The well known Croatian publicist, Slavenka Drakulic attempts to give an answer to the question why the Croats do not want to confront the truth about its recent past, related to war crimes, in the October 6, 1997 issue of the Split weekly "Feral Tribune".There is very little that can be added to the case of Miro Bajramovic, who was first to publicly admit that he is a war criminal. But, this case of public confession, first of this kind in Croatia, is not hard only for legal institutions, but for the Croatian public as a whole, exactly because this is a chance that this public confronts its own recent past, to pose some fundamental questions about the war, responsibility, authority...
But, although this case has been the main theme of the Croatian media for a whole month now, the recent poll of the weekly "Tjednik" gave defeating results: more than half of those polled said that they did not hear of Bajramovic?s confession ! Those that do know something about it, do not believe his story. The worst is that almost sixty percent of the polled Croatian citizens do not believe that Croatian Army could have committed war crimes at all, since it has conducted a defensive war. Due to this, it is not curious that more than fifty percent of them think that the Croatian regime cannot be responsible for the crimes - which, actually, are not crimes at all.
The problem lies in the fact that Bajramovic's confession came at the wrong time. It is impossible though to say which time would be "right" . Because in five, ten, twenty years this event will equally cast a shadow , not only on the participants and the regime, but on the society as a whole. The only difference would be that in the meantime both the citizens and ?the heroes? would live in peace, undisturbed by problematic confessions.
The timing of Bajramovic?s confession is wrong because Croatia is trying everything to forget the war. In Croatia, this comprises sweeping under the carpet everything that could disturb the idyllic picture of the War for the Homeland, on one side - and stressing of the symbolic level, on the other, as is the flag on the Knin fortress, the Freedom Train and distribution of medals. So today in Croatia, it is paradoxically possible to be a war hero and a criminal at the same time. If there was no Bajramovic confession, this situation could have lasted.
Simply, Bajramovic?s confession is an obstacle. It bothers everybody. Not only the ?heroes? who are now uncovered as criminals, but also the regime, who, judging by all, knew of the committed crimes, but also the plain folk. The plain folk too, no less than those in power, are supporters of forgetting the recent past. They have already used forgetfulness , that universal means for cleansing one?s own consciousness, when they denied their own communist past overnight.
Can today the individual, let alone the whole nation, accept the fact that some of their war "heroes" were actually war criminals ?
Obviously they can't. Because, if they would admit to themselves that this is possible after all, then they would have to bear the consequences; for example, seeking detailed investigation in similar suspicious cases, seeking prosecution of those and similar undiscovered "heroes", insisting on the establishment of the connection between the regime and crime and so on - exactly so that it would not happen that the whole nation is incriminated instead of individuals. Shouldn't the incrimination of Croats as genocidal people because of Ustashis and NDH be an excellent moral ? But if this acceptance of responsibility was possible, the people would be forced to confront their own image in the mirror, with their own war biography. In short, with their own collaboration with the regime which has allowed killing of civilians and that has rewarded killers.
And now some Bajramovic decides to confess. And out of what motive ! The man is hurt that he has not been rewarded for his home loving crimes, as all the others. So, a revenge is in question. How banal and how perfectly human ! The only problem is that he was a Croatian soldier. If it was not for this, he would be a simple mass murderer.
Such a confession of his puts a large bundle of moral dilemmas to a whole nation. But, the nation is playing deaf, dumb and blind. The nation really wants to forget. Nation is afraid. The problem is in the following: no solution of the individual responsibility leads to collective responsibility. Somebody has to be liable. Somebody will be held responsible today, tomorrow, or in ten years. The question is whether it will be the individual war criminals or the whole nation.
Source: Split weekly "Feral Tribune" , October 6, 1997
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