TUDJMAN'S COMEDY OF ABSURDITY

AIM Zagreb, 19 December, 1996

On 12 December, at the end of the central daily news program, Croatian television published exclusive piece of news that a channel of smuggling foreign currency into the country was discovered, used for financing shady activities which were just a day before mentioned by President Tudjman. At the border crossing called Bregana, a car entering Croatia from Slovenia was stopped in which two officials of the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) were riding, and at a secret place in the car a little over 65 thousand dollars were found. Television documented this great discovery by picture, and a little more about this undertaking, because what a miracle, cameras happened to be at the border, was said in the program called Views. All that was presented as a large success of Croatian customs officials and policemen, but soon after that it was revealed what it was actually about.

At the wheel of the smugglers' car was Srdjan Dvornik, the executive director of the Open Society Institute accompanied by a colleague he worked with. Money was not found in a secret place, but in a plastic bag along with cigarettes and coffee. The only Dvornik's sin is that he failed to declare the money, which afre all is not important, because it is not forbidden to bring foreign money into Croatia, there is only a limitation in taking it out. Nevertheless, along with the customs officials, policemen in civilian clothes appeared immediately on site, and took Dvornik and his companion for interrogation to Zagreb where they were kept until noon the next day. During their stay at the police station, while they were forbidden to communicate with anyone by phone, but experinced no other inconvenience, the two Soros employees had to answer to a series of questions about operation of the Institute. Dvornik testifies that the police were not interested in the money which just confirms that this was not the matter of an offence, least of all a crime, but that they wanted to find out as much as possible about operation of the Institute, its policy, about who it was financing and similar. And all that is in fact well known, since the Institute unfailingly publishes its reports every year and has no secret.

That Croatian Television has not revealed anything, but once again, unprofessionally and in an ugly manner, did a dirty business in the service of you-know-what policy was soon shown by the statement of Zagreb police administration in which it was said that the two employees of Soros did nothing illegal, but that the case would be transferred to financial institutions to deal with it.

Dvornik openly expresses doubt that the money was discovered in a routine control and he is convinced that the police knew about their arrival at the border as a result of tapping the phone or the premises of the Open Society Institute. Because, Dvornik wonders, how come policemen in civilian clothes and journalists of Croatian television appeared at once at the border?

But, why did Dvornik travel to Slovenia in order to bring the money in the first place, and why the Open Society Institute has not an account in Croatia, but it has opened a non-resident account in the Ljubljana Bank? Dvornik has an answer to that question too. The Institute has its regular account with the Commercial Bank in Zagreb and does business with it for years, but after President Tudjman on 7 December at the session of the Main Board of the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) named Soros Foundation as part of the internal-external inimical conspiracy against Croatia, it was decided to transfer 600 thousand dollars to the neighbouring state. These 65,000 dollars were intended to serve for operation expenses and salaries of the employees, and it was necessary to go to Slovenia, because after Tudjman's pogrom recalling words, the management of the Institute was not sure what might happen.

This was in fact the first police-customs-television action after Tudjman's great revelation about the conspiracy against Croatia which is at the same time unquestionable and never more uncertain. Because, there are various foreign services, agencies and centres which, in collaboration with domestic traitors, wish to push Croatia into a new Yugoslavia or devil only knows how it is called. The list of enemies is indeed admirable, since on it are, apart from Soros (whose ideology and character was carefully analyzed by Ivan Aralica), Ivo Banac, Kris Cviic, Neven Stimac, Croatian PEN Centre, Association Homeland-Diaspora, opposition parties, presidential candidate Vlado Gotovac, Feral Tribune, Novi list, Arkzin, Dan, Bumerang, Metro, Start nove generacije, Radio Labin Art, Radio Baranja, Radio 101, Croatian Helsinki Committee, Croatian Legal Centre, some foreign diplomats, especially the American Ambassador Peter Galbraight.

They are all connected in a network and led skilfully from abroad, and the Croatian people in fact are not aware what lies in line for them, and to make this story more convincing, Tudjman even pointed out two nannies from the kindergarten in Samobor who were collecting signatures against mayor Ivan Bedenicic because he had voted in favour of taking the concession away from Radio 101. How serious that whole series of enemies is it is sufficient to say only sad is the state whose enemies are two nannies in a kindergarten, but it is even sadder when its leader gets confused. It is true that the two nannies have signed a petition, but not for Radio 101, but for changing the decision on increase of prices of nurseries and kindergartens.

To anyone who is serious, it was clear that Tudjman's speech in fact marked the beginning of the election campaign, but also that neither his party nor he himself will shrink from anything in the attempt to remain in power. A spectre is spreading around Croatia, and according to a poll of the Feral Tribune there are as many as 66 per cent of opposition deputies in the Assembly who believe that in the next elections results will be manipulated in order to enable the HDZ and Dr Tudjman to remain in power. Almost one quarter of them think that change of authorities will not be allowed by police and army repression, and ten per cent think that Tudjman will remain in power, but five per cent of them believe that the HDZ will lose the elections. Nobody chose the fifth solution - a democratic transfer of authorities to the election winner.

However, the opposition did not get scared by any scenario known only to Tudjman, so Vlado Gotovac immediately answered that this was ordinary slander and fabrications, Kris Cviic declared that it was a typical Bolshevik speech, and for example, the President of HND Radimir Cacic called it all a bunch of nonsense. The few free media there are, and the entire real opposition, accused Tudjman for groundless spreading fear and inventing enemies, and then a warning arrived from the top of the HDZ: you had not understood. The HDZ even reproached the opposition that it did not understand what was democracy, because Tudjman as the President of the party could talk like that, and you gentlemen did not distinguish enemies from opponents.

This naive pun was repeated in the statement from the session of VONS: "The latest events, publishing of the official document on regional approach of EU, increasing attacks in certain domestic and foreign media, confirm that pressures are increasing as the President warned in his recent speech. For example, in a part of domestic and international public, the President is said to have talked about political opponents. In this way Croatia is presented as an intolerant and non-democratic state and put on the same level as Serbia in order to be weakened and pushed into regional integration". And there is another sensational discovery which is much more subtle and destructive than discovery of a new channel of smuggling foreign currency. VONS warns: "Croatia and the international community should be warned that according to certain foreign scenarios 'happening of the people' should have first occurred in Zagreb, and then simultaneously in Belgrade and Sarajevo. For that purpose, reporters of some world agencies several days in advance reserved posts from where they could observe happenings in Zagreb".

It must be admitted, this is truly unbelievable. And naive Croats thought that the Serbs were rebelling because of election thefts, because of poverty, hopelessness. And here is Tudjman claiming that it was all organized from abroad. Obviously the Croatian leader thinks that the citizens of Zagreb have said "no" to him because they talked into it from abroad, and that the decision on depriving Radio 101 of its channel which brought 150 thousand people into the streets was made by beings from outer space and not his party. He will have known, after all, that HDZ is the cause of all evil, because the police - both secret and the other one - are in his hands. And it cannot be that they are lying him too, and that they are all bribed. But that would not be surprising either, because, by the way, assistance from Soros was received even by the Chairman of the Chamber of Districts Katica Ivanisevic, Vice Prime Minister Dr Ivica Kostovic, President's Advisor Dr Slobodan Lang...

GOJKO MARINKOVIC