UCCANZ - PETITION - TARGET 10,000
The Australian Croatian Club fully endorses the petition relating to the unjust imprisonment of General Gotovina and General Markac. You can add your name by signing the petition at the Club.
The Croatian Community of Australia,
We, The United Croatian Clubs of Australia and New Zealand (UCCANZ), have discussed the unjust ruling of the HAAG war crimes tribunal decision in respect to imprisoning General Gotovina and Markac to 24 and 18 years. It is well known that the decision undertaken by the tribunal was motivated by political factors instead of the ‘truth and facts’, two major ingredients in a fair democratic system.
We understand Croatians living in Croatia and across the world are feeling the pain of the decision and have therefore developed a petition to vent our disbelief at the results. It was not long ago the world was reporting the atrocities caused by the Serbian army via their Ethnic cleansing policy and plans for a Greater Serbia, at the same period General Gotovina and Markac were defending the rights of many innocent people.
We urge you to support this action by signing the petition and returning it to the address and date outlined below….
PO Box 196 Keilor East, 3033 Victoria
Return by no later than 26th June 2011.
The 26th June being a significant date in our recent history due to most countries of the world recognizing Croatia as free democratic country of Europe, this is now called Croatian National Day. All need to be reminded this day would not have been achieved with out people of the caliber of General Gotovina and Markac.
Our target is 10,000 signatures before the date stated above, and be assured that we will not lose focus until General Gotovina and Markac have been acquitted and set free…
Thanks and Regards,
Paul Saric - President UCCANZ, Tomo Lerotic - Vice President, Luka Budak - Secretary and Ante Juric - Vice Secretary
The PETITION READS
THE PETITION TO UN AND ICTY
Mr Ban Ki-moon,
Secretary-General
United Nations (UN)
and
Judge Patrick Lipton Robinson,
President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
We, the undersigned Australian citizens, do hereby petition the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the UN to protest and dispute its sentences handed down to Croatian Generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač, for alleged war crimes, which in our opinion do not show impartiality, but rather a subjective opinion of judge Alphons Orie. The ICTY’s verdict implying alleged “joint criminal enterprise” of Croatian military and political leadership does not reflect facts which are known about these events. The US backed Operation Storm, offensive of the Croatian army in the summer of 1995, was a stunning military success with a minimal civilian casualties. Leading media outlets – The Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and the Jerusalem Post – have investigated the facts related to Operation Storm and have concluded that General Gotovina is innocent of wrongdoing. He, or General Markač, never personally ordered or tolerated the commission of any crimes that occurred after the military action.
The ICTY’s prosecution failed to show any kind of proof that Generals Gotovina and Markač were responsible for orchestrating a criminal conspiracy to expel Serb population from Croatia. The orders to evacuate the Serbian population from the so-called “Krajina” zone of occupation occurred under the explicit command of local Serb authorities, acting under the authority from Belgrade, several days before Croatian forces launched their campaign.
Because of all this, as the citizens of the country which is one of the original members of the UN, we express our scepticism and deepest concerns about the work of UN-founded ICTY and the impartiality of its judges.
15 May 2011
The Australian Croatian Club in Canberra honoured the 500,000 victims of Yugoslav genocide against the Croatian people with a special commemoration last Sunday to mark the tragic events which commenced at Bleiburg on 15 May 1945.
The feature of the day was the unveiling of a special gift from Mr Jakov Sedlar (director of Četverored and Pavelić Bez Maska) from the Pavelić archives and a documentary about the terror inflicted on the residents of the Dubrovnik region by the Yugoslav Partisans in late 1944.
The documentary about Dubrovnik was particularly important as it yet again refuted attempts by neo-Yugoslavs who try to justify the massacre of hundreds of thousands of unarmed Croatians post-Bleiburg, as merely revenge killings by the Communist victors.
The documentary clearly points out following the withdrawal of German and Croatian troops from the city, the number of Croatians killed at the hands of the Partisans in the few months after October 1944 exceeded 600, compared to only 80 during the entire 1941-44 period. Tragically, it was noted 50% of those killed were civilians.
This figure rose into the thousands when one considered the people of Dubrovnik were then conscripted against their will into the Partisans and sent to kill their fellow Croatians in the battles for Boka Kotor, Mostar and Siroki Brijeg.
With the Ante Gotovina conviction still fresh in everyone’s mind, one could be forgiven for asking why such documentaries aren't mandatory viewing for today's mediocre Croatian politicians.
Perhaps then former parliamentary speaker Vladimir Seks would not be associated with the call that General Gotovina should be identified, located, arrested and extradited to the Hague nor Stipe Mesic sack 12 Croatian Generals for raising their concerns, as far back as 2000, that the media and many politicians spoke of the Croatian War of Independence as something bad, problematic, even shameful.
It is of course no coincidence that those that vilify the Croatian Government of 1941-45 today stand accused of, not only selling out Croatia’s Generals, but the Croatian state itself. Sadly, perhaps that remains their goal, vilification of the first modern Croatian state and now the criminalisation of the second modern Croatian state. Fortunately, as evidenced at Bleiburg and Canberra this weekend, those attempts will once again fail as there are still Croatians throughout the world prepared to pay their respects to those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for an Independent Croatia. And why not? After all the Bleiburg victims, sacrificed their lives in the name of Croatia, whilst the perpetrators committed their hideous crimes in the name of Communism and Brotherhood and Unity with those responsible, a mere 50 years later, for the tragic events at Vukovar and Srebrenica.
10 April 2011
Canberra: Many reasons to celebrate on Deseti Travanj
The 70th anniversary of the destruction of the first Yugoslav state and the establishment of the first independent Croatian State in 839 years was just one of the reasons to celebrate Deseti Travanj at the Australian Croatian in Canberra last Sunday.
During the official speeches those in attendance were reminded that the Independent State of Croatia was not a puppet state based on Fascism or National Socialism, but rather the realisation of an 839 year old dream for the Croatian people to be fully independent and responsible for their own destiny. A dream that millions of Croatians over the centuries sacrificed their lives for.
In fact later in the afternoon a younger member noted that the celebration was even more than that. “In celebrating Deseti Travanj, we continue to celebrate the strongly pro-Croatian, anti-Yugoslav and anti-Communist foundations of the Club and our local community. Since history has proven the community’s founding fathers were correct in holding such views why shouldn’t we celebrate?”
Incredibly the sentiments reflect the views of NDH Captain Ivan Babic who Jason D Mark quotes in his excellent book “Croatian Legion” when discussing why Croatians volunteered in such great numbers for the Croatian Legion. He states:
“The volunteers enlisted out of pure patriotism. At that time the entire Croatian people were enthusiastic about the emergence of the Croatian state and the disintegration of Yugoslavia. They were ready to fight for their nation, and regular men believed that in the battle against communism they were also fighting for the freedom and independence of Croatia. The complicated problems of Croatia and world politics, as well as ideological conflicts (Nazi fascism, capitalism and democracy, communism) were alien to regular folk. They were, in general, too complicated for their comprehension. They wanted to fight for Croatia and everything was included in this belief. Right or wrong, it is for my country was their leitmotiv.”
Perhaps today's Croatian politicians should take heed of such views, rather than spending a disproportionate effort in highlighting the failings of the Croatian Government of 1941-45 or even pressuring Croatian clubs on the other side of the world to take down pictures of Croatian Heroes who stood up against the tyranny of Serbian dominated Yugo-Communism.
Perhaps then we would not see regular mass demonstration over Croatia's current economic woes, crippling debt, moral decline, corruption, criminalisation of the Homeland War, suicides and imprisonment of its War veterans and/or decline in press freedoms. Then, perhaps the people of Croatia would have reason to celebrate, just as the good people of the Australian Croatian community in Canberra and across Australia did on Deseti Travanj 2011.
The Club also took the opportunity during this special occasion to formally announce to its members that the Club had paid off its interest bearing debts and all accounts were paid and up to date. A truly amazing result achieved by the members and volunteers of the Club considering it was only 30 months ago that an Extraordinary General Meeting of Members was called proposing to permanently close the Club in the face of crippling debts in the vicinity of $400,000.
There was another reason to celebrate and that came as a most welcome surprise to all (especially the volunteers who have run the Bistro since last year) with the announcement by Club Vice President Ante Nazor that the Club’s Bistro had just recorded its first $100,000 in revenue. With the great service and quality Croatian food available it is little wonder that the Bistro is seemingly setting a new trading record every few weeks, meaning the celebration of $200,000 won’t be that far off in the future.
It’s little wonder then that the people of Canberra celebrated Deseti Travanj with such gusto last weekend.
Za Dom Spremni
