Julia Gorin's willing accomplices

Although having grown accustomed to the supposed Croatian media, absurdly littered with anti-Croatian propaganda, I took it personally when I read Julia Gorin's assassination piece targeted at the entire Croatian nation in the Baltimore Sun. It requires a steel gut to digest the work of Butkovic, Lovric and Dezulovic (to name a few) on a day-to-day or weekly basis.

As if it weren't enough to be exposed to the journalistic toxins these proponents of Yugoslavism emit - it was appalling, and yet, at the same time, not surprising or in the least bit convincing, that another paid hater of Croats would rear its ugly head - this time in the US press. For that which Gorin is guilty of in the US media, the so-called "opinion-makers" are guilty of at home - in Croatia.

No distortion of the facts is too great when the EPH-gang are at their best -whether they are inflating, exaggerating or even fabricating alleged Croatian crimes past or present, one thing is for sure, Croats are always to blame. Their work is diligent, meticulous and without end. Antun Gustav Matos knew their kind well. We Croats need not worry about the Julia Gorins of this world while the Ante Tomics and Jurica Pavicics of Croatia are guilty of intellectual prostitution at home. Not since the days of Milosevic-backed aggression has Croatia been so vilified in the US-media. Gorin's piece was eerily reminiscent of the days when the New York Times seemed to be Belgrade's public relations firm. But none of this can change if the EuropaPressHolding -dominated media and the ruling elites of Croatia continue to willingly criminalize our history from within Croatia herself and lead her straight into the hands of her enemies.

Why worry or fuss over Gorin's well-paid pro-Serbian propaganda? Why sound the alarms? It has been over eleven years since Croatia, led by Franjo Tudjman, forever destroyed the plans of greater-Serbian ideologues and their international cohorts. Many, within Croatia herself, BiH, Serbia, Montenegro and the US, still haven't forgiven the tiny nation of Croatia; guilty of, and only guilty of, demanding her God-given right to an independent state - and having the guts and the courage to win it in battle. They ignore the admission of former US president Bill Clinton, who clearly in his autobiography wrote: "I was rooting for the Croats." They ignore the testimony of one, Peter Galbraith, ambassador to Croatia during Oluja, who stated during his testimony at The Hague Tribunal that "there was no ethnic cleansing in Operation Storm. The Serbs had evacuated. There was no one there to cleanse." Therefore, Julia's commentary amounts to just about nothing.

The major US actors of the period supported Croatia's march to independence and military success - which all resulted in the liberation of Croatia's territory. Securing her borders and re-establishing her territorial sovereignty and integrity. Those same, according to Julia, "Hitler-defined borders." So much for being "impeccably factual," as Balkananalysis.com's Christopher Deliso wrote in praise of Gorin's piece - published in the Baltimore Sun. Only a fool - or a liar (take your pick), would not know that Croatia's present borders were established by AVNOJ during the reign of Yugoslav dictator, Josip Broz Tito.

So while we in the diaspora continue to sustain the attacks of pro-Serbian propaganda artists, the Yugoslav creme de la creme; the self-proclaimed mainstream, as Jutarnji List's Jurica Pavicic described himself and his anti-Croatian co-religionists in one of his columns, the self-loathing bunch act like Vojislav Seselj's natural allies. Because of this, Croatia's reputation in the international press suffers. We simply lack the time, organization and resources to confront the, what at times seems to be, relentless assault against our nation and identity.

Of course, it will not be Globus' columnist Boris Dezulovic (who was recently in Belgrade peddling his "poetry"about grossly exaggerated crimes committed by members of the Croatian military police at a war-time jail near the city of Split) battling anti-Croatian propaganda in the world; it won't be Jurica Pavicic, who in one of his columns listed the liquidation of Croatian Jews during WW2 as one of the reasons for the non-acceptance of Croatia into the EU, all the while ignoring the fact that Jews were murdered in WW2 Romania - now a member-country that recently gained entry. And it certainly won't be Croatia's president Stipe Mesic who is currently preoccupied with assisting the "democratization" of Serbia. A man that at times actually helps the pan-Serbian cause. So who will denounce and debunk greater-Serbian propaganda and hate-speech aimed at the Croatian nation? It appears, like countless times in the past, that we in the diaspora must once again spread the truth about our Croatian history and identity. Still, we know all too well that change will not occur, and that we'll be fighting a losing battle until the day comes when there are more journalists like Robert Valdec succeeding in Croatia - and less of the Davor Butkovic type.

Frano Budimlic
New York