 |
|
|
Neal M.Sher
An Important Trial
(JWR http://www.jewishworldreview.com) ---- ON SUNDAY, MARCH 21 -- just a few days before the NATO bombing began -- the New York Times carried a front page article revealing the gruesome details of a 1995 mass murder of Serb civilians by Croatian Army troops. The evidence, gathered by war crimes investigators in the Hague, was part of Croatia’s fierce campaign of "ethnic cleansing." The Times also reported that the President of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman, is under investigation for his role in atrocity.
While in recent months most of the news accounts from that region have focused on crimes committed by the Serb forces and their thug of a leader Slobodan Milosevic, the Times account is a timely reminder of just how blood-soaked that part of the world is. I saw the Times piece as important for several reasons.
First, it might well ratchet up the pressure and strengthen the resolve to bring to trial those responsible for crimes against humanity; Croatian mass murderers deserve to be in the same dock as their Serb counterparts.
Secondly, I am hopeful that it will heighten public awareness of a trial of great historical significance now underway in the Croatian capitol of Zagreb. In many ways, the Tudjman regime is as much on trial as is the defendant, 77 year old Dinko Sakic.
Last year Sakic was extradited to Croatia from Argentina ( where he had lived openly and freely for decades) to stand trial for World War II war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 1944 he had been the commandant of the a place known as the Auschwitz of the Balkans, the notorious Jasenovac concentration camp, established near Zagreb by the fascist Ustashe regime which sided with Hitler during the war, not to mention its wholehearted endorsement and implementation of his racial policies. The Sakic trial, the first of a former Ustashe criminal to be held in Tudjman’s Croatia, is a reminder of that ugly period - not too long ago - when Croatia last claimed to be an independent state.
 |
| Sakic |
In a 1995 interview given to the Croatian journal "Magazin" - during a visit to the homeland - he justified Jasenovac as being fully "legal" (under fascist Ustashe law perhaps, but certainly not by any legitimate standard of international law) bragging that, if given the opportunity, he would again proudly serve the Ustashe cause and do it all over again. He went even further, insisting that accounts of mass murder and torture - which no legitimate student of history doubts - were fabrications.
During the trial Sakic laughed at a 75 year old Jewish survivor of the camp, dismissing as utter "nonsense" the testimony of atrocities which occurred on Sakic’s watch. The image of grinning Ustashe concentration camp chief characterizing the crimes of Jasenovac should be an embarrassment to every decent Croatian the world over.
Those who have been following developments in Croatia - including my friend Ephriam Zuroff, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, who has been in Zagreb to monitor the trial - are deeply concerned that the Sakic case will be used as vehicle to re-write history and to denigrate the memory of the Holocaust.
And with good reason. Under Tudjman’s leadership, the new Croatia has hardly looked upon the thoroughly discredited Ustashe regime of WW II with scorn and embarrassment, as one might expect from a nation which desperately seeks full acceptance and recognition by the free world. On the contrary, Tudjman has gone out of his way to glorify and rehabilitate the Ustashe movement and to sweep its crimes under the rug.
In his book Wastelands-Historical Truths , Tudjman mocks the
conventional wisdom that six million Jews perished in Europe. He also
ridicules the estimates of the numbers who were murdered at Jasenovac
and doubts that wholesale atrocities and acts of persecution took place.
To add insult to injury, he actually believes that the Jews "jealously"
ran the camp and were responsible for the murder of Gypsies.
Sakic’s lawyers should consider calling Tudjman as an expert witness to bolster their client’s bogus arguments. The President would probably be eager to accommodate them.
Not too long ago, Tudjman came up with the extraordinary idea of turning Jasenovac into a sacred memorial for all Croatians who died during the war, meaning that Ustashe murderers would be buried next to - and be honored equally with - those they slaughtered!
Tellingly, during his campaign for the presidency, Tudjman played the crude cards of anti-Semitism and xenophobia by publicly thanking God that his wife was neither a Serb nor a Jew.
Tudjman might be many things, but he is no political fool. He knows his audience, which might explain why the 2000 Jews in Croatia have been so uneasy during his reign. Taking the lead from the example he has set, blatant anti-Semites have published and distributed the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was a best seller.
Streets and plazas have been renamed to honor Ustashe leaders.
Catholic churches have proudly - and disgracefully - held well-attended masses to honor the memory of Ante Pavelic, the leader of the Ustashe Nazi puppet state. T-shirts, lighters and other items bearing Pavelic’s portrait are hot items in Croatian marketplaces. Can you imagine the reaction if souvenir stands in Germany and Austria sold trinkets with Hitler’s face on them? The outcry would be deafening.
Viewed within this context, I must say that the New York Times report of the 1995 atrocities committed by Tudjman’s troops -- as upsetting as it was -- came as no real surprise. What goes around comes around.
Considering the political backdrop, it is no wonder that there is great
concern that in the end Sakic will be glorified as a Croatian hero and
freedom fighter. The mark of a true democracy is an independent
judiciary. For the sake of historical truth, as well as the Croatian
nation and its people, let’s hope there is no
12/23/98: A Day of Infamy and Shame
8/20/98: Spielberg’s special gift to me
6/22/98: Sweep the Holocaust Museum clean
5/20/98: The Case of Dinko Sakic: A Whitewash In The Making?
4/5/98: Judge Gilbert Merritt's Obsession With Jews (Demjanjuk, part II)
3/22/98: The Continuing Saga of Ivan Demjanjuk
3/1/98: Shameful Scapegoating At The Holocaust Museum