Despite the overwhelming concern of much of the Western Left about
"self determination" for Bosnia and Kosovo and Croatia, I have found no
concern for the self determination of Serbs, within a Croatia
constructed by imperialist approval, and supported by a majority sector
of the Western Socialist Movement. This is an appalling hypocrisy,
by those who claim to be both for self determination, and also against
the imperialism of their own governments.
The number of Serbs ethnically cleansed in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Croatia
number into the hundreds of thousands. Who speaks for them outside
of Yugoslavia? Who spoke for them before, when the European/ US Left
was silent or, actively supported their own governments' efforts to
dismantle a multi-ethnic society.
The pro-imperialist Left should remember well the leader of "self
determinaton" for Croatia, whose cause you supported with zeal.
Tudjman----PRESENTE.
Tony Abdo
........................................................
December 12 1999
EUROPE
@
THOUSANDS of Croats carried flowers and candles to St Mark's Square in
Zagreb yesterday, as the body of President Franjo Tudjman was driven
beneath rain-laden skies to lie in state at his palace.
The Sahovnica, the Croatian red-and-white chequerboard flag beloved of
Tudjman, flew at half-mast. Radio and television broadcast solemn music.
Theatres, cinemas and cafes were closed.
Beneath the veneer of mourning, however, many of Croatia's 4m people
were breathing more easily. A new era, promising greater democracy, had
dawned.
The president's death brought to a close a decade of misery and
bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia, in which Tudjman made intelligent
gains from the chaos wrought by his arch rival, Slobodan Milosevic in
Serbia. While Milosevic was more aggressive, Tudjman's nationalism was
equally uncompromising and he showed superior political instincts in his
dealings with the West.
Tudjman, 77, died on Friday night after a long battle with cancer that
he and his right-wing nationalist party, the HDZ, had tried to conceal.
The illness was first diagnosed in 1996, but Tudjman had rallied several
times after courses of chemotherapy and had given the impression that he
wished to see out his term of office in 2002.
However, when he went into Zagreb's elite Dubrava hospital after his
last public appearance on November 1, it soon became apparent that he
was battling for his life.
His lingering death was ultimately exploited by the HDZ, whose only
chance in parliamentary elections in three weeks' time hangs on a
sympathy vote after the passing of the so-called father of the nation.
"The great heart of president Franjo Tudjman has ceased to beat," said
Vlatko Pavletic, 69, the parliamentary Speaker and caretaker president.
After a state funeral tomorrow and three days of official mourning,
elections to replace Tudjman must be called within a month and must be
held within a month after that. The most likely successor is thought to
be Mate Granic, 52, the foreign minister, who is in the HDZ but is liked
as a moderate in western capitals.
Pavletic has indicated that Croatia's new president will live in
considerably less style than Tudjman, who ran two private jets and aped
Josep Broz Tito, the former Yugoslav leader, in wearing white uniforms
with gold braid.
The Speaker has so far stayed away from the huge presidential palace
developed from Tito's old villa, Zagorje. The elite 1st Corps
presidential guards may also be deemed redundant.
Tudjman's struggle for independence from Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia
began with his election in 1990. He immediately set about stripping
Serbs in Croatia of their constitutional rights, and by the end of the
year barricades were going up in Serbian villages in Krajina, on the
Bosnian border. Bloody confrontations with the Croatian police force
ensued.
The Yugoslav National Army openly backed the Serbs and Tudjman declared
Croatia independent in June 1991, precipitating all-out war with Serbia
and Milosevic, its president.
Tudjman initially lost a third of his territory to the Serbs. But after
the chaos of the Bosnian war - in which Croats backed by Tudjman evicted
thousands of Muslims - and with astute use of American diplomatic and
military contacts and training, Tudjman's new Croatian army struck back
in 1995. It "cleansed" up to 300,000 Serbs from self-declared autonomous
republics, to whom Tudjman famously said: "Bon voyage."
In 1998, as the last United Nations troops left eastern Slavonia, the
border region with Serbia, he said a "thousand-year dream" of Croatian
unity had come true.
Tudjman's human rights record since then had been shaky, with few Serbs
returning to their former homes and the HDZ retaining fierce control of
the media. An incomplete transition to free-market democracy had been
accompanied by poor economic performance, in which many of Tudjman's
party cronies had grabbed what they could of former communist state
industries.
In contrast to Milosevic, however, Tudjman had a knack of mollifying the
West and critics admit that despite his shortcomings he kept Croatia on
course for integration into Europe - his other great dream.
Of the five leaders whose nations emerged from the rubble of Yugoslavia,
Tudjman is the first to die. Despite tens of thousands of deaths and
widespread poverty, he was held in high regard by most of his population
outside the urban centres of Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik, and will take
his place in history as the man who tried to cut Croatia's ties with the
Balkans (a regional term he hated) and join the European Union.
In his brutality and cynicism, however, Tudjman was every inch a Balkan
despot.
Franjo Tudjman
1941 : Joins Tito's Partisans, becomes youngest general
1989: Founds Croatian Democratic Party, HDZ
1990: Elected president, following year declares independence from
Yugoslavia.
Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times
Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. To inquire about a licence to
reproduce material from The Sunday Times, visit the Syndication website.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/99/12/12/stifgneur02003.html?1124027
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