The Tudjmans Sue the State

AIM Zagreb, January 23, 2001

The family of the late president of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, sued the Croatian state. The Tudjmans – wife Ankica and children Miroslav, Nevenka and Stjepan – demand that the notorious transcripts from the Presidential Palace be considered as private property and given to them because, they claim, they have the “copyright” for them.

The family demands that 17 thousand documents be handed to them, which are copies of electronic recordings and 100 still uncopied audio recordings. They claim that this documentation should be treated as the legacy of the deceased. They refer to the following arguments: the talks at Pantovcak were recorded solely by order of Franjo Tudjman, for his personal needs, so it is, therefore, their private property. The Tudjman's demand that the court pronounce stopgap measure, to ban publication of these documents, because, as they claim, with their frequent appearance in public in the past few months, the family suffers irreparable damage.

The Tudjmans' claim of the transcripts of the talks that the late President had an obsession to record, can be interpreted as another sign of distortion of all criteria, moral ones inclusive, of the former first family. In the past ten years this family showed that it cannot tell the difference between the private and the general, the public and the secret. They treated the state as their own property. Tudjman's shouts of joy “We have Croatia!” was literally understood by his family. The way it acted while the Pater Familias was alive, that is how it is behaving nowadays.

Lawyers warn that the family has by absolutely no logic any right to claim the demanded documents. Tudjman recorded the talks in the capacity of the head of the state, in his office, not at home, the cost was paid by tax-payers, so the allegation on copyright and family property is simply unfounded, especially because Tudjman used to turn on the microphones without having even informed his interlocutors about it. Nowadays some of them are appearing and they, too, claim that they could demand the recordings of their talks with the late president. The only thing that is understandable to the public is the conviction of the Tudjmans that publication of the transcripts would do great harm. Transcripts of the talks contain numerous filthy secrets of Tudjman's regime, data about how that criminal administration operated. Their disclosure does not just destroy Franjo Tudjman, but casts a shadow over the family as well. As a result the legal state might get interested in his inheritors who participated in everything that is incriminating and who made a sizeable profit from it.

It is also pointed out to the unprecedented cynicism of Tudjman's family. The government has recently decided that the documents found in the Presidential Palace at Pantovcak be transferred to the State Archives and treated in the future as historical material. However, some media found out that Tudjman's family and the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) had already previously taken away a pile of the most confidential documents. After Tudjman's death and before the transfer of power a few hundred transcripts, minutes and recorded tapes were taken away from the Palace. These were the talks of the former head of the state with his closest associates. Copies of the most delicate Tudjman's talks with the heads of the police and secret services and his most ill-famed advisors were proclaimed party and private documents. Once more the HDZ and the Tudjmans re-confirmed their reputation of champions of hypocrisy. They are making a big fuss over unauthorised publication of Tudjman's documents while they have themselves plundered the presidential office and use the state documentation although they are not authorised for it. Instead to be asked to answer for usurping the archives of the head of the state, they are now suing the state demanding that they be given something that can by no means become theirs.

All things considered, though, the Tudjmans have better chances to have their demands met than be forced to return what they had arbitrarily taken. First because they have sued the state, and the state has not sued them for usurped documents. And it seems it never will. Second, experience shows that the Tudjmans are still a protected species. The new authorities have not abolished their privileges. And they are doing their best to remain as a family a powerful political factor. They probably believe that in this way they will preserve their material possessions.

The wife of the former president has not stopped with her alleged humanitarian work. Through the foundation of the “help to the children of Croatia” an utterly uncontrolled business was developed. Its seat is in a luxurious villa next to the Presidential Palace. Nominally the building belongs to the Ministry of Defence, but despite announcements that this as well as some other controversial arrangements would be revised, Ankica Tudjman is still “saving” Croatian children from the villa owned by the state.

Her daughter Nevenka and her son Stjepan who have in the past decade broadly spread their private companies, maybe they have slightly reduced their appetites, but nobody is questioning what they had made. Even when against some members of the family criminal charges have been raised, it turns out that what refers to all the other mortal Croats cannot be applied against them. In the beginning of last year, criminal charges were raised against Nevenka, but the investigation is taking for ever, and the minister of police ordered that she need not be summoned for interrogation, although all the reasons existed for it according to the assessments of his subordinates.

The eldest Miroslav, who used to be the head of secret services at his father's time, is nowadays trying to make a political career. He founded the Union for Croat Identity and Prosperity and offers his family name as his platform. He claims that his little company is the only beneficial alternative for Croatia. They verbally admit that there were mistakes in HDZ's policy, but they sharply attack the current administration which is absolutely no good. They count on the support of various groups that are emotionally or materially connected with the former regime: disappointed members of the HDZ, numerous associations established after the Homeland War, parts of the army and secret services. The right faction of the Church also obviously supports them and offers them its infrastructure.

Due to such behavior, due to aggressiveness of the family of the former head of the state and due to the failure to react, or withdrawal of the current authorities, it is increasingly possible to hear in Croatian public that this is the result of a gentlemen's agreement between Tudjman's bankrupt regime and the administration established last year. The radical version of this thesis is that their secret agreement is ten years old, that it was adopted back in 1990.

Jelena Lovric

(AIM)