San Francisco, Examiner 6. svibnja 1980.
Za ovo pismo San Francisco Examineru su Hrvati nastanjeni na zalijevu Bay Area platili 8 tisuća dolara kao reklama za Titovu smrt i istinu o Titovim zločinima i istinu za uspostavu hrvatske države. Sastanak je održan u nedjelju navečer, na dan Titove smrti 4. svibnja 1980., u Hrvatskom Domu na Mission i 19. ulici u San Franciscu. Sastanak je završen iza ponoći, a neki su Hrvati otišli ravno u ured Journal Examinera da im daju ovo za tiskanje. Milan.
. Trebaju li SAD podupirati diktatorske režime ili pravo naroda na samoodređenje?
. Samostalna Hrvatska bit će ekonomski samodostatna, a Jugoslavija je američke porezne obveznike koštala SEDAM milijardi dolara do danas.
Sad kad je “posljednji Jugoslaven” (Tito) je mrtav, ne treba se postaviti pitanje: što će biti s Jugoslavijom, nego: – treba li Jugoslavija opstati?
Kao što je Duško Doder, dopisnik Washington Posta, rekao u svojoj knjizi Jugoslavija: “Jugoslaven zapravo ne postoji. Postoje Srbi, Hrvati, Slovenci, Makedonci i drugi, koji u nekim aspektima izgledaju kao različiti jedni od drugih kao ljudi iz različitih zemalja… Oni govore različitim jezicima, koriste različita pisma i živjeli su u svojim državama prije stvaranja Jugoslavije 1918.”
Jugoslavija je najsloženiji mozaik država koje je svijet vidio i otkako su je stvorili “mirotvorci” iz Versaillesa (1919., mo. Milan) muče je razni problemi. To je umjetna država koju su zacrtale velike sile nakon Versailleske mirovne konferencije i nametnule Hrvatima i drugim narodima Balkana protiv njihove volje i bez njihova pristanka. Hrvatska je predana savezničkoj Kraljevini Srbiji (vidi Tajni sporazum pod nazivom “Londonski ugovor” bio je tajni sporazum koji su potpisale Italija, Velika Britanija, Francuska i Rusija 26. travnja 1915., čime je Italija ušla u Prvi svijet Rat na strani Antante. Stoga je presudno utjecala na sukob dajući hrvatsku zemlju Italiji i Srbiji. Mo.Milan.) ali to prisilno ujedinjenje nikada nije ratificirano slobodnim izborima u Hrvatskoj.
Nakon pada takozvane “Prve Jugoslavije”, kojom je vladao srpski kralj Aleksandar, Titova komunistička partija pojavila se kao jedina politička snaga privržena jugoslavenskoj unitarističkoj ideji kralja Aleksandra. Tito je sam preuzeo vlast pod vladavinom terora nasiljem i održavao ga brutalnom silom i ugnjetavanjem. Zbog Titove lukave diplomacije, ali najvjerojatnije zbog strateškog položaja Jugoslavije, Tito i njegovo “jugoslavensko čudo” ubrzo su postali miljenici broj jedan i Istoka i Zapada. Samo pod takvom politikom blagoslova da su Tito i njegovi pristalice lako su mogli likvidirati veliki broj svojih protivnika. Samo u Hrvatskoj i nakon službenog završetka II svjetskog rata likvidirano je više od gotovo milijun ljudi. Baš nedavno Amnesty International je Jugoslaviju označio s najvećim postotkom kršenja ljudskih prava izvan Sovjetskog Saveza. Nažalost, ove, i druge činjenice za koje svijet još nije čuo, obično se i zgodno zanemaruju ili čak deformiraju i nisu iznesene u zapadnom tisku.
U Jugoslaviji su ne samo potkopani hrvatski nacionalni i teritorijalni interesi, nego je ugrožena i sama bit hrvatskog naroda.
Hrvatski narod se bori za slobodu, ali je njegova pravedna i hrabra borba za samoodređenje, ili barem slobodne izbore, često bila predmet kritika, nerazumijevanja, pa čak i zlobe u zapadnom tisku i među nekim zapadnim vladama. Tragična je ironija, primjerice, da se Hrvati u borbi za svoju slobodu i neovisnost često inspiriraju upravo američkim vrijednostima i idejama koje im američka vlada neizravno uskraćuje podupirući sadašnje stanje i centralistički režim u Beogradu. Narodu se još uvijek uskraćuje pravo da slijedi svoju sudbinu u slobodnom političkom i nacionalnom okruženju, a ipak je predsjednik Carter, pobornik politike ljudskih prava, jednostavno ignorirao njihova prava proglašavajući Tita “pobornikom slobode”.
U današnjoj Jugoslaviji živi oko sedam milijuna Hrvata, a uz to i oko milijun Amerikanaca hrvatskog podrijetla. Drugdje u svijetu ima otprilike milijun Hrvata u potrazi za boljim životom. Nažalost, Hrvati su u mnogočemu zaboravljen narod, a ipak je Hrvatska jedna od najstarijih civiliziranih država u Europi. Ona ima svoj teritorij, svoju povijest, svoju književnost, svoju kulturu i umjetnost – jednom riječju, jedan od vrlo starh europskih naroda.
Često se postavlja pitanje zašto se Hrvati protive Jugoslaviji? Postoji, međutim, još jedno pitanje koje treba postaviti: zašto bi Hrvatska trebala biti dio Jugoslavije? Hrvatska mora odbaciti cinizam i dvostruke standarde onih koji smatraju da treba žrtvovati svoj suverenitet i cjelovitost svog teritorija za pohlepu beogradskih centralista ili nekakvog maglovitog jugoslavenskog “bratstva i jedinstva”. Zašto bi Hrvatska negirala samu sebe, svoju trinaest stoljeća nacionalnu povijesti i svoje domete i priznatu zapadnu kulturu za neumjetno stvaranje bez budućnosti ikakve nade? Osim toga, Hrvati nikada nisu razvijali osjećaj zajedništva s drugim narodima Jugoslavije, niti su ikada tvrdili da su bolji od drugih, nego zato što su drugačiji i žele sačuvati tu svoju različitost uz vlastiti identitet kao narod.
U obrani koncepta jugoslavenskog jedinstva često se spominju različiti argumenti poput: veća država je vojno jača; Hrvatska se ne bi mogla uzdržavati ako se odvoji od Jugoslavije; oživljavanje “balkanizacije” dovelo bi do novih sukoba među dotičnim narodima itd., itd….To su teške zablude jer država je vojno jaka samo ako je podržavaju njeni slobodni građani a ne potlačeni narodi. Nemojmo se zavaravati, Hrvati se sigurno neće boriti za Jugoslaviju da obrane svoju tamnicu. Što se tiče pitanja sposobnosti hrvatske samoopskrbe, činjenica je da se i današnja vlast u Socijalističkoj Republici Hrvatskoj stalno žali da je Hrvatska gospodarski eksploatirana od strane ostalih republika Jugoslavije.
Da, “postoji prividna sloboda, koja može zavarati stranog posjetitelja, čak i strane novinare”, napisao je Stephan Russel, britanski novinar, u svom članku Treba li Jugoslavija preživjeti? (Mjesec, veljača 1978.). Rekao je i da je “većina stranih sila iz različitih razloga naklonjena postojanju jake Jugoslavije”. Mi Hrvati-Amerikanci, ujedinjeni u nastojanju da osiguramo pravednu budućnost domovine Hrvatske, izdajemo ovo priopćenje kako bismo odagnali pogrešne dojmove koje je u američkoj javnosti ostavilo površno medijsko izvještavanje, koje je iskrivilo činjenice i stvorilo iluziju o Jugoslaviji prikrivajući time njezine velike teškoće i probleme.
Hrvatski narod vodi borbu za slobodnu, demokratsku i neovisnu Hrvatsku, jer samo slobodna i neovisna Hrvatska može biti značajan čimbenik mira i nacionalne stabilnosti u Hrvatskoj i Europi. I uostalom, slobodna Hrvatska mogla bi mnogo više pridonijeti svjetskom miru i dobrobiti svojih susjeda nego Jugoslavija razdirana nacionalističkim antagonizmima. Trajni mir i stabilnost u tom dijelu svijeta su imperativ, a time i Jugoslaviju, potencijalno bure baruta, treba mirno raspustiti.
Jedino pitanje koje bi trebalo brinuti Amerikance jest hoće li naša vlada nastaviti podupirati Jugoslaviju i žeti tragičnu žetvu koja se uvijek iznova ponavlja posljednjih godina ili ćemo se napokon vratiti potpori onim vrijednostima koje su stvorile ovu našu veliku slobodni u neovisnu zemlju.
KOALICIJA HRVATSKIH ORGANIZACIJA
GOSPOD. M. CVITANOVIĆ,
PREDSJEDNIK
P.O. KUTIJA 99427
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94109
AFTER TITO – WHAT?
San Francisco Examiner 6 svibnja 1980.
This letter to San Francisco Examiner was paid 8 thousand dollars as an advertisement for Tito’s death and the truth of Tito’s criminalities and for the Establishing of the Croatia State by the Croats residing in the Bay Area. The meeting was held on Sunday evening the day of Tito’s death on 4th of May 1980., in the Croatian Hall, Mission in 19th Street in San Francisco. Meeting was concluded after midnight and some Croats went straight to the office of Journal Examiner to give them this to print it. Milan.
. Should the US support dictatorial regimes or the right of the people to self-determination?
. Independent Croatia will be economically self-sufficient while Yugoslavia cost American taxpayers SEVEN billion dollars to date.
Now, that the “last Yugoslave” (Tito) is dead, a question that should be asked is not: what will happen to Yugoslavia, but rather: – ought Yugoslavia survive?
As Dusko Doder, the Washington Post correspondent, wroth in his book, The Yugoslavia: “there is in fact no such thing as a Yugoslav. There are Serbs, Croates, Slovenes, Macedonieans and others, who in some respects seem as unlike each other as people from different countries…They speak different languages, use different scripts, and have lived within a common state prior to the creation of Yugoslavia 1918.”
Yugoslavia is the most patched-up mosaic of states the world has yet seen and ever since its creation by the “peacemakers” of Versailles (1919., mo. Milan) it has been plagued by a variety of problems. It is an artificial state mapped out by the great powers after the Versailles Peace Conference and imposed upon the Croatians and other nations of the Balkans against their own will and without their consent. The Croatia land was given over to the allied Kingdom of Serbia, (See the Secret agreement called “Treaty of London” was a secret agreement signed by Italy, Great Britain, France, and Russia on 26 April 1915, bringing Italy into the First World War on the Entente side. It therefore had a crucial impact on the conflict by giving Croatian land to Italy and Serbia. Milan.) but this forced unification has never been ratified by free election in Croatia.
After the fall of the so-called “First Yugoslavia ”, ruled by the Serbian king Alexander, Tito’s communist party emerged as the only political force committed to the Yugoslav unitarist idea of king Alexander. Tito him self took power under a reign of terror and violance and kept it up with brutal force and oppression. Due to Tito’s shrewd diplomacy, but most probably to Yugoslavia’s strategic position. Tito and his “Yugoslav miracle” soon became the number one darling of both the East and West. Only under such political blessings could Tito and his henchmen easily liquidate all of their adversaries in a wholesale fashion. In Croatia alone even after the official end of WW ll over one half million people had been liquidated. Just recently Amnesty International labeled Yugoslavia with the highest percentage of human rights violations outside the Soviet Union. Unfortunately these, and other facts which the world has not heard about yet, are usually and conveniently overlooked or even denied in the Western press.
In Yugoslavia Croatian national and territorial interests are not only undermined, but the very substance of the Croatian nation is being threatened.
Croatian people fight for freedom, yet their just and valiant struggle for self-determination, or at least free elections, has often been the subject of criticism, misunderstanding and even malice in the Western Press and among some Western governments. It is a tragic irony, for instance, that in the struggle for freedom and independence, the Croatians are often inspired by the very American values and ideas which the American government indirectly denies to them by supporting the present situation and the centralist regim in Belgrade. The people are still denied the right to pursue their destiny in a free political and national environment, and yet President Carter, champion of human rights policy, simply ignored their rights proclaiming Tito “a champion of freedom.”
There are approximately seven million Croatians in what is now Yugoslavia, and in addition un estimated million Americans of Croatian descent. There are approximately a million Croatians elsewhere in the world searching for a better livelihood. Unfortunately the Croatians are, in many ways, a forgotten people and yet Croatia is one of the oldest civilized countries in Europe. It has its own territory, its own history, its very own literature, its culture and art – in a word, it is a very old European nation.
Very often the question is asked: why do Croatians oppose Yugoslavia? There is, However, another question that should be asked: why should Croatia be a part of Yugoslavia? Croatia must reject the cynicism and the double standard of those who believe that it should sacrifice its sovereignty and the integrity of its territory for the greed of the Belgrade centralists or some kind of misty Yugoslave “brotherhood and unity.” Why should Croatia deny itself, its thirteen centuries of national history and its reach and recognized western culture for un artificial creation with no future and no hope whatsoever? Besides, Croatians have never developed a feeling of togetherness with the other nationalities of Yugoslavia, not because they claim they are better than the others, but because they are different and they want to preserve that difference along with their own identity as a nation.
When defending the concept of Yugoslav unity, different arguments are frequently mentioned, such as: a bigger state is militarily stronger; Croatia couldn’t support itself if separated from Yugoslavia; revival of “balkanization” would lead to new clashes among the nations concerned ect., ect….Those are grave misconceptions because a state is militarily strong only if supported by its free citizens and not by oppressed people. Let us not deceive ourselves, Croatians will certainly not fight for Yugoslavia to defend their own prison. Concerning the question of the ability of Croatian self-support, the fact is that even today’s administration in the Socialist Republic of Croatia constantly complains that Croatia is economically exploited by the other republics of Yugoslavia.
Yes, “there is apparent liberty, which can deceive the foreign visitor, even foreign journalists,” wrote Stephan Russel, a British journalist, in his article, Ought Yugoslavia to survive? (The Month, February, 1978). He also said that “most foreign powers are, for various reasons, favorable to the existence of a strong Yugoslavia.” We Croatian-Americans, united in our efforts to secure a fair future for our netive Croatia, are issuing this statement in order to dispel the wrong impressions left upon the American public by the media’s superficial reporting, which has distorted the facts and has created an illusion about Yugoslavia thereby hiding its great difficulties and problems.
Croatian people are waging a struggle for a free, democratic and independent Croatia, because only a free and independent Croatia can be a significant factor for peace and national stability in Croatia and Europe as well. And after all, a free Croatia could contribute much more to world peace and welfare of its neighbors than a Yugoslavia torn by nationalistic antagomism. A durable peace and stability in that part of the world is imperative, and thus Yugoslavia, a potential powderkeg, should be dissolved peacefully.
The only question which should concern Americans is whether our government will continue to support Yugoslavia and reap the tragic harvest that has repeated itself time and time again in recent years or whether we will at last return to the support of those values which made this great country of ours free and independent.
COALITION OF CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS
- M. CVITANOVIC, PRESIDENT
P.O. BOX 99427
SAN FRANCISCO, CA. 94109
