THREATENING SIGNALS TO JOURNALISTS

AIM ZAGREB, 7 October, 1999

A leader of a radical right-wing party and the President of the state have labelled Croatian journalists with almost identical epithets - commissioners of UDBA, the former agents of the ill-famed Yugoslav secret police. Firstly, Anto Djapic, president of the Croatian Party of Right, reacted to more and more frequent criticism of his extremist incidents by a threat that journalists should be careful what they write about, since, as he said, his patience was coming to an end. After the Journalists' Association had sharply reacted to this, Djapic translated his general threat into a claim about the presence of 150 commissioners of UDBA who were holding key positions in all the media: they persecuted in a Bolshevik fashion all those who did not fit into their Yugoslav frameworks. Djapic further concretized this accusation stating that, according to his knowledge, UDBA agents sit in weekly magazines "Nacional", "Feral" and "Globus", while in the majority of influential daily newspapers there were journalists who used to work for UDBA.

As a conclusion, he threatened to organize demonstrations in front of premises of some of these media and to bring 10 thousand of his supporters - "this could come out of control, leading the state into chaos". It should be noted that this radical party leader, who earned most of his prominence by organizing marches of black-shirts, always gets lavish space for his controversial public appearances in the media close to the government.

Literally at the same time, the President of the state tried to stir up the police against, as he said, former secret police agents, residing and being loud in the yellow media. Tudjman declared a kind of an attack on the Constitution- platform. He said that "Croatia, as no other country in the world, was subjected to public and secret attempts to overthrow the current government", thus placing a regular opposition activity in the sphere of anti-state conspiracies. He further stressed that the next elections would not decide about the government but about "Croatian independence and freedom". This creates the basis for a dispute and non-recognition of election results in case the opposition wins the elections.

President Tudjman also requested that police be more effectively and more concretely involved in mediating the political scene. According to his recommendation, the police must not limit itself only to a "post-festum" reaction, it but must predict and prevent beforehand what is politically undesirable; it must "cut off the ties between external and internal adversaries of Croatia, including former secret agents who are nowadays very loud in the yellow press". Mr. Tudjman, in fact, openly called for repression against the regime opponents.

Quite rarely have the head of the state and his right-wing assistant, uttered at the same time the same remarks, using literally the same formulations. The notion of the presence of UDBA agents in media ranks was first launched several months ago by Tudjman's security adviser Markica Rebic

• according to his own testimony, a specialist for conducting a special war against journalists. This happened at the moment when some independent magazines published a serial of secret documents which seriously discredited Tudjman's regime. The establishment responded with threats and interrogations, while Rebic claimed that journalists who used to be UDBA spies freely worked in Croatian media.

The existence of a document in which, allegedly, a network of UDBA collaborators - journalists had been reconstructed was denied by a former head of Croatian supreme secret service, Miroslav Separovic, who turned his back to Tudjman a few months ago. He testifies that three years ago a working paper was composed, trying to guess who of Croatian journalists could have been UDBA collaborators, but these presumptions, as he says, have never been verified, nor was the list ever completed. Separovic now explains that the list contained more names of politicians from the ruling party Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) than of journalists. Slaven Letica, who used to be Tudjman's advisor for a period, remembers that he has also seen a list of this kind, including the names of two vice-presidents of the ruling Croat Democratic Party (HDZ).

There is no doubt that some of Croatian journalists have had contacts with UDBA, as there is no doubt that Tudjman's intelligence is very keen on discovering their names. To accomplish this, it could probably suffice if secret service officials remembered who used to be their agents - since, in Croatia under the rule of HDZ, former agents of the Yugoslav secret service have become the key persons in the secret services established by the new government. Among people who closely collaborate with President Tudjman there are also some with UDBA connections. Even the code names of some of them are known. On several occasions, the data on this matter were leaked to the public, but the establishment has very conspicuously remained silent on the topic. Additionally, it has never wished to cut off -completely and consistently - its ties with the secret police of the former regime, as it was done in the majority of countries in transition.

With all this in mind, it is not very likely that the lists that Djapic and Tudjman wave with in such unison, will be made public. If complete lists of former UDBA spies were published, it would become clear that this company includes a number of Tudjman's media supporters. On the other hand, placement of a selectively and tendentiously tailored list or fabricated accusations at this moment could be risky, in regard to public opinion, courts... During the war period, in Croatia there were media outlets launched to specialize in discovering mostly made-up secret files. Even some, allegedly, respected newspapers used to print obviously forged documents (like daily "Vjesnik" which accused Ivan Zvonimir Cicak for being an informant of Yugoslav intelligence); on the eve of the expected political changes it is difficult to believe that the government would opt for such an action again. Thus, waving in public charges on spying serves mostly for sowing uneasiness, distrust and fear in journalistic circles. The practice shows that secret files, both those inherited from the former regime and the newly-formed ones, are mostly used as a means of pressure. Specialists on the topic assert that there are rumours about a whole "industry of blackmailing".

The opposition and independent media have very sharply reacted to the President's speech. They claim it is anti-constitutional. The Social Democratic Party, the strongest in the opposition, points to the three-fold threat it contains: Tudjman is treatening the international community, all those who cooperate with the international community and, at last, the media and journalists. The party officials indicate that the President speaks from his short pants, that he uses archaic terminology and advocates historically discharged ideas. Some others cynically notice that Tudjman's time machine stopped in 1948: it is not clear only whom he gave the role of Stalin and who the role of Djilas. Vladimir Primorac, a former judge of the Supreme Court and a former member of the Parliament, warns that there is foundation for fear that Croatia could become a police state. In his opinion, Tudjman's speech violates the Constitution, and the Parliament and Supreme Court could be requested to start the impeachment procedure. President of the Croatian Helsinki Committee Vjekoslav Vidovic agrees with this opinion. He is inclined to explain Tudjman's statements, because of which he should withdraw from the office, by the state of the President's health.

Instead of withdrawing the President, official Zagreb tried to withdraw the President's speech. Annoyance, perhaps even fear of what the head of the state had said was obvious in the attempt of his Cabinet later on to retouch the whole event. From the presidential palace critics were accused of having quoted Tudjman's words incorrectly, of taking them out of the context, and of interpreting them unfairly and maliciously. It is not the first time that the President of Croatia must be defended from himself. On several occasions his Cabinet claimed that the President's words were wrongly understood and interpreted. It is possible that Tudjman on his own does not understand the real meaning of his messages and becomes aware of them only after their consequences are explained to him.

The latest performance of the Croatian President has stimulated numerous analyses of the potential role of the army, police and secret services in the forthcoming elections and the final outcome of the political conflict in Croatia. Signals have been aired, the rest will follow.

JELENA LOVRIC