Pale was nothing but a center for smuggling: real war was in Grbavica. No, it was much safer and financially conducive to sit in offices and regurgitate agency news reports. And to conduct surveys.
Journalists who aren't that
Interviews from Zagreb couldn't hide the fact that Croats cannot stand Serbs, and neither the communists. Simply, there were not enough suitable answers. The papers were the same as Television. The following day, Belgrade papers were full of titles "One day in Zagreb" from the hands of those same uneducated and third rate writers. The only quality of the new "journalistic elite" working for numerous TV stations are their pretty faces (and even that is questionable: god knows what they look like without make up)?!
(...)
The End of Journalism
Empty headed fools ran around in Zagreb and sit in offices of Politika, Vecernje Novosti and other state-controlled papers. They have to sweat for hours in order to produce half a column about weather.
Latest "pens of the Belgrade journalism" have no education, talent nor ideas. They are simply pretty faces with party membership. Because of that it is not surprising that they did not offer support when the authorities assailed Studio B.
There are no journalists left in Belgrade and Serbia. Still, the reports and visit to Zagreb reveal something very important. Ustashe have deceived communists, used their alliance with the leftists in order to keep persecuting Serbs on their own, pushing them all the way to Zemun [Belgrade suburb] and Terazije [square in the center of Belgrade]. Nevertheless, Zagreb inhabitants gave us some hope: judging from the interviews, Croats will save us from a new JUL's [Yugoslav refounded Communists] Yugoslavia!
Translated on 5/2/96
